Chapter Avoidance #8
I replied, “False. You have better survival skills than most wolves… trust me… I used those skills…. One could say a lot…and have the data to support my statements about your abilities. You taught me to slow my heartbeat down to blend into with surroundings so people could think it was an animal. That’s what gave me the idea to use science to eliminate it altogether. ”
Everly agreed with me, “Your sister is right, T. I’ve been saying you have an innate ability with those skills.” Tristan said, “Levi…” I cut him off, “Does not use mud to blend in or leaves to become a bush. That’s all you.”
“Well…ok… he did on a mission once… but you taught him that… and I killed the people after him… which is a whole other thing….that we were not talking about him…or his changing schedule… like his cousins. It’s definitely to irk me…
or that’s what I thought at the time…. probably not though now that I know everyone is not mad at me. ” Tristan raised an eyebrow.
I hummed, “Anyway….we were talking about Kai. I drove through holoports… and pulled up his tracker to find him…. in the, very unoriginal, all white van.” Everly scoffed, “Assholes.” My sister in law squeezed Kai tighter to her.
I continued, “I shot out their tire and when they pulled over, I passed by them… came back and killed them for taking my nephew… which felt fair. I was shocked he knew who I was…and I wasn’t really prepared for that…
leading to me saying he couldn’t tell people I was me…
which was wrong… and the reason I came.”
Tristan snorted, “You didn’t come to discuss the kidnapping like I said?” I replied, “I figured you’d want to get into that… yes.” Tristan said, “You saved Jase. He said you made a jump that could’ve broken your legs.”
I replied, “I didn’t really care about that at the time.
Besides the angles are science… so… I see the math in my head as I do things sometimes.
” Tristan said, “You need to be more careful.” I pointed out, “I am… now. Then… well… I was a little... I’d had two weeks of a bubble…
but acting without regard to myself is easier to do when umm… ” I glanced at Kai.
Everly jumped in, “Buddy, why don’t you go to the main house.
Your grandparents are there.” Kai huffed, “Yeah, yeah, yeah, adult talk.” Kai hugged me and I squeezed him tightly.
He linked, “I’m glad it was you who saved me.
” I said, “Me too. I love you, Kai.” My nephew kissed my cheek saying, “I love you too, Aunt Ladybug.” Tears sprang into my eyes as I watched him leave.
Everly handed me a tissue, and I wiped them away.
Freya said, “Apollo has a lot of thoughts.” I’m sure he did.
Tristan urged, “You were saying?” I hummed, “I mean I say a lot… if you mean about earlier… I was going to say when people wish you were dead, and hope you die… and you wish that yourself… you become the most dangerous factor in any situation.”
Everly asked, “What?” I replied, “The most dangerous person in any situation is the person with nothing to live for… because they are a wild card. If don’t care about life and death…you’re more dangerous than someone who cares if they live….and for years that was me.”
Tristan argued, “You were protecting Jase and Alexander.” I replied, “But giving my life to save them would’ve been fine with me.” Tristan growled, “You would’ve called when you found out Kai was born.” Anxiety gripped me.
I admitted, “I did.” Everly whispered, “Did you talk to someone pretending to be me?” I answered, “I did… do that… yes. It didn’t go well… and I realized no one would ever forgive me… even though they kept writing letters.”
Tristan sighed, “Ladybug.” I shrugged, “Edward rubbed Kai’s birth in my face. I didn’t know if I had a niece or nephew…because he truly didn’t care to find out if you had a boy or girl…he was just bad at being an Alpha….but his Beta was definitely worse at being a Beta.”
Tristan replied, “Our you waited for ten hours for a flight but there was a freak storm, and we were compelled not to have someone pop you in.” I shrugged, “Ok.” Tristan growled, “Not ok!” I asked, “What do you want me to say?”
Everly squeezed his hand. Tristan replied, “You just basically admitted to being suicidal and some sort of vigilante kamikaze.” I replied, “I mean… I never did anything with the Resistance with the intent to die…. I just didn’t care if that was the outcome.”
Tristan growled, “Someone took advantage of your grief.” I disagreed, “They did not.” Everly asked, “Can you see why we feel that way though?” I admitted, “No… not really. The Resistance is a good organization fighting the people that are evil. No one ever let me help when I was here.”
Tristan cut me off, “But you did, didn’t you? Levi has an interesting file I never saw before about tips coming from places near your dance competitions.” I hummed, “Weird… what an odd coincidence… that all sounds like.”
Everly laughed, “Mmhmm. Super weird.” I pointed at her, “Right… anyway… I just came to talk about telling Kai to umm… keep secrets from you guys…because I do feel bad about that.. it wasn’t fair to put adult problems on him.”
Tristan said, “I’m not worried about that because I know why you did it. You’ll understand when you have pups. Do you still want them? I recall you wanted a lot once upon a time.” I replied, “Uhh yeah… I do. Not like… any time soon… or anything… it’s just…. umm… complicated.”
Everly said, “No one will be upset if you want to have pups now or later.” I said, “Well… it’s later. Definitely later and…” Tristan interrupted me to ask, “Can I ask why?” I said, “You just did… so yes.” Tristan laughed, “Well, let me rephrase.”
Everly jumped in, “We want more pups, but since my photography business is booming right now, I’m not ready to step back from it.” I hummed, “Sure… sure… makes sense.” Tristan snorted, “Melanie Jane, are you sending Everly business?”
I squeaked, “Umm what? No… I mean… maybe I send galleries her pictures… after creating profiles or pretending to be people well known in the community….that’s a thing…
.but they display them because they are good…
and people buy them because she’s talented.
Aperture did a whole piece on her… that I totally don’t know is coming…
it’s not a really good article in the December issue…
nope. That would be weird if I knew that. ”
Everly gasped, “What? Aperture is featuring my work?” I hummed, “Is it…? That’s brand new information.” Tristan slapped his face. Everly snorted, “Melanie, you’re clearly lying. I can’t believe they’d feature me.”
I hummed, “It’s possibly a five page spread talking about your talent with photos…
and your journey in photography. I mean…
maybe… I don’t know that at all… it could be three pages.
” Tristan groaned, “Ladybug, your voice just squeaked when you said three pages. No one is upset you know that Everly is being featured in her favorite magazine.”
I asked, “Do you… want a copy of the article…? Or do you want to be surprised?” Everly gasped, “You can get it?” I used my watch to email her and Tristan the piece. I said, “I might have used your sunrise photos… on the fourth page… but I don’t own the magazine.”
“I considered buying a majority stock in it… when they used the wrong photos… but it’s your job… and that was my opinion… so I wasn’t going to interfere… ya know, more than hacking them… and putting you in front of the right people. I let your work speak for itself in front of said people.”
Tristan laughed, “I love you for that, but that’s interfering.” I argued, “Not really. The humans all subscribe to the saying it’s not what you know, but who. That would imply it’s not about who is the most talented… and I had people objectively say Everly’s photos were better than other people’s.”
“So, I helped her get in front of the right eyes… they agreed and so did the market. Everly’s statistically more profitable than over fifty percent of the other photographers in her field… and her main competition’s father bids on his daughter’s work… which shouldn’t count.”
Everly laughed, “Yeah, he gets in bidding wars with my dad and some anonymous buyer.” Tristan nudged her side saying, “You are looking at the anonymous buyer, love.” I squeaked, “Whhhhattttt???? No… that’s… I mean it’s you? You’re her mate, that’s fair.”
Tristan snorted, “I have purchased my wife’s work, but that anonymous buyer literally buys all of Everly’s sunrise photos. Which you said you liked. That buyer always bids against Everly’s main competitor’s dad too.”
“You don’t like things that aren’t fair. You didn’t want Everly’s numbers to be skewed because that woman’s dad places ridiculously high bids on her photos. Which means you place high bids to even it out and make the numbers fair.”
Everly gasped, “It’s you?” I hummed, “Maybe I have a place… with those photos… maybe…they are in several business buildings….around….the world… that’s a thing… that I have… I feel we were talking about other things.” Everly stood and hugged me, squeezing me tightly.
Everly backed up saying, “One, thank you for liking my work and leveling the playing field. Two, that woman is a bitch.” I gasped, “Right?! She’s lucky I haven’t had time to off her.” Tristan snorted, “Do not off her.”
I grumbled, “She says mean things about Everly….and my friends and I were the only ones allowed to do so… when we thought she sucked and was mean to me. I never let other people get away with being rude about Everly….she’s family.” Everly touched her hand to where her heart would be.
Tristan shook his head, “My wife’s competition will get hers.
” I hummed, “I did put her on Karma’s list.” Everly asked, “Who is Karma?” I answered, “My friend… she’s a demigod…
in charge of Karma… we call her Kiki… her family is the worst. I’ll bring her around sometime… she’s hard to get a hold of.”