Chapter 7: Aislin

Chapter 7: Aislin

Shame was not something I felt often, but in the aftermath of my fury against Sebastian, I hesitated to show my face to anyone. I had a sneaking suspicion that it wouldn’t be long before my fated mate found out, and if Sebastian had been telling the truth—that I really was a contender for joining the ranks of the Mythguard—then I didn’t think I could stomach the disappointment that would follow my outburst.

The easiest thing was for me to sit quietly in my apartment away from everyone else and not put any extra strain on my lungs. Easiest… physically, I guess. Everybody knew me for my penchant to stick my nose in peoples’ business. I was usually involved in Grandbay’s affairs to some degree. They would find it strange, no doubt, that I was suddenly keeping to myself. I think that fact just made me want to hide even more. The instant I didn’t act like my usual self, everybody would know something was wrong, and I didn’t want to confess that it was.

Muriel was supposed to stay at my place tonight. Maybe then I could temper my pride long enough to ask for her help, and then the pain in my chest would be alleviated and I could prove to Niko once and for all my capabilities as a fighter.

In fact, my pain had begun to recede until nightfall, when I was suddenly wrought with aches. Not just in my chest, but everywhere, and it was so shocking that it jarred me out of the nap that I had nearly drifted into. I gasped sharply and laid on my couch, debilitated as I wondered where the pains came from.

All night I waited to hear from Gavin. I caught myself off guard with the relief I felt when my phone rang and I saw Gavin’s name pop up. “Hey,” I greeted, mustering my strength to speak without hoarseness.

“Ais, where are you?” asked Gavin.

“I’m at home. My spare bedroom’s ready for Muriel.”

Gavin paused. “Right.” Then a few seconds later, he continued. “Can you come to the cabin?”

The tinge of uncertainty in his voice made my own stomach curl. “Yeah, what for?”

“It’s Everett. We have a few issues that need to be dealt with.”

Oh. The way he said it really heavily implied that the issues were with me. I didn’t have to guess, though. I already knew what this was going to be about, and I hated the guilt his tone implanted in me.

“I’ll be over soon,” I said, despite the urge screaming inside of me to just run away instead.

It was approaching midnight when I got to the cabin. As soon as I stepped out of my car, the stench of blood overpowered the air and made me choke. I knew instantly that the blood belonged to Everett—it bore that woody scent natural to the wolves of Eastpeak. Curiosity battled with fear as I made my way to the door. He was the first person I saw when I stepped inside.

Everett March stood in the kitchen, soaked in blood. His long hair was let down around his shoulders, dark with grease and dirt. His skin was scuffed and tattered, blood staining the obvious wounds he must have taken just hours ago. Even his usually proud, strong nose was banged up, and blood was clotted in his facial hair. Clearly he had changed clothes since his tousle, but the jeans and button-up green shirt he chose were already spotting with blood leaking out of the bandages he had wrapped himself up in. I understood where the mysterious aches assailing me earlier that night had come from. The moment I stepped inside, his dour grey eyes dragged toward me, wearing a look of utmost disappointment I felt right in my very soul.

This was my fated mate, and he was not happy to see me.

I don’t suppose I was too pleased to see him either.

“What happened to you?” I blurted.

Everett’s eyebrows bent angrily over his eyes, but that was all he’d let himself show. His voice was surprisingly calm as he replied, “I was ambushed by the Inkscales.”

I thought I could detect notes of burning oil around him. “Where?”

“Between Eastpeak and Dalesbloom. As I was telling Gavin, I had gone to meet with David.”

“Shit,” I said under my breath, glancing at Gavin. Actually, the person whose reaction I really wanted to see was Billie, but she wasn’t here. Probably for the better. “I take it the meeting didn’t go well.”

Everett frowned harshly at me. “David is set in his goal to perform the Lycan ritual. He disdains what has become of shifters and what he views as subservience to the Mythguard. And if I didn’t know any better, I’d think you shared his opinion.”

Now that the focus of the conversation turned to me, I bristled. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“The stunt you pulled with Sebastian, attacking him.”

Annoyance gnawed at me. I rolled my eyes, closing myself off from Everett with arms folded across my chest. “He was being a moron, thinking I’d tell him where Muriel was.” I glanced again at Gavin, desperate for his support on the matter. “I wasn’t going to give the Mythguard a chance to take her back.”

Gavin looked torn, like he wanted to agree with me, but not in front of Everett. “You shouldn’t have gone after him.”

That just annoyed me worse! “Whatever, it wasn’t like I bit him.”

“You tried to,” said Everett.

“Well then I guess he’d finally get a chance to see the world from a shifter’s perspective,” I drawled.

Everett growled, clearly not amused with me. “What you did was reckless and rude. For somebody who wants to work with the Mythguard, you certainly don’t know how to show any respect to them.”

“Fuck you. I’m not playing nice with somebody who would manipulate us to get what he wants,” I snapped back.

My anger only seemed to feed Everett’s, because he had kept his cool until I started swearing at him. “Your insolence is embarrassing,” he countered. “Someday you’ll represent Grandbay as Gavin’s Beta and your actions will define the opinions formed about your pack.”

“Oh, I’m sure I’ve already influenced an opinion or two,” I scoffed.

“Well, I can tell you for sure that you’ve influenced mine,” said Everett. “It bewilders me that I’ve become linked with the likes of you. You—” he pointed a finger at me, “—who can’t take no for an answer, can’t control your anger, and think you can stir up trouble without facing the consequences!”

“What are you fucking talking about?”

“Don’t think I don’t feel it,” Everett growled at me. “What’s wrong with your lungs?”

When he said that, Gavin peered curiously at the Eastpeak Alpha.

On reflex, I held my breath. Already I could feel the tightness intensifying, the urge to cough. I closed my throat up to stifle the discomfort, but my anger was already agitating the injury to the point that it was unbearable. I didn’t want to answer Everett, but Gavin was looking expectantly at me too, and I didn’t think I could just turn and run away this time.

“It’s just a little congestion in my lungs,” I muttered.

“It’s more than that,” said Everett.

“What are you, a healer?”

“You should see one,” he said. “I don’t know why you’re being difficult about this.”

“Because it’s none of your business.”

“Ais, what’s wrong with your lungs?” pressed Gavin.

I didn’t want to brush him off like I did everyone else. As discreetly as I could, I tried to clear my throat, but I ended up rasping anyway. “I don’t know. Somebody hit me really hard when we were facing off against Dalesbloom and the Inkscales.”

“In your ribs?” Gavin stepped closer, his face darkening with concern.

I stepped back. “Yeah. It’s whatever.”

“You can barely breathe,” said Everett.

It was really fucking aggravating that Everett was suddenly privy to everything I could feel. I felt everything he felt, too, but apparently Everett felt nothing at all because the only thing I’d experienced since our shared Moondream was the pain in my chest. Well, except for all the damage he had taken just now—but on the emotional end of the spectrum? Nothing. I bared my teeth at him. “If people would get off my case about it, I’d be able to heal.”

“If it’s that bad, Ais, you need to get it checked out,” said Gavin.

“It’s not that bad.”

“It is that bad,” argued Everett.

“Is that what stopped you from training with Niko?” asked Gavin.

“Both of you need to back off,” I said defensively.

“Ais, we’re worried,” said Gavin.

Everett tensed and looked between us. “I don’t care what moronic choices your packmate makes, but when they affect me, that’s where I have to step in.”

“Hold on a second,” Gavin interrupted. “You’re feeling her pain? Are you…?” His eyes widened. “Did you have a Moondream?”

“She’s my fated mate,” said Everett, completely unbothered by the revelation.

But hearing it spoken out loud made my insides twist. Everett uttered it like it meant nothing to him. It meant nothing to me too, I was pretty sure, but I also didn’t expect it to hurt as much as it did when he treated it like an inconvenience.

Gavin clasped his hand over his mouth and looked pensively between us. “She’s not part of your Alpha Line, is she…?”

“Gretel’s grandfather is originally from Eastpeak,” replied Everett.

I knew that, but I thought my family’s transition into Grandbay over three generations would have diluted the March Alpha Line in my blood. It should have been the Steele Alpha Line that bonded me with somebody in my own pack.

“Shit,” murmured Gavin. “I can’t afford to lose Ais.”

“You don’t have to worry about that,” said Everett with cutting stoicism. He fixed his eyes on me, piercing my heart and soul with his personal resolve. “I have no intention of marking you, Aislin. Doing so would be disastrous for my pack. I can’t have somebody as foolish as you by my side. I’m rejecting you.”

The words blared in my mind, sounding unreal. I never thought that when I finally found my fated mate, he would reject me. But it was obvious that I wasn’t good enough for Everett March. I had no place beside him in Eastpeak, and while I knew it was better for both of us, it still ripped me apart to hear it. Maybe I had been hoping that in some small way, he would have wanted me. Or that, at least, it would have harmed him to have to do this. He just didn’t seem to care.

Tears sprang unexpectedly to my eyes. “You’re such an asshole,” I said between my teeth. “It’s not like I want to be with you anyway, you fucking buzzkill.”

Everett grimaced. “Very mature.”

“Eat shit,” I said, turning on my heel to head for the door.

“Ais,” Gavin said after me. “Wait!”

“You don’t need me here. Everett clearly knows what he wants, and all he wants is for me to get my shit together so I’m not a nuisance to him. Well, how about you avoid pissing off dragons first, and then we’ll talk!” I lashed at Everett.

I flew out the door without waiting for his reply. It was doubtful he’d even say anything back. Everett was too high and mighty to stoop down to my level.

Whatever business he and Gavin still had to deal with, it wasn’t my problem. Gavin could fill me in later. I didn’t want to have anything to do with Everett anymore, even if I was plagued by this connection we shared. I didn’t want to talk to him or see him. He could go off and get slaughtered by the dragons for all I cared.

Sliding into my car, I sat in the front seat and festered. Then I recognized the silhouettes of Gavin and Everett in the kitchen masked by the kitchen curtains, and I felt sick with rage once again.

Gaining my fated mate shouldn’t have felt like this. It should have soothed my anger, not made it worse. Everett March was the wrong person for me, and I wasn’t going to bend over backward changing myself to satisfy his expectations. Fuck him!

I pulled away from the cabin but felt no relief in running away this time. All I had left with me were my thoughts, and they were catastrophic. The tears rolling down my cheeks didn’t even feel real, and I wanted to insist to myself that I wasn’t crying because I was upset. I was crying because I was just so furious with Everett that I didn’t know how else to cope. But the tears made my throat swell and my head ring until I couldn’t hold it together anymore. I pulled my car over and shook with coughs, feeling worse and worse, spilling phlegm and blood into my arm. And I hoped that Everett could feel it.

I wanted him to know exactly how terrible he made me feel, and I wanted him to feel that way, too.

Suddenly, the conflict between Grandbay and Dalesbloom felt like nothing under the towering shadow of my turmoil over Everett. Nothing else in the world existed except for this pain. I wished that the Inkscales had slain Everett, because at least then, I would have gotten a chance at a new fated mate instead of living with Everett’s rejection for the rest of my life.

In the absolute worst way, I wanted him to pay for this.