Chapter 31

Chap ter 31

Rose

I close the door behind him and take a shaky breath. My phone buzzes, and I walk over to my bedstand where I left it. I bite my lip at the seven texts and three missed calls from Ava. I can feel her fury through the phone. I call her before she blows a gasket.

"Rose! Where have you been? I've been calling you for the past two hours. Why would you leave your phone?"

I sigh. "Good morning to you too, Ava. I didn't have my phone on me. I'm sorry. I was in Maverick's room. I just got back to my room and saw the missed texts." I pause. "Ava?"

There's a pounding on my door that scares me to death. I jump and almost drop my phone. "Open up, Rose!" Ava demands from the other side.

With a sigh, I head over to the door and unlock it. Ava pushes past me. "Do I need to hurt him?" she asks.

"Who?" I ask.

"Maverick!"

"No. He saved me, Ava."

Ava stares at me as she crosses her arms. "Start talking." And I do just that. I tell her about everything that happened. I can feel my fear returning at the memory of what happened. "Was it vampires?"

Her question startles me. "What?"

"Was it vampires?" she asks again.

"I—" Before I can answer, somebody knocks on the door, causing us both to jump. I walk over to the door, cracking it open. Two shifters I don't know stand there.

"Mav wanted you to have this," one of them says, holding out a mug in my direction. "And he wanted me to tell you that two shifters will be on guard outside your room whenever you're in here." His gaze never moves up further than my stomach. I reach out and take the cup. "Uh, thank you." I step back, but he doesn't move away from the door. "And we're supposed to help move your stuff."

I blink. "Move my stuff?"

The guy looks over to the other shifter, like he's looking for help. "Maverick wants you to move into the apartment next to his. He's having it emptied now."

My eyes widen, and I hear a snort behind me. I ignore Ava. "Um, how about I just call him and check with him." The guys nod, and I close my door. I dial his number and wait nervously for him to answer.

"Tell him that he can't boss you around," Ava calls out rather loudly before I can say anything. I whirl around, eyes wide.

"Did you need something or did you just call so Blondie could harass me?" he asks, and I give Ava my sternest look.

"Two guys at my door said they're here to help move my stuff?" It comes out more like a question.

"Yep."

I bite my lip when he says nothing more. "Um, can I ask why?"

"You can ask."

I restrain myself from saying anything ugly to this infuriating man. Barely. "Would you please tell me why I need to move rooms?" I manage to ask in a mostly civil voice.

"Did the attackers get what they came for?" he asks instead.

"What?"

"Did the attackers get what they came for?" he asks again.

"No?" Again, it comes out like a question.

"So, think about that, Healer."

It hits me. "You think they'll be back," I manage to whisper.

"Yep." There is no softening to his tone. "I'm moving my things back to my original room in that wing. There are no available rooms on either side of you, so you'll have to move next to mine.

"Okay." I don't say anything else. My mind is spinning. He hangs up, and I stare at the shifters in the hallway. "Give me a little bit of time to pack please." They nod and turn away, facing the hall as I close the door.

I stare down at the mug in my hands and close and lock the door behind me. "What is that?" Ava asks, nodding to my cup.

"It's cinnamon tea," I say softly. "Maverick sent it."

Ava's eyebrows raise. "Your favorite tea?"

I nod. "Yeah." She doesn't say anything; we both know how hard it is to find this particular tea. "Did you tell him?" I ask, lifting my gaze to her.

She scoffs. "Like I'd ever talk to him."

Well, that answers that question. The only thing I can think is that he reached out to somebody...maybe Sam? My heart softens.

"Are you going to drink it or just stare at it?" Ava asks wryly. I take a sip and close my eyes as the flavor hits my senses and the heat hits my stomach. "So, you're moving?"

"I guess so," I say absently.

"You don't have to, you know," she points out.

"It's just down the hall," I remind her.

"So, back to my original question was it vampires?"

I put my cup down. "I don't know." I meet her eyes and for just a moment, I see the fear in her eyes that I know is reflected in my own. She stands up and starts to pace.

"Were they exceptionally fast?"

I think back. "I don't know. It happened so fast."

"Were they freakishly strong? Did they sniff your neck? Did they do that blurring thing?" Each question feels like lead dropping into my stomach. When I don't answer right away, she whirls towards me. "Well?"

"I don't know. It all happened so fast. I—" I pause, and my mouth dries up. "I was so scared. I was fighting to try to get away. I didn't have a chance to...categorize their movements."

Her eyes soften but only for a moment. "If it was vampires, and we're going to assume it was, then we need to get out of here because they've found us here. They're going to come back for us. We know they're after us. They've already come after us before." Each word gets higher and higher until she's in near hysterics. Fear clenches my stomach, and I grab my phone.

"So soon?" Maverick answers.

I don't waste any time. "Was it vampires?" The words come out in a whisper, but I know he'll be able to hear me with his sensitive hearing.

"No." His answer is swift.

"Who were they?" I ask just as quietly. When he doesn't say anything, I push. "Please tell me."

"We don't know." I can hear the frustration in his voice, in the gruffness of his response. "When we do, you'll be the first to know." I take that in. "Did you need anything else?" he asks after a moment.

I shake my head before remembering he can't see me. "No. Oh, thanks for the tea. How did you know—" Changing my mind, I stop the question before it fully forms. "Thanks. Bye." I hang up before he can say anything else and drop my phone onto my bed like it's going to burn me. "It wasn't vampires," I tell Ava before she can ask. "They don't know who it was."

Ava scowls. "Well, that's super helpful. Well, we'll just have to figure it out on our own."

I sit wearily on the bed. "And how are we going to do that?"

Ava ignores me and continues her pacing. "So, a team breaks in here, gets past the security...somehow. That's hard enough as it is, so they had to have some serious stealth skills. I feel like it couldn't have been wolves because they would have known that too. It has to be those guys from the restaurant."

I shake my head. "Mav would have known."

"Well, maybe it was other guys that work for him," she argues.

"I don't think so. Maverick went to the boss's house and apparently threatened him and his family. I don't think he would have sent a team right after that," I reason.

She lifts a brow. "No? It sounds like a perfect time to retaliate."

"Have you met Mav?" I toss back. "If he threatened the guy's family, there's no way he sent an attack."

"That's a good point," she concedes. We exhaust every possibility over the next hour and come up with nothing. "Ugh," she says as she falls into the chair. "I didn't want to have to do this."

"Do what?" I ask in confusion.

She stares at her phone a moment and then pushes a button. She must have put it on speakerphone because I hear it ring once before a deep voice answers. "Hello."

"Hi, this is Ava," Ava blurts out. "I'm the healer from the Northwoods Pack."

A warm chuckle comes across the line. "I know who you are, Ava." My eyes widen when I recognize Bryce's voice. He's the alpha of the Phoenix pack, and he's also Ava's mate. His voice changes. "Are you okay? Did something happen?"

I watch my friend carefully. "No," she answers swiftly. "Well, I mean sort of but not bad. Mav was able to stop the attack, but..."

"Ava. What is going on?" His voice is full of both power and authority.

I wince, but Ava rolls with it. "Chill out. Everybody's fine."

"What happened?" The words are clipped.

Ava sighs dramatically. "Alpha-ing much?"

"I am this close to jumping on a plane and flying to the Northwoods Pack to see for myself what happened, so how about you just tell me."

"Well, seeing as how I'm not with the Northwoods Pack, that might be a bummer for you," Ava retorts. There's complete silence on the other end of the line. I bite my fingernail and wait to see what happens next.

"Where are you?" His words are slow and deliberate.

"Wouldn't you like to know?" she quips.

"Ava!" I whisper, trying to get her to stop; but she pays me no mind.

"Ava, tell me where you are right now."

I wince because I know that's not going to get him anywhere. She huffs, and I shake my head. Poor guy; he's got a lot to learn if he's going to deal with Ava. "You should know by now that you can't use alpha commands on me," she says, rolling her eyes.

"Ava."

She ignores the clear command in his voice. "I need your help trying to figure out something. Do you still have that team that can figure out like when somebody breaks in or something?" She takes a breath. "I can't really remember what you said about them. I was only like half-listening." I stare at her and shake my head. She sees and narrows her eyes at me.

"You want my help but you're not going to tell me where you're at?" His words are low and deliberate.

She sighs. Loudly. "Fine. Yes. I need your help, and no, I'm not telling you where I'm at. There was a team that came in during the night and tried to take Rose. The wolves stopped them, but they don't know who they were. They weren't vampires." She shudders a little when she says it. "And it wasn't wolves. It also wasn't the guys that they've already had a run-in with. We're at a complete loss for who they were."

"Are you okay?" His voice is soft now.

Ava waves her hand, even though Bryce can't see it. "I'm fine. It was Rose they were after." I flinch at her words but try to hide it.

"I have a team that can figure out who they were in just a few hours. I'll get them ready to ship out. We can leave in less than three hours. Where are we headed?"

Ava laughs, but it's not filled with humor. "Nice try, Alpha. You're not coming. Just send the team. They can—"

"I am not sending my men to help my mate and not going with, Ava. Now, I've already sent the command to have them pack and get ready to ship out. I need an address."

Ava squeezes her lips together, and I see her stubbornness. I shake my head because I know this isn't going to go anywhere. Ava's the most stubborn person I know. Knowing she's going to throttle me later, I say, "We're with the Orlando Pack."

Ava's eyes shoot to mine, and I shudder at the fumes there. But when there's no sound on the other end, we both look at her phone. She taps on the screen to be sure there's still a connection. "You're with the Orlando Pack?" Bryce's voice is low, but neither of us miss the threat there.

I meet Ava's eyes. He is not happy.

" Why?" His one-word question sounds like a command.

Ava takes it as just that because she squeezes her lips shut again, and I shake my head. This isn't going to go anywhere. "Ava came with me. Alpha Cade asked me to come heal his pack. They were dying, and..." I stop a moment because it's kind of a lot to just throw at somebody.

"They were dying?" he repeats. Then he curses loudly, startling both Ava and me. "Ava, I swear to—"

"You don't need to swear," she says cutting him off. "Listen, you can call Cade and sort it all out. In the meantime, if that team comes, can they—"

"Me and my team are flying out within the hour, Ava. And then you and I will be having a little chat."

Ava snorts. "I don't think you get it. That's not how this is going to work. You—" She pauses and looks down at the phone. "He hung up on me!"

"Like that surprises you," I say dryly. I level a look at her. "You're going to have to tell Alpha Cade that he's coming."

She scowls at the phone. "He's so stubborn. He doesn't need to come."

"I don't think he's the stubborn one here," I point out.

"Whose side are you on?"

"Yours," I admit. "But I think you're in over your head with this alpha...just saying."