Chapter 21: Billie

Chapter 21: Billie

A deathly silence fell over the pack as we awaited the outcome of David’s arrival. The air was so thin and fragile, one wrong breath would shatter it like glass. Half of the pack lingered in the living room while the other half, including Aislin, Gretel, Niko, and Albin, migrated to the kitchen, where they watched the encounter unfold from the windows. I crept up behind them, glimpsing bodies on the driveway. Guns. The sheer anxiety in my chest wasn’t just mine; it was Gavin’s, too, and it swiftly devolved into a much worse emotion seconds later. His hatred felt black and volcanic.

When the cellphone on the table vibrated, I nearly jumped out of my skin. Aislin rushed to answer it. “Everett,” she said with small relief—and something like admiration, too. “We need help. It’s Dalesbloom. Please come to Grandbay’s pack house.”

After exchanging a few words, Aislin flew out the door, exposing herself to the crowd. I had no idea what transpired between her and the person on the other line, but when I rejoined Gretel’s side and saw David retreat, it sparked relief. Catrina’s anger was a threat I was glad I wouldn’t have to face today. My attention lingered on Colt, wistful, missing my brother and aching that he left alongside David, but nothing could compare to the overall sense of turmoil that this encounter caused. Even as the dragons and David withdrew into their vehicles, I couldn’t relieve my worries.

The instant Gavin walked back into the house, I wanted to run into his arms with joy that David hadn’t gunned him down. I moved forward, but was jostled out of the way by everyone else crowding around Gavin, Oslo, and Aislin, abound with questions. Gavin’s tangible anger fixed me in place.

“The fucker,” snarled Gavin. “David’s allied with the dragons. He always has been. They killed the Alphas of Grandbay… my parents… for him.”

My ears rang with disbelief. It couldn’t be possible. David wouldn’t do that. The man I called my adoptive father, he wouldn’t do that—he had warned me all my life about dangerous other shifters, only to have been working with them all this time…? And be responsible for the murder of Gavin’s parents, his own allies? Did I even really know David Hexen?

The reactions of the others were a symphony of anger, despair, and confusion. Deep betrayal darkened their faces. A man they all thought they could trust had just shoved a knife into their collective backs, revealing himself as the antagonist after years of friendship, years of guidance and altruism; all of it a plot to weaken the foundations of his ally pack, to prepare it to be taken over. Everyone muttered these revelations out loud, equally abhorred and distraught. Their hands went onto Gavin’s shoulders, hugging him, reassuring him, until he pushed them away to breathe. I stood on the other end of the kitchen and caught his eye.

Rage erupted in Gavin as he bared his teeth at me. “Did you know this?”

Suddenly, I felt like I was the enemy. Like I was as bad as Catrina and Colt. “No,” I mustered. “How could I have known?”

“I don’t fucking know. Maybe he sent you here to finish me off,” he accused.

My heart slammed. “I could never do something like that.”

“David lied to me for years. Who’s to say he didn’t teach you the same thing?”

As everyone bore down on me, I steeled myself. “It couldn’t have been his plan that we’d become fated mates. He couldn’t have known that would happen.”

“She’s right,” said Aislin. “Don’t take it out on her.”

“How would he have known to show up while we were having a meeting unless someone texted him? How was it her that found Muriel? Maybe it was just a fucking fluke that she turned out to be my fated mate. Maybe David planted her just hoping an opportunity would rise and he got lucky, I don’t know.”

I shook my head. He couldn’t actually think my being here was part of David’s plan…?

“Gavin, I know you’re upset, but I don’t think she has anything to do with this. This rationally,” said Oslo, glancing at me with subtle support.

“She’s clearly been abused by David and Catrina,” said Gretel. “She’s not working for him.” Gretel and Oslo both reached out for Gavin, seeking to comfort him.

Gavin bristled and ripped away from everyone that tried to calm him down. “Who can I even trust anymore?”

Not me, that had become obvious. I clasped my hand over my mouth, resisting saying anything else despite my agony. It seemed nothing I could say would reassure him. Gavin was upset beyond pacification, and his loudness and vitriol were quickly overwhelming—but I didn’t blame him for his accusations. After finding out that David had never sincerely been his ally, I understood where that placed me. It had always been suspicious that I was Gavin’s fated mate despite being outside of his Alpha Line. I wondered if David had something to do with that, too.

Hearing the ruckus, Muriel swept into the kitchen and, seeing me, wrapped her arms around me with soft reassurance. “Come,” she cooed, “come sit with me. Give them space.”

That was all I could do. The last look I shared with Gavin was a fleeting, fiery stare that withered when I turned the corner. In my heart, I felt the tugging of his guilt and sorrow, and I wanted to run right back into the kitchen and console him, but I knew he would only push me away. Despite understanding why, it made me feel as alone as I felt before I had left Hexen Manor.

I settled on the couch with Muriel clutching my hands. She spoke gently to me while the others discussed David’s ambush and the truth of his history with Lothair. I tried to eavesdrop, but it was mostly speculation and indignity, until the conversation shifted with the sound of an engine growling down the driveway. My skin turned to ice.

“It’s Everett,” said Oslo.

What sounded like two vehicles pulled up outside of the pack house. The door opened and everyone in the kitchen went outside. I waited with Barbara, Casimir, Philip, Wendy, and Muriel, until five minutes later, Gretel appeared in the living room. “Muriel, Billie. Could you come outside?”

It was as if my fate hung in the balance in those couple of seconds. I gingerly followed Muriel out the kitchen door and stood in the sunlight, scorching hot on the top of my head, looking between people I’d never seen before.

A man with a trimmed, brown beard, long dirty blond hair, and grey eyes loomed over everyone else. He was bigger than Gavin at over six feet tall, bigger than David and Lothair, and wore a look of perpetual displeasure that made me feel small. But I was tired of feeling small in front of these Alphas. Despite how intimidating Everett was, I craved to challenge that fear and meet his eyes.

“Muriel, this is Everett March,” Gavin introduced briskly. “He’s the Alpha of Eastpeak. Everett, Muriel Vale. She’s the unicorn that Billie found being harassed by the Inkscales.”

Everett’s cool stare slid from Muriel to me, then back to Muriel, evidently unimpressed. “We’ve been aware of the dragons for a week now. David wouldn’t tell me what they were doing in Dalesbloom, but I had my suspicions,” said Everett. “The Mythguard has been looking for you, Ms. Vale.”

My stomach soured, remembering Gavin’s distrust.

Even Muriel stiffened. “I’ve been avoiding the Mythguard for a reason.”

A man beside Everett stepped forward, his arms crossed. He looked just under Oslo’s age with thinning brown hair and grizzled cheeks. “What reason might that be?”

Muriel held her tongue.

The man opened up his posture with a look of apology. “I’m a representative of the Mythguard, Ms. Vale. Sebastian Hicks. I can assure you the Mythguard is only interested in your wellbeing and protection.”

“The Mythguard is why she’s on the run in the first place,” Gavin snipped.

Sebastian raised his eyebrows. “Why?”

“Someone leaked my location to the Inkscales,” said Muriel.

Sebastian and Everett shared a glance before realization crossed Sebastian’s face. “Lothair Javier,” he mused darkly, turning back to Muriel. “I understand why you’d think that. This may be hard to believe, but Lothair was a member of the Mythguard up until three years ago.”

A dragon in the Mythguard…? Granted, I knew very little about the Mythguard other than that they were an organization of humans and shifters who sought to conceal shifters from the public. They protected them from human and shifter threats, including some of the more notorious races of shifters: dragons, vampires, and the most frightening of them all, ghouls. I didn’t know that they would be allowed to partake in the Mythguard.

“You had a dragon in the Mythguard?” Gavin echoed my thoughts.

“Yes, well… Lothair was a trustworthy member of the organization for years before his departure. He was an advocate for dragon shifters—he fought for them to have the same protections as wolves, unicorns, and fae. But the Mythguard was unenthusiastic to hear him out,” explained Sebastian. “We had wanted to aid them despite the bias against the nature of dragon shifters, of course. We knew not all of them were violent and power-hungry, as we’d seen in the past. But Lothair… perhaps he wasn’t the best example of an upstanding dragon shifter. When we found out he was involved in a hacking attempt that accessed our internal files, we had him removed—but he disappeared before we could file charges against him for breach of privacy.”

Gavin’s face twisted in disgust. “You let a dragon into the Mythguard, what did you expect?”

“All shifters are capable of deceit, Steele,” Everett said coolly.

“No shit,” Gavin fired back.

“Lothair had never shown any sign of criminal tendencies. It took everyone by surprise,” said Sebastian. “That must have been how he obtained the address for Muriel and her daughter. Before then, there was no news about Lothair or the Inkscales after his disappearance.”

“David hid them. It was part of the deal he made for Lothair to have my parents killed,” Gavin said bitterly.

“I would have known if he sheltered dragons in Dalesbloom,” said Everett.

“Yeah. You found out there were dragons after they killed my fucking parents,” snapped Gavin.

“The Inkscales must have fled Colorado after that,” said Sebastian. He looked sympathetically toward Gavin. “I’m sorry about your parents, Mr. Steele. The Mythguard was unaware that the culprits were part of Lothair’s clan. They weren’t registered in our system.”

Gavin rebuked the apology with a snarl.

“How can I trust that my safety won’t be jeopardized by the Mythguard again?” Muriel spoke up.

“I suppose I can’t guarantee anything,” said Sebastian. “But if you come with us, we can have you relocated right away to a new safehouse with committed guards. At least until we have the Inkscales taken care of.”

“She’s not going anywhere,” said Gavin.

“It’s her choice,” argued Everett.

“What about my daughter, Kiara? Has anyone found her?” asked Muriel.

The silence between Everett and Sebastian was telling. “Not yet,” said Sebastian. “We’ve been searching.”

Muriel sighed, her shoulders falling. “I’d rather stay with the Grandbay pack. They’ve done more to protect me than anyone else has. I trust Gavin.”

“The longer you stay here, the greater the threat the dragons will be. You’re putting everyone in danger by being here,” Everett said harshly.

“We’ll be in danger anyway. In case you haven’t noticed, March, David is trying to take over our territory,” said Gavin.

“That’s a problem between you and Dalesbloom,” said Everett.

I felt Gavin’s flare of anger when Everett said that. “It’s your problem too, dick! He’s coming for Eastpeak next!”

“How do you know?”

“Dalesbloom is the largest pack of the three of us. Both of our territories have the resources David needs to keep up his profits. It’s not fucking rocket science, especially since we know now that he’s willing to murder us all,” said Gavin.

“Then I’ll deal with it when he makes the threat against Eastpeak,” said Everett.

“Why can’t you and the Mythguard do something about it?”

Sebastian raised his hands. “The Mythguard are discouraged from interfering with intra-shifter politics. We will act to protect one race from another, but we cannot intervene in the affairs of groups unless one group has demonstrated a distinct threat to both shifters and humans. Only then do we step in.”

“He’s going to kill us!” Gavin shouted.

“Acting pre-emptively could severely damage the Mythguard’s standing with other groups,” said Sebastian.

“So you’re just going to sit and wait until Dalesbloom murders us, then you’ll step in just in time to prevent Eastpeak from going down?”

“You don’t know that’ll happen,” said Everett.

“We are still involved given Ms. Vale’s presence here,” said Sebastian. “But our options are limited.”

“Fuck you,” Gavin shot back. He lunged at Everett and shoved his chest. “This is why everyone thinks you’re a fucking asshole!”

My hair stood on end as I watched the crowd implode. Aislin grabbing Gavin’s arms, Oslo pulling him back by the shoulders, Sebastian trying to separate them.

“I’m a representative of the Mythguard too, Gavin!” said Everett once they backed away from each other. “And besides, it’s not strictly my decision whether or not to turn against Dalesbloom. I have to consider my pack’s safety too.”

Gavin’s eyes gleamed with fury. “It’s not going to matter when David decides to invade your territory.”

“Hopefully, I can mitigate that,” said Everett, smoothing his t-shirt.

“Sure. You try that. While you’re getting together with David over coffee, we’ll continue watching our backs, expecting to have our throats cut any moment.”

“The Mythguard will monitor the situation,” Sebastian interrupted. “We don’t want to see anyone die. As long as Ms. Vale is with Grandbay, we’ll be actively attempting to deescalate the situation with the Inkscales. That means capturing, relocating, and euthanizing if necessary.”

“But you won’t do anything about David?”

“We can’t,” Sebastian repeated.

Gavin shook his head, flashing his teeth. “Fine. Get the fuck out of here then. I have to go explain to my pack why our allies are either trying to kill us or leaving us for dead.”

A growl rumbled from Everett. “Be smarter about this.”

“Fuck you, Everett,” barked Aislin.

Everett looked between all of us with a sniff of disdain before retreating to the vehicles. “This is all I can do, Gavin.”

Gavin didn’t even wait for him to leave. He stormed back into the pack house, leaving the rest of us floundering in the disappointment and shock of Everett’s negligence.