Chapter 11: Aislin

Chapter 11: Aislin

Reluctant as I was to tell Gavin, I had to or else it could cost me my life.

“Don’t get mad at me,” I began over the phone that afternoon, “but I texted Colt.”

The growl of my Alpha shook me to my bones. “You what?”

“I texted him,” I said with rising defiance.

“Why?” Gavin demanded then lowered his voice. “Did he answer?”

I ignored the first question. “Yeah, he wants to meet up and talk.”

“You’d be walking into a death trap,” said Gavin. “What the fuck does he want to talk about?”

“I know. Probably his feelings or something,” I said, neglecting to mention that I was the one who asked.

“You have to be careful about that, Ais. The more of a bitch you are to him, the more it’s going to motivate him to side with David,” warned Gavin.

I wandered around my bedroom, wondering if Muriel could hear the conversation. “I’m not planning to be a bitch. I just want to know how loyal he is to David.”

“You think you could figure that out from meeting with him?”

“I think I can, yeah.”

Gavin pondered for a moment. “This isn’t some attempt to get back at Everett, is it?”

The direct accusation made me feel nervous. I laughed, hiding it. “This has nothing to do with Everett. We needed to get Colt alone to find out where his allegiances lie, remember?”

“You already agreed to meet?”

“At midnight,” I said.

Gavin said nothing for a few excruciating seconds, then finally breathed in. “No, I’m not letting it happen. I don’t want David to pull something nasty and ambush you like he ambushed Everett.”

“He won’t do anything nasty because he doesn’t want the Mythguard to officially step in. The worst he’ll do is rough me up too, but at least I’ll have talked to Colt,” I added quietly.

He grit his teeth over the phone. “I can’t let you go, Ais. Who knows when David will change his mind and stop playing by the rules? I’d never forgive myself if I just let you walk off and get killed. You don’t even know if Colt will be there.”

“Somebody has to talk to Colt, and I’m your best bet to getting real answers. After Billie,” I said nonchalantly. “But we’re not sending her to talk to Colt.”

“Nobody is being stupid enough to go there,” Gavin growled, “not even you.”

“What’s he going to think when I stand him up, then?”

“Text him and cancel.”

“We can make progress here!” I yelled. My rationality and impulsiveness were at war with one another. It was possible I was being too stupid about this, but just as quickly my doubts were overwritten with vengeance. If they kicked my ass, Everett would feel that too. Besides, I was pretty confident in my ability to run away. My chest wasn’t feeling too bad that morning—my wolf was helping me heal. I wanted to do this despite how brainlessly reckless it was, and the only way I could describe the intensity with which I wanted it was that some violent spirit inside me was clawing for confrontation. It felt like insanity.

“This conversation’s over,” said Gavin.

“Fine,” I snapped.

“Come to my apartment instead.”

“Are you even going to be home?”

Gavin’s voice rose. “I’m staying home to make sure you don’t run off to meet Colt. You better be here at 11:30 tonight.”

“Alright!”

“Fine.”

I ended the call the same time he did. My first thought was that I’d obviously disobey him. That’s what I obsessed about all day as I got ready for my shift, sending Muriel off with my parents before heading to the strip mall. And only there, in between helping customers pick out cheap earrings and gaudy shoes, did the small human part of me realize the gravity of directly defying Gavin and walking into the jaws of the Inkscales. I was ready to fight, run away, even get beaten up if it came to that, but… what if they really did kill me?

Tired enough from my shift, the hours of obsessively thinking nearly persuaded me to change my mind and go to Gavin’s apartment. It wasn’t until after I closed the store that I checked my phone and found a voicemail from Gavin. With a grimace, I listened to what he had to say.

“Hey, Ais. I just got a call from Everett. He said he has audio of Colt planning to meet you, and David and Lothair are sending backup. It’s pretty clear that it’s going to get ugly. He plans to be there tonight in case you show up, but Ais… You really can’t go. Don’t take the risk.”

A million questions ran through my mind. Where the hell did Everett get that audio from? What were the chances that he would have found out about my plans to meet with Colt—was he stalking me? And was he still planning to show up in the neutral zone in case I did? If he did and the Inkscales attacked him again… did he expect to survive that?

Terrible weight dropped in my stomach. I didn’t think my plan would actually lure Everett into danger, and I racked my brain for how he could have found out.

Home by 10:30, I had at most an hour to figure out what I was going to do. I sat on my couch and stared at my phone. The wisest option would be to text Colt ‘never mind’, to tell Everett not to risk his life by going out there, and then to head over to Gavin’s early and distract myself from my rampaging thoughts with a movie or something. But how badly would it crush me—or Colt—for me to chicken out? Maybe he wanted closure for his broken heart. The thought made me wince, but knowing how ruthless I’d been to Colt, I wouldn’t be surprised if I’d really wounded him. Even if David and Lothair planned to jump me later, I’d still have the security of Everett and whoever he brought to call on for help, and I could give us both a chance to talk, however briefly…

Sorry Gavin, I thought bitterly. He could yell at me all he liked once I dragged my sorry carcass home tonight.

Against my better judgment, I took off in the opposite direction of Gavin’s apartment. The midnight journey brought me to the edge of town, where I changed out of my clothes and packed them in a bag, as usual. In my wolf form, my lungs throbbed, perhaps not as healed as I hoped they’d be. Still, I planned to be able to outrun the dragons if they were set on me, or at the very least, howl for Everett.

Cloudy skies made the night damp and cool. I kept a brisk jog on my way to the edge of Grandbay territory, my feet light across the ground despite the weight in my chest. Even before passing the Grandbay perimeter, I began choking on the burning stench of the dragons, which meant they must already be here waiting for me. Colt wouldn’t be far off. Through their acrid notes, another foreign smell made its way to my nose, this one sweeter and woodier—a scent that attracted me rather than repelled me. I wanted to vomit realizing that it belonged to Everett. But at least he was here, too.

I pushed him out of my mind and focused on what lay ahead of me. Crossing the threshold of my pack territory, I left the last bastion of safety and sunk into the unknown. It was there, without any light from the moon or stars and sheathed in complete darkness, that I found Colt waiting for me.

After turning human, I emerged in my jeans and a dark red sweater, red hair falling limply at my shoulders. In a small clearing between the birch trees, Colt was waiting in black pants and black-and-white sneakers, the hood of his black sweater up. Even in the dark I could see the way he flexed and balled his fists. He looked unlike himself tonight, more like a stranger than a boy I knew growing up. Less like the cool entitled rich boy I knew him as, and more like a daunting foe waiting to strike me down.

“I know the dragons are here,” I began.

Colt took a step closer. “They won’t come out unless I tell them to.”

“Are you gonna tell them to after we finish talking?”

“That depends how I feel,” said Colt with unnerving detachment and an underlying rake of frustration.

I’d never seen Colt angry before.

Breathing in, I stood my ground and quietly cleared my throat, hiding my hoarseness. “I get that I was a little excessive during the fight,” I said to Colt. “We both did things that were… irrational.”

Colt stepped closer again, tilting his head. His eyes narrowed.

“I mean you trying to mark Billie,” I added.

Embers fired up within Colt. “I only did that because David told me to. I didn’t want to hurt Billie.”

“Relax,” I said against his anger. My initial reflex was to snap back at him, but it would have just elevated us both into an argument that surely would have gotten me killed. “As long as Billie’s away from David, she’s safe. I don’t blame you for doing that. David would’ve punished you after if you didn’t, right?”

Colt sighed through his nose and lowered his voice. “Billie should be far away from here. Muriel too.”

My heart stuttered. That must mean Colt at least cared about Billie and preventing the Lycan ritual. Maybe he didn’t share David’s vengeful wrath. “If they left, Gavin would have to go with them. And there’s no way he or anyone else is leaving here.”

“Dalesbloom is going to wipe out your entire pack,” warned Colt.

“It doesn’t have to be that way,” I argued, reducing my voice to a whisper. “You’re close enough to David. You can end this.”

Colt’s eyes widened, his face contorting into anger. “Gavin just killed my sister, and you’re asking me to kill my dad next?”

The fact that he didn’t lower his voice made me hunch my shoulders in alarm, glancing into the trees, expecting the dragons to have heard it. “What’s the alternative, Colt? Letting everyone die while your dad goes nuts on unicorn horn? You’re losing him regardless.”

“At least then he’ll have done it to himself,” Colt growled.

Beyond my surprise, I was gripped by indignation hearing this. He wanted to choose the coward’s way out, even if it meant sacrificing everyone else in the process! “So many people will die, Colt!”

“Then Dalesbloom will have no more unreliable ‘allies’,” he threw up the air quotes, “to worry about.”

“You can’t seriously be angry that Gavin didn’t follow through with merging the packs?” I blinked. “That was David’s scheme. What do you gain from it?”

“My family wouldn’t have been torn apart if it happened,” said Colt.

“Billie would have been trapped in Hexen Manor forever with your rapist father,” I shot back. “Is that what you want?”

“No!” Colt bristled, looking sickened. “I wouldn’t have let that happen… I would have protected her. Fuck, Ais. Maybe if I got to know you better, I could have eventually gotten her out of there and over to Grandbay without people dying in the process.”

“I doubt that. David wouldn’t have let her go. And if you defend David, you’re just as bad as him.” Billie wouldn’t have been safe with either David or Colt, and leaving her to waste away in the manor—that was condemning Billie to a life of servitude to the two men who had manipulated her childhood already. “I’m sorry, Colt. But if this is what you truly believe, I don’t think it ever could have worked between us.”

“Between us?” he echoed, then laughed. “Like you ever considered it in the first place!”

Swallowing guilt, I searched myself for sincerity. “You know, I could have. If you just weren’t so—” insufferable— “coy about it. You always made me feel like I had to chase you. Why would I do that if I had no reason to?”

“Now you’re going to criticize the way I talked to you?” Colt shook his head, exasperated. “We’re done. I have nothing else to say to you, if all you came here for is to pressure me into betraying my own father.”

“What else do you want me to say?”

The few seconds it took him to reply suggested that he was actually thinking about it. A cold breeze brought goosebumps across my hands and up the back of my neck. On it, the stench of the dragons reminded me of my lurking fate.

“I won’t turn the dragons on you if you just tell me where Muriel is… right now.”

“And have the dragons sent into Grandbay instead? I don’t think so.” I wouldn’t throw Muriel and my entire pack under the bus just to get out of this without a few cuts and bruises.

“Then it’s too bad you pissed me off,” he snarled. “Unless you’re going to do something else for me, I suggest you start running.”

“Do something else, like what?” I stammered, stepping backward. What, did he want me to suck his dick? Sometimes Colt had been playful and flirty enough to imply he wanted to fool around. He’d always been subtle about it, and it always annoyed me that he wanted me to pick up on his hints, and now he was wielding the subject again with the same barbaric greed as his father.

His teeth flashed in the night. “Just get lost.”

It was only a threat. He didn’t think I’d do it.

I backpedaled away from Colt, too wary of turning away from him. The trees rustled and the smells of the dragons scorched the air, turning the chilly dampness into smothering humidity. I clutched my bag tighter in my hands and decided then that my best chance of escaping would be as a wolf. Seeking refuge in the trees, I slid out of my clothes and left my human form, only for a body to collide with me in the throes of transformation.

A guttural sound left my throat as I hit the ground, pinned by a body that I instinctually thought was Colt—but was too large and muscular, and not dark enough. Not the black fur of Colt, nor the shining obsidian scales of the dragons. His piney scent suffocated me.

Everett!

My mind raced as I desperately pushed my body to finish shifting, but Everett’s weight sent me into a cold-sweating panic. Sharp, strangled whines clawed out of my throat as I thrashed underneath the Eastpeak Alpha. My body couldn’t transform fast enough. By the time I had my paws again, I glimpsed shapes appearing between the trees around us, their splayed wings immediately recognizable. If he didn’t let me up, we’d both be dragon dinner.

Everett sunk his teeth into my nape. A growl of pain split the air as he wrenched me to my feet and dragged me alongside him. Through my anger, I found this scene terribly familiar. Unable to breathe, I gasped and faltered, my heart slamming like a caged bird while I tried to run. I had no choice but to run alongside him. If I tried to rip away, the dragons would get me. They would chase me until they inevitably caught me, and they’d punish me on Colt’s command. My only chance to survive this in one piece was to go with Everett, eventually joining the tide of five of his packmates which had come to keep him—and me—safe.

The wildfire of dragons stormed through the forest behind us. We didn’t dare look back, or else that gnashing fire would consume us.