Werewolf Dreams (23 page)

Cyrus looked away, his face tense with regret.
“Have you changed your mind about leaving? I can take you to the airport tomorrow,” he said, his voice low and tired sounding.

Ava frowned and looked away from Cyrus and out the window at the mountains.
Could she leave him?
And if she could, would she? She looked back at Cyrus and saw that he was watching her carefully.

“I don’t know Cyrus.
I mean, this is so far beyond my experience. I went from a sheltered gymnast and student to finding out I’m a werewolf. And not only that, oh yeah, there’s a big political power struggle and the mate that I’ve chosen is right in the middle of it, which means so am I. I don’t know Cyrus. Before, I never would have left you, but now? I don’t know. Holding as hard as I can to a tree all night with broken ribs kind of makes you look at life a little differently.”

Cyrus looked away from her as if she’d just kicked him in the stomach.
“Okay then. I won’t pressure you to stay. I’ll let you get some more rest. You’ve been through a lot,” he said and then stood up and walked quickly out of the room.

She sighed unhappily and closed her eyes.
A few minutes later she heard a soft tapping on the door and then Patricia poked her head in. “Hey there. Care if I come in?”

Ava smiled and motioned for her to join her. Patricia walked in and smiled cautiously at her.
“Did you have a good nap?”

Ava nodded and tried to smile.
“Yeah, I feel a lot better. Thank you for wrapping my ribs.”

Patricia looked at her strangely.
“That wasn’t me, that was Cyrus. He took good care of you. He barely let anyone else touch you, he was so upset.”

Ava blinked in surprise and looked down at her hands.
“I’m really grateful that Cyrus showed up when he did. If he hadn’t come right at that moment, I probably would have been killed,” she said and shivered remembering the hybrids climbing up the tree.

Patricia winced and nodded as she sat on the bed by Ava’s feet.
“Cyrus told us how he found you. It’s a miracle you survived as long as you did on your own. They’d been tracking you all afternoon and evening and then when Zoe turned up at the pub and told everyone what happened, we were able to find your general area. After that, it was just a half an hour before you were found.”

Ava smiled and felt her heart lighten knowing Zoe was alive.
“How is Zoe? Where is she now?”

Patricia smiled and smoothed the quilt with her hand.
“She’s staying with Yvonne and Veronica. It turns out that her father was one of the men working with Titus. He um,
didn’t make it
,” she said grimly.

Ava nodded her head.
“I was wondering who that other man was. So sad. And my grandfather? What happened to him? And Ben?”

Patricia looked away for a moment and then faced Ava looking at her squarely.
“Cyrus just left a few minutes ago. He’s going to challenge Titus right now in the town park. Whoever wins, will be leader. The whole town will be there watching,” she said grimly as she gripped her hands together, worriedly.

Ava sat up straighter in bed, her eyes wide in surprise.
“What are you doing here with me?
What am I doing here?
We need to be there to support him. Come on, help me get dressed,” she said frantically, swinging her feet over the side of the bed.

Patricia looked at her strangely.
“
Really?
Cyrus said you wanted to go home now. That you had decided not to be mates after everything that had happened,” she said softly, looking at her searchingly.

Ava stood up slowly and looked at Patricia in surprise.
“I didn’t say that. I said, I don’t know. He never said one thing about going to a challenge though.
That man
. . .,” she muttered darkly and moved toward the closet.

Patricia stood up to follow her.
“Well, it probably would mean a lot to Cyrus to see you there. Right now, with the way things stand between the two of you, he doesn’t feel like he even has anything to live for. I don’t even think he cares if he dies now,” she said, a quiver in her voice.

Ava closed her eyes and leaned her head against the cool wall.
“
Crap
. I’m going to have a very long talk with him as soon as this is over,” she swore and then stood up to grab a t-shirt and jeans.

Patricia stood outside of the walk in closet to give her privacy, but close enough in case
she needed help. “I hope you get the chance to.”

Ava didn’t answer but moved faster.
Within seconds she was changed and slipping her tennis shoes on. “Let’s go,” she said firmly and followed Patricia out the door, down the stairs and out of the house. They walked quickly to the park and Ava stared in surprise at the crowds of people walking around. She’d never seen so many people in town before.

Patricia glanced at her and smiled.
“This is everyone in our town. The paper mill and the lumber camp were shut down for the day so everyone could be here. This will affect everyone’s life. It’s mandatory.”

Ava nodded and then stiffened as she realized that everyone was quieting down and turning to stare at them.
Patricia leaned over and whispered in her ear. “Zoe has told everyone how you freed her and told her to run to freedom. Everyone knows who you are and that your Cyrus’s mate. Well, that you used to be anyways,” she said sadly.

Ava shook her head and sighed.
This was so much more drama than she was used to. “We’re
still
mates Patricia. I just said I needed to
think
about everything,” she said crossly as she pushed through the crowd and saw Cyrus standing in a circle. She looked at the other side of the circle and saw her grandfather and Ben standing close together talking.

Ava held her ribs with her hands as she hurried across the green park to Cyrus’s side. Kurt and Big Red stood
side by side with him. Cyrus stared at her silently as she walked to him.

“Can I talk to you for a second?” she asked with a polite smile as everyone watched her.

Cyrus nodded silently and took her arm and walked her to the edge of the park where there was a little privacy.

“I only have a couple minutes Ava.
What is it?” he asked, just as politely.

Ava frowned and looked down at the ground before looking up.
“Look, I’m still freaked out and traumatized about everything that’s happened. I’m not kidding, I really do need counseling for all of this werewolf stuff. But you and me, we’re still good. We’re still mates. It’s not your fault that any of this has happened Cyrus. I . . .,
care
about you.
A lot
. We’re connected and I want to stay that way,” she said, watching his face as he started to smile at her. “Now why in the heck did you take off to a challenge and not even tell me?” she demanded furiously.

Cyrus put his hands on his waist and looked away.
“At the time I didn’t see any point.”

Ava mirrored him and put her hands on her waist, her eyebrows raised.
“Cyrus, I am so mad at you right now, that as soon as you win this challenge you and I are going to have a very long talk about communication.”

Cyrus grinned at her and reached out and pulled her into his arms gently, careful of her ribs. Ava gave up and smiled back as she wrapped her arms around Cyrus’s neck.
He leaned down and kissed her passionately, only stopping when he was tapped on the shoulder by Kurt.

“Uh Cyrus, maybe you can
talk
to Ava after the challenge is over?” he said and then walked away. Cyrus raised his head and stood up, still smiling down into Ava’s face.

“Looks like you’re busy right now,” she said lightly. “I’ll just wait over here for you,” she said pointing toward his mother.

Cyrus grinned happily and kissed her one more time on the cheek before running back to his group of men. Ava hurried back toward Patricia who was standing by Tobias and Yvonne, Veronica and her aunt Simone. Tobias smiled warmly at her and surprised her by hugging her gently.

“There’s our girl.
What a fighter you are. It’s a good thing you got here when you did. Seeing you and Cyrus together gives everyone a crystal clear picture of the direction this town is headed,” he said sounding relieved.

Patricia smiled in relief and patted her shoulder.
Ava grimaced knowing how close she’d been to not coming. Mostly because of one stubborn male. She turned and looked at Cyrus and smiled at him though. Gone was the solemn and silent man and now he was laughing and grinning and slapping his friends on the back, almost as if he were now excited about the challenge ahead of him.

“So um, what exactly is involved in a challenge?” she asked, remembering all the blood and violence she had witnessed between the werewolves and the hybrids
just that morning.

Yvonne, her cousin came to her side and took her arm.
“They’ll change into wolf form and then try as hard as they can to bring the other wolf into submission. Titus is kind of old for a challenge like this. So he has a choice. He can willingly hand over the title of leader to Cyrus, or, he can choose a man to stand in for him if he doesn’t want to fight himself. If his man wins, then Titus can retain leadership to an extent. His man will be the leader to a degree, but Titus will be what you’d call an advisor, which just means he still gets to call the shots. It’s a little complicated, but it’s the way we’ve always done things. From what I understand, it’s the way all werewolf communities still work.”

Ava shook her head at the archaic way of choosing a leader based on strength and brawn instead of intelligence and leadership.
“Sounds a little flawed,” she said softly.

Yvonne laughed lightly.
“Just a little. The whole town is here to make sure that there’s no cheating and no dirty fighting.”

Ava smiled.
“That’s a relief. Knowing my grandfather he’s probably trying to figure out a way to cheat right now.”

Her aunt Simone leaned over and whispered in her ear.
“Do more of that Ava. Smile as much as possible. It shows everyone that you have confidence in your mate and his ability to win. The crowd needs to believe in Cyrus. And they’re watching you to see if they can believe in you too. So after Cyrus wins the challenge, are you ready to change in front of everyone? Patricia told me it will be your first time. You look completely relaxed. I’m impressed.”

Ava felt as if a knife had just been shoved in her lungs making it impossible to breathe.
“
What?
” she said turning white and turning to Patricia and Tobias with frightened eyes.

Patricia smiled for the crowd and then turned and looked at her with an apology in her eyes.
“It’s our way Ava. After a challenge, mates change to join their mate in victory. If you don’t change it will be a sign of weakness.

“You have got to be kidding me!” she whispered furiously while trying to smile at the same time.

Tobias stepped in closer to say something and then paused, his mouth falling open. Ava turned to see what had caused the look of surprise on his face and then saw her own father running toward her. Her face lit up as she felt a burst of joy at seeing her father. She ran awkwardly to meet her dad and threw her arms around his shoulders as he lifted her off the ground, burying his face in her hair.

“Ava, Tobias called me and told me everything that happened yesterday.
I got here as soon as I could,” he said, pulling back and looking her up and down, probably for injuries.

She groaned as her ribs protested all the hugging and stepped back.
“I’m okay Dad.
Barely
, but I’m okay now,” she said, still so happy to see her dad that she couldn’t stop smiling.

Harry looked down at her ribs and raised an eyebrow.
She lifted the hem of her t-shirt to show him that her ribs had been wrapped well. “Cyrus took care of me,” she promised him as Cyrus walked over to join them.

Harry’s eyes turned hard and furious as he looked at Cyrus.
“Who did this to my daughter?” Harry bit out, breathing harder as anger swept over him.

Ava looked at Cyrus.
Cyrus nodded at her father and pointed to Ben. “There he is. He dragged her by her neck and then after throwing her in the bed of a truck, kicked her repeatedly as hard as he could in her ribs. That’s the man your father has chosen to stand in for him to fight me. Your father is the one who ordered her death last night.”

“I left
my daughter in your care and this is what happens? How could you allow a man to choke my daughter, let alone throw her in a truck and kick her ribs in?” her father asked, his eyes slits of fury.

Cyrus bowed his head and rubbed his hand over his face.
“We were in the pub and he made it outside with her because his friends either pulled me back or purposefully got in my way, stopping me. Kurt and Big Red were busy tearing Jake and Tom apart for touching Yvonne so I was on my own. He had a truck waiting for her. But there’s no excuse Harry. You’re right to be furious with me,” he said, looking Harry in the eye grimly.