BEASTLY

Chapter 33

The tea that she held in her hands was hot, yet numbing. Her eyes stared at the wall ahead of her, many thoughts making rampage through her mind. It had only been a few hours since they had left Ryan in that containment room, not killing him. Death was not something she could bring herself to this time and given the revelation at the end, she was sure it was the same for Xander.

She was holding on at that moment, trying to live in the emotions that she felt. Confusion, fear, anxiety and oddly a sense of peace. Peace at knowing that she wasn't crazy and there was actually something dormant laying inside her. Ava had never told anyone, but she had thoughts about the days her power had reared its head; when she had been fearful of learning about Xander being her mate, was possibly the first time.

Yet, there was still a big part of her that doubted and she didn't know how she would give herself assurance that she wasn't in fact dreaming and everything that was happening was real.k

The sound of footsteps tore her eyes away from the wall, and she came face to face with Gladys who stared at her worriedly, a heap of blankets in her arms. "How are you feeling now dear?"

They hadn't seen since the night that Ava had left her to dive into the chaos. The older woman was completely unaware of the things that she had learnt as well as the main reason for the obvious distress on her face. After the confrontation with Ryan, Xander had brought her straight home and had instructed Gladys to not let her out of the house. He refused to say another word to her. It was probably for the best, given the fact she had felt the waves of rage radiating off of him. Cole had made no move to come near her and had stayed several feet back. Even though she was in her own world, she was still able to see the heavy tension as well as the dark clouds that loomed over them. The storm that was coming was ravaging and her mate would be the centre of it all.

"I'm doing well. Are those blankets for me?" Ava replied, dropping the teacup on the side table beside her. Gladys' frown was visible when she came closer, her eyes gazing at the full cup of tea

"You sure? You've barely touched your tea." What she meant to say was, it looked like she hadn't even taken a sip at all and she had met her staring at the wall like she had left her "It's going to be a cold night. I was hearing something about snowfall."

"Snowfall? We're barely in November." Ava found it bizarre how they could see snow this early, especially since the leaves hadn't finished their span on the trees and were still steadily falling bit by bit

"Strange, I know. Sometimes mother nature doesn't like to go by the rules sometimes you know? Although it's the first time I've heard of it as well, I don't doubt it's for the best."

Gladys placed the blankets next to her on the couch, making sure to push them very close to her. If only she knew that she possibly had enough fire in her to heat up the whole room.

"I never got to thank you. I heard from my children how you were actively involved in keeping everyone safe and about how you saved that little girl; Charlie." Gladys said, the usual smile lighting up her face, wrinkles forming on her face "Thank you for everything."

She hadn't thought about they would talk about that. Ava knew the reason why she was so involved was that she was never the type of person to sit still when everyone was in trouble. She couldn't help but wonder how the pack members would react if they found out it was because of her the pack was targeted. Most of them already blamed her for the previous pack attacks that happened because she was a priority on Xander's list. They'd want to have her head for this.

Unfortunately for them, she didn't care and she never would. Their opinions rarely mattered to her anymore and she was only genuinely concerned with how a select few saw her. The select few were in their own right, important enough for her to care about. The rest of the pack members, she worked to protect because she felt like she had to.