Part 73

The aftermath of the trial had led to a lot of chaos for the Council to deal with.

York had quickly left the newly-named Wilcott pack to go travelling, and most of the pack supported him on his decision - a lot of people suspected it was his last chance to find a mate in his last four months before turning twenty-two.

Avery thought he was lucky - he had escaped just before the shit hit the fan.

Her pack was peaceful, but everywhere outside her land seemed to have gone up in flames.

Zephyr's pack experienced another revolt, one so bad that Avery had to send in some of her pack warriors to help them regain control and democracy.

Scott's pack had another wave of vampire attacks, and he had lost around thirty pack members to the fanged rats.

Lexus Steele had been removed from power and almost killed. Avery had granted her asylum in her pack, as the woman had looked out for her a number of times in the past, and because she didn't think the woman had anyone else to turn to - her mate was dead and it was her son who almost murdered her.

Alpha Katya was almost assassinated on a diplomatic trip to Europe. Once that news broke, outrage had spread across the continent, the attempt on her life believed to be by the Council in a protest to her looser mating laws.

Roman's pack had been relatively stable, but his mother Amelia had been killed.

In their daily phone calls, Roman had told Avery he wasn't too upset over it. Apparently, since the death of his father, she had just been going deeper into a spiral of depression and insanity, so she probably would have killed herself anyway if she hadn't been shot.

Louisa had her baby, and she was born healthy, being named Bronwyn after an author Louisa really liked.

Avery had been named godmother, and one of Xavier's friends was godfather.

All in all, Sonya was stressed to the tips of her ears.

What else do we have to deal with today? I don't want to see Kathleen today, Sonya hisses, and Avery sighs.

We can't make her tell him, Avery warns her wolf again, her voice tired and weary.

Sonya sniffs and shuts their link off, and Avery closes her eyes, resting her head on her office desk and exhaling slowly.

Her phone rings and she answers it on the third ring, not checking the caller identification in her tired haze.

"Hello, Alpha Avery Wilcott speaking, how can I help you?" She sighs, pushing herself upright and leaning back in her chair as she rubs her temple with her free hand.

She can feel a headache coming on, and she grimaces at the realisation.

She has no time that she can take off; every day, there are new rogue attacks, and everything seems to be getting worse.

"Hey babe," Roman chirps, his tone full of excitement, "I have tomorrow off, and I'm going to fly in to see you."

Avery raises her eyebrows, a small smile creeping onto her lips.

"Are you sure? A four-hour flight twice in one day is a lot," she warns him, and he groans dramatically on the end of the line, "plus, I have a lot of work to do."

"I'll stay tomorrow night and fly back early in the morning, it'll be fine," he laughs, and she can picture him running a hand through his hair as he gets comfortable and grins at the ceiling in his office, "didn't you have to visit Zephyr tomorrow anyway?"

Avery curses under her breath, quickly flipping open her diary and swearing out loud when she reads the page.

"I do, yes, I need to see him," she grimaces, "I completely forgot."

"No, it's alright, I need to see him too," Roman snorts, "I went to the Steele pack today and dealt with them, his pack is next on my list. We can go together; you can see baby Emmett, work on your weird Rogue Panel stuff, and then relax while I help him with the dialogue in the pack."

Avery takes a second to contemplate this, reluctantly nodding to herself as she relaxes further into her seat.

"That actually sounds okay," she mumbles, her exhaustion slipping into her voice.

"Are you tired?" He asks instantly, and she groans softly.

"I'm exhausted, I had to deal with so much today," she mutters, "Lexus nearly flung herself off one of the balconies, and I had to put her into the hospital. Some of my Generals are so stressed and exhausted that they fell asleep in our meeting today."

Roman releases a huff of hair, and as she closes her eyes, she can picture him raising his eyebrows and looking around the room as he tries to figure out how to respond to her.

"How is Alpha Steele?" He asks eventually, and then coughs awkwardly, "I mean, former Alpha Steele. I can't imagine she's taken that well."

"She commandeered my hairdresser, and her hair is almost as tall as I am now," Avery snorts, the image of the fierce Alpha with the biggest curls she has ever seen coming back to her mind.

"Oh, so she's coping then," he laughs, and Avery snorts again, "you can ask her yourself, she'll be delighted to hear that you spoke to her 'bloodsucking, good for nothing son'. Her words, not mine."

Roman releases another laugh, and Avery smiles a little at the happy noise that leaves his lips.

Sonya sighs in delight, shivers running through her as she listens in on the conversation.

Can we run to Zephyr's tomorrow? I want to spend some time with Booker, she pleads, and Avery only needs a second to consider it.

"Are you and Booker okay to run to the Moonstone Mountain pack tomorrow? Sonya misses Booker," Avery grins, and Sonya is dancing around inside her head.

"Of course we are, he'd love that, are you kidding? A huge game of tag, he might die of happiness," Roman beams, leaning back in his own office chair and staring at the potted plant on his desk.

When Avery visited last, she helped him redecorate his office, because it was covered in his mother's blood.

They had scrubbed the walls in silence, and then repainted in a pale green colour, switching all of the furniture to a dark oak colour. She had gone out for a while on her own, and when she returned, she had a tonne of soft furnishings with her, scattering them around his office to make it seem more homely.

He had placed a picture of the two of them in a nice frame beside the mini palm tree, and every time he looked at it, he grinned.

Their relationship had grown slowly and steadily over the course of their daily phone calls and texts, and their day trips to visit each other.

Since his mother had been killed, he had been a lot calmer.

There were no more fears that he'd come home one day and find her dead in the kitchen.

She didn't follow him around and criticise everything he did anymore, mostly because she was in an urn in the attic, but that was beside the point.

I still think we should dump it in the lake, Booker snorts.

Avery had experienced his actual personality over the last two months, and she understood now why all of the other Alphas respected him so much.

He worked harder than she thought, and his plate had been just as full as hers for the last eight weeks.

"Everything okay?" Avery asks softly after a few minutes of silence, slightly concerned.

"Yeah, I'm just thinking," he responds thoughtfully, staring at the ceiling where Avery had attempted to paint a night sky.

She failed miserably, it was safe to say that art was not her calling, but he hadn't let her paint over it because he thought it was really cute.

"About what?" She asks curiously, swinging her legs as she gazes out the window.

Kids are playing on the green area in front of the packhouse, and she grins as she watches one of them tackle another and then scamper away with the football they're using.

"How lucky I am," he admits after a minute, and Avery feels her face heating up.

She's terrible at expressing how she feels, but she's making an active effort with Roman this time, although his random declarations make her slightly embarrassed still.

"Shut up," she manages to get out, and he chuckles as he pictures her face.

"Send me a picture of what you look like, I miss your dumb face," he complains, getting up from his chair and strolling over to his bookcase.

He straightens some of the books on it, reorganising them as he holds the phone between his ear and shoulder.

Some of the children in the pack like to borrow his books, and he allows them to as long as they let him know which ones they take.

All of the historical ones and some of the war ones are gone off his shelves at the moment, and a quick glance at the sign-out list lets him know which children have them.

His phone dings and he glances at the screen, grinning when a red-faced Avery appears on the device.

"You look adorable, as always," he comments, and she rolls her eyes.

"You are disgustingly nice today, what happened?" She asks, standing up herself and putting her laptop into her bag, grabbing her car keys and phone.

"I had therapy earlier, and it was just a really great day," he shrugs, walking back to his desk, "are you finished with work for the day?"

"Oh, how was therapy?" She asks first, and then she contemplates the second part of his sentence, "I have to check in with some of the local Alphas, and I have a meeting with Hayden, but other than that, I think I am finished."

He lets out a loud cheer, and she flinches and yanks the phone away from her ear.

"What was that for?" She demands, rubbing her ear.

"This is the first day this week you've finished before 8 pm," he claps, "therapy was good, thank you for asking."

Avery frowns, thinking back over her week, "no, I definitely finished before eight on Monday."

"Nope, 9:30 and I ordered you to go home then," he laughs, and she winces.

"You did, you're right," she sighs, walking out of her office and locking the door.

She walks by Mitch and Kathleen, nodding to Mitch and sending Kathleen a hard look as she heads towards the kitchen.

Kathleen grits her teeth and turns away, not happy with her friend's disapproval as she cradles her ever-growing bump.

Avery strolls into the dining room, smiling at some of the kids who are bouncing around still.

"Have you eaten yet?" Roman asks, and Avery rolls her eyes as she pushes the kitchen door open.

As she does, all of the men and women in there grin and greet her loudly, scaring the crap out of her.

"No, I'm about to," she says into the phone, nodding and smiling to everyone in the kitchen as she heads to the pot sitting on the stove.

Dinner is always cooked in two batches, one in the evening, and one in the middle of the night for the guards and night workers.

She scoops some of the stew into a bowl, balancing it precariously between her arm and midriff.

One of the women spots her doing this and frowns, taking it off her and shaking her head.

"You tell me where, Alpha, the last thing you need today is another burn," the woman scolds, and Avery flushes.

"Another one?" Roman groans through the phone, making Avery flush further.

"I'm just going to sit in the dining hall if that's alright," she responds to the woman in a hushed tone, and the woman nods, briskly walking ahead of Avery and pushing the swing doors open with her free hand.

"I scalded myself with coffee this morning because I was reading a brief and got distracted," Avery admits, and Roman groans again.

"I honestly don't know how you're still alive," he sighs, "I'm going to let you go and enjoy your dinner, but ring me if you think of anything."

"Oh, before you hang up, could you bring me some shells from the beach when you come tomorrow?" She asks excitedly, sliding into the bench in front of the table nearest the kitchen.

The woman who helped her nods to her, and returns seconds later with some water and a slice of cake for her.

Avery frowns at her, and the woman raises an eyebrow.

"You didn't have lunch, you need to eat," the woman hisses, sweeping off back to the kitchen.

Most of her pack has become extremely protective of her, and Avery doesn't know what to do with the attention.

"Thank you," Avery whispers to her, shooting her a look of gratitude as she walks away.

"How many shells do you want?" Roman asks, raising an eyebrow at the odd request.

"As many as you can bring, one of the science teachers asked if I could source some for the younger classes," Avery sighs, shrugging her shoulders to herself as she digs into her food enthusiastically.

"Okay, I'll go and collect them tonight for you," he laughs, and Avery grins.

"Goodnight," she beams, and he laughs.

"It's 2 pm here, goodnight to you," he chuckles, and Avery blushes.

"I always forget the time difference," she snorts, and he rolls his eyes playfully.

"I'll see you tomorrow," he laughs, "I miss you."

Avery's heart melts a little at that statement, even if he says it almost every day.

"I miss you too," she mumbles, blushing bright red again.

"Text me before you go to sleep," he finishes the call, smiling to himself as he gets back to work.

Avery closes her eyes, listening to the yelps and hoots of the excited children running around the room.

"Hi, Alpha!" One screams as he sprints out of the room, narrowly escaping being tagged by a little girl.

Avery hides her grin and calls after them, "no running in the hallways!"

She takes a moment to breathe, and then tucks into her food, watching the people moving around the room as she eats, smiling as she watches her pack.

She feels an immense amount of pride in her pack.

They had taken it upon themselves to revamp a lot of the older areas of the pack to make them suitable for living again, because the pack wanted to welcome new members fleeing violence and the like into their society.

They had started a petition, and once they had almost every single person in the pack sign it, they brought it to Avery.

They didn't even need to plead or beg, Avery approved the funding for the project immediately.

People were volunteering their time during the day and or in the mornings or evenings.

The weekends were full of action now, with every spare hand doing something in the older part of the pack.

When the Wilcotts first settled on their land, they built a small town a little closer to the river.

As time went on, it became dangerous to live there, and so they moved.

It was safe again, due to the pack expanding their boundaries over time, and the area was well connected to the main pack, so there was no reason for it to fall to disrepair.

It was also heavily patrolled, so it was ideal for anyone who was scared of anything happening once they fled their former packs.

The Council had been horrified when they heard of the plans. Still, they had more significant issues to deal with, like the fact they were facing an uprising than to even consider putting a stop to an Alpha's voluntary charity.

The last few weeks had been packed with internal and external pack activities.

Inside the pack, Avery had a full schedule, meeting with builders, planners, her ranked members, the teachers union, the rest of the unions, and her pack's Elders.

Outside the pack, Avery had the Rogue Panel, the Council, the Mating Panel, and other Alphas to deal with.

Her pack had been strict with her in regards to making sure she was eating, and her meals had been delivered to her office like clockwork.

She had told them she would be down for dinner this evening, but she had been so busy that she completely forgot about eating.

Like Richard always says, an Alpha who takes care of their pack will be in turn taken care of by their pack, Sonya chirps happily, still absolutely over the moon that she gets to see Booker tomorrow.

The two wolves have bonded again and grown closer, although they both respected their human companion's wishes too much to try and further their bond.

Avery devours her dinner and dessert, sitting back and yawning after she chugs her water, trying to decide what to do for the evening.

Her decision is made for her when Kathleen sits down beside her, lowering herself slowly as she holds her bump carefully.

Avery glances at her and then looks back to the children, watching them carefully to make sure none of them are in any danger.

"So are you still not talking to me?" Kathleen scoffs, and Avery doesn't look at her.

She had spoken to Kathleen less than three times outside of a professional setting in the past two months.

She was disgusted that she had betrayed Mitch in the first place, but then Kathleen had tried to justify it by saying that it was only twice.

"Why would I talk to you?" Avery asks politely, clasping her hands in front of her and praying her phone rings.

If I don't talk to you in three minutes, ring my cell phone, Avery links Hayden, and he sends back a very confused thumbs up.

This is the best thing about the mindlink, Sonya comments with glee, and Avery forces herself to keep a neutral facial expression rather than bursting out laughing.

"We've been friends since the first grade, Ave," Kathleen pleads, grabbing Avery's arm.

Avery grits her teeth and gently removes Kathleen's hand from her sleeve, placing it into her lap and scooting a few inches away on the bench.

"This is ridiculous; you don't get to ignore me. I was your friend before Mitch was," Kathleen complains, and Avery closes her eyes.

"It doesn't matter how long you know somebody; a bond isn't defined by time. The girl I used to know would never cheat on her mate," Avery hisses, collecting her dirty plates and glass and walking into the kitchen.

Kathleen releases a breath of air and then hurries after her, running a hand through her hair as she shuffles along.

"Things change!" Kathleen hollers, and Avery stops dead in her tracks.

"It didn't change when he was away for six months at a time," she growls under her breath, "unless you cheated then, which... oh my Goddess, you did."

Kathleen's face had dropped, and her cheeks had gone scarlet as Avery had continued speaking.

Avery's upper lip curls in disgust, and she shakes her head.

"No, I'm done. If you don't tell him soon, I'm going to," Avery hisses, storming into the kitchen.

"Thank you for your help early, Charlotte, I really appreciate it," Avery calls to the woman who served her dinner earlier.

"No problem, Alpha, you need to eat," the woman admonishes, shaking a ladle in her direction.

Avery grins at her as she loads her plates into the dishwasher, and turns around to walk out of the kitchen.

Kathleen is waiting for her as soon as she exits the kitchen.

"You don't understand what it was like," Kathleen blurts immediately, wringing her hands.

"Oh, tell me what it was like then," Avery snipes, her politeness replaced with the cattiness she was trying to avoid.

"It was hell," Kathleen growls, "I had nobody to talk to for six months. Nothing to do. It was horrible."

Avery stares at her blankly.

"You're speaking to somebody who never had a mate. You got yours for at least part of the year," she responds carefully, reigning in her temper.

Roman is gonna love this update; he did say she'd probably confront us soon, Sonya gleefully exclaims.

"You never knew what it was like, so you never felt deprived of it," Kathleen growls, and Avery blinks.

She's slightly taken aback by the response, and she simply nods.

"You could have filed for rejection and found somebody you could have been with every day. You didn't have to stay with him," Avery replies after a minute, walking towards the front door to get into her car.

"I couldn't file for rejection, he's my mate," Kathleen gapes.

"You might not be able to, but I think he will once he finds out," Avery coldly replies, stepping out into the humid evening and walking towards her car.

"You wouldn't dare tell him," Kathleen hisses, grabbing Avery's arm and digging her nails in.

"Out of respect for your unborn child, I'm going to ask you to remove your claws from my arm. If you don't, I'm going to call a guard over here now, and I'm going to detain you," Avery explains calmly, her eyes utterly lifeless as she stares at Kathleen.

She hesitantly removes her hand but quickly replaces it when Avery turns back around and continues walking.

"Kathleen, remove your hand from my arm," Avery says in a warning tone, holding back her dominance.

Sonya is trying to force it to be released so that Kathleen is forced into submission to learn her place, but Avery hates using her power on her own pack, and so she manages to refrain from releasing it at all.

Kathleen seems to realise that Avery isn't kidding when her eyes start flashing, and she slowly loosens her grip until Avery rips her arm from her hold.

"Don't you dare tell him, Avery," Kathleen orders - or, at least, she tries to.

Her feeble attempt at an instruction is not lost on Sonya, who ruffles at the disrespect.

"I gave you two months. I'm not giving you another two. I'm not losing my Beta because you couldn't keep your legs closed," she says shortly, climbing into her car.

"If you tell him, I'll never speak to you again," she cries out, and Avery shrugs.

"And that's your choice. You never gave him a choice at all, because he thinks you've been faithful for your entire relationship. He looks at you with so much love and trust; you're his entire world. I can't believe you would do this to him," Avery says quietly, closing the car door and doing up her seatbelt.

She drives away, leaving Kathleen standing in the stone driveway with tears of anger pooling in her eyes.

It's going to come out one way or another, Sonya says grimly, absorbing some of Avery's stress to let her focus on the road.

Her phone starts ringing, and Avery answers it from her car, raising an eyebrow.

"Did you escape whatever you needed an out for?" Hayden's voice booms and she instantly lowers the volume.

"Yeah, I did, and you're three minutes late with your rescue," she snorts, trying to ignore the heavy weight of guilt on her chest.

She should have told Mitchell as soon as she found out.

"Toby decided to dump his snack into a bag and dance on it. There were crumbs everywhere, and we've decided that he doesn't like animal crackers anymore," he grumbles, and Avery lets out a weak laugh.

"Okay, thanks for calling Hayden. I've gotta go," she sighs, and he releases a noise of consent before groaning and screaming, "Tobias!"

The line goes dead, and Avery chuckles to herself for a second, shaking her head.

Toby has been getting more mischievous by the day, and it's driving Hayden to distraction.

Are you actually going to tell Mitch?, Sonya asks quietly, and Avery bites her lips.

She has to tell him herself; I can't do the job for her. But I don't want to wait any longer. He has to know, she sighs.

We shouldn't have gotten involved, Sonya whimpers.

We were involved as soon as she told us she was pregnant, we didn't ask to be dragged into this romance novel bullshit, Avery responds grimly, clenching her jaw as she makes the turn for her house.

She may have been friends with Kathleen first, but she and Mitchell are close too; he goes to great lengths to make sure that her days run smoothly, and he's the best second in command she could ever ask for.

He grounds her when she's being too irrational, and it's exactly what she needed in a Beta.

Mitchell has one of the biggest hearts she's ever seen.

Every soldier who worked under him respected him, and most saw him as a father figure, even if he was only a few years older than them. He deserved the world, in Avery's opinion, and instead, he got cheated on more times than she could count.

She was appalled by Kathleen, and she had no shame in admitting that.

She never knew her friend was capable of that, and she thought she knew the girl well.

Obviously, she was wrong, which stung, but she tried to brush it off.

Closing the gates to her house, she closes her eyes for a moment before she gets out of her car, flicking through her contacts in her phone until she finds her hairdresser.

She sends her a quick text asking if she could fit her in for a blowdry in the morning, and then puts her phone into her pocket, unlocking her house and leaning against the door once she's inside.

She can't wait to sink into bed - the day has been so long that it feels never-ending, and she can't wait for it to be finished.

Scurrying up the stairs, she slips into a pair of pyjamas, and then ties her hair up, slipping her glasses on and wandering down the stairs to her living room, switching some reality television on and sighing to herself.

She was supposed to have a meeting with Hayden tonight, or so she thought, but when she double-checked her schedule, it wasn't until next week, so she has a calm evening ahead of her.

Her phone buzzes, and she grins when she reads the response from her hairdresser, which agrees to do her hair in the morning.

She wants to look nice for when Roman arrives, and knowing him, he'll show up around 9 am.

So, her hair appointment is at 7:30, which is ridiculously early, but it'll be worth it.

Sending love hearts back, she flicks out of that text conversation, sending one to Roman to let him know she got home safely and then going into a group chat of local Alphas.

She inquires about their day and asks if there were any rogue or vampire sightings since they last spoke.

She finds it easier to deal with some of the Alphas over a group chat, especially the ones that surround her packlands - most are young, and one or two are rather anxious creatures, so a group chat generally guarantees she'll either get a response within the chat, or they'll message her privately.

The five members respond almost immediately, only one reporting any rogue sightings.

Avery frowns and screenshots it, sending it into the Rogue Panel's group chat quickly, before returning to check the rest of the messages.

The conversation is polite and cheery, all of them being friendly with each other. The only person who doesn't respond is Zephyr, but Avery knows that's because he turns off at 7 pm to spend time with Emmett and to unwind from the day.

She'll see him tomorrow and get an update then, or he'll send a text when he's awake during the night and feeding the baby.

She smiles to herself at the excitement of seeing her godson in the morning.

Glancing at the time, she sighs to herself, getting up reluctantly and wandering up the stairs.

We should get a dog, or a cat or something, Sonya comments randomly.

Avery raises an eyebrow, and her wolf hurriedly explains herself.

The house is so lonely, we need company, she argues, and Avery sighs again.

"Maybe we'll have company one day," she mutters out loud, closing her bedroom door and diving onto her bed.

Hello!

As I'm writing this, we're about to hit 55K reads which is baffling to me!!

Thank you for all of the support and love on the book, I literally can't explain how happy it makes me.

I think I might enter this into the Wattys, because it should be done in time - thoughts?

I hope you're all doing well and having a great day, wherever you are!

Don't be afraid to comment or message if you have any questions!!

This was almost 5000 words and I did it in under two hours, I'm on a caffeine buzz!

- Aoife :) xx