Chapter Notes: Ava-Rain's POV

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"You can keep your damn introductions to yourself!" Behind us, Kane's voice emerged. "Why did you move locations?"

     "Mr. and Mrs. B personally escorted you to the agreed upon location." Chase added. "What happened?"

     "She didn't tell anyone," Caleb said, drawing my attention towards him. His gaze had still been fixated on Angelie. "She let me see that much. But, as you stated, you had your whole life to master the yellow. What else are you hiding, Angelie?"

     "You may not believe it now or ever, but everything I do, everything that I've done, it was always for you, Caleb. You were my alpha and the only person that cared about me without obligation. There are certain things in my head that you don't want to know. So, kill me if you must, but my secrets will die with me."

Again, she looked at me but only for a brief second.

"But I will not be forced to own up to something that I did not do. Like I said, I didn't tell anybody about your mate. As instructed, your parents saw me to the agreed upon location, but I was forced to move to a different one. The pure bloods are no longer just a possible threat invading the north. They're here, just like I told you they would be, and they're not bothering to hide their presence. But I'm sure you already know that since you said they attacked your human."

     "Ava-Rain," I corrected, finally finding my voice.

     Her gaze darted in my direction. "Pretty name for a pretty girl," she smiled, though it did not reach her eyes.

In the next second, she brushed past Caleb and walked over to the desk at the other end of the room, making herself comfortable by taking a seat on top of it. Crossing one leg over the other, she leaned backwards onto her outstretched arms, using her hands to hold her up. Everything about this girl screamed 'sex appeal'. Her curvaceous figure, I was sure, made her desirable to many.

"You going to tell me why I'm here now?" The room remained silent. "Well then, I could always find out the truth through other means, if that's what you'd prefer. And I think you already know, Caleb, the more you fight it, the more it will hurt."

     She slid off the desk and made her way back towards us. When I expected her to stop in front of Caleb, she kept walking.

I turned my head and watched as she looked at each member of the pack. She stopped in front of Kane first and crossed her arms over her chest.

"As much fun as it would be to go poking and prodding inside of your mind and inflicting as much pain as possible, not even I would put myself through such torture as to sift through your thoughts."

     The anger radiating off of Kane was hard to miss, but I was shocked to see that he was able to restrain himself from attacking Angelie without outside interference. But not even Angelie was stupid enough to push her luck by testing Kane's boundaries because she quickly turned her sights on Chase.

     "And you're far too sweet for me to hijack your mind without your consent, Chase."

     Chase's immediate response was looking away. I had never known Chase to look anything but composed, but I could see that it, too, was taking all of his strength to not lose control. Despite what she had said to him, the condescending tone in which she used made me understand his reaction.

     "And you two," Angelie looked between Harrison and Stryder, "it would certainly be payback for the way you manhandled me to bring me back here. But just like your arrogant little beta over there," she tossed a look over her shoulder at Kane, "you both have the yellow running through your veins. So, at least for now, you both get a pass."

     She then walked up to Tommy, but instead of stopping in front of him like she had done with the others, she circled around him, placed a hand on top of his shoulder and trailed it along his back and over to the other shoulder before finally bringing herself face to face with him. Even with the distance between where I stood and the normally quiet and reserved delta, the amber glow surfacing in Tommy's eyes was very evident.

"Oh, calm down, Tommy. Put your wolf back on its leash." She then leaned in to whisper something to him, something she obviously did not want anyone else to hear. When she was done, she patted him on the chest and moved on towards Rickon and Declan. "I suppose that leaves us with the twins. Or maybe just one twin in particular."

     I knew before she even took a step that she was going to go after Declan. My heart sank and my body moved in his direction. Like hell she was going to force her way into Declan's mind.

The whole time she had known what she was doing. This whole display was just a game. Playing with the others was nothing but amusement for her. Angelie knew from the moment she realized Caleb had no intention of telling her what happened that Declan was her best bet at extracting the truth. He had been the one to stop me from going after Caleb when he attacked Angelie and she must have noticed and formulated a plan to use him as a pawn. And I was betting she knew I would intervene.

     "You're here for me." I managed to take a step towards them, but was prevented from taking a second by Caleb.

     "Enough of your games, Angelie," Caleb spoke, "if you were going to do something, you would have done it already."

     "You know I'm never one to bluff, Caleb. I always follow through on whatever I set my mind to." She shot him a look full of so much anger and hatred, I thought it would have been impossible for anything to overshadow her beauty. "Remember?"

     That time I was able to stop Caleb from going after her again. It didn't involve any physical restraint on my part because, let's face it, that would have been impossible. All I needed to do to stop the endless dance was to enact the initial plan that brought Angelie to the den in the first place. The truth was the only weapon I had and needed in my arsenal.

"Look, Angelie, I don't know you and you don't know me. But what I do know is that I am the only thing keeping you from being torn to shreds, a punishment long overdue, if you ask me. But you're not here for that. You're here for me. So the only mind that you should be concerning yourself with is mine. Are we clear?"

     Stepping away from Declan with a triumphant smile on her face, Angelie turned around and slowly made her way towards me. I met her halfway, knowing full well that the fifteen minutes of being in her presence was more than enough time to conclude that Angelie's strength laid in the exploitation of others' weaknesses. If pushed into a corner, she did not panic but, instead, calculated all of her options by taking in her surroundings to formulate an escape. So, if a look of intimidation or trembles of fear was what she expected of me, I was determined to leave her disappointed.

     I sensed Caleb's presence behind me, seconds later felt his hands placed on my waist to pull me back against his body.

     Angelie's blue eyes flickered upwards and a smirk graced her ruby red lips. "She's got spunk, I'll give her that." Her gaze returned to me. "Now what exactly do you have inside that pretty little head of yours that needs to come out? And why?"

     "A couple of days ago, Declan and I were attacked by pure bloods, and during the attack, I came into contact with one of the wolves. It was only for a split second but it was enough time for a series of that wolf's memories, I think, to be implanted inside of my head."

     "An heir of the yellow?" Angelie's eyes flickered upwards at Caleb then back down to me. "No heir of the yellow would ever betray their own mind by allowing a human to enter it. Especially not intentionally. So if it had been done unintentionally, the wolf's guard must have been down. Entirely." Her eyes narrowed in on me. "Even so, it's never that easy for one's mind to latch onto another's, not without leaving a mark, a stamp of some sort."

     "Like a montage of memories? Because that's exactly what I have floating around inside of my head. But these memories play at such a rapid speed that I can't really make sense of them. I can't slow them down even if I tried."

     "And that's where I come in, I assume."

     "It's the only lead we'll have on the pure bloods," Caleb answered before I could. "The only way to determine what they know about us. Possibly what The Council knows as well."

     "If The Council knew anything about you, I can assure you, you wouldn't be standing here embracing your mate." She looked around. "And your pack would be chained up and accused of treason right along side your parents. Sounds like the attack was only a test to draw the both of you out. You know why the pure bloods are here—the claims brought forth to The Council about wolves taking humans as mates. They smoked you out."

     "And then disappeared. As you said, my pack and I should already be in chains and brought forth to plead our case in front of The Council. Yet here we are."

     "And you want me to go digging inside of her mind to find out why that is?"

     "It doesn't add up. It doesn't make sense."

     "If I didn't know any better, I'd almost believe you'd much rather be dragged before The Council, forced down onto your knees and commanded to plead for your life."

     "I rather know what we'll be going up against. I want to know what to expect so that I can determine what's best for my mate and for my pack."

     "You want to go after them," she said so matter of factly that my immediate reaction was to whip my head around to look at Caleb. "Are you insane? You want to start a damn war, Caleb? You challenge the pure bloods, you're essentially challenging The Council. You do not want that kind of heat, Caleb. Trust me."

     Caleb glanced down at me, holding my gaze for a couple of seconds. I saw it in his eyes—the answers to the questions I was not yet made aware of, questions that he hoped I wouldn't ask. "I trust only in Luna and in that which she has provided me with. This pack. Ava-Rain. I will always do what I have to do for them."

     "Then protect them! Don't bring them to the altar to be slaughtered!"

     "And how many are being slaughtered at the hands of the pure bloods on these bogus claims?" The anger was really pouring out of Caleb as he stood tall, his chest rising and falling in a heavily syncopated rhythm to accompany the raging roars and heavy gallops of the blue I felt riding him from within. "What right does The Council have to protest the will of Luna? I will not bow down to those that bleed the same blood as I do yet deem themselves above me!"

     Angelie stepped closer, her brows furrowed and her eyes narrowed in Caleb's direction. "You think the pure bloods that attacked your mate are, what, doing you a favour? Protecting you because they have yet to lay you at the feet of The Council?"

     "Caleb?" I whispered.

     "Can it be done or not?" He kept his gaze firmly on Angelie, not daring to spare me a look. He knew if he had, I would have seen the truth in what she was saying within his grey orbs.

     Looking back at Angelie, I watched as she shook her head, not in response to his question but out of disbelief.

"Everything that anybody's ever done to protect you up until this point will possibly be in vain if I do this, Caleb."

It was hard to imagine that Angelie could be capable of actually sounding sympathetic, but as I watched her—as I stood there and really took her in entirely—I would have been lying if I said that she truly did not look genuinely concerned for Caleb's well being. Despite everything that transpired between them, despite her exile and past wrongs, Angelie still very much loved my mate, her former alpha.

     Angelie's gaze latched onto mine so tightly that even if I wanted to look away I couldn't. Although death by a look was not an actual possibility in regards to the expression, apparently a look did, however, harbour the ability to take a person hostage. "I'm not going to sugar coat this, sweetheart. You are not from this world. You do not carry the power bestowed upon us by our Goddess. You are a human and your mind is as weak as your flesh. If I go digging around inside of your head, consent or not, your body will react in one of two ways: it will either accept the intrusion or reject it."

     Caleb took only a step forward and slightly tucked me behind him. Protecting me. "What the hell are you talking about, Angelie?"

    Angelie only ignored him and continued, her eyes not once tearing away from mine. "Now don't let that fool you into believing those two options are fifty-fifty. They're not. There's a ninety percent chance your mind will reject it, and in order to combat the intrusion, it will do the only thing it can: shut down."

     "That's bullshit!" Caleb protested. "You've broken into hundreds of minds, human included."

     "Those were often in-and-out missions. Hardly long enough for the intrusion to even be detected. Not to mention, none of those humans had ever been mated to a wolf."

     "And what the hell does that have to do with anything?" Kane's voice emerged, though I still couldn't bring myself to look away from Angelie's stare.

     'Was this really happening?' I asked myself.

     How silly of me to have actually thought that allowing my mind to be hijacked could have been carried out without any real repercussions. For fifteen years, my mind had never once given out on me under the crippling pressures of self-doubt, inadequacy and withdrawals of love it had endured in my grandmother's house. For years, it had stayed intact, despite being crammed with a bunch of nonsensical formulas math teachers swore you would one day need in a foreign and distant land called 'the real world'. It never once walked out on me when coerced into satiating English teachers and their obsessions with gazillion worded essays, nor had it deserted me in my biggest hour of need—when my only association with anything supernatural related was trying to decide which Winchester brother I loved more, Sam or Dean.

But now, my ever faithful and reliable mind could very easily be broken down and essentially lost within a matter of minutes? Seconds?

     When she looked away to address Kane's outburst—which essentially released her hold on me—I knew that would be one of the very few things I would probably ever be grateful to receive from Angelie.

"It has everything to do with, uh, let me think, Kane, everything!" She turned her sights on Caleb. "She's your mate, which therefore makes the both of you linked only to each other. Physically. Emotionally. Mentally. Your mind has already laid claim to hers and her mind has built a firewall to exclude any outsiders that aren't you.

     "Think of her mind and everything inside of it as a password encrypted database. It will only allow access to you. Of course, I can hack into it with the help of the yellow, but once it realizes that I'm not you, it very well may try to kick me out and that could entail self-destructing. Her human mind is more fragile than ours and that's just simply by default. But a mind belonging to a mated human. . .that's unchartered territory. Especially for me. Breaking into her head is risky."

     I took that opportunity to turn away, severing the hold Caleb still had on my waist. Slowly, I walked away as my mind raced with Angelie's revelation if the plan were to be carried out. I found my way stationed in front of the very desk Angelie had taken residence upon minutes prior. Soon, everybody's voices blended together as they all yelled and argued back and forth.

Some voices resonated with protest, most with anger. But the voices very quickly turned into a symphony of white noise that I mentally pushed into the background and the only thing I could hear, the only thing I focused on, was the increase in volume of my rapidly beating heart.

     Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump.

     I owed it to them to do this.

     Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump.

     I owed it to Caleb.

     Thump! Thump! Thump! Thump!

     Most importantly, I owed it to myself.

     "I'll do it," I said, hardly loud enough for myself to hear let alone the rest of the room. "I'll do it," I repeated louder, but, again, not loud enough. With a wave of anger that washed over me and a newfound source of strength, I slammed my fists onto the desk in hopes of silencing the noisy room. "I said I'll do it!"

     "No."

     I turned my head in time to watch Caleb storm his way towards me. "Caleb, listen—"

     "No." When he reached me, he took my face in his hands as delicately as possible, which only fueled the boiling anger inside of me. "I won't risk it. We'll find another way. Look for another option."

     I was tired of being treated like a flower. I was tired of being handled with care and allowing others to speak for me and dictate what I could and could not handle. In terms of strength, I knew that I was nothing compared to a being from his world. But there were different types of strength. Different ways that one could be strong. For a lamb's strength to match that of a lion's.

For a girl to break free from her prison and reign as Queen.

     "We'll look for another option," he repeated and even offered a smile, but it wasn't enough to overthrow the worry and despair that lingered within his eyes. But, in only the way that he could, he managed to make me forget about everybody else in the room. "'Option H', okay?"

     "'H'. . ." I placed my hands on top of his, which still gently cupped my face, "for the heroine that I need to be right now?" I returned the smile but knew that it wasn't going to change his mind in the slightest nor silence the thoughts and fears I was certain had been racing through his mind.

      Caleb shook his head, opened his mouth as if to offer another argument but nothing came out. I wasn't sure if it was because he knew that anything he said would only be rebutted on my part. Perhaps it could have been because he knew that he was defeated. Maybe he was just waiting for me to come to my senses and realize exactly what I was preparing myself to take on. But when a minute of silence passed between us, as he regained some sort of control over his emotions to replace the despair in his eyes with another emotion, I realized why Caleb had not said anything.

     Words could not convey a message better than emotions could.

     And Caleb allowed me to feel everything. And it wasn't so much the emotions he had been presently feeling, it was the emotions he would feel if he were to lose me. I felt anger. Betrayal. Sadness. Anguish. Despair. Loneliness. Heartbreak. But strongest of all was his hate. If I did not come back to him, if my mind self-destructed and caused me to be lost to him forever, Caleb would hate me. And no matter how much he loved me, he would never forgive me. I felt it.

     And, for a second, I wondered why. I wondered how. I was doing this for him and for his pack. Why couldn't he understand that? How could he hate me for willing to risk it all for him? For trying to show him that there was strength in sacrifice? That I would lay it all on the line for him and his pack because that's what you did for the ones you cared about? I wondered how he could hate me for that.

     But in the next second the answers to those questions dawned on me. In that moment, I realized that just because he loved me, that did not eliminate his ability to hate me. Love did not harbour the power to overthrow hate anymore than hate harboured the power to overthrow love. It was possible to love and hate simultaneously and equally because, I realized right then and there, love and hate were the truest of mates and both needed the other to survive.

     And that was why, in the next moment, certainty of my survival engulfed my entire being in a flame of truth that could not be extinguished. That was why I knew that I had nothing to fear. That I would be okay. Caleb would not lose me nor would I lose myself because it was his hatred that I would hold onto like an anchor. A relationship defined only by love made that relationship an illusion, but a relationship with hate to balance out that love, well, that made it a reality.

     And the reality staring back at me was the face of my victory. The source of my strength. The path towards my survival.

Caleb.

     "Are you ready, Angelie?" My eyes continued to stare into Caleb's, which enabled me to see the last bit of his hope that I wouldn't go through with the plan fade away with my question.

He closed his eyes in defeat and his hands dropped from my face. Although the loss of warmth from his touch was a bit discouraging, I was able to accept it because it provided me with the chance to walk away from him.

     "Hold on," Chase brushed past Angelie and headed towards me. "Ava-Rain, you don't have to do this. Trust me, nobody in this room would ever ask you to take on this risk."

     "He's right." Behind him, Kane emerged. Kane and I had obviously never been the best of friends. Half of the time, I didn't even know if he really cared about me or if his concern for my well being was out of duty and obligation to his alpha. But, even with his arms folded across his chest along with his usually permanent scowl on his face, I knew that he had not said what he said just for the sake of saying it. He had truly and genuinely meant it. "Don't do this."

     "I'll be fine, guys." I had addressed them all, but as I said it, my eyes only located one person in particular. Declan. "I promise."

     "Clear the room," Caleb silently commanded.

     Everybody's eyes darted behind me where I felt Caleb's looming presence. I didn't dare turn around to face him, but instead kept my eyes in Declan's direction. His gaze strayed from mine for only a couple of seconds before it returned.

Nobody spoke. Nobody moved. Despite Caleb's command, the room remained filled with their presence and complete silence.

     "I said clear the room!"

     Harrison, Stryder and Tommy were the first to move when they turned around and headed towards the door. Rickon moved next, but it wasn't towards the door but to his twin's side. Declan remained in place, his eyes still fixated on me. Despite his alpha's command to leave, I guess I sort of knew that it was my command that Declan awaited.

'I promise', I mouthed at him, hoping it was enough to assure the delta. But whether he believed me or not, I wasn't certain. It was, however, enough for the slight push Rickon gave him to kick him into motion and finally leave the study.

     Now, Kane, Chase and Angelie remained. Because he was still only feet away from me, only after watching Declan disappear out of sight were my eyes drawn towards Chase. I wasn't sure if he intended to say something, but if he had, the opportunity never arose.

     "Go, Chase. And take Kane with you." The tone in which Caleb used to carry out his command was not one that I had ever heard him use with his betas.

     But, as if he hadn't even heard his alpha, or he had but refused to be affected by it, Chase continued to look at me with a look of sadness and guilt.

     My gosh, did everyone think that I was seriously going to bite the dust?

     Chase finally turned and walked towards the door. Kane turned too, but on his way to leave, he stopped next to Angelie and whispered something too low for me to hear. Whatever it was, though, had conjured an eye-roll out of Angelie and a look of anger to spread across her face. In the next second, Kane was off and able to catch up to Chase, closing the door behind him on his way out of the study.

     "Okay. Let's do this." I took a step in Angelie's direction but Caleb grabbed hold of my arm. I turned to face him, quite prepared to tell him that my mind was made up and he couldn't change it, but was, instead, caught off guard when his mouth crashed down onto mine in a quick kiss.

     Pulling away, he rested his forehead against mine as his arms wrapped around me. "I swear to Luna, you better come back to me, Ava-Rain. Do you understand? You find that ten percent. You find it and you hold onto it. You fight like hell to hold onto it. Okay?"

     "Okay," I whispered in agreement.

     "Promise me."

     "I promise," I replied without pause.

     "On your honour?"

     "On my honour."

     He kissed me again. Although both of us probably would have liked for it to have lasted a bit longer, we both refused to prolong it as if it were some sort of 'goodbye' or a 'just in case we never get the chance again' kiss.

I would kiss Caleb again, of that I was certain. I would soon feel his hands in my own and bask in the warmth of his desire released from his every touch.

When he released me, I turned away from him and headed towards Angelie, who I was surprised to see had turned away to give Caleb and I a moment. I didn't think she had it in her to be so courteous.

     With every step that brought me closer to her, the faces of every member of the pack flashed in my mind. I also thought about Kasey and the Hellands. I even thought about Jennifer. But the one face that stopped me dead in my tracks belonged to my grandmother. Because even though I believed that nothing horrible was going to happen, even though I believed that I was going to be okay, what if something were to go wrong? Would she know? Would she feel that I was gone? But even as I asked them, those weren't the questions that I really wanted to know the answers to. The real question my four year old self had always wondered the answer to was, 'Would she even care?'.

     "Are you ready?" Angelie's question brought me out of my thoughts.

     Raising my head to look at her, I nodded.

     She closed the remaining space between us and her icy blue eyes stared directly into mine. "We're only going to have one shot at this, so whatever's going through your mind right now, let it go. Don't let anything distract you from the task at hand. Focus only on the images, only on the memories. Let everything else go."

     I closed my eyes.

     And I let go.