Beastly novel Chapter 44

The meeting had lasted for the next 30 minutes, but true to her word, Ava had left 10 minutes in and wandered off. It wasn't until she stepped out of the office that she recognised the walls of the packhouse. The whole place didn't seem as haunting as the last time she had been there and she was glad she didn't flinch when she walked past numerous teenagers, greeting her from left and right. Her feet had taken her to her attic and that was where Cole found her minutes later.

When they entered, she didn't turn back and only gazed outside at the window, observing the whiteness of the trees and the snow that fell little by little.

"Enjoying the view?" he asked, moving and standing next to her

"Yes. I like snow, always have." Ava replied, "It's just odd to get it at this time of the year."

"It's the end of October. November is only a few skips away."

"Still strange, don't you think?"

"Seasons can change when they want to. What will really tick me off is if winter continues till March." She glanced at him from the corner of her eye, finding a sour expression on his face

"Hate the cold that much? I don't."

"Last I checked, I wasn't a walking human atomic bomb like you. I'm normal."

"So am I." He snorted at her and turned to give her a disbelieving look

"Did you see the hole in that man's chest? Normal is very very far from what you are."

"How did you know that was me?"

"Simple." she turned, waiting for him to give an explanation and he gave her a boyish grin "There were no weapons on the scene, number one. Two, it looked more like lightning had been shot through him, rather than an actual weapon and three, hello, it's you. I've seen you do enough crazy shit these past two weeks for you to not be the obvious culprit."

Instead of arguing with him, she shrugged her shoulders and turned back to watch the snow. "Do you remember anything of how I came here?"

"How you came here?"

"Yes. How I got into the Blue Moon Pack and started living here."

"If anyone is going to be able to answer that, it'll probably be my dad or Xander's. I was too young and even if I tried, I doubt I'd be accurate in any information I'm giving."

It was true. He was young and so was she. Maybe she had totally forgotten what her brother had looked like and although she had a lot of memories of his behaviour, his gestures and their time together, there was no actual way to be sure of how he looked anymore. There was a chance she would see him and not be able to remember him. It was a high probability, but she had seen that man and had called out the name of the brother she had known and he had responded kindly, despite the pain he was going through.

Was it really him? The thought of him being alive was too far fetched, but there were many things happening in her life that were so outrageous that if they told her she was the next queen of England, she wouldn't bat an eyelid.

"Where is he?" she asked Cole

"Dealing with Sterling and Violet. He felt like he had to clear things up with Violet once and for all." Cole answered "Do you mind it? Violet being attracted to him?"

She thought hard before she answered. Frankly, she didn't really care who was attracted to Xander. She only cared if it affected everything around her. What was the point of letting your attraction to someone become so toxic it defied all common sense?

Before she could speak, the warmth in her hand was gone and within the blink of an eye, his large hand was wrapped around the man's neck. Her eyes widened, watching as his body was lifted off the hospital bed.

"Stop!" she exclaimed, her body moving to stop him "Alexander put him down!"

He didn't even turn to look at her. His eyes were narrowed on the person that was turning blue in his grasp. She couldn't get the image of her brother struggling to breathe out of her head and tugged aggressively on Xander's arm. Desperately, she looked around for Cole and realised he hadn't walked into the room with them. Her abdomen began to tingle, her pulse quickening. There was no way to know what would happen if she let out her powers. She didn't want to hurt this mystery man by accident and cursed Xander's barbaric nature to the deepest points of hell.

"Tell me why I shouldn't snap your neck into two." That gruff tone of voice was devoid of anything but hostility, completely ignoring Ava's attempts at pulling his arm away. It was easier to against other men. Xander was the only one she had never been able to use brute strength on and it would probably not get her anywhere

Opening her mouth to berate him, her attention suddenly drew to the man in Xander's grasp. Ava couldn't decide if it was her imagination or her emotions were getting the better of her, but he seemed to be shrinking. Xander too, stopped his attack and together they stood back as a small frame dropped to the ground. The man looked up and grinned at them, his face ringing bells of recognition in Ava's memories.

He had shrunk from a full-grown man to a child that looked no more than 8 years old.

"I see you two still don't see eye to eye." he said, his voice now child-like

Horrified? Baffled? She didn't know what exact emotion she could pick but as he grinned up at her, his voice played back in her head and she knew she couldn't deny it anymore. It was him. The brother she had lost. The brother that had left her to grow up alone. Now, he was back and was not only acting like everything was okay, but was also shrinking down in size.

The universe really didn't want to cut her some slack. At this point, everything was aimed at full-on throwing her sanity off the cliff it clung to for dear life.

The question was; just how much more of this could she take?