Chapter 17

Chris POV

We waited a few minutes for Ethan's voice to fade, then looked at each other. I wanted to apologize, but she held up a hand.

"As crude and drunken as Ethan's remarks were, he's not wrong. I am a decade your senior and previously mated, and I have no intention to abandon the Pack. You are I cannot be together, now or in some imaginary future."

"Ethan is a bully."

"Even your friends-"

"They meant no harm, and if you hadn't said your age, which you had every reason to do, don't get me wrong, they would never have known." I ran a hand through my hair. It drove me insane that she wouldn't understand how wonderful she was, how much I wanted to be with her. Who cared about her age? We could both die tomorrow or live for a two hundred years.

I calmed myself. Ava wasn't going to respond to protestations of love. I think she did know, or at least was starting to realize, how much I loved her. The problem seemed to be more about the daily realities.

"We have been apart for so long," I said calmly, trying not to stare openly at her as she stood there in the starlight like Luna herself-better than Luna, in fact, who was just some amalgam of spirituality, whereas Ava was a living, breathing, thinking woman who inspired everything inside me that was best about myself. I was desperate to hold her and kiss her and make her happy, but I knew I needed to start small.

"We don't know each other as well as we once did, of course," I told her. "But that's just a matter of being together for a while. I know we have many shared interests, and doing them together will build bridges across the gaps between us better than any issue of age ever could."

She smiled gently at me and made a small joke about not getting to dance with me yet and to see if that brought us closer.

We walked back inside together, and to my deep relief we weren't stared at. Just as I exhaled, however, Thomas Barrows made his somewhat squat way over to us, his tuxedo looking fresh off the rack, as always, and his latest arm candy trailing behind like a tall parade float festooned with gold and emeralds. I couldn't help comparing the sight with Ava's stunning dress and tasteful earrings, but then, Ava wasn't living with the knowledge she was going to be disposed of when the next bombshell came along.

"Chris!" Thomas said with a gummy smile. He turned to the woman next to me. "And Ava, I hear? Also from the Moonstone Pack?"

"Yes," she said, shaking his hand while nodding at the eye candy, who only noticed us peripherally before floating over to a small gathering of women who had traded their champagne for martinis. "It's nice to meet you."

Thomas gave his name and explained matter-of-factly he was the CFO of Monocal. There wasn't a trace of self-congratulations in his tone, just reporting, and I was reminded of why I liked him, arm candy fixation or not.

"It's lovely," Ava said, motioning to the general room.

"I'm so happy you like it," Thomas said then winked a twinkling blue eye at me. "Perhaps this will be one of the things you bring back to Wolf Territory, eh?"

He turned to Ava. "We're so pleased to hear Chris is reconnecting with his homeland and want him to know we're happy to help wherever we can."

"Help?" she asked calmly, but I could see the sudden tension in her shoulders. Then she looked at him closely and asked, "Crescent Moon?"

Thomas looked impressed. "I heard you were Acting Luna, and I see it's well-deserved." He gave a little bow. "Indeed, I was an omega slave there, but not one of the lucky ones, if you know what I mean."

"Your alpha was unkind?" she asked, eyes filled with empathy.

Thomas waved his hands and exhaled loudly. "He was a beta at best and determined to use me and the others to show his dominance. We escaped years ago, and now all of us are our living real lives here in the Human World."

"To make CFO you must have had an extensive Human education," she said. I hadn't realized she knew so much about Human matters and said so.

She sent me a wry look. "Improving the education of omega slaves in Moonstone Pack is one of many causes dear to my heart." She looked back at Thomas. "And I have to commend you for doing so well for yourself. And your friends? They are also doing well?"

"Compared to what we were, they could hardly be doing worse," Thomas said, still smiling but with an edge to his voice. "Three of us did a stint at the University of Toronto for our troubles." He paused, then looked at me. "She's just what you need, eh?"

"Need?" I asked.

"To change those outdated werewolf values, like how you treat omegas and women. Time to join the twenty-first century, eh?"

Ava looked at me curiously. "How about it, Chris? Are you thinking of using your position to help improve omega slaves' position in society, at least?" She looked at Thomas. "The previous leader of Moonstone Pack thought it wasn't right for alphas and betas to interfere too much with omega affairs, as if they weren't the ones who caused the state of omega affairs in the first place."

"Was that the unpleasant fellow they just dragged out of here?" Thomas asked, then went on without waiting for a response. "I'm willing to bet that didn't stop you, though. You look like you could take on the Moon herself and come out with nothing more than a fat lip and a gut full of attitude."

Ave laughed then, obviously charmed, and it occurred to me they were meeting on a mutual platform, both refusing to be cowed by their status, social or otherwise.

"I have done what I could," she said. "We have several programs set up to help omega slaves, including a shelter for the abused and a night school program for those who have been forbidden by their alphas to pursue higher education."

"Sounds complicated," he said.

She shrugged and looked a little sly. "Well, if we publicize a course as home economics, there's no reason it can't cover economics more generally, correct?"

Thomas's cheery laugh rang out, and his arm candy floated back with a smile on her face. "This is Geena," he said as she twined an arm around his.

"Lovely to meet you, Geena," I said, and Ava echoed it.

Thomas drew a business card from his pocket and handed it to Ava. "Let me know about your next fund raiser, if you would?"

She took the card with delight and slid it into her little purse. "With pleasure."

"I'm sure, eh?" Thomas asked, then nodded at both of us and took his arm candy, that is, Geena toward the dance floor.

Ave and I smiled at each other.

"I do intend to do something about the omega's position in Moonstone Pack," I told her. "But telling you that now makes it sound like what I'm going to say next is connected, and it's not."

She gave me the side-eye. "And what's that?"

"I've been having such a great time with you, I want to have more. Tomorrow, instead of returning to Pack business, I want to go on a real date."

She dropped her eyes, smiling to herself, and I found myself holding my breath again.