Chapter 50

Ava

My lips were still tingling from the searing intensity of Chris’s kiss when the harsh sound of the door creaking open shattered the blissful haze surrounding us. We broke apart with wide eyes, our heads swiveling in unison toward the figure now standing frozen in the open doorway.

Olivia. Her mouth hung open, her eyes wide and unblinking as they flickered between the two of us.

For a long, suspended moment, nobody moved or said a word. Nobody even seemed to breathe. Then, as if snapping out of a trance, Olivia surged forward with a feral snarl—her delicate features twisted into a mask of fury.

“You scheming little bitch!” she screeched, raising one pale, perfectly-manicured hand as she closed the distance separating us.

It happened so fast, I scarcely had time to react. One moment I was held safely in Chris’s arms, and the next... scorching agony blossomed across my scalp as Olivia’s vice-like fingers tangled in my hair and wrenched my head back with brutal force.

I couldn’t muffle the startled cry that tore from my throat as an array of white-hot sparks danced across my vision. Losing my footing, I crumpled gracelessly to the floor in a tangle of limbs—one hand coming up to clutch at my throbbing scalp while the other instinctively shielded my face.

“Are you out of your damn mind?” Chris’s voice boomed out, swiftly cutting through the haze of pain and shock that was engulfing me.

I peeled my eyes open just in time to see him roughly shove Olivia away, causing her to stagger back several paces with a startled gasp. In one fluid motion, he dropped to a crouch beside me and gently pried my fingers away so he could inspect my injury.

“She deserves it!” Olivia’s shrill voice cried out from somewhere behind him. I winced as the sound pierced straight through my already-aching skull. “After everything she’s done to take advantage of you, to destroy this pack! And now she’s seducing you into rejecting a perfectly good woman!”

Chris seemed to stiffen at her accusation. For several tense moments, he merely remained crouched there in silence, gently cradling my head in his hands as if to shield me. When he finally spoke, his teeth were grit so tightly I thought he might break one.

“Ava had nothing to do with my decision to reject Lily,” he said in a low, dangerous tone without turning around to look at his sister. “That was my choice and mine alone. I simply don’t have romantic feelings for her, and I won’t enter into a loveless, political marriage out of obligation.”

Clenching her fists at her sides, Olivia seemed to swell with anger. “Is that what she told you?” she sneered derisively. “That little witch has been manipulating you from the start with her seductions! Can’t you see she’s only after one thing—taking everything that’s rightfully ours away from this family?”

I opened my mouth to speak, but there was still so much pain that no words would come. Noticing this, Chris gently shook his head and gripped my hands. “Come on. Let’s get you out of here.”

Gently and slowly, with my head still reeling, Chris helped me to my feet. He looped his arm protectively around my waist as he lifted his piercing gaze to meet his sister’s.

“You’ve got it all wrong, Olivia,” he said. “All my feelings for Ava, all the choices I’ve made... they’re mine and mine alone. You have to know that any chance at a future with Lily was never going to happen. Not when my heart already belongs to someone else.”

If anything, his soft-spoken declaration only served to further inflame Olivia’s fury. She bared her teeth in a wordless snarl, completely ignoring the placating hand Chris extended towards her as she stalked another step closer.

“You’re willing to abandon your duties and obligations—to your pack, to our family legacy—for... for what?” She gestured wildly in my direction. “For that old hag who isn’t good for anything except baking bread and doing farm work?”

My chest constricted painfully at her vicious words. Unconsciously, my fingers curled into a fist at my side. I felt my shoulder tremble slightly.

Hag.

Was that what I was, now that I was in my mid-thirties? Nothing more than a hag, a wretched lump of a woman who could never feel love, never experience, well… the pleasures of sex, for Goddess’ sake? Was I just an old maid now, forever doomed to being alone now that younger, more beautiful women stood in my way?

Seeming to sense my rising hurt, Chris angled himself slightly in front of me—an outright protective barrier shielding me from Olivia’s words.

“That’s enough!” he thundered, his sudden shout making his sister visibly recoil a step back. “I don’t expect you to understand or accept my choices, Olivia. They’re mine and I have to live with the consequences, whatever those may be.”

He paused then, carefully considering his next words before continuing. “But know this: Ava is the woman I love. The one I want to spend my life with, even... even if that means leaving this place behind forever.”

Olivia’s face went pale, ashen, as though she had just lost all of her blood. Her mouth worked silently, seemingly unable to formulate any sort of coherent response. Perhaps sensing she was fighting a losing battle, she wheeled on me instead—her pretty features contorting into another one of her signature ugly sneers.

“Of course you’ve wormed your way into his heart, you manipulative old witch,” she spat venomously. “You couldn’t manipulate Ethan because he found you so repulsive, so you went for my younger and more naive brother. Was this your goal? To steal everything from me? My pack, my status, my own blood?”

My entire body went rigid at the mention of Ethan’s name, mixed with that word: repulsive.

Repulsive. Hag. Witch.

I couldn’t be here anymore. Chris said something, but I didn’t hear it; the words sounded far away, as if I had ducked my head underwater, only the water muffling all sound was instead the blood rushing through my ears.

No, I couldn’t hear, but I could still feel; I could still feel the tears streaming down my cheeks, the pain and fresh blood on my scalp where Olivia had pulled my hair, the sweet burn of Chris’s lips against mine having turned into a sour tang.

And through the tears, I could still see the sneer on Olivia’s face—the way her mouth curled when she said that word again.

“Hag.”

Whatever happened next, I didn’t care. I had to get out of here. I didn’t know where I had to go, or how far I had to go, but I knew that I needed to get as far as possible—and I needed to be alone, where no one could see me cry.

Without waiting for even one more moment, I whirled on my heel, wrenched myself free from Chris’s grasp, and burst out of the room. Only then, as I tore down the hallway, did sound finally return to me.

“Run, you old bitch!” Olivia’s shrill voice called after me. “Cry, for all I care!”