Chapter 18
THE SEPARATION FROM MAX was unbearable. He was in the same room as Ava, but he wasn’t allowed to sit by her. He couldn’t touch her and reassure her with his warmth, with the spark of magic that passed between the two of them through the Moon. She was sitting on a cold metal chair in front of everyone, facing them for the moment. The familiar faces of shifters in the room were her only comfort—Max offering the most comfort out of everyone. Blue Pack had been good to Ava, and they continued to be, but Max loved her. She could see the pain and torture in his eyes, matching hers. The distance between them was so short. They bridged it with the looks they exchanged, but they couldn’t close the gap physically until the trial was over. Maybe not even after that.
Ava shivered and wrapped her arms around herself. This room was the most impersonal out of the rooms she had glimpsed inside of Trinity Headquarters. Their suite used wood along with the cold metal to make it more inviting, but this room was meant to be cold. There weren’t any windows, so it didn’t have the added benefit of natural light. It was all hard edges and artificial lights. It was a courtroom of some sort. There was a podium behind her that she would have to face as soon as the Celestial Alphas arrived.
What would the Celestial Alphas decide? Ava scanned the room again, starting with Max, her mate, her love. He would fight for her freedom. He would do anything to protect her. Nick had vowed to watch over her too, his mate Gwen, Willow, and Derek. They were all warm wolves. Kind. She felt safe with them, but there was one shifter here from Moonwatch she wasn’t sure about. Cedric. She heard he wanted to help, but she avoided him since they got on the jet to fly here. But there was something different about him now. He wasn’t looking at her and casting judgment with the golden-eyed stare of his bird. His eyes were hazel. He caught her observing him as she looked over the room and gave a slight nod of his head. Somehow, it was reassuring.
Ava looked back at her mate. She said she wanted to atone for everything she had done. That was true, but she wanted to be able to return to Max in the end. He was her everything. As long as he was waiting for her, she could make it through this.
Ava jumped when the metal door located in front of her, and to everyone else’s back, clicked open. She had been waiting for it, expecting the Celestial Alphas, but now that it was happening, she wanted to fidget with her fingers. She wanted to dig into her fingertips and bleed. Distract. Feel or not feel. She wasn’t sure anymore. She took a calming breath, forced her hands into her lap, and willed herself to stay strong for Max. If she couldn’t do it for herself, she could do it for him.
Bruiser held the door open for the Celestial Alphas as they entered the room one at a time. The first to enter the room was a woman with the perfect hourglass-shape, similar to Willow. Unlike Willow, she was much more petite, thinner bones, fingers so fine they would snap like twigs. She was elegant. The heels of her close-toed dress shoes guiding the sway of her hips. Her skin was flawless and fair. Her red hair was tied up into a bun, aside from her bangs, and she wore horn-rimmed glasses that matched the plum color of her tailored skirt and jacket. Ava wasn’t sure if it was a fashion statement or if she needed them. She had yet to meet a shifter who needed glasses. Her coiffed bangs concealed most of her forehead.
The second to enter the room was a woman built much like Ava. She was petite, thin boned. Her skin was fair as well with a perfect dusting of freckles on her face. Her brown hair was cut into a bob. Her big green eyes were the focal point of her face next to the soft smile on her plump lips. She wore a tailored skirt and jacket like the first, but they were a modest tan color, and she wore flats instead of heels. She held out her hand for a big man coming in from behind her. His hand totally eclipsed hers. He was big like Bruiser, brown skin, and short black hair. His eyes were dark, too. He was dressed in a t-shirt and jeans, ridiculously casual for the occasion. His muscles pressed against the thin fabric of his t-shirt, outlining the hard ridges of his torso for all to see.
Ava thought that was it, but there was still one more shifter who walked in. He was wearing a black suit, and he was what Ava could only describe as kingly. He held his head high like he owned the world. His physique was just as impressive as the other man’s, but he was somehow more streamlined and graceful. His skin was dark with nearly buzzed to the scalp textured hair and sharp eyes to match. He was the first to look Ava’s way. His eyes shimmered and sizzled with an instant of blinding brightness. Ava blinked hard to clear the brightness from her vision, but it left spots like any time she had accidentally gotten too close to looking directly at the sun.
The woman in the plum colored skirt and jacket was the first to reach the podium. The petite woman with big green eyes and the giant man holding her hand held up the kingly man when the petite woman reached up on her tiptoes and her giant man bent down to kiss her lips in the fastest kiss Ava had ever seen. The fragile woman and the gentle giant. Ava understood why they cut their kiss short when the kingly man behind them rolled his eyes in irritation.
Ava badly wanted to kiss Max. She looked at her mate. He and everyone else were watching these shifters, but he somehow felt her eyes, because he looked her way and then held her gaze. Ava gave him the smallest of smiles, and he graced her with a smile in return, settling her nerves.
The man dressed in casual clothes took a seat at the back of the room while his petite lady and the kingly man took their seats behind the podium.
“Stand and face us so we can get started,” the woman in the plum colored suit announced.
Ava did as she was told. She stood, turned around to face the Celestial Alphas, and clasped her hands in front of her to keep from fidgeting. She didn’t know what she had expected them to be like, but she certainly hadn’t expected one so frail looking and petite as the green-eyed woman to qualify. In fact, they all seemed quite young to be these wise Celestial Alphas. But Ava knew a little about that. The Circle got a good hit on Trinity about twelve years ago. Beatrice said something about it once, but she didn’t know details. Whatever happened, it hadn’t crippled Trinity, so Beatrice still had the shifter alliance and the Circle to worry about—which was all she cared about.
“Introductions,” the curvy woman continued, all business like her attire suggested. “I am Viktoriya Petrov, Moon Alpha.” Her voice carried the slightest hint of a Russian accent.
“Rei Takeuchi,” the green-eyed one said as she raised her hand. “Earth Alpha.” She also had an accent, though hers was thicker. Japanese.
“I am Samson Read,” the kingly man said with a slight tilt of his chin maybe to show off his station or his ridiculously strong jaw. “Sun Alpha.” If Samson had an accent, it wasn’t one Ava could detect. He probably grew up somewhere in the United States she figured—unlike the other two.
“And you?” Viktoriya said with her hand outstretched to Ava.
“A-Ava. Ava Black… Though that last name was given to me by Beatrice Black, and I have no desire to keep it.” She snuck a glance at Max over her shoulder. “I want to take my mate’s last name.”
“And your first name?”
“The name I gave myself.”
Viktoriya nodded. She had ice blue eyes that chilled Ava to her bones. “And why are you here?”
Ava took another deep breath. She thought of Max sitting just behind her, cheering her on. “I’m here because I did many terrible things to shifters under Beatrice. I stole shifter souls, and Beatrice sold those shifters to collectors, I accept any punishment you give me.”
“How did you and Beatrice meet? Why were you with her?”
Ava went through all the details of her life for the third time. First with Max, then with Nick, Gwen, Cedric and now with the Celestial Trinity. It was getting easier to tell. She was more confident.
“These shifters from Moonwatch say you saved them. Tell me what happened,” Viktoriya continued, as cold and dispassionate as before.
Ava relayed that story as well, in complete honesty and humiliation. She gave credit to the broken wolf she held inside of her for being able to best Beatrice in the end.
“I understand you have a Lunas Sigil.” Viktoriya was the one running the show. The other two watched on in complete silence as she asked all the questions.
“Yes,” Ava replied.
“Show it to us.”
Ava blushed, and a chair screeched behind her. She looked over her shoulder again to see Max standing with his chair toppled over behind him. His eyes were orange and wild.
“Are you her mate?” Viktoriya asked, completely unaffected.
“Yes,” Max answered with a growl in his voice and a snarl on his lips.
“Let us do our job, and sit back down,” Samson ordered, the crackling heat in his eyes flaring up again, white-hot and blinding.
Nick had barely righted Max’s chair when Max slammed back down into his seat like invisible hands had grabbed him and pulled him down. He was clenching his fists, and an angry vein was popping out of his forehead. He was trying to fight whatever had come over him but to no avail. Nick and the others looked alarmed, but even the Alpha of Blue Pack cowered under the force of this power.
“Samson,” Viktoriya chastised with a small growl of her own. “Stop.”
With an indifferent flick of his head, Samson’s eyes returned to normal and Max doubled over in his chair.
“Please don’t hurt him!” Ava pleaded, tears beading in her eyes. “I’ll do anything.”
“We’re not going to hurt anyone,” Rei said gently. She was soft unlike the other two, caring. It was something that shined in her eyes.
“I only wish to confirm your mark,” Viktoriya said. “Yours, Ava, and your mate’s.” She left the podium and stood in front of Ava. She beckoned Max forward.
As soon as Max was at her side, Ava couldn’t help but smile at his warmth radiating into her. She grabbed his hand and squeezed, trying to reassure him. She looked him over carefully too, hoping whatever Samson did hadn’t hurt him. Whatever it was, it only had its effect in the moment and a few seconds after. Max seemed fine now. He squeezed her hand back as if to affirm her assessment.
“I’ll be quick,” Viktoriya said. She held her hand over Ava as if she would touch her, but she never made contact. She seemed to be feeling her through the air. She stopped when she got to Ava’s left thigh. “Not an easy place to show your mark without stripping, I see,” Viktoriya said absentmindedly.
Ava blinked in surprise. There was a soft shine peeking through Viktoriya’s bangs, a mark on her skin that seemed to glow. It looked oddly like Ava’s Lunas Sigil, based on what she could see. Then the Moon Alpha’s hair rose like the Lunas Sigil on her forehead was creating a breeze, revealing it and the soft glow it was producing. Ava’s own mark seemed to react. She felt a tingling in her skin where Viktoriya’s hand hovered over her Lunas Sigil. Viktoriya did the same thing to Max, but she went to his right thigh immediately. Max tensed, but he held still. He probably felt the tingling, too.
“Thank you. You may stay here with your mate if you please, wolf,” Viktoriya said as she left to stand once again at the podium. The mark on her forehead seemed to disappear completely.
“She’s bold,” Samson said with a lazy grin.
“She is humble,” Rei added.
“She saved a wolf pack and any other shifter who would have been targeted by Beatrice in the future. She took action for her past mistakes by making sure they would not be repeated in the future. Correct, Blue Pack Alpha?”
“Yes,” Nick replied without hesitation.
“But we have a problem,” the Moon Alpha continued. “Correcting the wrongs of the past isn’t something that can be solved by what you’ve done to right them. You are powerful in Black Magic.”
“Nothing good comes of Black Magic, right Vicky?” Samson said with a hard glare at the Moon Alpha who wouldn’t turn around to look him in the eye.
“I’ll do anything,” Ava repeated.
“You’ll even allow us to lock you away?” Samson asked.
“Yes.”
Max’s grip on her hand tightened. She knew how much it would hurt her mate if they were separated. It would hurt her too, but she had to take responsibility for the past. She had to do whatever was best for Max, and that didn’t include running from this. She was tired of being kept in the shadows. She wanted a chance to walk in the sun.
Samson grinned, but Rei lightly shook her head. “We aren’t locking you away. It does no one any good,” the Earth Alpha clarified. “You’ll be assigned to one of our White Witches. You’ll learn everything you can about White Magic and assist our witch in whatever assignments given to them by Trinity”
“And you’ll take a vow to never again use Black Magic,” Samson added.
“As he said,” Viktoriya agreed, her voice much quieter.
“Say what you think, Viktoriya,” Rei encouraged.
Viktoriya collected herself, resuming her calm business aura. “I think we should have Ava teach our witches Black Magic. She used it in that fight against Beatrice, and yet we can all sense the light in her heart. White Magic is a passive, defensive kind of magic. Black Magic is destructive, but it’s also offensive, a weapon. It could be useful.”
“No!” Samson roared, a loud, bone-shaking sound. “That is going too far, vixen.” There was venom in his words. “You know very well what Black Magic does. It destroys.”
“I don’t like Black Magic either. I never want to use it again,” Ava said. She was surprised she found the courage to speak up with all these scary alphas threatening to shake down the building—mainly Samson.
“But why would we need destructive magic?” Rei asked.
Viktoriya replied, “We need the power to stand against the Circle. They’re getting stronger, bolder, more dangerous. And we have no idea what they’re doing. We know they seek power. We know they want to attain godhood. We haven’t been able to make any progress concerning them. We don’t know their stronghold. We don’t know how they’re pursuing their goal or what kind of power they’ve unlocked. What if they bring the apocalypse and we don’t have the power to stop them? Ava could experiment with the witch we assign her. That witch will teach her White Magic, and she will teach Black Magic. If it becomes too dangerous or gets out of hand, we put a stop to it. It is that simple.” She turned her gaze to Ava. Her icy blue eyes were glossy, full of emotion that broke her previously cold aura. “You’ll see that won’t happen, though. Ava will keep her light, and she’ll command the dark.”
“I’m against it,” Samson stated.
“I am also against it,” Rei said. “I’m sorry, Vicky, but Black Magic can’t become part of Trinity.”
“Then it’s settled,” Viktoriya concluded, defeated.
Samson took over. He stood up and relieved Viktoriya of her position at the podium. “Ava will be assigned to stay here at Trinity Headquarters for a solid month to train under one of our witches in White Magic. Her mate can stay here too, of course. All of you can if you wish, but I’m sure the Blue Pack Alpha will want to return to his pack. After that month is up, Ava should know the basics of White Magic and be ready for missions. She will be allowed to return to Moonwatch, but she will be on call for whatever assignments or training arise after that. Indefinitely. What she did to hurt shifters in the past will be righted as she helps shifters from this day on. Is this acceptable, Blue Pack Alpha?”
“Ava?” Nick asked. “How do you feel about this?”
“I want to do it,” she said resolutely. It sounded like the perfect way to atone for her sins. Finally, she could leave the darkness behind.
“Then it’s acceptable.”
“Cedric?” Samson addressed. “You were a victim. Is this acceptable?”
“Yes,” Cedric replied without hesitation. Ava couldn’t believe it.
“Welcome to Trinity, Ava,” Samson said, his tone soft. “From this day on, you are one of us. You are under our protection, and we are under yours. Keep your family safe.”
“Thank you,” Ava said with a slight bow of her head. Family. She liked the sound of that.
Ava could feel tension seeping into her from Max. He was grinding his teeth together, doing his best to stay calm. He didn’t like this one bit.
“Max,” she whispered, “it really is okay. You even get to stay here with me. It couldn’t be better.”
He softened at her words, his eyes returning to their normal blue. But he looked sad. “If you’re sure, Ava. Being at Trinity’s disposal for the rest of your life is a long time.”
“I’m sure. Besides, you’ll be here to protect me, right?”
“Always.”
“Dismissed,” Samson announced.
The courtroom came alive with the shifters standing, talking, and some making their way to the exit. Ava wanted to take Max back to their suite to celebrate or something. But her eyes went to Vicky. Why was she so adamant about Ava continuing to practice Black Magic while having light at her core, while being good?
Max lifted Ava up into his arms and spun her around. She laughed and grabbed hold of him in return. She gave him a big hug when he set her back down on her feet.
“God, I’m glad that’s over,” he said. “I thought my wolf was going to rip out and tear everyone to shreds. But that Sun Alpha put him right in his place. Good thing I guess.” He grimaced. “I could have screwed this up for you.”
“Never,” Ava smiled and tapped his nose with her finger. “I’m excited, Max. I’m going to learn so much about White Magic.”
“Excited? You mean it?”
She nodded her head vigorously. “I need to ask the Moon Alpha something before we leave.”
Ava quickly spun around before her lovely mate could distract her again. She darted for Viktoriya just as she was about to leave the room. She grabbed her purple jacket on impulse to get her to stop. Viktoriya raised an eyebrow at her, she stopped and turned to face her.
“Yes?” she asked.
“Why Black Magic?” Ava asked in return. “Why did you… why do you want to prove I’m,” Ava touched her chest, “light and can control darkness?”
“You remind me of someone very dear to me. It’s a long story but to tell it simply, he was shunned because of his Black Magic.” She tilted her chin up to the ceiling and blinked a couple times like she was holding back tears. “I shunned him. I cursed him. He wasn’t evil. He wasn’t bad. But I pushed him away regardless. I didn’t trust him or stand by him when I should have. I may never have a chance to make up for it, but I’ll be damned if I make the same mistake twice.” She gave a sad smile. “That is why.”
Ava was speechless. She didn’t know what to say, or if she should say goodbye. She stood silently, cemented in place, as she watched Viktoriya take her leave.
“I wonder what the whole story is,” Max said from behind her.
Ava shook her head. “Maybe one day she’ll tell us.”
“Ava, I’m leaving Derek and Willow here with you and Max,” Nick announced. He was leaning against a wall with his arms folded, Gwen at his side. “I need to get back to Blue Pack to renew Pack Vows, but we’re going to join forces with Trinity, too. You’re welcome in Blue Pack anytime.” He grinned. “Maybe you’ll make Moonwatch your home.”
“Thank you, Alpha. I know Max loves your pack. He wants to pledge to you as his Alpha. Moonwatch already feels like home.”
“Really?” Nick asked.
Max chuckled. “Yeah. I’ve made my peace. I’m a wolf and a wolf needs a pack, right? I want Blue Pack.”
“Glad to have you then.” Nick nodded his head in approval. “Both of you. When your month sentence is up, you can pledge with the rest of the pack on the next Full Moon. Not sure how that’ll affect you or if it will, Ava, but you should come for the pledge, too. You’re still our packmate.”
“Thank you,” Ava said with another little bow of her head. Her heart was squeezing. She was welcomed into two families. Two! She wasn’t sure she could feel any happier. She never knew what belonging was, but this was it. With these shifters. And apparently witches, too. She was going to spend a month learning White Magic under one. She never thought this would be happening. She never thought her life would be this good. Her punishment wasn’t a punishment at all. She wanted to learn White Magic. She wanted to continue to help shifters and pay for what she had done. It couldn’t have been any better, and she knew, at that moment, that she would have gone through all the pain she went through before again if it always led her back here.
“Glad to have you, packmate!” Willow exclaimed as she jumped at Ava and gave her a bear hug that almost pushed her off her feet. Willow whispered in her ear, “And thanks for getting me and my mate into this fancy building. You have to check out their pool with Max later, Ava. Have to.”
“Remember to actually learn more about Trinity and keep me updated while you stay,” Nick said dryly. “You’re not here to play around. You’re here as my Beta.”
“I know, Nicky,” she teased. “But a girl can have a little fun alongside all this official business junk.”
Ava laughed at the two of them and eased into Max’s side, bracing herself against him and hugging him tight. She let her eyes drift to Cedric, daring to look at him. He gave her a slight nod. His eyes were soft, his owl tucked away. He didn’t seem to have any words for her, and she wouldn’t force it. She understood. He came here to support her, and she was moved by that. After what she had done to him, she wouldn’t have blamed him if he had hated her for the rest of her life. She wasn’t foolish enough to think he liked her now, but she was sure he didn’t hate her. That was more than she could ask for.
“When you’re done in here, I can get you set up with Josh. He’ll be the best teacher for you, Ava,” Bruiser said, making his presence known. He was the last Trinity Shifter still standing in the room.
“Do I get to come?” Max asked protectively.
Bruiser shrugged. “Sure, man. It’s probably going to be boring as hell, but do what you want.”
Ava giggled when Max went all growly. He always did that when he was protecting her, when he was making sure everyone else knew he would protect her. He was the best, and she loved all of him. Wild Wolf included. Her life started with him, and this was the start of her journey.