On the Outskirts of Manhattan

Ava was an early riser. She seemed to always wake up early and go to bed late, but her body was never tired. She was always energized as long as she kept up her calorie intake, something which proved difficult while running around after a three-year-old.

She woke up with that same three-year-old laying directly on top of her, his face snuggled into the crook of her neck and his legs wrapped around her waist. It wasn't abnormal for it to happen. When Nolan had bad dreams and she let him climb in her bed to sleep, that was how she woke up. But it also wasn't every day that it happened. Although Nolan wanted to be attached to his mother's side, Ava made sure he was an independent little boy who slept in his own bed and made his own decisions—like whether he wanted strawberry ice cream or chocolate.

Disentangling herself carefully from the little boy, she slowly got off the bed and grabbed some clothing. Dawson was still sleeping on the cot beside her bed, so she tiptoed around him and slipped into the bathroom to take a shower before going down to make some breakfast for the male occupants of the house.

The hot water cut off about five minutes into her shower and she had to rinse her hair in what felt like pelting ice, but Ava tried not to think of it as a bad omen for the day. Just because the day didn't start out the best didn't mean the rest of her day was going to go down the drain.

Drying off, the bathroom door burst open. Ava let out a scream, covering her body with the small towel she had been using. Alex stood in the doorway holding Nolan upside down by his ankles and he glared at her.

“Your brat woke me up. Just because I spent one day with him doesn't mean I want to be woken up by this little bugger prying my eyelids open. I swear to God I'll rip his fingers off,” he growled.

Nolan scrambled to look at his mother. Tears were pouring out of his eyes and once he saw her, he reached for her.

“Put him down,” Ava growled at the angry man. She grabbed a robe off of the door and put it on. The second Nolan was down on the floor, he scrambled behind his mother. “If you ever touch my son again I will rip your fingers off. If you ever threaten him again, I will rip your tongue out. If you ever do anything to my son that threatens his emotional or physical safety while I'm here, you will find yourself so deep in trouble that you wont know how to get out. Never threaten my family. This is your only warning.”

By the time Dawson made his way to the doorway Ava had everything under control. He knew there was no immediate danger for either Ava or Nolan, but he also knew that Ava wouldn't let Alex get away with treating her son in any way. She had been putting up with Alex growling at her, threatening her, lashing out at her, but the one thing she didn't stand for was anyone attacking her son—either with words or with actions.

Still dripping, Ava scooped her son up and barged passed the two men.

“I'm sorry Mommy!” Nolan cried out as she stomped down the stairs, still holding onto her son, and stomped to the refrigerator.

“I'm making pancakes for you baby,” she told him sweetly. “You didn't do anything wrong.”

“You're stomping,” he reminded her softly.

“Sorry...” she put him down and made sure to soften her footsteps. She was stomping. That was something she usually had to work on avoiding. Since her pregnancy, and physical alterations, she had noticed that she did everything violently unless she was very careful about her actions.

She couldn't help her anger. She was focusing so much on not stomping when she got to the refrigerator. Just as she went to grab the handle, Alex walked in followed by Dawson.

“What are you doing here?” she sneered, pulling at the door handle to the fridge. There was a loud creaking noise, the sound of something tearing and suddenly Ava held the whole door to the refrigerator in her hand. Ava stared wide-eyed at the door in her hand as things fell off of the shelves and onto the floor. A jar of pickles broke and that broke her out of her daze. She grabbed onto the door with both hands and suctioned the two halves together again. “I owe you a fridge,” she stated calmly.

Alex looked at the condiments and glass spilled all over the floor. The woman had hardly pulled at the door at all. The movement of her arms and muscles hadn't been any harder than his would have been had he simply tugged at it.

“What the hell?” he finally asked.

Nolan sat on his chair, knees pulled up to his chin to keep his feet away from the glass on the floor. It looked like he knew what to do in a situation such as that, as if it weren't exactly a never-before-seen occurrence.

Ava leaned down to pick up pieces of glass from the wood floor and as she picked them up, she slowly started to laugh. Nolan grinned at his mother before joining in on her laughter. Then Dawson joined in and finally, Alex let out a chuckle.

“I can't believe that just happened,” he chuckled out. “That was insane.”

Ava giggled and shook her head. “Who wants pancakes? I'm going to need someone to hold the fridge door.” That started their giggle off again.

***

The pretty blonde stood from her desk within the Council Chambers. She smiled at the people in the waiting area as she passed them and went to the back offices. She counted the doors as she went. Riley's was the third on the right, but she always managed to miss it. She wasn't sure if it was because she was terrified of the old wolf, or if his office just blended in so well.

She knocked once, even though she knew he wasn't in the room, and then she entered. She only had about five minutes of free time before he returned to his office. In that time she needed to find the file on Ava Wilkinson, photocopy it and replace it before Riley noticed.

Since Ava was his favourite wolf—someone he was rather obsessed with, the blonde woman assumed he would check her file constantly, and update it just as frequently. But where would he keep his own, personal file?

She started toward his desk, but as she spun she noticed the door to his bedroom. Curious, she stepped inside. The room had dark walls and bedding with dark, antique furnishings. The way Riley lived was in style, much like a King from several decades earlier. Sitting right on top of his antique night stand was a file marked Confidential. Cracking it open, the woman saw a large profile picture of Ava. It was obviously a candid. Knowing Ava, she wouldn't have allowed Riley to take a profile picture of her for his secret file, let alone one with her smiling. She flipped the page to find Ava's biography printed here. Pleased, she grabbed the file and returned to Riley's office where she photocopied the pages as quickly as she could. As she switched them, several of the sheets fell to the floor. Sighing, she grabbed them all up, put them back in the file in what seemed like the right order and returned the file to Riley's bedside table.

As she was walking down the hall with the photocopied papers folded and clutched in her hands, she passed Riley and Felix.

“It must have been a mistake,” Felix was saying. “I'm sure she said that Alexander was here to see you.”

“It's fine. He was probably on the phone. If he needs to talk to me so badly, he'll make his way here. I'm not catering to his every whim,” Riley smiled at her as she passed by.

She hurried back to her desk, sat down then looked up. “Malcolm? I found the file you were looking for,” she shoved the papers into a new folder and held it out to the man in front of her. “I hope you find what you were looking for in there,” she stated as he took the file.

“I'm sure I will.”

***

Ava was almost bored with the training. It started off as group training. Everyone doing exercises run by Dawson. Noticing Ava's bored demeanour, Dawson got into the more difficult training exercises until he had everyone going for a five mile run. Ava passed everyone without a second thought and then eventually lapped the exhausted men. By the time they all returned to the courtyard, she was sitting on some lawn furniture beside Riley drinking tea and munching on scones. Riley had been born in England, he hadn't given up his afternoon tea for the amount of time Dawson had been with him.

They hadn't spoken about the kiss they had shared the night before. When Ava told Nolan that she was leaving for the day again, he had thrown a fit, crying and saying that “Uncle Alex” didn't like him anymore. It took several minutes—and the help of Jackson promising they could play video games all day—for Ava to be able to leave a happy child behind at the Base.

Once they got to the vehicles, Ava had jumped in the front seat and grinned at him, turning the radio up loud and singing along to every song—even the ones she had never heard before—on the way there. When she parked and turned the music off, they had gone in a secret side entrance since Riley had insisted that people would start to get suspicious if Ava started coming to the Council Chambers regularly. Everyone who worked there knew that Ava hated the place and detested going there and Riley didn't want even his staff to know what was up. Anything concerning Ava was on a need-to-know basis.

Dawson watched as Ava sat calmly, eating her scones and laughing at Riley. He was leaning toward her, telling what seemed to be an exciting story, and Ava simply laughed and threw out suggestions. It was then that Dawson got the idea of a surprise attack. He knew he couldn't hold back too much. He'd stop just before a killing blow, but he knew that she needed to be prepared for it. Swiftly, he changed into his wolf form, marked her as prey in his wolf's mind, and then started to sneak up on her.

He didn't make a noise as he moved, and his men knew not to give anything away. They simply went on with their easy chatter and stretching after the run.

He noticed her head move slightly just as he got behind her. As he leaped to pounce on her, he watched her flawless transformation as she launched out of the chair. He had to admit that it was quite the sight to see. She was marvellous at transforming. It took wolves several decades to become that good at transforming, and Ava seemed like she had been doing it for centuries. He had the time to wonder if it was part of her physical alterations when she launched at him, pushing him to the ground.

He rolled, growling at her and nipping at her skin. She growled back, just as dominant and for the first time he felt her wolf coming forth. He had never really witnessed it before. When she had been fighting with Logan, he had been far enough away not to be affected by her body's strange outward display of emotions that everyone seemed to feel.

Her wolf growled at him, warning him to back off or she'd rip his head off. He used that, barking at her and nipping at her arm. That set her off. She leaped back and growled at him, moving to lunge at him when another wolf jumped at her, pushing her over. She growled again and threw the wolf off of her. By then another wolf was attacking her and Dawson sat back as his men attacked her with their full power. And she pushed them off, yelping at some points, but attacking back just as ferociously. She had thrown several into walls and caused damage with her claws to even more until eventually Dawson lunged back into the fight. He would want her on his tactile team if it hadn't been for Riley keeping her to himself. She would have been an amazing addition.

A few wolves pressed into him, aiming for their attack on the girl. They all knew that this was a promotion opportunity. Both their trainer and one of the Councilmen were watching them. Riley stood there in his human form, observing the fighting, noting which wolves did what, and how Ava handled the situation. She held her own, although many of the wolves got in several bites and scratches on her body.

There was a loud growl as several wolves launched onto her at once, and then they were suddenly thrown off seconds later, slamming into the wall closest to them and into the hard earth only meters away.

Ava was panting hard when Dawson jumped on her. Her fur was standing on end, her body trembling with how angry her wolf was. Dawson bit at the back of her neck. She let out a bark of outrage and before Dawson knew it she had him pinned to the ground, teeth around his neck. Everyone stopped moving as she struggled to control herself. She was panting, his throat tight within the grip of her jaws. It took about a minute, but she pulled away, whimpered, and then trotted over to Riley, sitting down at his side like a loyal servant. Well, at least she would have looked like a loyal servant if she hadn't been sitting in front of him and had an air of authority over her, daring anyone else to attack her. It was as if she was wishing someone would so that she could rip them to shreds.

“That was excellent Dawson,” Riley stated. “Next time, though, I hope you'd get more of an advantage in there instead of watching her work. You are the most powerful guard here. Act like it. Ava, come with me. I'll grab you some clothing and we can further discuss your idea of having general meetings for the public,” he rubbed Ava's black wolf's ears but she growled at him, still angry, and trotted ahead of him to the door. She was never going to let Riley think that he was her superior. And Dawson knew she was going to be mad at him if he followed her. He waited for her to leave then told the group to transform back and report to Caroline if they were injured. He had a few injuries of his own, but he simply went back to his room to sleep it off. It had been a long couple of days.

***

It didn't take long for the file to be delivered to Ryder. Several minutes after Malcolm obtained it from the woman in the Council's Chambers, he was back at headquarters to deposit it to his master.

Ryder grinned at him. Malcolm was still in his wolf form, panting, but holding the file securely in his teeth. He dropped it on the ground and nuzzled into Ryder's hand. He was a wolf at the moment, wolf mentality, so he definitely enjoyed the grooming his master was giving him.

Ryder patted the brown wolf's head a few times, then bent to pick up the parcel. “You're dismissed,” he stated, making his way behind his desk, already starting in on the file. The papers were out of order, but he assumed that was done in haste, and he could get over it.

The file was indeed updated passed the time Ava had left the werewolf community. It had her address in the city,; her career: yoga instructor; how much she was paid; who her friends were; who her boss was; what she did on every day of the week; and finally, the name of her son: Nolan. He was three years old, born in early spring—April 7th. He wasn't yet old enough to go to school, but their neighbour took care of him while his mother was working. He enjoyed grilled cheese sandwiches, baking, reading and his mother. He wasn't very trusting, but would warm up to talk about his mother. He was the sole person in the world that Ava would do anything for.

Ryder grinned at the knowledge. He would read more into her life, but he knew what he had to do. “Malcolm?!” he called out.

“Yes sir?” He strode back in wearing appropriate clothing and with his hair still dishevelled from the run.

“I need you to organize a group of five men. They need to be stealthy, strong, good looking, and charming. We're going to kidnap Ava's son.”