On the Outskirts of Manhattan

Once Riley was satisfied that Alex was sitting in his proper place and Ava was out of the building so that any remaining small-time rogues wouldn't feel intimidated by her presence—because he was positive her mere presence had increased in its power since the last time she had been within a group of wolves—he allowed the stray wolves back inside to choose their potential leaders.

The idea was that any rogue could choose any Alpha male to be their leader and join their pack, but the Alpha had the ability to refuse the wolf entry into his pack. There was also the relatively rare occasion when a dominant wolf chose to take over another pack. The dominant wolf would choose an Alpha that appeared to be less dominant than he and would ask the Alpha to step down. In the even that the Alpha refused to revoke his place as Alpha, a fight ensued until one wolf gave up or died.

There was a particularly handsome wolf in the rogue group that Riley was keeping his eye on. There were girls swooning over him, yet the young man seemed to ignore them in favour of perking his ears up in the direction that Ava had left in. Riley, always concerned about his favourite wolf, narrowed his eyes at the man who stared levelly back at him upon noticing his stare. Riley knew he had no need for concern. Ava's dominance overpowered everyone in the room, and had overpowered them since her physical improvements before the birth of her son. Ava thought it was the after effects of such a dominant wolf being pregnant, but Riley knew the truth. With the amount of power that Ava portrayed, anyone would be curious, and everyone was...however, the one boy was a bit too interested for Riley's tastes.

“Next we'll be calling forward Ryder Davidson,” Luther called. He was looking down at a list of names. The man Riley had his eye on stepped forward. The boy was strong, that much could be told. Handsome, strong and appealing to powerful Alphas. Those Alphas that were less powerful tried to look casual, however it was each of them that Ryder turned to. Finally, probably the smallest pack's leader, Malcolm, caught his attention. Most people wanted to be in a large pack, with an extremely dominant Alpha; Ryder, it appeared, wanted to take over a pack; no matter how he got it.

“Yours.” Ryder said. Malcolm looked at Ryder, looked at the Council, then simply got off his chair. It was evident that the Alpha wasn't going to fight for his position, something Riley considered unnatural for an Alpha. Even though Ryder was joining a small pack, he hoped that the new wolf at least taught them to fight instead of stepping down like their last leader did. After that, many of the women chose to go into the new Alpha's pack, and many of the interested and dominant men decided to join Alex's pack. Riley gave himself a mental note to check up on Ava every few days. He couldn't leave his prized possession out in the wild without a simple reminder to her pack mates that she was his, even if she didn't know it yet.

***

“Momma?” Nolan rubbed his eyes tiredly as Ava shoved clothing and toys into several suitcases. “What you doin'?” He enjoyed watching his mother. She was, of course, the most beautiful person in the world to him; always there to protect him and keep him safe, and when she was a wolf, she was so soft and comfortable and fierce. It was like she'd never let anything bad happen to him. She was beautiful, and his and no one else's. As he stood there with his stuffed black wolf, a plush version of his mother, he watched her move. She was always so graceful and perfect. She never fell down and hurt herself, never took a faulty step and she seemed to always know where he was to stop him from getting hurt or from someone running into him. She was perfect, that was all there was to it; and Nolan was clumsy and silly and little and, he understood from his mother that that was what made him perfect too.

“Yeah baby?” she asked softly, turning and caressing his face softly.

“Why are you doin' wif my stuff?” he asked, his baby lisp still prominent.

“With Nolan. Try and say the words properly. You're a big boy,” Ava told him. “I'm packing important stuff up because we're going away for a bit. We're going to live in a house just outside the city with a whole community of people.”

“What's a...a...come unity?” Nolan asked, moving closer to his mother when the friendly man who had followed them to their apartment chuckled softly. Nolan liked the look of the man. He seemed strong and protective, just like his mother. Not only that, but the man seemed to be protective of his mother, something Nolan had never seen before. His mother always took care of herself and others. He also liked the protective man's hair because it was so fun to touch, and the man's eyes, because they were the same colour as his—green. His mother had pretty blue eyes, and they were often the first thing Nolan saw when he looked at his mother. Nolan decided he liked the guy, even if he felt suddenly shy around him.

“A community is when a whole group of people live close together to know each other. Like this building is a community. You know Mrs. Myers across the hall and Sarah and the twins a few doors down,” Ava explained.

Nolan turned his attention back to his mother quickly when he noticed the man smiling at him. He hugged his mother's leg as she folded his sheets and stuffed them into a large bag. “We're coming back right? You said I could go to Josh and Emma's house on Tuesday!” Nolan whined.

“Yeah, we'll be back on Tuesday. I said you could go, didn't I?” Ava turned quickly, plucked the boy off the floor and grabbed several bags in her hands to lead to the front door where only seconds later, a knock came.

Dawson was beside the door in seconds, listening and looking out the peephole suspiciously. Ava simply turned the knob, and before she could have possibly seen anyone, spoke up “Hi Emma, what's up?” She let the little girl waddle into the room with three muffins on a plate and a piece of paper clasped in her hand.

“Mommy made us these!” Emma said excitedly just as a little boy came running through the still-open door.

“Excellent, have a seat. I'll get you guys some milk,” Ava put Nolan down on a small table as the children crowded around it, already taking the muffin cups off the base of the muffins.

Dawson was just closing the door as Ava set three glasses of milk in front of the kids when suddenly a tall, slightly heavy woman stepped through the door. She seemed humble, and wore an apron around her waist. “Hi Ava, I hope this is okay?” She turned when Dawson started to close the door. “Oh! You have company, I'm so sorry. We can leave.”

“No, let them stay and finish their muffins. Nolan and I are going to the cottage for awhile, but he'll be here Tuesday for the play date. Can you watch them while I bring all this stuff to the car?” Ava grabbed all her bags off the floor along with Nolan's and was heading toward the door when Nolan burst into tears.

“No Mommy! Don't leave!” Someone knocked on the door again, Ava rolled her eyes and opened it.

“Glad you're here Alex,” she stated sarcastically, kicking the door open the rest of the way.

“I knew you missed me,” he replied just as contemptuous. His grin faltered when he saw the large pile of stuff Ava was holding. “How are you doing that?” he questioned. Momentarily stunned by the woman's ability to hold all of it, his cocky demeanour faltered as he grabbed some of the things from her hands. The woman quickly took the opportunity to pick up her son, kiss his face and assure him that she would be back in two minutes before putting him back down, grabbing the things back from the man in front of her and waltzing out the door.

“Who are you?” Nolan questioned, quickly wiping his face of tears and walking over to Dawson to hold onto his leg as he stared at the new man.

Alex looked from Dawson then down to the kid clinging to the other man's leg. “Who are you?”

“Mommy says you shouldn't answer a question with a question,” the little girl at the table piped up at the same time the little boy exclaimed, “I'm Nolan!” with a huge grin.

“He's Ava's son,” Dawson explained.

“Wait, I wasn't told that I'd be taking on a kid too,” Alex growled and ran his fingers through his hair. “This is ridiculous.”

“You're going to watch what you say around Ava I hope,” Dawson stated, ruffling the little boy's hair beside him.

“I would watch what I said about anyone concerning me even when I'm not around. A three-year-old doesn't quite understand the meaning of a secret,” Ava stated, walking inside. She had to have run the whole way to her car and back to have been that fast, and yet her hair was in the perfect place and she wasn't in the least out of breath. “Thanks for watching him Sarah.” The other woman stood up abruptly once her friend entered the apartment. The obvious look of relief was on her face when the younger woman finally returned, as if she knew Ava could protect her and her children from anything concerning the hostile man in the doorway.

“We'll see you Tuesday then,” Sarah pulled her children from the chairs and ushered them quickly down the hall.

“You should probably tone down the cocky bumhole attitude you have around people Lex Luther,” Ava stated, tugging Nolan's coat down off the coat hanger, and helping him put it on.

Alex scowled. “Bumhole attitude? I doubt it. I've got her from here,” Alex turned to Dawson.

“I'll be accompanying her to your site,” Dawson stated.

“No you wont,” was Alex's reply.

“Yes. I will.”

Ava and Nolan were already halfway down the stairs when the glaring men finally decided to follow her.

***

Ava had always assumed that the whole werewolf population knew her business. They knew her life story of how she became a wolf by her mate almost killing her. They knew how she couldn't control her wolf, and killed her parents. They knew that she found her mate and he marked her several months after most wolves would have. They knew that her mate was killed the day he told her that he was the one to attack her. They knew that he was Greyson Hunter. They knew that he was killed by his best friend. They knew she left. What they didn't know was that she had been pregnant with his baby. Some even believed that the couple had completed the mating ceremony before Greyson was killed, and therefore Ava smelt tainted to any other wolf around; not bad, just tainted. Dawson knew differently. As he drove her car following behind Alexander's, he found that her scent was lovely and taunting.

Dawson shook his head. He knew how her body worked, or at least the general idea of how it worked. It was a fast topic around the Council's Chambers when they first got the results back from Ava's testing. And Dawson got the information first hand while guarding the Council. Ava's body wasn't under her control, essentially. She hardly knew the effect she had on people. In fact, she had no idea the amount of dominance she portrayed or that her wonderful scent lingered, or that her body enticed men of all ages. So, Dawson had to admit that it wasn't the woman's fault. From the amount he knew of the woman's personality, he expected she'd feel more comfortable if she were considered to be just like every other girl. Her problem was that she wasn't like any other girl, and she wouldn't accept being like any other girl until any other girl would just as easily be seen as a dominant figure in werewolf society. So, although the woman had no control over the way her body worked or how people saw her, he knew she would never wish for another life until she saw the werewolf women's movement of the twenty-first century.

“Are you okay?” she asked him softly, reaching over to touch his arm in a comforting manner. She had been leaning against the window and staring at the scenery flashing by when she noticed his demeanour. He wasn't staring straight at her, nor was she in any danger of him, but she could tell that he was thinking—and thinking hard—about something.

“Yeah,” he smiled over at her. “I was just thinking about you.” He paused when she gave him a weird look. He quickly continued on, “and Nolan. How you're going to fare living with Alex. From what Riley told me, you'll be almost like a co-Alpha. Although, I'm sure he'll be dropping by tomorrow to explain the situation to you and Alex.”

“I hate when Riley just “drops by” he has no idea how the rules of society work,” Ava stated. “Most people call or knock before they come over. With Riley, I just find him eating a sandwich in the kitchen with my son sometimes.”

Dawson chuckled, “He actually does understand the rules of society. He just chooses not to follow them; especially with you.”

“What's that supposed to mean?” Ava asked, but they were just pulling into a long, dirt-lined driveway behind Alex's red sports car. They had just pulled up outside what appeared to be a large hotel-like structure framed with wood on the exterior when several large men burst from it and Alex was beside her door in a flash, nodding at them that everything was alright.

“Miss. Wilkinson?” Alex grinned at her, “welcome to my humble abode.” And then more people and wolves filed out of the large cabin. And more. And more. And more. They just kept coming and Ava almost felt overwhelmed. Alex's pack was much larger than Greyson's had been, by at least a couple hundred. Rather than the just over a hundred member pack Ava was used to, she was certain this one had at least three-hundred and she had no idea where they came from. There couldn't be that many werewolves in the world.

As she stepped out of the car, she watched as the remaining members left the building. And her mouth fell open as they all bowed at Alex's feet.