On the Outskirts of Manhattan

As usual, Ava didn't wait for Carly, the receptionist, to allow her admittance to the Council's Chamber's. She simply nodded at the shy girl and continued on to the large set of heavy double doors. However, before she could make it to the doors, Riley called out to her from down the hall on her left. They weren't in the main Council Chambers where they spoke to the commoners.

“Where's your son?” Riley asked once Ava and Dawson entered the room. Riley noted how Dawson stayed behind the woman, instead of taking his automatic position of protecting Riley. He wondered if Dawson noticed. When Dawson was in his presence, he was expected to protect Riley, even if he had a different charge. Riley didn't say anything.

“With a friend,” Ava stated simply. “What do you need Riley? Are you here to tell me that I'm allowed to go back into the human community with Nolan?” She had been asking about it since he had told her she had to leave. She wanted to go back.

Riley took a breath, shook his head, stood and locked the door. The four Councilmen inside gave him a curious look as he led Ava to the sitting area on the other half of the room.

Once Ava was sitting, Riley began. “There is a group of wolves that requested permission to consume humans,” Riley stated to her simply.

Ava straightened up and looked around at the other men inside the room curiously. Several of them shot angered looks Riley's way, as if they couldn't understand why he was telling Ava secret Council business.

“Well, you told them no, didn't you? We can't go attacking humans. We kill people for attacking humans. I'm positive that you cover up werewolf attacks so that the human community won't hunt us. Why are you telling me this?!” Ava looked around. She felt panicked, at least momentarily. Why was she being let in on this conversation? Why hadn't they killed the leader of the group once he suggested it? Her mind was whirling.

Riley watched as her brain went through scenario after scenario, mildly freaking out more and more as she progressed. He watched as Dawson took a step forward to stand behind her chair and he gently placed his hand down on her shoulder. He watched as Ava took a deep breath and sat up even straighter, reaching her hand up to clasp Dawson's in her own.

Riley's eyes narrowed at the exchange. He had assigned Dawson because he was his most trusted guard. Dawson was his most powerful and most resourceful, and he would protect Ava at all costs. He also assigned Dawson because he had never been influenced by Ava's beauty before. Every other wolf that had come into contact with Ava had felt that pull toward her. It was just natural, Riley had noticed the full before. It wasn't something that Ava did specifically, there was simply a tug that she had, without her knowledge, that seemed to force other wolves to protect her; to love her. Dawson had never before shown interest in the girl beyond that of a protector. Riley turned from the protective man and back to the confused woman.

“Since the wolf has yet do anything wrong, we can do nothing as a punishment toward him or his growing pack. However, he has unofficially declared war upon the Council. And that is what you are here for,” Riley supplied.

“What do you expect me to do?” Ava asked, standing up. “You're the ones that rule this whole werewolf thing, I don't even want to be one!” Ava insisted.

“You don't have a choice Ava,” Felix spoke up.

“I know I don't have a choice. I was made a werewolf, and then when I tried to be a normal human being, and help my son live in a dignified—if slightly flawed—world, you took that away from me! I have no choice in my life! None! And if you ever try and do that to my son, I will take you down myself. And believe me. I can do it.” Ava glared at the now standing Councilmen. All five of them stood before her, faces blank, and waiting for her reaction to end.

“Ava, we called you here today because you are a special wolf. Not only are you a woman and dominant to all hell, but you are officially the most powerful wolf in the world,” Riley told her.

Ava blinked at the man. “No I'm not,” she told him. “Greyson was more powerful than me, and I'm sure he would have taken your place if he were more powerful than you.”

“You weren't the most powerful wolf then,” Gabriel spoke up. “After your attack against Logan Steele and your impending injuries, we were forced to take you in and perform surgery on you.”

“With that surgery, a number of necessary improvements were done to your body in order for your survival,” Riley took over for Gabriel. “Among those surgeries were a kidney implant, a bone setting and a lung repair; all of which you knew about. The ones you were not informed of were top secret and kept from everyone who was not a Council member, including you. The other top secret surgeries involved increased bone density which allowed your bones to be both lighter and impossible to break; brain surgery to dull your pain receptors so that you can feel pain, but anything you feel is significantly less painful than, say, how I would feel it. There was also an experimental surgery involving chemicals and artificial muscle which made your muscles both smaller and stronger so your body could be more agile,” Riley explained.

Ava hadn't moved since they had told her that there were more surgeries done on her body without her permission. She simply stood there and blinked at the five men who looked on at her with a mixture of wonder and awe.

“Evidently, these surgeries have made you both smaller, faster, stronger and more flexible than any other wolf in the world. And with these improvements, you have slowly gained power and dominance over the werewolf community. Ava Wilkinson, you are the Council's secret weapon. And it is today that we're calling on you to train. To train with our guards to improve your skill set in order to eliminate the threat put upon werewolf and human society by a group of vigilante wolves set on consuming humans. Are you up to the challenge?” Riley asked her.

Ava looked up from where she was staring at the pattern of the carpet at her feet. She looked up at him and blinked. “On one condition,” she said. “Once this is done, I'm allowed to go back. With Nolan. We don't need a pack.”

Riley didn't even turn to his fellow Councilmen to discuss. “Fine.”

She looked directly into Riley's eyes. “Then yes,” she said “I'm up for the challenge.”

***

Ryder Davidson sat at his brand new desk within the newest pack that he had taken over—one that was infinitely larger than his last ones—and looked over old battle plans and the blueprints for the Council's Chambers. As he looked, he let his mind wander, trying to feel out who was around him, what was around him, and most of all, if any uninvited humans had entered his forest. Once he caught onto the feeling of a rowdy group of tourists—college students on spring break he assumed—he had decided to go after them. He needed a meal to sustain him for the rest of the day. The meal would relieve his hungered stomach enough for him to concentrate on what he really wanted—her.

However, just as he was getting ready to strip down to the bare necessities and go after the college students, his thoughts were interrupted.

“They have a secret weapon,” Ryder turned from his desk to look at the intrusion—a petite, blonde woman that held herself both confidently and nervously in front of him. He could tell she was confident in her appearance, she was just scared of him—terrified. The woman knew what happened to the girl she had replaced.

“I beg your pardon?” Ryder questioned the woman. He was in the process of pulling off his shoes, and then his socks, and then the rest of his clothes. He was going hunting, and his little, insignificant—although fairly pretty—spy decided that she needed to interrupt him while he was in the mood. She always interrupted him with insignificant things. She was a nuisance. He would dispose of her within a few days.

“The Council,” she spoke up. “They have a secret weapon.”

“How do you know?” Ryder stood up, moving over to the woman.

“I work for them, and I overheard them talking about it. They always forget about me and talk about confidential information around me,” the girl beamed at him as if she had accomplished something worthy of his attention. Ryder knew how important he was to his pack members. He had to keep them thinking that he was important. Without a faithful following, his mission would be incomplete.

“Good work. Do you know what the secret weapon is? Can we steal it?” Ryder asked.

“Umm, I don't think you can steal it. I hear it's a person...a wolf,” the girl clarified.

“Who is it?” Ryder growled. He was in front of her in mere seconds, his hand lashing out and wrapping around her neck, holding her to the wall tightly.

“I-I'm not sure yet. I'd have to get more information,” the girl stuttered out, choking and clutching at Ryder's tight hold on her body. Ryder was so close to her, pressing her up against the cool wall, his hand flexing as if he were consciously deciding against squeezing the life out of her.

“Good,” Ryder grinned at the girl, moving even closer to her, pressing her body to the wall with his own. “You get that information,” and he roughly pressed his lips against the woman's, sucking hard and not giving her the chance to kiss back. Her bit her lip roughly, then pulled away from her. “Now leave. I'm going hunting.”

Maybe she could be disposed of at a later date.

***

The next day, Ava had Alex deliver Nolan to daycare within the Base since the boy insisted on eating breakfast with the insufferable Alpha, and got ready to report to the Council for her first day of training.

Dawson had been ordered to go back to the Council's Chambers after dropping Ava safely back at the Base the day before as per the Council's orders. Riley trusted Dawson with the woman's life, but he no longer trusted the man to be professional around her. Either her beauty had finally gotten to Dawson, or he had fallen for her the old fashioned way. Either way, he had become attached to her in such a short time, and that was something Riley was furious about—and rather impressed by. He was infuriated that Dawson didn't have the control, but he was impressed by Ava's ability to get everyone on her side so quickly and easily. He was impressed by Ava's ability to gain control.

The next day Dawson was given permission to pick up the woman from the Base in order to bring her to the Council's Chambers for her first day of training. He sat within one of the Council's official vehicles—a large black Hummer which seemed to have every precautionary measure a tactile vehicle could have.

She got into the passenger's seat and scowled. “You shouldn't leave this thing running. It's so bad for the environment.”

“That's a government conspiracy. They don't want people to have Hummers and find their secret underground tunnels. We already found them, we're good,” Dawson winked at the girl and started out of the long, winding road which was the driveway to the Base—Ava's temporary home.

“How are you feeling?” Dawson asked her once they got going. “That was a lot to take in last night.”

“And it's all top secret. You can't tell anyone. Not even my son. I want to be considered a normal werewolf in all sense of the word.”

“Ava, you're far from a normal werewolf. You were far from one when you first became one, and your power was growing even before the Council performed illegal surgeries on you,” Dawson stated. “When you set your mind to killing Logan, your body was helping you by forcing you to become more powerful and dominant.”

“I know I'm not normal,” Ava sighed. “But I don't want people to see me as a secret weapon. I want to just be as normal as possible.”

“Sure. I've been banned from telling anyone about you anyways,” Dawson chuckled. “Now, how are you feeling?” he tried again. She hadn't told him how she felt, just that she didn't want anyone to know about her.

“Pissed off, angry, mad, vexed, irritated, enraged, infuriated, outraged, livid...any other synonym for the word mad,” she sighed. “I can't believe they did that to me. Without permission. Do you see what I was saying before?” Ava turned from the window to look at Dawson as she drove, running her hand through her hair. “They take over my life and give me no freedom. I'm just a pawn in their game.”

Dawson nodded. “Technically, this is a good cause that you're training for. I believe that they are simply doing this because it is one of their rules, and if they went against it, they knew that they would lose you forever. You are the single most invested werewolf with the human community. If the Council did anything to jeopardize the human community, they know you would wage war against them; law or not. Besides,” Dawson continued, “You're the most powerful werewolf now. You control which missions they put you on. The next one, you have the option of saying no, and there's nothing they can do to you simply because you now rule your own body. How unfortunate for them that they made you more physically powerful than they are.”

Ava bit her lip and shook her head. “Yeah, I guess so. It is a “good cause”, as you call it. But this is what they always do. They tell me something big like this, and although I have the option of saying no and attacking if they try to make me, they know that my conscience will make me do their bidding. Why couldn't they make one of the other Council members into super-werewolf?”

“You're not the only one they have their hooks in,” Dawson mumbled.

“What is that supposed to mean? You asked me how I was feeling! I just told you. If you don't want to hear me complain then don't ask me what I'm feeling or how I'm doing!” Ava insisted, turning away from the man who had offended her with only a few words. She crossed her arms and stared out her window.

“I didn't mean it that way,” Dawson interrupted her. “I honestly want you to be able to vent to me. I'm just saying, they have their hooks in everyone. Including me. Why do you think I work for them at such a high position? Why do you think that I haven't left? I don't agree with a lot of the things they do. But I would rather them be around and make sure punishments are real and dolled out than letting the werewolves run around and do whatever they want—like kill humans.”

“I'm sorry,” Ava sighed. “Somehow I've made this whole thing about me again.”

Dawson chuckled and shook his head, “I kind of like hearing all about you.”

Ava looked down and felt herself blush. She spoke up quickly to cover it up, “What does the Council have on you? If you don't mind me asking?”

“It's sort of like you, they don't particularly blackmail, do they? But I'm under contract. They recruited me after my wife died. They had me under contract before I caught the guy and since then I've been with them,” Dawson shrugged.

“You had a wife?” Ava asked softly. She reached out slowly and placed her hand on top of the man's.

“Yes,” Dawson smiled down at their hands. “It was years ago. About seventy years,” he chuckled when she gasped. “I sometimes forget that you're so young. We were mated. Destined. I was already a strong leader in my community, and like you, refused to be an Alpha. So, the Second in Command was more powerful than the Alpha in the pack I was in. There were quite a few Alpha's who were mad at me for helping out the Council; it was part time and only for something I believed strongly in. I was picking up a package from a spy for the Council. I left it in the car with Leigh; my wife. She was pregnant. I got out of the car to make a private phone call and tell the Council what had gone down with the package pick-up when the car exploded. The package was a bomb. They let you go after Logan much faster than they let me go after Eli. Although,” Dawson chuckled. “You ordered them to find Logan. I simply told them what happened and did what they told me to do until they let me find him by myself.”

Ava's hand tightened around Dawson's. He'd lost his mate, just as she had lost hers. She didn't think anyone could know the pain that she felt with that loss, but with the tears running along the rim of Dawson's eyes, she knew he felt the same pain she did every day.

“It took me a year to find him,” Dawson continued.

“You don't have to tell me,” Ava whispered.

Dawson shook his head, “No, I want to. I want you to know that I understand. I want you to know about me,” he closed his eyes for a second. “I shouldn't, but I do.”

Ava was silent as she waited for him to continue, but everything he was saying brought up this surge of intimate emotions between them. Something she had never shared with anyone else.

“I didn't kill him as quickly as you killed Logan. It was a long process. He was begging for death before I killed him,” Dawson ran his hand over his face. “Eventually Riley came in and shot him in the head. Then he put me in counselling with Dr. Winters for a month straight before I started training, and eventually training others. I've never told anyone what happened before. The Council already knew, and Riley had told Caroline. So I guess, this is progress.” Somehow during his story, Dawson managed to flip his hand over and interlock their fingers.

Ava squeezed his hand, “It makes sense why you try and protect me so fiercely now. I thought it was just a werewolf thing.”

He chuckled again, “Not exactly. Most wolves do feel the need to protect you. Most don't take their jobs as seriously as I do, especially with you.”

Ava licked her lips and looked over at him through her eyelashes. “I don't want you to put your life on the line for mine. Because you're important to me too.”

They pulled up in front of the Council's Chambers. Dawson shut off the car and turned toward her. “I'm glad I'm important to you,” and with that he caressed her cheek. “Meet you inside.” He left the vehicle quickly and went in through a side door before Ava composed herself enough to step out into the cool morning air and go the conventional way into the building—through the front doors.

***

She walked through the front doors of the Council's castle in a pair of beige shorts, running shoes and a sweatshirt.

“Ava!” Carly looked up from her desk, surprised to see the woman so soon. “What are you doing here? I don't have you written down for an appointment. Did Riley call you in?”

Dawson stepped out from a side hall. “She's here to see me,” Dawson wrapped his arm around the woman's waist. “I promised to teach her some more offensive moves if she promised not to kill me,” Dawson winked at the woman at the desk.

“Nice seeing you Carly,” Ava waved and let Dawson lead her through the maze that was the Council's castle until she found her way to a courtyard, just as Dawson had promised. A number of men in workout gear stood at attention in the middle of the yard. Riley stood in the midsts of them, watching the doorway that Ava walked through.

She looked spectacular to him; always strong and confident, even in the times when she was confused and scared. Her walk, like always, was purposeful as she walked toward him.

“We're trying to keep your time here a secret. I'll be showing you in and out from now on at a side door. In fact, Riley even suggested that you move to this site permanently, until I informed him that you also happen to be a recently promoted Alpha,” Dawson was explaining to her as they walked the long distance toward Riley and his elite group of soldiers.

“We considered letting you warm up with the lower ranked soldiers. But considering your power, and your background in fighting, we decided that only the top members that were free and willing would be here to train you,” Riley spoke up once she got close enough to hear him. “These are twenty of them.”

Ava bit her bottom lip. The momentary distraction had given her mind time to wander; she had noticed someone with a swollen lip earlier.

“How many have volunteered?” Dawson questioned.

Riley turned from Ava to her guardian. “They keep signing up for their free time. Only three hundred or so were given permission. But they are allowed to come more than once, and for whatever amount of time they can give. We're trying to help Ava here,” Riley insisted.

“If we were trying to help Ava, then you'd let all the guards fight her. With better trained guards, we are better able to protect her, and she'll be aware of the strengths and weaknesses of both the strongest and the weakest wolves you have recruited as guards,” Dawson shook his head. “Ava has to be prepared for everything. Including a small child standing up against her. We don't know what will happen.”

“Don't say any more Dawson,” Riley spoke up. “This is a top secret mission. Those who will be participating will be briefed when it takes place, not sooner, not later. Top secret stays top secret until the last second.” Riley waited until he got a nod from his most faithful guard. “I'm leaving you in charge or training as I have other things to attend to. I will inform the other guards they have permission to join in on Ava's training.” With that, the older man left the courtyard.

“Alright then,” Ava clapped her hands together. “Lets get started.”