Sequel: Slip

What We Left Unsaid

T W E N T Y - O N E

“You’ve been staring at that for ten minutes now.”

Jumping a bit, the woman pulled her gaze away from the small slip of paper in front of her, and glanced over at the bed, where the shirtless man was still laying just where she left him, eyes closed and head not even pointed in her direction. She really hadn’t thought he was awake, but now that she knew he was, she couldn’t decide if she wanted to be irritated with him for letting her tip-toe around as if she was walking on eggshells or ashamed that he had caught her in such an undecided state. Rather than bother to respond at all, she simply said nothing.

“It’s the recipe for the tea, isn’t it? You’re thinking about giving it to him.”

Though she had learned a few years ago not to be so surprised by the way he could see right through her at times, she wasn’t anything but very uncomfortable by his guess when she glanced back down at the paper in her hands. Her own handwriting was scribbled over the piece, listing off a few different herbs with amounts written next to them. She bit her lip, still staring at it. “I’m considering it.”

“Mmm...” the man drew out from where he still rested on the bed, still not moving at all from his position. “Because he claimed the reason he warned you about the silver was only because you were blackmailing him, right?”

Her only answer was a low growl. After a moment of continuing to stare down at the handwritten note, she finally huffed and snapped her head back in the male’s direction, eyes narrowing into a glare of consideration. “So, if you’re so all-knowing and super-psychic right now, then tell me what I’m going to do. Do I give it to him, or not?”

The man actually chuckled, as if the question had in any way been even remotely funny. She growled again. “Oh, that’s not my decision, Babe,” he told her, “that’s all you.”

She stared at him unblinkingly for another moment. “You’re useless.”

He gave another throaty chuckle, this time actually rolling his head to the side and blinking open his eyes when he smirked at her. “Until it comes to you needing someone to curl up on in order to fall asleep, right?”

“Fuck you, Haner. It was cold!”

“Yeah, sure it was,” he responded with a snort that clearly portrayed his utter disbelief. He gave his eyes a roll, before simply turning his head back to the ceiling and blinking them shut again. “You should know that he wouldn’t have let you drink it even if you weren’t blackmailing him, Ava.”

This time, it was she who snorted and turned back away from him. “Uh-huh,” she drawled. “I think your powers of deduction are fading, my friend. He wouldn’t care if I died.”

“It wouldn’t have even killed you; it’s a fucking drink; the second it touched your lips you’d have known there was silver in it and you wouldn’t have even swallowed a drop. So it’s not like he was even at risk of you dying without telling him about the tea.”

She arched an eyebrow at him, even though she knew he couldn’t see the action. “Well I know that,” she told him with a scoff and a roll of her eyes, “but the point is that I don’t think he knew that. You give him too much credit; he probably actually thought it could kill me, or at the very least expose us.”

“Fair enough, but you’re still wrong about him not caring if you died. He’d be bored if you died,” he corrected, sounding very sure of himself as he spoke. “He’d have no one to antagonize and keep himself entertained. Plus, as much as he hates you, he loves us; he’d never make us bury another friend, no matter what you did. Just like you’d never do that to us.”

“Don’t sound so sure! I think about taking a frying pan to his head at least four times a day.”

“But you don’t.”

She rolled her eyes. “Yet.”

“He’s your mate,” he pointed out in a sing-songy voice, as if that was some magical answer to their conversation.

“Barely. Besides, that doesn’t even--”

“It means you won’t actually hurt him, even if you didn’t have to worry about upsetting the rest of us. He’s your mate, even if only ‘barely.’ I don’t need to tell you what that means.”

She huffed, suddenly even less interested in holding a conversation with him. Getting to her feet, she folded the little note and slipped it into her back pocket, casting another glance over at the man still lying on the hotel bed. “You’re only supposed to want to talk about this shit when you’re drunk,” she told him, “so, what, are you still drunk from last night?”

“Not drunk,” he declared, once again in that stupid sing-songy voice of his, before dropping back into his normal serious voice, “but it doesn’t matter, because you don’t ever stick around to finish the conversation.”

“You’d think you’d take the fucking hint the first time, but no.”

“You’re not subtle enough to hint, Rinaldi. You never have been.”

She only rolled her eyes once again. “All the more reason to drop the fucking conversation and never bring it back up again.”

“Yeah, yeah,” he said with a sigh, his tone warning her that he was far from done bringing up the topic. Still, he appeared to realize that his current attempt at the conversation was definitely done. “Well, good luck making that decision, and try not to get poisoned on the extremely long trip all the way to the room right across the hallway.”

Her eyes narrowed, and her hand reached out to snatch the notepad from the table and then throw it right at his head. It missed, but at least hit him in the arm so that he got the point. “Fuck you,” she told him again, before bending over to pick up the mug of tea that had been resting on the coffee table for the past few minutes. It was probably not warm anymore, but somehow she doubted that temperature could make the taste any worse than it already was.

Without bothering to say anything else, she made her way out of the room and pulled the door shut behind her. Turning, she stepped forward and covered half of the distance between Brian’s room and Zacky’s room, before immediately pausing and turning halfway back around. Her gaze snapped down to the smaller frame she easily recognized, the man with the smoothed-over mohawk curled up against the wall and not moving at all. She nearly jumped at the realization that it was Johnny that was lying in the middle of the hallway looking practically dead, but the steady rise-and-fall of his chest kept her calm.

Her head tilting to the side as she made her way over to him, she took in a quick whiff of the air and immediately snorted. Holy hell did he smell like liquor! She was completely calm and chuckling to herself by the time she reached him and dropped into a crouch beside him, her free hand reaching out and pulling his shoulder so that he rolled onto his back. Then she really laughed at the way his hair was matted in ten different directions from him obviously sleeping on his face. She gave his cheek a light pat with her fingers, continuing the motion until he blinked open his eyes and groaned.

“Morning, Sunshine,” she told him in a more-than-amused tone. “The world says hello!”

He groaned again, before lifting a hand to cover his face and block out the light. She snorted. “Tell it to go fuck itself, would you?”

Her lips twitched before she let out a carefully-quiet whistle. “That bad, huh? C’mere, let’s get you in a room before some small child walks down the hall and is frightened by the sight and smell of you, alright?” Popping back up to a stand, she leaned forward and extended that spare hand of hers again, but the man on the ground didn’t even move his own hand out of his face to notice. She quickly narrowed her eyes. “I’m not carrying you right now, Johnny.”

Grumbling incoherently, he turned back on his side and stuck his face right up against that wall again. She huffed. “I’m just... gonna stay here and go back to sleep.”

“You’re in the fucking hallway!” she hissed back at him, stomping a foot irritably. “Goddamn it, you’re actually going to make me carry you, aren’t you?” She didn’t even bother waiting for an answer, because she could already tell he had fallen back into his drunken coma. Had they been anywhere but a hotel, she’d have just left him there, but, because she knew they had a flight to catch, she decided it would be best not to have to deal with running off to the nearest jail to find a drunken friend because the hotel’s security kicked him out.

Putting down the mug up against the opposite wall, where it would hopefully not be stepped on or anything, she leaned down and easily scooped the slumbering man up into her arms. It was only after she had taken a step back toward Brian’s room that she quickly took a look around to make sure no one was in the hallway, having temporarily forgotten that it wasn’t exactly humanly possible for a girl her size to so easily lift a man, even one as short as the one she had in her arms. Luckily, the hallway was abandoned and it was completely uncomplicated for her to carry him right back over to the doorway, until she suddenly remembered that her key was in her back pocket. She wasn’t exactly gentle when she put her drunken friend back on the ground, swiped both of the keys because she had chosen the wrong one first, and then picked him back up and kicked open the door.

“Did you for--”

“I brought you a gift,” she interrupted the speaking man, walking right across the room and dropping the bassist down onto the bed right beside the still-resting guitarist, not at all caring that her actions completely surprised him and had him jumping into a seated position. “It’s name is Johnny, it probably has to pee, and it absolutely should not be fed after midnight. Happy Birthday!”

“Oh, you really shouldn’t have!” the black-haired man complained as he looked down at the man now next to him, before sighing and just shaking his head. Lifting a hand to run through his own messy hair, he looked back at her and arched an eyebrow. “Where’d you find him, anyways?”

“The hallway, as per usual.”

The sudden change in her friend’s expression to one of absolute surprise and irritation startled her. “He was in the hallway? Zacky left him in the fucking hallway last night, after someone put silver in your goddamn drink?!”

And, just like that, everything clicked into place in Ava’s mind, and she was cursing herself for not having realized that earlier. And then she was really cursing herself for leaving that goddamn tea in the hallway unattended. “I’ll go knock some sense into my bastard of a mate, don’t worry. So don’t come running if you hear some obvious beatings going on next door!”

She was halfway to the door when he sent her the friendly reminder, “Don’t forget we’re in a hotel with guests that will call the police!”

“Damn!” she growled, even as she pulled open the door. “They’ll have to be quiet beatings then. Please do come running if they get loud enough for someone to call the cops, then, by all means!” And, with that, she was out of the room and picking that mug back up in no time. A quick poke with her finger and a sniff with her nose told her the tea hadn’t been touched, but she was still kicking herself for even leaving it in the hallway in the first place. Johnny be damned, she had only brought enough of the mixture to make one glass; she couldn’t exactly afford to fuck it up, especially when -- at the very, very least -- she owed it to Zacky after he had stopped her from drinking silver the night before.

But she wasn’t really thinking about what she owed him as she opened the door to his room and gave three very brisk knocks to warn him of her entrance; she was thinking about what the hell was wrong with him for leaving his packmate out in the goddamn hallway all night when there was someone out there trying to use silver against them. All of those thoughts died the second she actually stepped into the room.

”Shit!” she exclaimed, letting the door swing closed behind her. Her gaze was flying over the room and taking in the sight of the torn curtains, knocked over coffee table, and the bedding and couch cushions spread around the room. It took her a little while of scanning over all of the wreckage before she even realized that the other beta was actually still in the room. And, had he not groaned very softly as he exhaled, she might not have even spotted him at all.

She had just enough left of her common sense to put down the tea on the nearby desk as she practically flew into the room, leaping over the overturned coffee table and quickly dropping down onto her knees beside the clearly-unconscious man. Even in his unconscious state, his body was curled up and his hands were resting over his head in a way that clearly told her he had been in pain. The fact that his forehead was sweaty, his brows were still pinched together, and his hair was damp and matted down in every direction only confirmed her suspicion.

“Baker!” she hissed out, hands already flying over the man’s boy and checking for obvious wounds. He was burning up, but when she didn’t find any injuries, she blew out a breath that she hadn’t realized she had been holding. Her relief was short-lived, however, because the second she took in a breath, she was coughing and hissing in response. That smell! It was practically choking her, how strong it was! One quick lift of his eyelid to reveal the bright amber iris beneath it was all the confirmation she needed. “Baker, goddamn it!”

Huffing irritably, and still choking on the goddamn smell in the air, she hopped up to a standing position, grabbed him by the ankle, and dragged him to the door, not at all caring that his head and arms managed to bump into pretty much every piece of furniture that they passed on the way. It was only when she got to the door and realized exactly how suspicious it would be if the security footage captured her dragging an unconscious man across the floor that she finally decided to pick him up, using one arm to throw him haphazardly over her shoulder. She was across the hall and back in the other room in seconds.

“Get out,” she ordered the second she slammed the door closed behind her, letting the other beta drop to the ground in front of the sofa before even bothering to look in the direction of the two other men. Brian was quickly on his feet, already making his way toward her, but the low warning of a growl she gave had him pausing hesitantly. “Get out, and take Johnny with you. My mate and I need to have a fucking conversation in private.”

“Ava, what’s going on? Is Zacky alright? What the hell is-- do I smell what I fucking think I smell?!”

His tone had gone from worried to enraged in only a matter of seconds, and, just like that, he was making his way forward again, his motions much more predatory this time. Ava was forced to step in front of him, using one of her hands to push against his chest and stop him in his place. ”Brian!” she snapped. “I told you to fu--”

“I don’t give a fuck what you told me!” he growled right back at her, chocolate eyes momentarily replaced with amber as he looked down at her murderously. “I know what I smell, and I’m going to fucking kill him!”

It was her turn to growl again as she used the hand on his chest to shove him back a few feet. She did not need to deal with his drama on top of everything else! ”No,” she corrected, “you’re not! Not right now. We’ve got a fucking plane to catch in only a few hours, and we need to get back to our territory, so all that you’re going to fucking do right now is grab Johnny and get your ass out of here so that I can decide what I’m going to do to him!”

There was a long moment where he only glared at her, jaw set and body practically vibrating with anger, but after a little while, he settled on a firm nod, his eyes slowly draining of amber. “Fine,” he told her with a huff, turning and making his way over to his bed to grab the still-drunkenly-sleeping bassist and throw him over his shoulder. “Fine. We’ll go to Matt and Jason’s room. But when we get back to our territory, Ava, I swear to fucking God I am going to kill that bastard, and you’re not going to do a damn thing to stop me, am I understood?”

”Brian,” she started, irritation clear in her own voice, but she didn’t get to say anything more before her lifelong friend growled and jabbed an accusatory finger in his face.

”No!” he snapped. “You’re not fucking allowed to talk me out of this, damn it! And that’s fucking final!” And, with that, he made his way over to the door, snatching up one of the other keys from the desk and practically throwing open the door to the hallway. “He doesn’t get to get away with going and fucking someone else when he’s mated to you!” And, with that, he slammed the door shut behind him and left her alone with her mate.
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As always, a great big shout-out to all of those who commented on the last update: SynysterVengeance13, Total Nightmare, Miss.J.isamonster, Ravenhair24, Bunny-on-Drugs, MoMo_92, Liera_Fufu, VixonJade11, iseepurplepeople, Koschka, and so unintelligent;! The -- holy crap! -- eleven of you absolutely rock! (And so do all of you silent readers out there; I love you guys, too!)