What We Left Unsaid

“Oh, yikes. You don’t look so hot.”

It was an understatement, and the dark-haired man was well aware that it was, but that didn’t make him any happier to hear those words coming from her mouth. Sending a single, low growl of warning her way, he narrowed his eyes into a small glare and went to cross his arms over his chest. The action was a stupid one, though, and he was forced to wince and then gingerly relax his arms down to his sides, his hands tucking instantly into his pockets.

“I--” he started, before cutting himself off the second another growl sounded from behind him. He didn’t need to glance behind him to know who had made the noise. Zacky also didn’t need to look around the room to know that all of the others were staring at him, but he still glanced up at them, setting his jaw a bit before he looked back at the woman who had spoken. He mentally revised his statement. “I’ve been... reminded... that no one here tolerates any... uh, disrespect toward their little sister.”

The blonde before him didn’t appear surprised at all, only rolling her shoulder in response and glancing up over his head, undoubtedly at his fellow guitarist behind him. “Yeah, well... they’re funny like that,” was all she said in response.

He wanted to pick up the nearest lamp and chuck it at her head, but he figured that would only end in more reminders. And, as it was, he wasn’t sure he could take any more of those; he was already nursing three broken ribs, a broken nose, two black eyes, one royally fucked up shoulder, and too many bruises to count. The worst of everything would be gone within a day, but that didn’t make it any less painful to deal with until then. So, instead of saying anything he wanted to say, he just blew out a breath and kept his thoughts to himself. “Can we just get on with this, or what?”

“I’d like that!” the largest man in the room declared, drawing the attention over to him as he even raised a hand dramatically. “I’d really like to know what the hell’s going on. Why are we all here, Brian? What do you need to tell us?”

Of course, the lead guitarist wasn’t interested in being the center of attention on this particular topic, so, rather than just getting on with it, he lifted a hand to rub at the back of his neck and looked away. “It’s not just me, actually. Ava, Zacky, and I all need to tell you something. It’s a funny story, actu--”

“Ah, shit!” the alpha interrupted, drawing in a deep breath before raising his hands and gesturing for everyone to just wait a minute. Pointedly, he turned and made his way out of the room, before reappearing a moment later with a cold beer in his hand. He took another moment to wrap his arm around the redheaded woman before he lead her over to one of the sofas and pulled her down with him. Apparently he felt the need to be seated for this conversation, and Zacky couldn’t exactly blame him; none of Brian’s ‘funny stories’ were ever even remotely funny. One deep sip of the beer later, and Matt was reluctantly waving his hand to continue the conversation.

“Actually, Ava, why don’t you take it from here?”

The blonde in question looked up with lips pursed in consideration. “Nah,” she drew out with a roll of her shoulder and a slow, teasing smile, “I think you’re the man for this job. You did call this meeting, after all; I wouldn’t dare steal your spotlight!”

“Oh, but I insist!”

“Well, that’s very kind of you and all, but I re--”

“Someone slipped silver into Rinaldi’s drink last night.”

All gazes were on him again, but this time, the Italian man only shrugged his shoulders -- gingerly -- and didn’t bother to offer up any more information. Hell, he hadn’t even wanted to offer up that particular piece of information to begin with, but he was tired of hear the back and forth bickering of Ava and Brian, especially when it didn’t really matter who was the one to tell the story. For fuck’s sake, their alpha was going to murder them all for not telling them, obviously, so what was the point of arguing over who was the one to actually utter the words?

There was a long, stressful moment before anyone actually made a move to respond; everyone just seemed speechless, standing (or, in the alphas’ case, sitting) there across from the three of them as if they were waiting for one of the others to jump in with the punchline. Everyone’s gazes shifted relatively quickly to Ava, as if to confirm that she was, indeed, okay and not dying from silver poisoning or anything, before they just looked right back at him. As if he was to blame; as if he put the damn silver into her drink. He gave a low growl at the thought.

And that growl of his seemed to kick everything back into action.

“What?!”

“Holy shit, Ava! Are you okay?”

“Who would’ve--?”

“When did this happen?”

”Why the fuck are we only hearing about this now?!”

Once more, everyone froze, the loud, enraged shout echoing off of the walls and the dominance in those ten little words forcing all of their heads down in shame, even the heads of the three other pack members that weren’t involved in the minor cover-up. It took a few seconds of flinching before any of them were able to warily glance up at their alpha, but it wasn’t the bulky vocalist they were looking at.

“We are your alphas, and we are your pack! What on earth gave any of you the right to keep this from us?!” the redheaded woman continued rhetorically, green eyes ablaze as she jumped up from her position on the couch and stepped forward threateningly, eyeing the three individuals before her with not even slightly concealed rage.

The larger man still seated on the couch looked somewhat less surprised than the rest of the pack, but he still glanced up at his mate with an expression of awe, clearly not having been expecting quite the response she had given. And apparently her reaction to the news was momentarily intriguing enough that he had yet to actually react as well -- something Zacky instantly decided was a godsend.

“It’s my fault.” That admission had Zacky’s gaze -- along with everyone else’s -- snapping to the side, surprise undoubtedly obvious on his features as he stared at the other woman in the room. “It was my idea,” she continued, those blue eyes of hers staring straight ahead at the alpha pair without so much as glancing at either of the guitarists, “and I convinced them to go along with it. I didn’t have the right to do so, and you’re completely correct, but I just thought that it had been a hard enough day on all of us, and I ju--”

“And you didn’t want to make the day any harder.” Matt had moved to his mate’s side by the time he spoke up for the first time, his hand slipping into the woman’s smaller one and a large sigh coming from his lips. His spare hand lifted to run over his face once again. “I get it, Ava, I do... but that’s not something you can withhold from us, damn it! That’s something we all needed to know! That’s something you know we would have wanted to be informed about the second it happened!”

“I know,” the blonde confirmed, sounding almost ashamed, yet somehow also determined. “I know that. And I also know that it’s something you would have immediately tried to retaliate against, and it’s not something that you could have.”

“The hell we couldn’t have!”

”No, Matt; you really couldn’t have! We were in unclaimed land, and it wasn’t a hunter, so you legally could not have done anything without getting your own ass in trouble, alright?”

Zacky’s eyebrows arched dramatically as he glanced back at the blonde, wondering why the hell it was that this was the first time he was hearing about that little detail. There had been no mention of any legal trouble they could have gotten into for retaliating. Obviously, them not having been in their territory affected things, but surely it didn’t affect things that much!

Judging by the expression on the alpha’s face, he seemed surprised by that little detail as well, but apparently he was more surprised about the first part of her statement. “Ava, you and I will have a discussion later about keeping things from us, so we are most definitely not done with this conversation,” he stressed, “but first things first... How do you know it wasn’t a hunter?”

“They moved too fast to be one,” the rhythm guitarist answered, not too pleased to be back in the spotlight when everyone looked his way again. “I was the only one that saw it happen,” he added in explanation.

“And you actually stopped her from drinking it?”

Apparently Jason was surprised by the fact, but the only thing the Italian man was offering up in response was a dark glare and a low, warning growl. He wasn’t interested in having that conversation.

And apparently neither was Matt, for he spoke up before anyone else could voice their opinions or toss out further questions on the matter. “So you think it was a wolf, then? Drake?”

“Yep,” he answered, popping the ‘p’ as he did.

“Then I’m going to call Larry and have him file a report or whatever the fuck it is you’re supposed to do in this situation, because there’s no way in hell Drake is going to g--”

“Don’t bother.” Once more, everyone’s head snapped in the blonde’s direction, confusion clear on all of their expressions. “You can’t pin the blame on Drake, Matt.”

The man stiffened in response. “And why exactly is that?”

“Because he didn’t do it.”

This time, it was Kat who gave her mate’s hand a squeeze when he went to take a step forward angrily, her free hand lifting to press against his shoulder as she attempted to calm him down. And, luckily for the three individuals still standing opposite the rest of the pack, it seemed to work, for the larger man blew out another deep breath and carefully controlled his tone. “If someone doesn’t fucking explain what the hell is going on now, I swear...”

“It’s Drake Rinaldi, Matt,” Brian said, finally deciding to jump back into the conversation. “He’s not stupid enough to do anything like that in public himself. He’ll have an airtight alibi, and you’ll look like an asshole to the Council when he proves it wasn’t him.”

“So you need to call Jacobson and tell him that there was an attempted hunter attack on your pack while you were out of the territory. Tell him to have the Council send a team to investigate it further, and to notify the nearby alphas that there is a hunter in the area.”

“But there isn’t a hunter in--”

“You need to do as she says,” Brian interrupted, nodding his head in the blonde’s direction. “Ava’s the only one that knows how to play the political game as well as Drake does, Shads. The wolf slipped silver into her drink, Man; it wasn’t an actual attempt to poison her, because she would have figured out there was silver in it as soon as she lifted up her glass. It wouldn’t have killed her, and you can bet Drake Rinaldi was well aware of that when he arranged for it to happen.”

“Then... it was a test?” the alpha concluded relatively quickly, before cursing and pulling his hand out of his mate’s grip so that he could turn and move back toward the table where his beer was resting. It took all of two seconds for the rest of the liquid to disappear, and for the larger man to turn around with confusion and frustration clear on his expression. “God damn it, I hate this pureblood political bullshit! This is one of the things I wanted to avoid when we left that fucking pack! Just... just fucking tell me what I need to do, Ava, and tell me what the hell we need to expect from Drake next.”

“I don’t know what he’s planning, Matt,” she confessed, “but I know that there’s nothing we can do right now except make sure we don’t do exactly what he would expect us to do. He has someone slip silver into my drink, and he expects you to tell the Council it was him. So you don’t. You mention the hunter because at least getting an investigative team to look into it means having a few Council members show up in our territory to ask a few questions and it means getting the neighboring alphas in defensive mode. That at least makes it more difficult for him to plot anything else anytime soon. Otherwise, all we can really do is wait.”

“Wait? Are you fucking kidding right now, Rinaldi?”

“She’s right, Zacky! There’s nothing else we can do!”

But the rhythm guitarist wasn’t having any of it, and he made that clear with a loud scoff as he turned to face the two good old friends. “And when the fuck did you two decide on this plan, Brian? You were all fo--”

“We decided on it when you were busy fucking the bartender,” his fellow guitarist deadpanned. “Any other questions?”

“Oh, get the fuck over yourselves!” Ava interjected with a dramatic sigh, running a hand through her hair. “It’s the only plan we’ve got, alright, Baker? Drake’s not the emotional-response kind of guy; he thinks shit through before he does anything. He’s a chess player, for crying out loud. So we just need to make sure that we don’t do anything that he’d expect us... to... oh, shit!”

“What? Ava, what?!”

But the blonde ignored the alpha’s questioning, instead waving her hand dismissively. “What do you know about this band of rogues you’ve been having issues with?”

“They’re not even an issue any--”

“Matt! What do you know about them?”

“Not much, Jesus! Just that there’s four of them -- two mated pairs. Why the hell are y--”

”Shit!” she hissed in repetition, this time turning to look back at the longer-haired guitarist. “He expected us to mate, Bri. He expected the rogue situation to put pressure on you guys to get the beta question sorted out, and he expected you to call me, and then he expected us go running back ‘home’ when he offered that ‘second chance’ of his!”

While his fellow guitarist made a face of disgust before groaning in enlightenment, Zacky could only stare blankly at them, unable to follow the conversation. “But that’s not what happened,” he said, stating the obvious for a moment, “so isn’t that good news according to your do-the-unexpected plan?”

“No,” Brian answered for her as he let his head drop back in momentary defeat, “because it means there’s more to this than simple revenge... or, at least, there was. It means Drake’s got some bigger, undoubtedly uglier, scheme up his sleeve. And we have no idea what it is.”

“Shit.”