What We Left Unsaid

“Where’s your mate, Ava?”

Eyebrows furrowing, the blonde in question turned stiffly toward the doorway, narrowing her eyes a bit at the large man that was looking back at her and clearly actually expecting an answer. “How the fuck would I know, Matthew?”

For a moment, hazel eyes just stared straight back at her, the expression on the man’s face unreadable. When she finally arched an eyebrow in response, he broke the little stalemate, rolling a shoulder in a nonchalant shrug. “Just seems like you usually know a lot more about things than the rest of us, is all.”

Blue eyes narrowed again, her body visibly stiffening even more so than it had before. “And just what is that supposed to mean?”

Again, there was a little moment where the man did and said nothing more than holding her gaze, but this time it didn’t last as long. Once more, he gave a nonchalant little shrug of dismissal. “Nothing,” he responded casually.

The woman gave an audible scoff, rolling her eyes skyward and somewhat huffily pushing up off of the couch and making her room out of the room without another word, though she did make sure to physically bump into the still-standing man’s elbow as she made her way past him.

From where he still remained within the den, the lead guitarist fixed a glare of his own on the alpha, not at all pleased by the interruption to the conversation he had been having with his lifelong friend. But, just as had happened several other times throughout the week, Matt had made an appearance and Ava had ducked out of the room almost immediately, tail practically between her legs. Or, it would have been had she not also managed to be bold enough to knock into him each and every time.

“What exactly was that supposed to mean, huh?” he prompted, expression unforgiving as he cocked his head to the side pointedly and waited for an answer.

“Nothing,” the vocalist repeated, but the loud scoff that echoed made it clear that particular statement was anything but believable.

“Yeah, whatever you say, Matt.”

“Brian--”

“No! Goddamn it, Matt, this is fucked up right now. What the hell is your problem with her, huh?”

With a sigh, the larger man pushed off of the frame he had been leaning on and actually made his way into the room, dropping down into one of the chairs facing the occupied sofa. “I don’t have one,” he said simply. “I even apologized to her for being so harsh the other day, remember? It meant nothing.”

But the guitarist wasn’t having any of it. “That’s bullshit and you know it. You’re playing nice, I’ll give you that, but everyone can sense that something’s off. For fuck’s sake, she’s been straight up avoiding you for the past week!”

“Maybe she’s the one with the problem then, Brian.”

“You guys don’t have problems!” he explained in exasperation, waving one of his hands in a frustrated gesture. “Her entire life, you two haven’t gone more than an hour or two after fighting without hugging and making up. Ninety-nine percent of the time it’s immediate. So don’t give me that bullshit, Matt, because I’m not a fucking idiot.”

There was a slight pause, where the larger man only shrugged once again. “I don’t know what to tell you. Everything will work out, I’m sure, it’ll just take a few days. It’s nothing to be concerned over.”

Though he once again scoffed, the pureblood let the topic die away, refusing to listen to any more lies and evasions on the matter. Instead, he thought back to what had brought the other man into the room in the first place, both of his eyebrows rising when he remembered. Suddenly, his expression brightened. “Wait, did you lose your charge? What ever is Zacky going to do without your protection?”

“Gates,” the alpha warned lowly, expression hardening, “we had a deal, remember?”

“How could I forget? But part of this deal was that you promised to make sure he didn’t get anywhere near her. Seems kind of like you’re not holding up your end of the bargain, so why shouldn’t I go off and try to find him for you?”

A dark growl sounded at the mere suggestion. “She’s obviously fine, so don’t do anything stupid. I told you, just wait a few days, and then you’ll get filled in on everything and I’ll even hold Zacky down myself if you still want to beat the shit out of him. We had a deal.”

“And you had an obligation to lead and protect every member of this pack. Remember?”

Matt hissed out a breath, expression clearly showing how pained he was by that little jab, but he didn’t rise to the bait. “I remember,” was all he said in response, “and whether you believe me right now or not, that is exactly what I am doing.”

“Because you’ve never let us down in the past, Shads, and because we’re all praying to fucking God that there’s some reason for Zacky’s behavior so that we can actually forgive him and get our friend back... because of that, we’re trusting you here. I’m trusting you here. You wanted a week, fine, but that week is up in two days, and you can’t ask us for any more days after that.”

“I know.”

“Alright, then. As long as we’re on the same page.”

The room dropped into a somewhat uncomfortable silence, both of the men looking at each other for a few minutes before they both just stared off into space, neither of them particularly sure whether to leave or just remain where they are. Brian knew that he wouldn’t be able to pick up his conversation with Ava -- not that it had been getting anywhere, anyways -- but he wasn’t entirely sure why Matt wasn’t off searching for the beta he had misplaced. Brian couldn’t bring himself to care.

“You read the note she asked you to give to him, didn’t you?”

Though his tone hadn’t been particularly accusatory, the alpha still shifted uncomfortably at the question, lifting a hand to rub at his temple before reluctantly nodding in answer. “I had to make sure she wasn’t trying to piss him off even more.”

The guitarist blew out an irritated breath at the suggestion, but he didn’t appear irritated by his friend’s confession. “She should have just sent him something antagonistic. Baker didn’t deserve the damned recipe for the tea.”

With an audible sigh, the larger man lifted a hand again, this time running it all the way over his face. “Believe me, I get why you think he doesn’t deserve it after what happened, but the tea has nothing to do with that incident. He deserved to know the recipe to make the only thing that stops him from being in uncontrollable, unending pain every morning. It’s hard to understand if you haven’t experienced it, Bri, and even I can’t imagine how bad it is for him.”

“He was getting the tea every morning; she hadn’t so much as missed a day. She didn’t have to tell him about the tea in the first place, to be fair.”

“Even you wanted her to tell him about it, Brian!”

“I know that,” he replied indignantly, “but my point was only that she didn’t have to. It was nice enough for her to offer it.”

“Except she didn’t offer it -- she used it as blackmail. I know, I know, she even said in the note that she never meant for it to actually be blackmail, but that’s what it was, Man.

The longer-haired man didn’t appear convinced. “Was it? Seriously, Matt, all she asked him to do in return was not purposely try and make Kat hate her more. She didn’t even ask him to actively work on her behalf -- just to not intentionally make anything worse. Does that really constitute blackmail? Because, to me, that sounds like a pretty damn nice trade.”

The vocalist seemed torn for a moment, clearly unsure of what, exactly, he thought about the matter. “I... you’re right, it’s really not asking much at all, and maybe it shouldn’t be called blackmail. But, that doesn’t make it any less true that Zacky had the right to know the recipe. She could have made the little trade without forcing him to rely on her every day. That would have been more understandable.”

Brian couldn’t really argue with that, because it was true. Not that he particularly thought that fact meant that Ava had chosen incorrectly, but still, there had been a valid alternative. Except, of course, for the fact that Zacky wasn’t exactly trustworthy when it came to things he said to her. Rather than mention it and drag on the already-tense conversation, though, the chocolate-eyed man only nodded. “You know,” he started after a moment, “she was going to give the recipe to him weeks ago.”

“What?”

“After Zack stopped her from drinking the dosed beer,” he supplied. “The next morning, she was sitting on the couch staring at a little piece of paper she had written it down on, trying to decide what she was going to do with it. She was going to give it to him.”

“But she didn’t.”

“Did you forget what happened that day, Matt? Of course she fucking didn’t! When she went to give it to him, she found, instead, that he had gone and fucked someone else!”

“That’s fair.”

“I mean, damn it!” he hissed again, continuing his little rant because he just really needed to vent. “She fucking liked him, Matt. It’s insulting enough just because she’s his mate, but she liked him.”

This time, the alpha didn’t respond, instead just sitting over there in the corner running that hand over his face, muscles visibly tense and clearly overall uncomfortable. “Sure, yeah,” was the vague answer that he gave only after it became clear that a response was expected.

“What do you mean ‘sure, yeah’? That’s sure one hell of a non-problem that you’ve got with Ava, you know, if you’re telling me right now that hearing this isn’t even slightly upsetting you. It’s Ava we’re talking about, Dude. Remember her? The kid that used to hide behind you during scary parts of movies? The girl that once failed an assignment and you bullied a classmate of hers into claiming she switched the assignments, just so her parents wouldn’t find out about it and kill her for it?”

Once more, the man looked almost physically pained by the added information, his expression dropping to the ground for a moment. “I know, Bri,” he said on a shaky breath, “I know. Like I said, we’ll figure everything out, okay? Two more days, that’s all I’m asking.”

Though he opened his mouth to respond, Brian didn’t get a chance to say anything, for at that exact moment, a panicked looking pair of twins appeared in the doorway, completely out of breath and leaning against the walls for support.

“Zack!” was all Jason managed to huff out, before gasping a bit as he tried to catch his breath.

“He’s in trouble,” his brother added.

“What?”

“He went out on his own, and Drake’s scent was there. There was blood, Matt.”

Instantly, both of the seated men hopped to their feet, fear on both of their expressions.

“Go get everyone else!” the alpha ordered, before turning to the lead guitarist. “I know you’re pissed at him and all, b--”

“Say no more, Man. I’m still hoping I can forgive him, remember? And even if I can’t, I’d save him from Drake Rinaldi any time. ”

“Good, because I’m going to need your help most of all. We don’t have time to make a mistake; where do you think they’d be, at the Rinaldi Estate, at the retreat house, back at the pack base, or somewhere local?”

Brian made a face, looking torn. “We need to ask Ava, Man. She’s always been better at guessing Drake’s moves than--”

“I’m asking you. You know him too, Brian, and your guess is as good as hers. If you were Drake, where would you go?”

“The Rinaldi Estate. The base means nothing to him and the retreat is entirely too far away. He could have purchased something in the area though, Matt! They might be somewhere here, but I just don’t know how we could even figure out where.

“So we go with the Estate, and hope to God we’re not wrong.”

“Or too late.”