What We Left Unsaid

“They’d better fucking be here. They have to be here!”

“They’ll be here.”

Hazel eyes met blue ones as the alpha fixed a long stare in the blonde’s direction, remaining silent for a moment before finally giving a firm nod. “They’d better be,” was all he said in response, before turning his attention back to the field before them.

The beta female didn’t bother to respond, her own attention shifting back to the field as well. It had been a while since she’d been to the Estate, what with it having technically been shut down for a few years with Drake out of town and her forced in with the rest of the pack, but it really hadn’t changed at all. Hell, the gardening had been kept up so intensely that she was fairly certain there wasn’t even a blade of grass that had changed. What she was sure had changed, however, was all of the security codes and like the security equipment itself. Which meant they had to move, and quickly.

“Where are the cameras?” prompted the guitarist as he dropped into a crouch right beside her, eyes scanning the buildings and trees near him for any sign of them. “There used to be a blind spot on the far northeastern corner -- near the big oak tree -- that lead up to your suite, but that’s the only one I ever knew.”

“Since when did you have to break into the Rinaldi Estate, Brian?”

With a little snort, the guitarist arched a dark eyebrow at the roadie. “Uh,” he drew out smartly, “most nights?”

“The cameras, Ava.”

Though she gave a small growl in response to the alpha’s tone -- it hadn’t been her that had gotten off task! -- she didn’t hesitate to give an answer. Unfortunately, though, it wasn’t the answer she was sure the man had been hoping for. “I don’t know; we had yearly upgrades, and who knows what the hell Drake’s done knowing we’d be coming for Zacky.”

“You don’t know?”

“It’s not like I’ve been copied in the goddamn emails, Matthew!” she retorted, her eyes rolling skyward in her irritation. “I can guarantee that all of the door entrances will be covered by video camera, and I can guarantee that most of the sides of the buildings are, too. There’s blindspots, like Brian said, but it’s kind of fucking hard to know where they are if you can’t play around with it for a while to test them out.” When the larger man only growled his own irritation, she lifted a hand to silence him. “That doesn’t mean I don’t have a plan. Right there, that’s the security building. I’m sure that hasn’t changed. It, too, is covered by surveillance, but if we move quick enough, we might just be able to take them by surprise.”

“Expect anywhere from one to four security guys in the room,” Brian added helpfully. “It was always one or two, but you never know.”

“And if they’re not here?”

Huffing out a breath, the woman growled. She’d already told him! “They will be,” she repeated, leaving no room for argument. “Now, there’s an alarm system that can be easily tripped if we don’t do this right. The second we sprint over there and break into the door, we need to block front right corner. The big red button? Don’t fucking press it, and don’t let anyone in there press it. And each of the guards in there will be armed with guns with silver bullets and they’ll all have communicators. Don’t get shot, yeah? Now, let’s pray to fucking God that we’ll catch a break right now, and we won’t have to fight our way through an entire armed security team.”

“Everyone ready?” the alpha asked, and after a moment of collective agreement, he nodded and shifted his position a bit, ready to launch. ”Now!”

They were across the yard in no time, and just as planned, Matt wasted no time in busting open the door and taking down the man that happened to be right within reach, obviously on his way to trip the alarm just as Ava had suggested. And, also just like she had warned, the guard was quick to reach for his gun, but the vocalist easily overpowered the man, snatching the weapon from him and pistol-whipping right in the temple hard enough to have the man unconscious.

Ava was the second one in the doorway, immediately brushing past her alpha and making her way over to where a familiar face was sitting by the computer screen, a wide smile on his face as he looked at the visitors. He didn’t even bother trying to run to trip an alarm, instead just sitting there, perfectly relaxed and completely unalarmed. She stilled, gaze narrowing as she glanced over his composed appearance, immediately sensing that something was off. Her worries were all but forgotten when she heard a distinct clicking come from behind her, though.

”No!” she shouted as she spun around, just in time to see Matt aiming the now-cocked gun in the unconscious guard’s direction. He sent her a furious look filled with disbelief, but luckily didn’t fire the weapon. “He’s human, Matt,” she warned, “and if you kill him, the Council will kill you, your mate, and probably everyone here. You can’t smell it, because he’s wearing the smell of the pack, but he’s fucking human. Trust me. That cut on his forehead, it’s still bleeding. Look.”

“Shit,” the larger man hissed out when he confirmed her claim, sighing as he took a deliberate step away from the human guard and toward the one he knew for a fact was werewolf. That didn’t stop him from sending a glare in the woman’s direction. “You couldn’t bother to tell us all that you fuckers employed humans before I hit one hard enough over the head to probably kill him anyways?”

“I didn’t know!” she snapped. “We’ve never used one on the property before, only in... The point is, it’s a new precaution. A fucking brilliant one, really, when you kidnap a beta and lure an entire pack after him.”

“Well, not an entire pack.”

Everyone’s eyes snapped in the outsider’s direction, an absolutely vicious growl ripping through the room as the alpha practically vibrated with rage. But once again, the blonde waved her hand to try and silence him, hissing out a shhh. “She’s fine, Matt. She’s safe where she is; you made the right decision to leave her.”

“Or was that part of the fucking plan, too? I swear to god, if one fucking hair on--”

“Ava’s right, Man, she’s fine. Danny here’s just trying to fuck with you, or, worse, get you to split us up. Kat’s safe where she is.”

When he turned to the guitarist, his hazel eyes were burning. “She’d damn well better be,” he ground out, but nevertheless dropped the topic, discarding the gun onto a nearby table before making his way over to still-seated-and-smirking old packmate. He was quick to give the chair a rough kick so that it flew back against the wall, earning a sharp growl in response from the occupant, but he hardly cared. “What’s it going to be, Danny? You want to see any of your friends or family again, or not? Obviously you guys already know we’re here, so I don’t mind using that gun over there to add a little more agony to your life right now. Unless you want to actually be smart for once in your fucking life and tell us where we can go and get Baker?”

“For you, Sanders? Never. But for little Junior over there... how about a tip? Leave your useless beta here. He’s in good hands, I promise.”

Leaving Matt to continue with the violent little interrogation she knew would undoubtedly be taking place, Ava made her way quickly over to the newly-vacated screens, giving each of them a once-over before scowling and quickly pulling out the keypad. She was flipping through the different feeds in no time, eyes scanning all of the different monitors as fast as was physically possible without risking missing anything. The second her eyes landed on an empty white room with a bloodied body curled up in the corner, though, her incessant clicking of the keys died away and she let out a breath. “Found him.” Her voice didn’t have to have been loud for everyone in the room to have heard.

“He is here, then?”

“Where is he?”

“Is he okay?”

“Oh, shit, that looks bad!”

“He’s conscious!”

But the blonde was barely paying any attention to anything the others said as they crowded around her, all desperate to see if their packmate was alright. Instead, she was pushing away from the monitors. “I know which room that is; I’ll go get him,” she declared quickly, getting all of two feet before being stopped by a loud shout.

“No! Someone else will rescue him,” the alpha declared in a tone that left no room for compromise, refusing to even turn away from the screens and look in the woman’s direction.

“What? Matt, what the fuck has gotten into you?” the woman snapped as she spun around and glared at the muscled back facing her. This was all getting absolutely ridiculous!

“She knows where the goddamn room is, Shads! Let her go get him!”

Slowly, the largest man straightened his stance and turned around, glaring at everyone in the room, not at all appreciating the different looks he was receiving. “I said no, Johnny. And you had damn well better watch your tone with me, Rinaldi.”

“Or what, huh?” the woman snapped, disbelief clear in her tone and on her expression as she threw her arms out at her sides and glared furiously back at him.

“I’m sure there are plenty of ways to make you regret it,” Matt answered without hesitation, his gaze hardening as his lips pulled back into a smirk. “I hear silver can be rather effective.”

There was a sudden uproar as the remaining guitarist moved quickly into a protective stance in front of his long time friend. Johnny and both of the Berry brothers appeared shocked by their alpha’s blatant threat, each of them taking a few steps closer to Brian and Ava just in case they needed to jump in to break up a fight.

“What the fuck, Matt?!” Jason called out, vocalizing his disbelief when he realized the others were either too shocked or too furious to say anything.

The larger man didn’t bother to explain himself, simply sending a glare in the man’s direction before looking pointedly at the growling guitarist. “Brian, you’re familiar enough with this place. You go find Zacky.”

“As if there’s a fucking chance in hell that I’m leaving her alone with you after that comment,” the man fired back after a short bark of a humorless laugh. Growling viciously at the mere thought of doing so, he stiffened even more and visibly clenched his fists in restraint. “I don’t even know where the fucking room is! Ava’s the only one that does.”

Matt was visibly shaking in anger at the disrespect he was getting from his packmate, his own jaw clenching tightly in anger as he glared back. “That’s just not fucking good enough, Gates, because there isn’t a chance in hell that I’m trusting that back-stabbing bitch with our best friend’s life!”

Everyone in the room froze, no one snapping out of shock until the blonde woman pushed her way back in front of the guitarist, furious as hell as she growled viciously in insult. “What the fuck are you trying to say, Matt? And don’t try and fucking tell me you don’t mean anything by it, because you sure as hell do! So what, huh? Say it to my fucking face!” she shouted, barely able to stop herself from launching at her alpha in attack. Luckily, the man behind her noticed her internal struggle as well, and wrapped a muscled and tattooed arm around her waist to secure her position. She didn’t fight it.

“Fine! You want to know what I’m saying? I’m fucking saying that I know you were involved in this, and I’m not going to let you get away with it!”

”What!?” the woman shouted incredulously, her voice nearly lost in the cries of outrage that joined her.

“Our Ava? That’s not possible!”

“No way! Not a chance!”

“You’ve lost your goddamn mind!” Brian snarled as he stepped forward and completely eliminated the space between his body and Ava’s, his arm still secure around her waist. “First you blame her for that piece of shit you call a beta nearly killing her, and now you accuse her of this?”

“Matt! I thought we were fucking friends! What happened?”

“I thought so too,” the alpha bit back with a loud scoff at her question, before stepping forward threateningly and nearly laughing when the man behind her tensed and wrapped a second arm around her, clearly ready to twist and throw her behind him if necessary. “But you’ve never really been our friend, have you, Ava?”

“What the hell is he talking about?” Matt Berry asked, his head snapping in Ava’s direction just as his brother and Johnny did the same.

“Why don’t you tell them everything you’ve been doing behind our backs, Ava?”

The beta stilled for a moment, a look of careful calculation in her eyes as she eyed the alpha before her. “What are you talking about, Matthew?” she questioned slowly, words careful and deliberately over annunciated.

“Exactly what you think I’m fucking talking about!” the man snapped, rage burning in his gaze. “The gig’s up, so you can stop fucking pretending that you haven’t done anything behind our backs!”

The woman only scoffed. “I don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about! But for fuck’s sake, we can deal with this later. Right now, we have bigger things to worry about!”

“Does this interrogation have a point, Sanders?” Brian ground out as he huffed with the effort of restraining his friend.

“I know what you teamed up with your brothers to do, Bitch!”

“I have always fucking hated my brothers! I’ve never worked with them on a single thing in my life, Matthew, and you fucking know it!”

“Stop fucking lying! I’m fucking sick of it!” the alpha snapped violently. “Zacky gave you a fucking note years ago and you had your goddamn brothers torture him for four fucking days for it, you heartless bitch!”

”What fucking note!?” the woman screamed at the top of her lungs, not particularly caring if she momentarily resembled a tantrum-throwing child when she kicked out her feet and struggled against the arms restraining her. “What note?! I told you I don’t fucking know what note you’re fucking talking about! How can I make it any goddamn clearer to you?”

”Bullshit!” the alpha roared. “The goddamn note that Zacky put in your European History textbook! The one that fucking said that he liked you for some stupid fucking reason, and asked you to meet him if you felt the same way! The one that you gave to your fucking brothers instead because you couldn’t get your royal ass over the fact that he wasn’t well-bred enough to deserve your attention! The one that apparently pissed you off so much that you had your brothers torture him with silver for four fucking days! That fucking note!”

As the three bystanders gasped and shouted in shock at the revelation, the woman was only able to shake her head in complete bewilderment. “My textbook? In high school?” she asked in confusion, racking her brain to remember anything being put into any of her textbooks. “Wait! European History? I didn’t take that until senior year!”

“It was a junior/senior only class,” Brian affirmed quickly, though his tone made it clear he was having a bit of an issue comprehending exactly what was going on. “She was a sophomore when we left the pack, Matt, and everyone but Johnny was already out of school!”

The tallest man frowned, but didn’t appear convinced. “Then why the fuck would you take the textbook home?”

While the woman before him could only shake her head in confusion, Brian let out a low growl, dots connecting instantly in his mind. “Axel took European History.”

Ava’s eyes widened the second she realized that her friend was correct. Suddenly, she had a vivid memory of walking into the classroom of the teacher who taught the European History class at their school and seeing Zacky flashing a smile in her direction from the back of the room. “Oh my god,” she breathed out as she remembered everything. Suddenly, she was no longer struggling against the arms around her, but instead resting limply in them, allowing them to hold her up. “He had me pick up his book one day after class because he was too fucking lazy to go and get it. Baker had detention, and was sitting right next to the book. I didn’t see him again until the day he threw that drink at me...”

“Zacky said that the torture was a personal message from you,” Matt said softly, suddenly sounding much less sure of himself as he eyed the woman before him.

“He said that he liked me, so they tortured him with silver?” the blonde suddenly repeated from earlier, just then processing that bit of information that had been given to her. Her expression falling into one of absolute horror, she paled. “Oh my god,” she murmured more to herself than anyone else, before suddenly lifting a hand to pry at the arms still surrounding her. “I’m going to be sick. Brian! I’m going to be fucking sick!”

The guitarist reacted quickly, loosening his grip on his friend’s waist for a second before scooping her up and carrying her over to the trash can in the corner of the room, where she dropped to her knees and instantly buried her face in the can, retching instantly. He was quick to collect her hair in his hands, trying his best to soothe her even as he sent a violent glare in his alpha’s direction. “You fucking still think she was a part of this?”

“I...” the vocalist started, closing his mouth when he realized he didn’t know what to say. He gave his head a soft shake, his mind reeling as he tried to figure out who was telling him the truth. “But she was there when they would beat him up afterwards!”

“I was fucking there when they’d beat him up, Matt!” Brian shouted, looking at his friend in complete disbelief. “Every fucking pureblood was at one point or another. You just had to fucking stand there and keep your mouth shut because you were outnumbered, damn it! What else could you do?!”

The vocalist stood there for a moment, looking shocked as he desperately grasped for strings. “But she’d stay there and watch with a smile until she got bored...”

“I had to!” the woman suddenly interjected, lifting her head up and sending a desperate look in her alpha’s direction. “If I acted upset they’d just make it worse! Telling them I was getting bored was the only thing I could do to get them to stop when I could tell he was being beaten worse than usual!”

“Do you want to accuse me of helping those bastards kidnap Zacky, too?” asked a more than bitter guitarist.

“Shit, Ava!” the vocalist suddenly said, his expression pained as he rubbed his hands into his face and realized how very wrong he had been. “He thought... and I thought...”

Before anything else could be said, a loud laugh sounded from behind the alpha, as the man still resting in the office chair threw back his head. “My god you fucking mixed bloods are goddamn idiots. We expected that whole story to fall to pieces within a week!” After another hardy set of laughter, the man shook his already bruised head. “You’re telling me that the mutt still thinks that the mastermind in that whole thing was her? Oh that’s fucking priceless, Ava! Your own fucking joke of an alpha was about to kill you for something that you never--”

The voice was suddenly cut off as a loud smack echoed in the room. Johnny stood next to the now unconscious man shaking his right fist, scowling down at it before looking around the room sheepishly. “What?”

The only response he got was a small smile from the blonde woman as she got to her feet and steadied herself for a few seconds. Then, with a grim expression on her face and a sharp nod, she looked back at Matt. “Now, whether you want to stop me or not, I’m going to go fucking save my mate, alright?”

“Ava, wait! I--”

“Save it! I don’t want a fucking apology from you until you’ve actually made up your goddamn mind. You don’t know what to think right now, and that’s fucking fine, but don’t you dare try and apologize to me when you don’t mean it!”

Guiltily, the larger man dipped his head in an acknowledging little nod, but that didn’t stop him from speaking up again. “You shouldn’t go alone, though. Drake wants you dead, too. At least take someone with--”

“It’s a trap, Matt.”

”What?!”

Expression still unforgiving, the blonde nodded. “It’s a trap. The codes to access the monitors hadn’t been changed, and Dan was all too composed despite seeing us here. Drake wants me to go looking for for this room, and get caught in the process.”

“Then you can’t--”

“There isn’t a choice here; he’s my mate. Just... trust me, okay? I’ll be fine. But he won’t, if I don’t get him out of there now.”

“Ava!” the guitarist objected this time, but, surprisingly, he didn’t actually try to stop her. “Don’t forget a key.”

She only shook her head. “Trap, remember? The keys in here, even the ones that Dan has on him, won’t work. Besides, I won’t need them. Trust me.”

And with that, turned around again and made her way out the door, letting it slam behind her and leaving a room full of very anxious, still very confused packmates.