Sequel: Slip

What We Left Unsaid

E I G H T

The next morning, the last male awake in the household unsurprisingly was Zacky, though he was awake before both of the females. His head was throbbing as he showered and got ready, though the previous night’s events were still crystal clear in his mind. The logic behind them now seemed a bit blurry to him, but sleeping on his decision had only strengthened his resolve that he had most certainly been the victor in the situation. He simply could not wait to hear the mocking she would suddenly be receiving, though he knew he would most likely have to wait until they met with other werewolves outside of their pack, as his pack was a pretty tolerant bunch... unless Brian would have any qualms over it.

The idea brought a smirk to the Italian’s face as he took a quick shower, knowing that while his friend didn’t look down on him because of his status, he sure as hell would be pissed to find out that he had mated with Ava. The other pureblood had wanted to take her as his mate years ago, and both sets of parents had been more than supportive, but Ava had not been interested. Brian’s reaction would certainly be worth watching.

That said, the soon-to-be-Beta was still not thrilled with the situation, as he was now formally tied to the devil for the rest of his or her life, whichever was shorter. So, rather than sprint into the living room or wherever everyone else was gathered so that he could brag about his unfortunate, though humorously ironic situation, he took his time getting ready, taking the effort to put on a collared shirt so as to hide the mark Ava had been bold enough to leave on him. He had scrubbed at the thing in the shower, but it hadn’t washed off or faded, it had only grown an angry red color, and so he had simply glared at it in the mirror before quickly covering it up.

Then, only after he was certain no one could spot it, did he make his way out of his room, still arriving in the kitchen before either of the females had made their appearances.

“A hundred bucks says he missed his deadline!”

“Oh, you’re on; he wouldn’t just hand over the rank like that to anyone, especially Brian.”

“Well, I for one certainly hope he does just that... he’s had long enough that this should’ve been solved much earlier.”

The slightly-hungover guitarist only rolled his eyes at the bickering that he could hear from halfway across the house -- much further had he actually been trying to listen to the conversation. As he made his way into the kitchen, the other men in the room quieted, everyone taking a moment to eye him as if it the way he was walking or something would give him away. His green eyes rolled a second time, letting them stop and stare as he started to pour himself a cup of coffee.

“So...?” Johnny prompted from the table across the room, ignoring the pancakes he had pulled onto his plate for the time being. When his bandmate didn’t make a move to answer the unspoken question, he continued: “Are you going to be our new Beta?”

The man in question allowed a smirk to slip onto his lips, but he took his sweet time pouring his coffee before he bothered to turn around and look at the rest of his pack. When he did, though, he gave a curt nod. “As if there was ever any fucking doubt.”

While everyone else seemed to have accepted the fact, Matt leaned back against the refrigerator, his expression serious as he eyed his friend. “You mean that, Zee? You fucking promise everything is in order, that every detail of the ritual is complete?”

“She’s fucking marked and everything; there’s no way anyone can dispute it.” Werewolves, and those bitten, healed quickly from every injury -- with the exception of silver, which healed at a much slower rate. The only wounds that did not heal were mating bites, and the only way to get them was from a bite to the appropriate area when two werewolves (or those whose bodies were in the process of being turned) were having intercourse. For that reason, a persistent mark on the side of the neck or upper shoulder was definitive proof of a mating bond.

“We aren’t just taking your word for it,” Brian stated with narrowed eyes, eyeing his friend and rival with suspicion. He wouldn’t put it past the other man to lie about taking a mate, just so he had another day to fix his problem. He had been procrastinating on the issue all week, after all. “We need to see her to believe it. Where is she?”

“I don’t know; she’s either sleeping or getting ready--”

“And we will happily wait until she is more comfortable meeting us, am I understood?” Matt interrupted his guitarists, making sure to look around at all of the other men in the room as well in order to ensure his order was understood. He remembered well that he had taken his sweet time before introducing Katerina to the rest of the pack, and while he knew he couldn’t afford to give Zacky’s new mate very much time at all, he could at least allow her the right to choose when, at some point today, to introduce herself. Plus, he knew that Zacky still hadn’t returned at nearly midnight when he had gone to bed, so he figured the girl would definitely need the time to rest.

“So, tell us about her then!” one of the Berry brothers demanded, when no one else spoke for the moment following Matt’s declaration. Johnny nodded enthusiastically from the seat beside him, but the sighing man by the coffee machine didn’t look nearly as interested in discussing the topic. No one else really cared about that.

“I’m forced to complete the fucking mating ritual last night, and you expect me to come to you with a bunch of stories about her life or some shit?” the man asked moodily, managing not to lie as he skirted around the question that would’ve forced him to reveal exactly who his mate was. He obviously planned for his packmates to find out -- they couldn’t not -- but he figured it would be much more enjoyable to see their faces when Ava herself walked into the room, her neck marred by his mark. A look of smug satisfaction flashed over his features for a second as he decided that if her mark, which had been made much less roughly, stood out so much on his neck, then his must’ve been like a flashing neon sign on her or something.

The shortest man scowled, but seemed to understand his friend’s response. “Fine. Do you at least know if it’s someone we’ll enjoy having in the pack? You didn’t snatch a random nerd from the library or a classical opera or some shit, did you?”

Green eyes rolled once again in annoyance. “No, you fucking idiot. Why the hell would I do that? I’m pretty fucking certain you’ll enjoy having her in the pack.”

“Is she hot?”

‘Yes,’ the rhythm guitarist found himself almost answering, but he quickly managed to control that impulse. Instead, he mentally cursed himself for even thinking of the bitch as attractive, though he wasn’t going to delude himself into saying she was ugly. Her personality was enough of a turn-off already; he didn’t need to make up shit to hate her.

The low growl that came from his now-scowling friend had Matt Berry regretting his words. Misunderstanding the cause of his friend’s agitation, he quickly withdrew the question, “Forget it; I wasn’t thinking and shouldn’t have asked that.”

“Will she be able to be a Beta?”

This time Zacky’s attention shifted quickly to Brian, who was still watching him through suspicious eyes, his expression dark with annoyance. A small smirk played over the shorter guitarist’s lips as he eyed over his friend. “She’ll be fine,” he assured, “and she’ll definitely meet even your fucking prejudicial standards.”

Before the lead guitarist had any opportunity to question exactly what was meant by that comment, Jason jumped in with his own question. “Are you happy with who you picked?”

A dark look passed over the Italian man’s face as he gave a snort of amusement at the unintended irony. “I still hate the idea of having a mate, but I don’t for a second regret who I chose,” he reaffirmed in annoyance, before turning his still-smirking gaze back over to his fellow guitarist. “I think you’ll all be rather envious, as it is; she’s supposedly quite the catch.”

While his other friends were shrugging and congratulating him, Brian had only narrowed his gaze further, his thoughts flying as he tried to figure out exactly why Zacky was so fucking smug. And he knew he wasn’t imagining the fact that it was he who was spoken to more than half of the time. He just couldn’t figure out what the hell was up.

“Well I can’t wait to meet her! Go and see if she’s awake, will you?”

“I don’t fucking take orders from you,” the moody man growled when Johnny complained. “Besides, you’ve already met.”

Zacky appeared to have been the only one to have heard the soft sound of a shutting door coming from upstairs and across the house, but even if the others had picked up on the quiet sound, they likely wouldn’t have paid much attention. As it were, all five of the other werewolves snapped to attention, confusion spreading across all of their faces.

Matt seemed to be the first to have a guess at who it was, for he groaned and forced his eyes closed for a moment. “Please don’t tell me you picked one of the crazy fans that come to all of our shows!”

“Oh, God! If you did--”

“Shut the fuck up, Short Shit; I didn’t.”

“Then...?”

Zacky ignored the shorter man’s prompting, waiting for a moment before pointedly turning his attention to the doorway just as Ava appeared, nodding her greeting to the others. Everyone just seemed to assume the dark look he sent in her direction was a normal acknowledgement, rather than an answer to their questions. Recognizing that no one was connecting the dots, the black-haired man waited until the blonde was within range of him -- for she had been on her way to the coffee machine near him -- before he threw out his hands and caught her upper arms. Roughly pulling her so that her back hit his chest and ignoring the vicious growl that answered his motions, he held her in place with one hand and used the other to jerk her head to the left, lifting her hair so that everyone in the room could see the dark purple marks where his teeth had been.

It was customary for a mating mark to be pink or light red, for they never healed fully, but the depth and roughness of Zacky’s biting had left the mark on Ava much darker than any of the others had ever seen. But the color wasn’t the only thing everyone in the room reacted to; they reacted to the idea she had been marked by him at all. Several loud shouts of unintelligible questions sounded the second the rhythm guitarist had revealed the mark, sending a dark smirk over her shoulder mostly in Brian’s direction, but it wasn’t until he roughly released her and pushed her away from him that things got really vocal.

Holy fucking shit!

“You’re both fucking kidding around, right?”

“What the fuck is going on?”

And then, before the still-smirking male could even respond to a single question, he was suddenly grabbed by the shirt and slammed into the wall, an absolutely furious Brian glaring into him with eyes of fire. “What the hell is wrong with you? What the fuck did you do to her?” the larger man shouted, using his grip on Zacky’s shirt to pull him forward a bit and slam him back into the wall, leaving a noticeable dent, but the smirk on the shorter guitarist’s face never faltered.

“Well, if you really want to know, I went into her room late last night, woke her up, and then I did what you’ve been dreaming of doing for years: I slammed my hard cock into her tight--” His commentary was interrupted as the larger man roared in anger, launching a fist in his direction. But the Italian had been expecting the blow, and with his own senses unclouded by blind fury, he was easily able to catch the fist and launch his own attack, sending the other man flying through the air and slamming into and breaking the kitchen table. “What’s the matter, Gates? You don’t want me to finish the story?”

As Brian prepared to launch himself at him again, Matt growled and shoved him back into the table, silencing everyone in the room. “If you fucking attack him one more time and any more shit gets broken in my house, I swear I will personally tear you limb from fucking limb!” he shouted, before spinning around and pointing at his overly-smug other guitarist. “And you! Stop fucking provoking him!”

“Shads! The bastard fucking raped Ava, and you’re protecting him!?” There were several other shouts of agreement and dissent that left the alpha struggling to figure out how to handle the situation, unsure of how to balance the rights mates have over the rights his friends have.

“It was my idea,” Ava said simply, her voice no louder than a normal speaking volume as she took a sip of the coffee mug that was now in her hands, looking not at all disturbed by the violence and outrage before her. “By all means, please do continue trying to kill each other, just don’t make me out to be a fucking victim as you do; I’m not that goddamn helpless,” she muttered in irritation, before shrugging her shoulders at their astonished looks and stalking toward the door, wanting absolutely no part in the discussion that would undoubtedly follow.

“What, did he threaten you? I swear to God if he did I’ll--”

“You’ll what, Gates? Try to kill me and risk fucking up the hierarchy so that we’re forced to give up our lands?”

“You fucking did threaten her, didn’t--”

No,” the blonde interrupted angrily, growling low in her throat as she was forced to turn around and glare at the continued bickering. “He didn’t threaten me; Chase and Devan did. They were going to sell me to Alaric. Like I said, it was my idea.”

“Those bitches were going to do what?!”

“Why didn’t you tell us?”

“Can they even do that?”

“Why didn’t you come to me?”

“I--” the woman started, the hurt look in the brown eyes of the man she had been friends with since childhood temporarily causing her to lose all ability to speak. She hadn’t wanted to hurt him, hell, that had been the last thing she had wanted. She had obviously known that he probably wouldn’t have appreciated her helping his ‘rival’ for the Beta position get his mate, but she had been sure that he wouldn’t be too upset, since Zacky was going to find a mate one way or another. She figured it would shock him, and everyone for that matter, but that they would in the end be happy that she was now a part of their pack.

“Guess you just weren’t good enough this time, huh, Gates?” the Italian man taunted with a smug smirk, green eyes dancing as he reveled in his friend’s unhappiness. Before he was able to continue the taunt, a harsh fist collided with his face, sending his head snapping in the opposite direction.

“He’ll always be a million times better than you!” the woman ground out, her voice barely audible over the vicious growling that had resulted from her blow. She watched as her new mate lifted a hand to his face, flexing his jaw as he slowly turned his head back to face her. Her breath caught in her throat the second his piercing amber eyes landed on her, but before he could retaliate, she was suddenly staring at a muscled back.

Enough!” the alpha roared. “Zack, if you’re responsible for one more thing in my house breaking, I will fucking kill you, do you understand me?”

“Yes, Sir,” came the more-than-slightly-bitter reply.

“Good. Brian, Zee’s your beta now, whether you like it or not, so don’t fucking challenge him anymore unless you really want to fight over it. Either way, you’ll fucking get in line until after the Council has confirmed our status as an official pack, understood?”

“Fine.”

“And Ava, come with me, now. We need to talk.”
♠ ♠ ♠
Here you lovelies are; as promised. I want to give a nice big shout out to Krista-Snaps, MoMo_92, and JodiVengeancefoREVer for being awesome and kind enough to comment on the last chapter!