Sequel: Slip

What We Left Unsaid

N I N E

“Come here,” was all the larger man said after he closed the door to his study, quickly stepping closer to the woman and wrapping his arms tightly around her smaller frame. He tucked his chin into his neck and pressed the bridge of his nose to her shoulder as he felt her return his embrace with equal ferocity. Rocking her slightly, the larger man took several deep breaths before he was able to pull away, planting a soft kiss to the top of her head as he did so. He gestured to the sofa as he dropped into a nearby chair.

“I’m sorry, Matt,” the woman whispered softly as she gave her head a quick shake and cleared any remaining emotion from her expression. Dropping onto the sofa as directed, she took in her own deep breath to steady herself before stealing a quick glance at her new alpha. Even though he appeared far from happy, she knew that at least this alpha gave a damn about her wellbeing. “I didn’t mean to cause any issues in your pack, I swear. You know I would never want to complicate things for you, especially after everything with Jimmy.”

The short haired man only sighed and shook his head, giving a quick wave of dismissal as he shifted in the chair and tried to get more comfortable. “Ava, I love you like a goddamn sister, and you know that. You don’t need to apologize for shit, because your problems are already my pack’s as soon as they become yours.” He paused to sigh, rubbing a hand over his face for a moment before looking back up at the woman across from him carefully. “I respect you as a fighter and as person in general, so I will only ask you this once and I will take your word for it. Was this a mutual decision?”

“It was consensual,” she answered simply, after aiming a hard glare at the floor for a moment. Shifting her gaze up to the man in front of her, she sighed; she had no reason to be upset with him. He would have been a terrible friend if he hadn’t asked, and the fact that he was willing to not hound her and try to make her out as the victim when she was not one did mean a hell of a lot to her. “Seriously, Matt. It might not have been mutually satisfying,” she added with a bitter laugh, “but it was consensual. It was my idea.”

“Alright. I believe you,” the man said with a firm nod that clearly stated he considered that matter settled and never to be an issue again. “Now tell me what happened with Chase and Devan.”

The blonde scowled but nodded, shifting purposefully into a more casual position as she tried to figure out exactly how to explain everything that had happened, especially without making it seem like she hadn’t been able to handle everything herself. After a moment, she flicked her gaze back over to the man and then back to the wall, realizing how much easier it would be to tell the story without making eye contact. “I told you Drake left a few months ago, right? That put Chase and Devan in complete charge of the pack.”

“I thought they had been alphas for the past few years?”

“Officially, yes,” she conceded, shrugging off his interruption easily, “but everyone knew it was Drake who was really in control. He didn’t want to be alpha of that pack. Chase and Devan did. They played the little puppets that he needed until he was able to move on to bigger and better things.”

“And he left everything just like that? He didn’t continue to give orders through phone calls or anything?”

“Not that I knew of. I’m sure they’re in contact in some way, but, frankly, I don’t think he would give a damn if they destroyed the entire pack. He’d have been pissed to hear what they had been planning for me, though, but only because he never would have thought Alaric good enough, and as much of a heartless bastard as he is, he never would have allowed his sister to be raped. That would look bad on him, and he expected a certain amount of respect for all purebloods, after all, especially a rare she-wolf.”

“If he was still checking in on them, then why would they risk pissing him off like that?” Matt questioned aloud, more to himself than to anyone else, trying to understand the logic behind his old pack’s alpha’s decisions... not that he was entirely sure there was ever any logic behind anything that they did.

“Because it wouldn’t piss him off after the fact.” At the look of obvious confusion she received, the woman gave a bitter laugh, sending him a small patronizing smile as if his naiveté amused her. “He’d disown me on the grounds of tainted blood; he wouldn’t be pissed after that, because it wouldn’t be an insult to him after I was no longer his sister. That’s Drake’s loyalty for you; he’ll make sure no one so much as suggests raping you, but the second someone does, you’re no longer worth avenging.”

“And your other brothers? Axel?”

The woman gave him a blank look. “Axel’s dead, Matt.”

“What? When?”

“I don’t know, man, a year? More? Less? Before Jimmy.”

“You okay?”

“It’s Axel, everyone hated that bastard more than anything. My good old mother despised that boy, especially after he changed his name to something as stupid as Axel.”

“What happened?”

She didn’t need clarification to know what he was asking. “Pissed off the Council, the stupid fucker. He always had too much of an authority problem. At least the rest of us knew when to back down.”

“Serves him right. What about the weak one, Junior?”

“Oh, God, Matt! He died just after you guys broke off from the pack. Axel’s the one that fucking killed him.”

“How did we hear about your parents but not that?”

The woman laughed at the look of complete confusion that was staring back at her. Shrugging a shoulder nonchalantly, she brushed off his concerns. “No one cared about Junior; there wasn’t anything to talk about. Pops tried to cover it up anyways, for a bit... pretended he was off on the East Coast. No one batted an eyelash when the truth came out.”

“Christ! What about Richard?”

“Rick the Dick? I honestly couldn’t tell you. He had a big falling out just before the ‘rents died. Woke up one morning and he was no longer considered part of the family; haven’t heard from him since.”

“Toni?”

That one I can tell you something about!” the woman said with a relieved smile. “Mated and has six little runts of his own, last I heard. Off somewhere in Europe with some fancy pack full of only the best bred.”

“And so went the great Rinaldi lineage.”

“Hey, hey, hey, there’s still two left,” the woman countered with a sly grin, shaking her head at the petty jab at her lineage. “Eight if you count Toni’s brood.”

“Two? I heard two dead and one possibly dead out of six. Math was never my best subject, but...”

“I’ll gladly help. Six minus two dead, minus two scratched off of the family tree... that leaves two, young grasshopper.” Giving a wicked grin as she anticipated the next question, she flipped her hair away from her shoulder and pointed at the glaring purple mark. “Consider my name scratched off and burned, Sanders.”

The vocalist shook his head in astonishment, pursing his lips as he tried to understand how the woman sitting across from him was so emotionless about all of this. Sure, she had never been close to her family for as long as he had known her, but he still never quite understood how she could just shrug all of that off of her shoulders. It was something that had always made him respect her, but it also confused the hell out of him. As his thoughts trailed back to her words and the mark that she was still pointing at, his face grew serious once again. “And you honestly expect no retaliation for that?”

“I expect Chase and Devan to throw a tantrum but to get the fuck over it without actually doing anything. They won’t feel insulted or anything, just pissed that they lost however much money Alaric had promised them for me. They’re greedy bastards, but they aren’t desperate for the money, Matt. They were more concerned with getting me off of their hands.”

Still, the larger man didn’t look convinced, but he sighed in concession and waved a hand in dismissal. “Alright, you know them better than I do. And you know your brothers better than I do, but even I know that this isn’t the nice easy break off that you described earlier. It might have been an easy break had Brian marked you, but you and I both know that it’s a completely different story because instead of going to Brian, you went to Zacky.”

“It was convenient!” Ava snapped in her defense, before carefully lowering her voice when she remembered who she was speaking to and how much she owed him right now. “We both needed a mate, and neither of us wanted one; it was the perfect opportunity. I didn’t think it’d be a big deal.”

“Bullshit!” called out the alpha as his steady look turned into a glare for a moment. “You knew it would be a big deal, because you’re not a fucking dumbass! You’re not just an opportunist, Ava; you think your shit through before you do anything because you’re a fucking manipulative genius! You always have at least four emergency exit plans and know exactly what you’re up against so that you know just how to get out unscathed. This was more than just convenient!”

“Fine!” the woman snapped back, her eyes flashing as she glared right back at him. “I might have enjoyed the added insult that it sent to all of those other fucking bastards, alright? Yeah, I had fucking ulterior motives, but it was still convenient and that was the goddamn most important factor!”

Quickly, the man’s glare softened. “I didn’t mean it as an insult, Ava,” he stressed, huffing out another sigh as he rubbed yet another palm over his face, hating how complicated absolutely everything had been since the passing of their best friend. “I only meant that you’re a survivor, and you’re damn good at it. You’re the fucking epitome of a wolf in a woman’s body, and I respect the hell out of you because of it. It works for you, and your instincts are always spot on, but I don’t think we’re seeing the same situation, Ava. Maybe you know something that I don’t and your instincts have picked up on something that I missed, but I need to know what’s going on in that goddamn maze of mind you’ve got there, Ava! I need to know what to expect.”

The woman’s expression softened as well. She owed him that much. “I don’t think it will be that big of a deal,” she told him, though they both knew that the definition of a big deal was subjective. “You don’t have to worry about anything beyond hate mail from Chase and Devan, maybe a loud visit, if they’re feeling particularly stupid. They won’t start anything serious over it, though, I’m sure of it.”

“And Drake?”

“Probably won’t hear of it,” she tried to dismiss, but sighed when she saw the expression on his face. “He probably won’t, but if he does, it will probably be far enough down the road that he won’t care. He’s got his sights set high, he won’t be looking down at what he considers the scum of the earth, Matt. Maybe he’ll try something... but he doesn’t have a pack, and with where he’s got his sights set, he won’t be stupid enough to just go crazy with rage and try to fuck with a Council-recognized pack that hasn’t broken any real law. He needs the Council to support his decisions for him to get anywhere; he won’t jeopardize that with a rash decision. He can’t legally start a war over this.”

The man nodded slowly, appreciating the insight provided and starting to feel a bit more comfortable with their odds. He still believed that there was going to be a huge backlash that would bite both of his betas in the ass over this, but he also knew better than to think that Ava would ever show all of her cards without a silver knife cutting right into her throat. She was too smart to give up everything, and he just hoped that whatever else she was still holding was enough. She had given him enough cards to play, and that was enough for now. “So how much do you know of Council law?”

Her gaze lifted to meet his at the question. “More than you,” she answered easily, before rolling her eyes at his irritated glare of a response. “I’m a Rinaldi, Matt. I know Council law, probably even better than your liaison, Jacobson.”

He arched an eyebrow questioningly, but didn’t comment. Instead, he sent a mocking grin in her direction. “Then I don’t have to tell you that I need you and Zacky to not kill each other for a while, at least until we’re official and have dealt with this rogue problem, right?”

“I wouldn’t jeopardize your pack like that, Matt,” she said with a roll of her eyes, “but if you want your beta to live much longer than that, you should make sure he doesn’t try anything stupid.”

“Oh, you don’t get to pin him on me anymore, missy,” the alpha chastised with an amused grin. He leaned back in his chair in a deceptively casual manner as his muscles remained tensed and ready. “He’s your mate before he’s my beta.” He had meant it as a joking stab at her ego, but when the woman before him didn’t spring at him as expected, he sighed and looked away, feeling all of the amusement drain out of him. It was too soon for jokes and he could sense that the atmosphere was still much too serious for it, anyways. They sat in silence for a moment, before his mind wandered back to his other packmates. Glancing back at her, he tested the air one more time. “Brian’s upset.”

The woman looked away from him, fixing her gaze on the wall. “He’ll get over it,” she said simply, her tone sure but clearly not pleased by the obvious observation.

After a few more minutes of silence, Matt could tell that the conversation was wearing too much on the both of them, and decided that he didn’t have anything else that really needed to be said. Blowing out a breath, he got to his feet and extended a hand, pulling the woman up as well before pulling her into another tight hug. “I’m sorry all of this happened, but I’m glad I don’t have to worry about not seeing you for another year anymore. Welcome to the goddamn family!”
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A great big thanks to sincere-smiles, MoMo_92, pixiesticks650, JodiVengeancefoREVer, trashlee_F, minidiva12, Ice_Cat, LouellaBelle, VRose, and Issues for being amazing and leaving lovely comments on the last chapter! I know that it really probably doesn't seem like it, because I took forever to update again, but each and every comment that you guys leave is what gives me inspiration to write.