Chapter 15: Midnight Reckoning

Then Hailey moved. Her hands trembled as she picked up a jagged piece of glass lying on the floor. Without thinking, she thrust it deep into Lyon's side.

He stiffened, widening his eyes in surprise. Blood bubbled from his lips as he gasped. He tried to speak but could not utter a word. Then with one last shuddering breath, he collapsed.

For a moment, there was only silence.

Then Hailey sagged against me, shaking all over. I held her close as she pressed her heart against mine. Relief washed over me, but I knew this wasn't over.

Ava was still out there.

And she wouldn't stop till everything I valued was in ruins.

I had to end this. Once and for all.

Hailey's POV

The walls of my room actually seemed to close in on me, overwhelming me with thoughts I had eagerly tried to forget. The atmosphere was charged, and the blood raced within my ears as I walked briskly back and forth. 

Each shadow represented danger, and for sure the wind brushing against the window produced a chilling effect.

Vickson had avoided me for days, and that should have driven me to peace.

 But it only magnified my anxiety. Something was wrong and I could tell it was in my bones. The expression on his face when he looked at me, the tightness of his jaw whenever he thought I wasn't watching, seemed like he was hiding a burden too enormous even for him to handle.

After Emilia, there was a gap. She had been distant since our last conversation and the feeling that she was hiding something from me I could not shake. And Ava, she's still out there in the dark just waiting for the right time to attack.

I ran a hand through my hair sighing. It was time to relax and clear my mind. I turned towards the door as if I would leave the house at that moment and there was at that instant through the room, a sudden frantic knock. My tummy tightened as I hastened to open it.

It was Emilia. Her face was pale and her eyes were wide open as if in fright. "Hailey" she said in a low voice urgently "You have to come with me now"

I didn't ask anything. One glance from her had been enough to set my heart racing. I grabbed my cloak and followed her down the dark hallway. We spoke not a word and her pace was hurried yet cautious. The more we traveled the more I felt the weight in my chest.

We arrived at the study and Emilia pushed the door open. Inside stood Vickson, rigid, his hands curled around the desk's edge so tightly that his knuckles were whitening. His grey eyes were fixed on mine, they seemed inscrutable but somehow underneath had an air of turmoil.

"What's going on?" I asked and my voice barely above a whisper.

Vickson inhaled deeply as if preparing for the weight of his forthcoming words. "It's Ava," he said in a grim voice. "She doesn't work alone"

A cold chill swept over me. "What do you mean?" Emilia stepped forward, her voice quavering. "We intercepted a communication. Ava has been talking to an enemy pack. They are planning something big, Hailey, and it involves you and the kids."

The world tilted underneath me. My head spun. "The kids?" Panic shot through me then, and my voice cracked.

Vickson finally moved a bit, stepping closer and gripping my shoulders. "We won't let anything happen to them," he vowed. Still, his grip tightened more and his body rigid. "But we need to act now. Ava's desperate and desperate people are dangerous"

I gasped in sharp breaths, my mind racing through every worst-case scenario. My babies. I had spent years protecting them, keeping them hidden from a world that wanted to destroy them. And now…

"What do we do now?" I choked out the words as I held Vickson's gaze.

His expression darkened. "We prepare for war."

I wrapped the cloak tighter around my shoulders, and your pulse was hammering through the thick underbrush.

I wasn't supposed to be out here. Not alone, for sure, with everything that had happened.

But I had no choice

.

The earlier letter I had received that evening had shattered whatever little sense of stability I had left. One piece of paper, hidden under my pillow, carried words that sent a chill through my veins.

"You believe you have the truth? You don't. Come to the clearing beyond the river at midnight. Alone. Or else your children will foot the bill for it."

Ava. It had to be her. Who else would be cruel enough to use my kids as a pawn? 

I took a deep breath and pushed on. My hands were fists at that point, with my nails digging into my palms as I pressed on. The sheer determination to safeguard my children kept them out of the spiraling web of deception and peril that seemed to encircle me more closely each passing day.

I got to the open space and stopped there, my breath shallow as I looked around. The shadows seemed alive, confusing my mind. And then from the darkness a figure was approaching.

It wasn't Ava.

My heart almost stopped when I saw the Vickson silhouette stepping into the moonlight. His eyes were glued to mine and I saw a flicker in them. Desperation, pain and urgency.

"Why did you come?" he said softly, yet there was something in his voice that made it impossible to decode what it was

.

"You sent the note?" I inquired, almost yelling. Many feelings swirled in me – anger, confusion, hope and a fear that I should not have felt.

He shook his head. "No Hailey. But I had to get here before you did. It's a trap"

A sharp crack sounded behind me and I had little time to react as arms reached out from the shadows. Terror shot through me as I wrestled against the iron grip that was immobilizing me.

Vickson lunged in rage, charging toward me but before he could get to me, a chilling voice sliced through the air.

"Ah, how touching," Ava scoffed, stepping forward with an evil grin. "The mighty Alpha is still chasing after the girl who broke him."

I gasped for air trying to fight the grip around me as my heart was racing in fear.

Her eyes sparkling with malice, Ava raised her hand and I felt the cold dread of her power encircling me as if a noose slowly tightening around the neck. "This was it" I said to myself.