Awakening The Silver Wolf

RAVENNA POV 

I hadn't even closed the door to my room before Mia was on me. 

"Tell me everything," she said, dragging me towards the bed.

"What's everything that I'm supposed to tell you?" I asked, confused as Mia particularly threw me on the bed and climbed in, sitting leg-crossed opposite me. 

"Everything that just happened in the office between the alpha and you." 

Heat rushed to my face. "Oh. There's really nothing to tell, Mia."

"Oh, shut your mouth," she chuckled. "Your red face gave you away." Her eyes dropped to my lips and a smirk curved her lips. "Your lips are swollen too. And," she continued, dragging the word, "the way the alpha had looked at you says everything. You were all he was seeing, Ravenna. I didn't exist." 

I looked away, the heat spreading. "It's not like that." Liar. It was a matter of fact like that.

"Mmm-hmm," she grinned wickedly, unconvinced. "Now spill." 

I heaved a deep sigh before I mirrored Mia's posture, and then I shrugged. "We just kissed." 

Mia arched an eyebrow. "Just kissed?"

I nodded. "Yap. What were you expecting?"

"I don't know. For clothes to come off? You know."

A cloth did come off. I shifted in my position, suddenly uneasy. "Did you…" I swallowed. "Did you know what his father did to him?"

Mia's playful expression vanished and her face became hard. "Yes," she answered, her voice like steel. "I knew what that fucker did."

"Have you seen it?" I whispered, my heart aching when I recalled Darius' back. 

Mia shook her head. "He doesn't shift in front of the pack like the rest of us do. And now I know why."

"It was brutal, Mia," I whispered, my eyes burning. "And to think that he was just a child. Ten years, for fuck sake!"

Mia stared down at the bed, her eyes distant. "We used to play together," she said, her voice low. "Him, Lucian, and I. Our fathers were all close so we grew up together. And then when his mother died I stopped seeing him. The few times I saw he was either limping or his face would be twisted like he was in pain." 

A tear rolled down her cheek. "I never knew, and neither did Lucian. He hid it well from us. It wasn't until we were nineteen that we finally knew what was going on. Nine years, he suffered alone." A sob burst out of her. 

If I didn't know how much Mia cared for Darius before, I know now. 

I squeezed her knee gently as I tried to hold my own tears back. The both of us couldn't be crying at the same time, it would be a mess. 

When Mia got herself together she cleaned her eyes, and continued, "Lucian and I decided to sneak into his room when we started seeing him less and less. And that was when we saw what his father was doing to him. We couldn't tell anybody because his father had threatened that he would do worse to him if we spilled a word. Nobody in the house or pack knew, but sometimes I think Anya does, but she was as helpless as we were." 

She took a deep breath. "He was never alone since that day. We would always sneak into his room every night and check on him, but I never saw the worst of what his father did to him."

I clenched my fists tightly. "If that bastard was still alive I would have killed him, painfully and slowly." 

"Oh, he did die painfully and slowly," Mia said with a cruel smile. "Not just slowly enough."

"Darius said he poisoned him."

Mia's smile grew. "I helped." 

I smiled back. "I knew I liked you for a reason." 

"When we turned twenty we started plotting," Mia continued, her expression serious again. "Darius was tired of being treated that way so we planned to kill his father. With poison as you already know. To this day I still don't know where Lucian got the poison from."

"What kind of poison?"

"Thallium." 

I shivered. Thallium was one deadly poison. 

"We put small amounts in the former alpha's food," Mia said. "So it doesn't kill him immediately. He suffered for three months. His death was so satisfying." 

Just hearing about it alone made me satisfied. 

"Ravenna." 

I looked back at Mia, shocked by how hard her voice was when she called my name. "Yeah?"

"Do you have feelings for Darius?"

"I... " I glanced down at my palms before I looked back at Mia. "I like him."

"Like," Mia scoffed, shaking her head before she glanced at me again. "Darius is crazy about you, Ravenna. Don't hurt him. I love you, baby girl, but I love Darius more."

I nodded. "Noted." 

Darius was that crazy about me? How did that make me feel? Flattered, for one.

"Good." Mia patted my knee. "Now let's unpack."

***

"Is it just me or is the pack busier today?" I asked as we went down for breakfast the next day.

"It's busier," Mia answered as we walked inside the dining hall. "I heard the alpha has a new ally and they're coming to finalize it."

I picked up my tray and started piling it up. "Really? What pack?"

Mia shrugged. "I have no idea. Guess we'll find out today."

We filled our tray and headed to our normal table, feeling eyes and whispers on us all the way through. 

Over the weeks the whispers and stares haven't stopped but they have certainly changed. People no longer talked about the traitor and her human friend. They now talked about the alpha's claimed human.

That was one hell of a headline. 

We sat on our seats and immediately dug in, not making any conversations like usual and just filling our mouths. 

I had grown out curves I never knew I had since I came to the pack, with how much I was eating. 

I felt the back of my neck prickled and I turned. My eyes met mismatched eyes and a shiver passed through me. 

Darius smiled at me, the smile small and looking like we both shared a secret. Did we? 

I smiled back at him and waved.

Hold the fuck on. Waved? I fucking waved at him! What the fuck?!

I looked away and turned back to my food, my cheeks burning. I heard him chuckle and my face burned more.

"So this is love," Mia singsong and I shot her a look that could make a flower withered. She pressed her lips together but it was useless. The smile broke through. 

I picked up my now empty tray and walked to the tray return station before I left the hall, Mia following behind me with a laugh. 

I need a new friend.

Later, in the afternoon when Mia and I were rounding up our training, the sun sitting high in the sky. We were wiping sweat from our brows when we heard a low, melodic chime rang out from the direction of the pack's central gathering area.

"It seems our visitors have arrived," Mia said, wiping her mouth with her sleeve when she finished drinking water. "Wanna check them out?"

I nodded. "Sure."

By the time we reached the clearing, the rest of the pack had gathered, forming a welcoming circle. The place was crowded and since I was too short I couldn't see anything. 

And then the circle began to clear as Darius walked through, his suit neatly pressed on his wonderful body, his hair falling to his shoulders. Butterflies formed in my belly at the sight of him. 

Those butterflies turned into bats when I saw the people walking behind him. 

There, with their heads held high were Lucas and Zara.