Ava walked quietly as she felt everything was swirling around her. Her hair was disheveled and she had no footwear on. The contents of her stomach threatened an exit and she put her hands to her mouth in a bid to stop it. Everywhere she looked, she saw people. She peered into their faces but she couldn’t see any familiarity. Indeed she was lost, but she knew where she was because this was a place she came often to as a child. Yes, this was a graveyard.

“Ava! Ava! Ava! Honey!” someone called out to her. She knew that voice. Suddenly it clicked. It was her mother.

“Mum! Mum!” Ava ran into the crowd screaming. She body slammed her mother and the tears didn’t stop coming.

“Ava honey, where were you? Where did that dog drop you? Why did he take you?”

Ava shook her head. Her mother raised her neck and turned her neck and found a Mark. Ava was drugged with wolf’s bane. For yet to be turned werewolves like Ava, its effect was just unconsciousness and weakness. Luke was the next to speak.

“Marcus where did you find her,” he said while eyeing Ava. She didn’t have many bruises on her. She looked okay, just for her to pip a few pills and she would be good as new.

“ I saw her at the boundaries between the enemy zone and the Intruders pack dwellers” Marcus’s words were followed by gasps. People barely made it alive if they went there. They nicknamed there, the valley of death.

“ When I found her, she was unconscious and she had lots of wounds. So I waited out the night so that she could heal, that explains why we are coming today”

“o my God, Ava I have missed you. It feels like I was dead a few minutes ago and suddenly am alive. Thank you so much, Marcus, you just do not know how happy you have made me” Mariah said running to get hands over her daughter’s hair and removing little tree twigs and leaves.

“ Yes Marcus, we are indeed grateful to you for finding our Ava, our alpha.”. Luke said in a sweet sarcastic tone.

“Indeed it’s a pleasure, to help the pureblood. My loyalty is with you” he said with a glint of laughter I’m his eyes.

As Mariah, Ava, Luke, and others walked to the car to get home. Other people thanked Marcus and he was all smiles.. enjoying the newfound gratitude the people had for me.

When they got into the house, Ava goes straight up to her room. Mariah and the others could hear the shower running. Minutes later, Mariah goes up to her room and sees that she’s fast asleep.

She goes downstairs to find the others outside about to leave. Then Luke tells her that he needs a word with her.

They go upstairs to the bedroom.

“ Mariah don’t you think Marcus has a hand in the disappearance of Ava and he brought her back so that he can get on the good side of everyone”

“ Luke I don’t think so, I know he has doesn’t like the fact that my daughter Ava would be the Alpha, but why will he rescue my daughter since he sees her as a competition.

“ what! I can believe my ears. Mariah for peace's sake open your eyes. Don’t you know that the way he has done this now will make the elders and other clan members, put him as a contender against Ava during the alpha selection”

“ yes I know, but Ava did ask to be kidnapped by that maniac, the elders wouldn’t think so. After all, Ava has saved other pack members in the past. They wouldn’t just discredit her”

“ I just can’t believe this” Luke slammed the door on his way out.

He stepped out of Ava’s house and saw the 5 search team members talking but immediately they saw him, everyone stopped talking. He walked up to them.

“ Jeff what were about to do yesterday!?– he glared at him– you all know remember the oath you took before you took up the role as my men” they all nodded in response

“ if I should hear a word from any of you, you would be served the body parts of your family members as breakfast, lunch, dinner” Luke said gritting his teeth. And Luke doesn’t waste a threat.

While back in the house, Mariah was making dinner and suddenly she heard Ava screaming. Just like Flash, Mariah was already by her side.

“Ava honey! What’s wrong?!” Ava sits up, while hyperventilating.

“Mum it’s just a dream”

“tell me what it was about”

“ Mum I can’t remember”

“ Okay let me call Lu– “ she wraps her arm around Mariah.

“ No mum please let him be, he has had enough. I can manage”

“I don’t believe you, I’ll call your aunt, she left not long ago to check on a patient”

“ Okay, mum call aunt Marissa.” Ava chuckled.

The next 4 hours were filled with questions mostly from Aunt Marissa. Ava answered these questions cheerfully, that it would be hard to tell if Ava was the missing one and not aunt Marissa.

“Mariah she looks good to me,” Marissa said at the dinner table.

“You see mum, you worry a lot”. Ava said with a grin that reached her eyes. “ So mum can I go to school today?” Ava pleaded.

“No, you are not, you are yet to recover…and no buts,” Mariah said and resumed eating.

They all ate their found in loud silence.

Ava woke up with heads of sweat decorated all over her face. She had that dream again. She couldn’t and didn’t want to tell her mum or aunt because they would keep fussing over her and she would no longer go to school again. Her mother could be tough but to crack but she knew she, Ava was her mother’s weakness. She ran up to her mother’s room and hung around until her mother knew she wanted but to go to school. Aunt Marissa helped in convincing her mother until she yielded to her wants. Her mother later agreed, with the condition that someone in school from their pack will keep an eye on her. That wasn’t a bad idea since Ava could ditch or bribe them into letting her be.

Telling them now that she had a bad dream, will Trump all aunt Marissa’s efforts. And hers too. She would be bored watching movies and her friends kept telling her she was missing a lot in school.

So Ava stomached in everything and ran to the bathroom, she took a brief shower, jumpy into a snug blue and black top with black boots to go with it. She raced downstairs. She kissed her mum and aunt goodbye and zoomed off to school.

She parked her shiny new corolla beside a big black Mercedes. She knew that car always didn’t get parked there but that was the least of her worries. The moment Ava stepped her feet into school, she became aware of the hundred pairs of eyes on her. Some of them said hi to her, while the werewolves in school asked her if she was okay but with their eyes. She was at her locker, getting her books when she was interrupted by loud shrills and instantly she knew who it was. Hallie and Celia.

“ OMG Babe how are you, I couldn’t believe it when you told me you were coming to school today” Celia squealed.

“ Babes we’ve missed you so much,” Hallie said. They have her a big hug. They chattered like parrots and that earned them a look not only from their fellow students but from a teacher. Luckily for them, the three of them were going to have the same class. So they went together, just like before. People stopped them to say hi to Ava.

The bell rang and it signaled that it was time for lunch. They walked out of class to the cafeteria.

“ Ava try this new burger, it’s top-notch. Hallie and Celia said in unison. They all laughed and walked to a table.

“Hallie, Celia do you have English next, being I do”. Ava said peering into her class schedule. Suddenly it felt like everyone had just gotten quiet. She stared at her Friends.

“Hello!?, Guys. What’s up” she followed their eyes behind her and then she saw him. He was writing something, suddenly he turned and stared at Ava.

Ava turned immediately and shuddered. She remembered those eyes like it was yesterday.

“ Hey guys that’s him, he’s the one” Ava said tapping her friends.

“Ava that was yesterday's gist we were talking about”, Hallie said adjusting her top to show some cleavage.

“ But that was the guy who stared so hard that I thought he was sent by Marcus”, Ava said with alarm in her eyes.

“ No, Av, that’s Damian, dami for short, he’s a new student” Celia corrects her.

“ Yeah, he transferred” Hallie inputs.

Ava turned again and looked at him and he was still staring at her. Ava shuddered because there was something about his eyes that reminded her of her nightmares. She felt like those had held her close but she just couldn’t say where it was. He didn’t stop looking at her for one second. The bell for classes rang. His friends walked to the door and he followed suit. He walked with a boyish swag, that made him so likable. He stopped at the door to wait for his friends to drop the tray. While Ava and her friends dropped theirs and walked off but not for one second did he take his eyes off ever. The looks he gave Ava made her so self-aware

“OMG Ava, did you see him,” Celia said in a shell voice

“ what C?” She raised an eyebrow while controlling her breath

“ are you just blind or are you pretending that you didn’t know that he was checking you out,” Hallie said.

Ava couldn’t know what he was doing. She was concentrating on not tripping on her legs because his eyes did numbers on her. Deep down she knew she had seen those eyes but another nagged her. What if it wasn’t Marcus that saved her, what if it was someone else.