Novak Raven (Harper's Mountains Book 4) (20 page)

If he wanted kids someday, Avery swore to herself she was going to give him the best, happiest nest she could. Even if she had no tools, or any idea how to do that because she hadn’t grown up in a normal household, she was going to ask the other women in the Bloodrunners. She’d watched Harper, Alana, and Lexi draw infinite smiles from their mates. So, fuck her past. Avery had strong women to look up to now. She wiped her eyes again, drying her cheeks completely.

Someday, she was going to be a strong woman, too. She was going to earn her place in the Bloodrunners, and she was going to be so fucking proud of the work she put in to get there.

“Hey!” Someone yelled right outside of her room. “How did you get in here? Don’t take that! Stop!”

The small window on Avery’s door shadowed with nurses running down the hall to the right. What the hell? She padded over to the door and stood on her tiptoes, craned her neck, and looked as far down the hallway as she could see. A flash of red hair bolted away from the nurses, and Ryder’s most psychotic laugh echoed through the thick door.

Weston’s face appeared in front of her window, scaring her nearly to death. He cast a glance over his shoulder at the grand chase Ryder was leading the hospital staff on. Through the remaining sliver of window Avery could see out of, Ryder was flapping his arms and squawking like a total nutcase.

“Move back quick,” Weston murmured over the jingle of keys.

As she backed away, the lock clicked, and the door swung open. Weston rushed inside and closed the door behind him.

Stunned, she stood there frozen while he checked the window down the hall both ways. But when he turned around, looking like a million bucks in his black T-shirt, backward hat, and big old muscles poking out everywhere, her body loosened right up.

“Weston!” She launched herself at him and clung to him like a flying squirrel catching a tree trunk. God, the relief she felt when he crushed her to him was insane.

“Ave, we don’t have much time.”

“Are you breaking me out of here?” she asked, hope nearly choking her.

He eased back and cupped her cheeks, but his eyes were hard and worried. That and they were black as night. Something was wrong. “This is where you have to make a choice. A detective has been working on getting a warrant to search Raven’s Hollow, but he has no evidence of anything illegal to get one. If I break you out of here, it’ll cause trouble, not only for you, but it’ll make us look guilty.”

“Us. You mean the Bloodrunners? But you didn’t kidnap me!”

“Ave, they sliced up a video of when they came in the shop yesterday. It looks bad. I look bad. You look like a victim, and the ravens have threatened to go to the media.”

“No,” she whispered, horrified. “They can’t do that. This is all a lie. I want to be with you!”

“Shhhh,” Weston said, stroking his thumb across her cheek. “And we will be together. No matter what, we will. But the ravens are after us, for revenge on my mom or on shifters outside of their community, or maybe on me, I don’t know. They will haunt us if we don’t put a stop to their manipulation.”

“What can I do? Weston, should I leave? I can’t have the Bloodrunners under attack from the public. I can’t! I love them. I love you. Do I run? Hide? Maybe they’ll forget about me if I just disappear for a while.”

Weston shook his head slowly, eyes locked on hers. “Avery, I don’t think you’re a runner, and I don’t think you’ll be happy with that decision.”

“Then what? How do I protect you? How do I protect the Bloodrunners?”

Weston swallowed hard, and his skin paled. Slowly, he eased something small and brown out of his pocket. “Remember the spy cameras I told you about in that letter? The ones Ryder and I used to spy on Willa’s Wormshack?”

She took it gingerly between her finger and thumb. It was so much tinier than she’d imagined. “Yeah.”

“Ave, the detective needs evidence. Concrete, undeniable evidence that you’ve been mistreated. Evidence that can get Caden and the rest of the council taken out of power so the ravens can recover and rebuild, if they want. Evidence that will take Caden and whatever game he’s playing out of our lives forever.”

“Evidence of what?” Oh, she already knew the answer. The two words were already scratching against the back of her mind like nails on a chalkboard, but she needed to hear it. She needed to know exactly what Weston was asking her to do.

“He needs evidence of The Box.”

There was yelling outside, and a couple nurses rushed by again, so Weston pulled her to the side of the door so they couldn’t see him.

The Box? She wanted to fall apart just thinking about going back there. She wanted to cry, hold onto her memorized letters, and curl up in a ball on the floor. Willingly go back into The Box?

But the vision of her fantasy, of Weston telling their child someday that she would be a fierce lady raven like Avery, drifted across her mind. If this were Lexi, Harper, or Alana being called to help the crew, they would do it. Without a shadow of a doubt, Avery knew they would.

And she wanted to be strong like that. She wanted to earn her place in the Bloodrunners at Weston’s side. She wanted to protect them. If the ravens stripped the crew down in the media and ruined their names, their good reputation, and Avery did nothing to stop it, she would never be able to forgive herself.

This was her chance to be the heroine of her own story.

This was a chance to feel like she matched Weston because, if she could do this, if she could pull this off and pluck Caden from power, she was rising up like a phoenix, just like Weston believed she could.

She couldn’t depend on Weston to go into the heart of Raven’s Hollow and break into The Box. The council had put a lot of effort into luring him to The Hollow, and instinct said it was for dark reasons. She couldn’t lose Weston. Couldn’t risk him getting hurt, or worse. She didn’t want him inside the gates, gathering evidence that she could do on her own.

She forced the words out. “I’ll do it.”

More yelling. A nurse shouted from outside the room that she was going to check on patients. Their time was up. Avery closed her fist around the camera and nodded at Weston’s questioning glance. In a determined whisper, she said, “I can do this. Wait for me outside the gates of Raven’s Hollow. Don’t come in, no matter what. I can do it as long as I know you’re close, but if I think you’ll risk yourself or the crew, I’ll screw this up. Promise me you’ll wait.”

The blood drained from Weston’s face, and he stood straighter. “I promise I’ll wait. I know you can do this, Avery.” He gripped her shoulders tightly and leaned down to her eye level. “I can’t explain how right now, but I’ll be there with you.”

And she understood. He would be there with her. He would be in her mind, in the letters he’d written as a boy. In the words she would recite when The Box swallowed her up. And she loved him even more for it.

“Go now,” she murmured. “I’ll go home with my parents. I’ll get the evidence you need.”

Weston straightened, lifted his chin, and smiled proudly at her. “Push the button on the back of the camera. The green light on the side will flash twice to tell you it’s working. It’ll store three hours of video and will pick up the audio. As soon as you have enough, get out of there. Come to the gate. Come to me, and I’ll take you home, and everything will be okay.”

Everything will be okay. Oh, what a beautiful promise that was.

Her voice would shake if she used it, and she wanted to be strong for Weston, so she nodded once.

His lips crashed against hers, and he plunged his tongue past her lips. A soft whimper escaped her because she understood the desperation in this connection. If something went wrong… No, she couldn’t think like that. This wasn’t it. She didn’t go her whole life in darkness only to reach the light and then fall. Her time with Weston wasn’t done. Her time in Harper’s Mountains wasn’t done. She just needed to tie up the loose ends with the people who had hurt her. She had work to do. And when it was through, she would claw and fight to get back to her Weston, her mate, her life, her love.

Weston pulled away abruptly at a knock on the door. Ryder shoved open the cracked door. “We have to go now.” He looked panicked, but still took a moment to look at Avery. “I like your dress.”

Avery looked down at her thin hospital gown. It was nearly see-through, hung crooked, and fit like a burlap sack. “Um…thanks?”

“You’re welcome.” Ryder yanked Weston’s arm, and they bolted out the door. And just before it swung closed behind them, Weston shot her one last look that said so many things without the use of a single word.
Be careful. I’ll wait for you. You can do this. I love you.

She ran to the door as it clicked shut and watched him and Ryder bolt down the empty hallway. The panic was flaring in her chest at being in a white room with the door closed, but this was just the warm-up. Soon, things would be so much worse.

Patty was coming down the hall from the opposite end, checking doors, so Avery ran to the bed, sat down, and pulled up the hem of her dress. There was a thick stitching at the bottom, but she ripped the thread viciously for an inch until there was a little pocket right near her left ankle. She secured the camera inside and settled the fabric over her lap as the door lock turned.

“Are you okay?” Patty asked.

Avery nodded her head Jerkily. “I’ve had time to think.”

“Okay.” Patty looked flushed and distracted and glanced down the hallway in the direction Weston and Ryder had disappeared. “What did you think about?”

Avery blew out a steadying breath. This was the point of no return. This was her making the decision officially to volunteer for The Box.
Be brave, little phoenix.

“I want to see my parents. I’m ready to go home.”

“This wasn’t how it was supposed to be for you,” Dad said.

Mom had been angry, crying intermittently, but she hadn’t said a word since Avery had been released from the hospital. It was shocking that Dad was the one who broke the silence.

“You mean I wasn’t born to bring the Novak Raven here?” Avery asked sarcastically.

“You’ve lost your damn mind if you think you’re going to talk to me like that, Avery Marie Foley. You’ve spent too much time out there with those animals—”

“I’m an animal—”

“You’re a civilized shifter—”

“I’m just like them!” Avery barked out. How had she said “Yes, sir” to all the bullshit he’d spewed over the years? Everything was different now. Everything. The way she felt about herself, the way she felt about other shifters and humans. The way she saw the world.

The ravens of The Hollow were jaded. The men were so domineering, the women so demure, and no one had challenged them enough. So here they were, a community cut off from the world, treating women like shit. Fucking barbarians.

“You will have to change your clothes before we enter the gates,” Dad said.

“Hard pass, these are comfortable.”

“Shorts up your ass and your chest hanging out for everyone to see. That’s not how the mate of a future council member should dress.”

“Stan,” Mom warned in a soft voice.

“Oh don’t you fuckin’ argue with me, too—”

“Don’t talk to her like that,” Avery said, resting her forehead against the back window.

Mom was crying again in the passenger seat, her shoulders shaking with silent sobbing. Avery had forgotten what it was like for a little while, but now seeing Dad put Mom in her place made her sick. Weston would never, ever treat her like that.

Mom had lied and betrayed Aviana, betrayed Avery, but she didn’t have any control over her life, and there was something incredibly tragic about that.

“You will change your clothes, or you’ll go in The Box.”

Avery closed her eyes against the fear in those two words. She blew a breath onto the window and drew a little raven in the condensation just to feel closer to Weston.

Voice trembling, Avery told him, “I’m coming home, but I won’t be cowering anymore. You will just have to get used to me.”

“The hell I will!”

“You will!” she yelled. “You should’ve a long time ago. You should’ve loved my raven, not trained her to be nothing. To be invisible. Mom, stop crying. Stop it. Dad’s a shit. He always has been. Leave his ass. Leave him. Why did you marry him in the first place? And don’t tell me for love because I’ve never seen him say a single supportive thing to you.”

Dad gripped the steering wheel so hard it creaked, and his profile turned beat red.

“I married him for the same reasons you have to marry Benjamin.”

“I’m not marrying that douchebag. I would literally rather sit my bare vagina on a cactus than walk down any isle to that prick.”

“What’s wrong with you?” Dad bellowed. “He can provide for you.”

“He’ll hurt me.”

“So what?
So what
? If you weren’t such a mouthy woman, he wouldn’t want to. You have no one to blame but yourself. No one.”

She opened her mouth to tell him to go fuck himself, but ahead, the gates to Raven’s Hollow lumbered, heavy and made of wrought iron. Two giant decorative ravens faced each other in the center, like great warriors guarding something precious. But raven shifters had never been warriors. None of them had but Aviana Novak, and her son, the Novak Raven. Everyone else had gotten so messed up and just dug deeper and deeper until they didn’t remember how to be okay anymore.

The gates opened, and Avery’s gaze followed the two men who stood somberly beside it, ready to close the iron barrier back against the outside world.

“Why am I here?” she asked softly, tears burning her eyes. “Why did you work so hard, lie so much, and put my friends in danger to bring me back to this place?”

“Because,” Dad said hoarsely. “The Novak Raven can’t lift our rank anymore. Only Benjamin can. He is in line to take Caden’s place. He has no heir. Any revenge he wanted on his mate will pass down to Benjamin.”

“Caden had a mate?” Avery asked, confused. First she’d found out Caden had been engaged to Aviana, but now he’d bonded to a mate? He’d always seemed to hate the fairer sex.

“Aviana was his mate,” Dad gritted out. “She’s the fucking queen of our people, but she’s been sitting on the throne of the Gray Back Crew this whole goddamn time, completely unreachable. Protected from Caden’s wrath by Damon, by Beaston, by the shifters of those mountains. She had a duty to Caden. She should’ve bore a son for him, not for some fucking grizzly. Weston should’ve been Caden’s heir, but because of the actions of his mother, his bloodline is tainted. She failed as a mother and a mate.”

“She was a great mother, and she was never Caden’s mate,” Avery ground out. Romance-less marriage contracts didn’t a mate make. That was like calling Mom Dad’s mate. If she was, he wouldn’t be able to treat her like he did.

And oh, she could see it now. She could imagine how Caden had obsessed over Aviana Novak over the years, waiting on a chance to exact revenge on the woman he felt like he
owned
. Benjamin saw Avery the same way. That they had to have the women who didn’t want them back was a sure sign of their monstrous egos. Something was seriously wrong with the men in this community.

Dad drove up the winding mountain road, past the houses that were dimly lit. It all looked so eerie in the dark. This wasn’t home anymore.

“Caw!”

Avery lifted her gaze to the tree branches above the road.

“Caw! Caw! Caw!” The branches were heavy with ravens welcoming her back to Hell.

Chills rose all over Avery’s body. The whole town seemed to be Changed. What if Weston got too close to the gates? What if he was seen? His raven was massive, much bigger than any raven here. He would be recognizable.

Weston knew how to take care of himself. She’d never seen him falter, never seen him hesitate. Even last night, he’d broken into the hospital within six hours of her being there and gotten away with it. She’d heard the nurses talking about how the redheaded man had gotten away. They hadn’t even mentioned Weston.

He could be a ghost when he wanted to.

Dad didn’t even bother to take her home to change her clothes. Instead, he stopped directly in front of the council house and got out.

Avery clenched her shaking hands. Her palms were sweating just thinking about what waited for her inside.

Dad opened her door and murmured, “I’m sorry, Avery, but you will have to be reconditioned to accept life here.” The apologies of an asshole.

She stood slowly, her legs and arms heavy as lead. Mom was staring at Dad like he was a monster, and she had the right of it. He was so deep in his belief The Box was okay because it wasn’t physically hurting her that he’d lost his sense of right and wrong. Or maybe he’d never had it in the first place.

Avery hugged her mom. She wished she could hang onto her anger, but Mom had tried to save her in her own way. She’d encouraged her to go out in the real world and grow roots near the Novak Raven. Maybe that was all part of some fucked-up revenge plan on Aviana, but Avery was clinging to the thought that Mom also wanted to protect her from the life she hated. She clung to the idea that Mom wanted better for her.

Mom hugged her shoulders tight and didn’t let go until Dad pried them apart. “People are watching,” he muttered, tugging her hand hard.

“Where is Caden?” she asked. Usually he was the one to do the honors.

“He’ll be here any minute. He and Benjamin gave an extra statement at the station before they began their drive.”

Avery was panicking. With every step through the sprawling entryway, down the hall, down the basement stairs, her heart felt like it was going to beat out of her chest.

Dad stopped in front of the door of The Box. Inside, the single hanging lightbulb was already turned on, swinging gently in the frigid air from the vent above.

The tendrils of frosty air stretched into the hallway and surrounded her, beckoning her inside as if the room had missed her warmth. “How long do I have to stay down here?” Avery whispered meekly. She wished her voice was stronger.

Dad looked like the grim reaper in the swaying, harsh light. “As long as it takes.”