Chapter 172
Chapter 172
Avery’s POV
I was still too weak to run, so my dash up to the pack house was more of a fast–paced hobble. As I hurried along, Zara’s words kept echoing in my mind.
“He is not a patient man p>
How long did I really have before the Rogue King decided to force my hand further and escalated his torture of my mother or worse? It already tore me apart to think that it was due to me that she was subjected to the treatment I had seen on the camera feed Zara had shown me.
More than that, it did confirm the intel that Gideon had brought to me. That my mother was being held in some sort of dungeon. We had been on the right trail, but I still was no closer to finding a solution to breaking my mother out safely.
I scurried along the road up the hill to the pack house, and hoped that I would be able to find Gideon quickly. He hadn’t come to visit me this morning. Perhaps he had realized that any hope of repairing our relationship was impossible while my mother was held captive.
Another possibility crossed my mind. That Jessica had carried through on her blackmail threat and had shown him the letter I had penned to lan requesting his assistance, going behind Gideon’s back to do so.
I had given her the recommendation letter she had demanded, but what if she hadn’t upheld her end of the deal? I could be walking into that pack house into the full force of Gideon’s wrath.
But I had no choice.
Even if he wanted to punish me for my treachery and disobedience, I still needed to try once more to convince him to try and save my mother.
I would do anything he asked, if he could only do this one thing for me. I knew that pack wolf lives hung in the balance, and I was willing to offer my own in surety if needed.
My muscles were still weak from my healing and illness. I was growing winded just walking up the hill, and hauling open the massive door on the front of the pack house was harder than I remembered.
Panting, I fumbled my way up to the second floor where Gideon’s office was.
Then I froze.
Dierdra stood in the hallway, between myself and Gideon’s office. There was no way she was going to let me by.
My heart sank. The panic clawed at my throat and drove my feet forward, despite my apprehension.
Perhaps I could just veer around her …
“Stop,” Dierdra said coldly, “You are no longer permitted in this building. ”
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“I have timely news that Gideon must hear,” I said, trying to keep the desperation out of my voice.
“You may give me your message, and I will deliver it,” Dierdra said, snidely, “And then you must leave p>
“I cannot give it to you. It is for Gideon’s ears only,” I shook my head and tried to step around her, but Dierdra moved to block my path.
“Do you think that the laws of this pack don’t apply to you?” she sneered, “You are disobeying your Luna’s commands, and your Alpha’s declaration that you may not enter this house until you are fully healed. What an impertinent wolf you are, Avery. And to think, you once presumed to run this pack p>
Her words were barely registering in my ears. All I could think was that somewhere beyond that shut office door, Gideon was sitting. Gideon who held access to one of the largest packs of warriors in the territories. Gideon who knew where my mother was.
I needed to get to him. Needed.
I was staring at the door so hard, that when Dierdra moved herself into my line of sight, she flinched.
“How dare you show me the wolf in your eyes!” She berated.
Had I?
Had my eyes flashed yellow, the way Gideon’s did when his wolf was near the surface of his control?
And yet, I heard no voice from within me. My wolf had been silent since my injury, and I felt none of her
strength.
“I need. To speak. To Gideon,” I said again, biting off my words.
“And I told you, you may not!” Dierdra preened, crossing her arms, “Besides, he’s in an important meeting p>
“Get out of my way,” I hissed, taking another step forward, which put me into Dierdra’s space.
She squawked and stumbled backwards, then regained her footing and lunged forwards, pushing into my space in return. Her momentum pushed me, and my weakened muscles caused me to trip. I fell backwards, hard, and stared up as Dierdra loomed over me.
“You are pathetic, ” she spat, “A weak little human who can’t even manifest their wolf properly. You’re nothing more than a pathetic animal. Less than human, less than wolf p>
I tried to roll away, to scramble to my feet, but Dierdra moved forward and pinned my injured arm to the floor with her foot.
“ Do you want to challenge me? ” She said softly, “ Because I would greatly enjoy destroying you while Gideon watches. ”
“ My mother, ” I hissed out as pain flooded through me from her pressure on my injury, “ I need to save my
mother p>
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Dierdra laughed cruelly, “ That won’t be happening. No one can save her now. You might as well crawl off and die yourself, just like your whore mother is about to do p>
How dare she!
Suddenly my wolf’s power flooded through me in full force, and the pain in my arm abated as I yanked it from underneath Dierdra’s weight. She flailed her arms, trying to re–balance herself, and hit me in the
face with her open hand.
Snarling, I caught her hand and flung it away, sending her cartwheeling across the hallway to collide with
the door to Gideon’s office.
“You bitch!” Dierdra snarled, then she pushed off the wall and dove at me, claws outstretched, “I’m going to tear your throat out, you worthless slut p>
With my wolf buzzing beneath my skin, I saw the world through her eyes for the first time. Saw how she understood the vital, physical energies of combat. How she tracked movement, the bunching of muscles, the twitches of my opponents eyes, and offered several tantalizing methods for applying lethal
force.
“ No!” I gasped at the wolf’s suggestion that I tear Dierdra’s throat out with my teeth. Instead, I side- stepped her oncoming charge and as she went past, I shoved between her shoulderblades, sending her crashing into the floor.
“We must leave!” I said to my wolf. As much as Dierdra had picked this fight, there was almost no world in which she would be believed to be the aggressor. I needed to get away from her, and find another way to get to Gideon instead.
I whirled to the staircase just as the door to the Alpha’s office opened.
Gideon emerged, his eyes narrowed and instantly taking in my movement, poised on my toes to dash for the exit, and Dierdra’s catastrophic collision with the floor as the shove I had given her with my full wolf- strength carried her several feet down the hallway. (2)
She landed with a bonecrunching thud, and we all froze, 1
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