20 Outsiders
Everything that Avery has ever learned about werewolves, their packs, their power, their strengths and weaknesses, was rooted in the idea of belonging. To a pack. To a place. To the animal inside and the earth beneath their feet.
To an Alpha.
Despite the wars over the eons, the rise of new threats and the carnal pain in each of them, if a werewolf had its belonging, had home—there was nothing that could cause them fear.
Avery never had that luxury, before.
She closed her locker door, feeling a second pulse in her veins writhe in protest. Ever since last night, every sense, every emotion felt heightened. Avery would freak herself out thinking that her decision alone had undone the beast without even taking a life.
That the sharp scent of bleach of the janitor’s trolley passing behind her, the squeak of sneakers on the linoleum as the basketball freshmen dribbled the ball down the hall, the excited chattering of two girls a few lockers down, the smell of strawberry lip-gloss splattered as the red-faced senior dropped her bag on the floor---
Every sense was heightened in anticipation of what’s to come. And she wasn’t talking prom.
Last night had been a bit of déjà vu for Avery. Before the clock even struck midnight, she and Sawyer were trekking the familiar route in the woods, the same path he’d shown her that day they first met. Except this time, he was the one asking questions, wondering aloud why Avery was being so cryptically quiet.
Avery smiled, holding her hand out for him to take. “I don’t know,” she shook her head and looked up at the sky, at the moon that sent tremors done her spine. Around her, the forest creaked and snapped and threatened to swallow her whole, but Avery only smiled and led Sawyer further along. “All I know is that I’m no longer scared.”
Up on the glade, the rest were waiting. Laurel, Adam and Reece each had a backpack and a duffel of clothing laying down at their feet.
“There’s no backing away. We’re on the outside now,” Adam whispered, looking to his best friend for assurance.
Reece nodded, clapping Adam on the shoulder. “We’re not alone, though.”
Avery smirked, folding her arms across her chest. “I’m thrilled you’ve included me in your Kerouac adventure, but you rich kids still have a few lessons to learn.”
“Hardy har,” Reece mocked, grinning at her with his patented eyeroll. “I mean, I’ve gotten a few calls today. Maybe the pack’s got a little rebellion going on.”
“Shouldn’t even be called that,” Laurel snarked, flipping her hair angrily. “I mean, you’re not the one in the wrong. Your father is.”
The mention of his dad weighed on Reece. His shoulders sagged. For a moment he couldn’t make eye contact with anyone, only glaring hard as he kicked the grass around. “But he is still Alpha.”
“Yeah, rebellions always lose before they win. You still have a long way to go before you blow up the Death Star. That’s if you wanted to blow it up,” the last of their group said, voice trailing off sympathetically.
“Really Dayton? Star Wars?”
Dayton scoffed, jerking his head back so his hair flopped around languidly. “Then read a history book, Dunning. If these kids are going to set things right for their home pack, they have a long way to go.”
Sawyer huffed. “Dayton is right.” He gave Avery that stare, where the two of them have both been in this boat before to not give the others any false hope. “Without an Alpha, Matthew will need to do more drastic things to assure the pack survives past him. And you three without a pack, especially you Reece, the other packs will come for you.”
In the glade, a stillness swept over the six of them. The sound of the stream just out of sight bubbled in Avery’s brain. She caught Laurel’s gaze. The girls stared down hard at each other, thinking not of the obstacles on this path but the risks it would do to the ones they cared about.
Avery swallowed, shaking her head at Laurel. “Who says they don’t have a pack?” Avery asked, her eyes traveling from Laurel to Reece. “Two weeks ago, I used to be terrified of any shifter. I’m not afraid anymore. Hell, I reckon they should be afraid of us.”
None of them got much sleep. They must have been up there for hours. Starting from the very beginning, years before any of them were even thought of, Avery and Sawyer slowly started to tell them the whole truth about the real world.
Sawyer told them about Luke and the kind of man he was. He struggled to tell them how conflicted he felt about his old friend, knowing that standing with Avery has made him an enemy with the only Alpha still up and running.
Avery told them, between her mother’s journal and the files she stole from Castle, the mystic and darkness that sunk into the earth. The years where she always felt on the edge of losing control, of the risk, of the cage she had to put herself into in order to keep herself alive.
All her life Avery had lived a life that would kill the animal inside in order to preserve the animal that still lived.
It was three in the morning when they had stopped talking, Avery’s throat hoarse from the truth. Now it weighed on them all. They could hardly look at each other too long, the enormity of the world suddenly seemed to crush them all.
Avery sat cross-legged on the grass, pulling tuffs of grass out with her fingers. As she angrily dug her way into the earth, feeling breathless and eyes brimming, the necklace around her neck clinked.
Her dirty fingers slowly held the pendant. She didn’t know why she didn’t throw it away, the protection from supernatural death spell she asked Sophia to do might as well have been something much more sinister. As for James and Michael’s rings, they were her trophies. She’d taken on impossible monsters and lived to tell the tale. She had scars on her thigh from shifters, and scars on her mind from vampires.
Avery was a survivor.
“So, what are we going to do?” Reece asked. He frowned, pulling his mouth into a grim expression. “Full moon’s a week away and then we’ll have both vampires and werewolves up our asses.”
Dayton chuckled, his face disgusted. “Sounds fun.”
“I never really worked well with ultimatums. Or authority figures.” Avery shrugged, a grin stretching on her face.
Laurel smirked at her, “Tell me about it.”
Avery dusted her hands and got to her feet. “I have a plan.”
They all looked up at her with confusion and amusement in their eyes.
“First, listen. I was never the good guy. I did what I was told to do to survive. And it seems to me, Luke Andrews does what he does to survive. But I’m also not the bad guy. I’ll have to push on the limits, maybe step on a few toes, and if it comes to taking a life, so be it. But if my plan works, we can kill two birds with one stone. Maybe three if we’re lucky.”
Laurel was first up on her feet, narrowing her eyes at Avery. “Screw that restraint, Dunning. Do what you promised me. Raise a little hell.”
“Fine then,” Avery laughed, seeing the rest nod in agreement. “The protection Luke gains from Castle is protection from vampires.”
Sawyer nodded, hands digging into his pockets. “Because he is the only pack out there. There are no werewolves he needs to fear.”
“But there have been werewolves he crossed,” Avery was quick to point out. “Namely, the ones he already handed over to Castle.”
A beat. They all stared at her as if she had sprouted on an extra head.
Then Adam gave a derisive laugh. “Wait, you want to free the taken wolves, and turn them against Luke?”
Avery shrug. “The idea would be enough to make Luke backpedal and rethink coming at us. And it will set Castle way back. We have the extraction location on the files.”
They looked at each other, not entirely sold that it would ever work, but the idea was rooted in their brain. If it worked, they would make some powerful, ironclad enemies. But those enemies would be a hell of a lot more carefully when crossing lines with them. Even Matthew would rethink any offensive strike against Reece if he knew there was a true werewolf pack backing his son up.
“But Ave,” Sawyer said, his voice low and unsure. “There’s only six of us.”
Avery winked at him. “That’s why I’m working on a plan B. Call Luke back. Tell him you accept his deal.”
The more Avery took herself off the bench, actually start to play outside the lines her mother had drawn in that journal—the more Avery felt herself grow in a way she hadn’t thought it was possible. Not without getting blood on her hands.
She leaned against her locker, thinking of everything she had done these last few weeks. Where before she had hidden her pulsating lack of control by getting into street fights until she was worn out tired, now she seemed to be pushing that same force towards the real monsters.
And Avery didn’t feel an ounce of fear. She had broken her bones. Lost her mind halfway through, dug up an ugly history and survived. Avery wasn’t reeling in fear anymore. Instead she felt herself grow in power.
Grow in the same way one did when finding belonging.
“Avery?” Someone snapped, clicking their fingers in front of her face.
Avery blinked, pulling back from the stupor. “Why did you do that?”
“Because you’ve been spacing out for five minutes,” Laurel snarked, rolling her eyes. She leaned against the locker next to Avery, running her eyes up and down her body. “Clearing out?”
Avery nodded, kicking the heavy backpack that laid at her feet. “End of the week I’ll have to find a new place to stay. At least until everything blows over. Speaking of which,” she peered at the polished skin and clothing that was so Laurel, “where are you guys hiding out?”
Laurel sighed, almost as if resisting another eye-roll. “Adam and Reece are shacking up with Dayton, lord knows how that happened. And I’m staying with one of the cheerleaders,” Laurel sneered the last word.
Avery smirked, bending over to pick up her bag. “Well I guess it pays being Miss Laurel Forbes.”
“Cut it out,” she scowled, a slight fluster on her face. “I need to talk to you.”
Avery started walking down the hallway, heaving the bag over her shoulder. “If its about Luke Andrews, I told you guys I’m not saying anything until I met the guy. I need to know what he’s like myself.”
“Which I still think is suicidal, but that’s nothing new for you. No, I need your opinion on Matthew.”
Avery glanced at Laurel, the secretive tone Laurel suddenly developed letting her know there might be something stirring in the water. As they walked, Avery spotted a crowd of jocks ahead, tossing a football lazily through the passages without a care now that school was unofficially over. In the hair gelled crowd, Avery made eye contact with Dayton, who frowned back at the two.
Avery jerked her head at both of them, taking a turn into the next empty classroom.
Dayton closed the door, grinning at the two girls. “Private catfight, just for me?” he joked wiggling his eyebrows.
Avery shook her head, smiling. “Let’s hear it,” she told Laurel.
“You’re starting to take the fight back to the vamps and wolves, only now after you’ve done every bit of intel you could do. You’re right, we shifters are more fists first than brains. You’re better at the long game than most of us.”
“Thank you for that sweet praise, but what’s with the sketchiness?”
“Everything we know about Matthew, is everything he ever told us. Even if it’s like Dayton said and Reece doesn’t fight his father for the pack for another few years—”
“You still need the blueprints for the battle station,” Dayton cut in, nodding his head enthusiastically.
“One more Star Wars reference out of you, Day, and I’ll be asking if you bleed.”
“Geez, way harsh, Dunning.”
Avery rolled her eyes, turning back to Laurel. “You’re thinking about what Reece said yesterday morning, about Matthew selling rogues?”
Laurel nodded, biting on her lip. “All packs follow the same laws, and Matthews shown enough evidence to say he’s deviated from that. But if he’s selling rogue for whatever reason—”
“He might not be the only Alpha. He could be protected more than we know.”
Dayton stepped forward, coming in between the two desks where the girls sat. “Would they know about werewolves and vampires too? Because I thought that was like the elite circle of supernatural only.”
Avery tilted her head, thinking. “It’s supposed to be. But we don’t know. If the shifters do know about the older species, and the vamps found out…”
Dayton swore. “The werewolves wouldn’t be the only ones facing extinction.”
Laurel ran a hand over her face, her eyes only just peeking through the gaps between her fingers. “We need to find out what Matthew has done, and Reece can’t know until we have the paperwork to prove it. Otherwise Matthew and whoever else would just see it as an attack.”
Avery smirked at Laurel, a familiar feeling rousing. “Getting files from the enemy’s lair. Sounds familiar, doesn’t it?”
“Which is why I came to you.”
Avery jumped off the desk. “After prom,” she promised Laurel. Prom was happening that very night and Avery had a few more things to think about. “Now I need your two’s opinion on something and the others cannot know.”
Dayton folded his arm, peering down seriously. “Shoot.”
“We have a plan A. My plan B involves manipulating Luke’s fear. But if that doesn’t work, I have an idea I’m terrified to even consider. But maybe I should.”
Laurel reeled back, narrowing her eyes suspiciously. “What’s more dangerous than your back up plan?”
“You guys remember what I told you about the Novaks?”
Both nodded.
Avery swallowed, beginning to pace up and down the aisles as she thought out loud. “Everything we know about the Novaks point to them being the evilest, most rotten monsters out there. Enough to scare Castle. I’ve read the files over and over and the things they’ve done….” Avery shuddered.
“But then again, everything we know is from Castle’s perspective, who we already know one hundred percent is evil.”
“You’re not seriously thinking the first vampires that cannot be killed are good guys?” Laurel scoffed.
Avery shook her head. “No. Too much evidence point to them being monsters, true monsters. But the Novaks and I do share an enemy. The Novaks and my pack were allies for over five hundred years, enough so that Claire Novak herself tried to avenge my pack. I was face to face with Nathaniel Novak and he didn’t even try to kill me, where Castle has been trying all this time.”
She took a breath, looking up to see them both giving her that incredulous stare.
“Really?” Dayton laughed mirthlessly. “The enemy of my enemy is my friend? Avery, that’s nuts.”
“Yeah,” Laurel agreed. “You’ll just be adding more venom to a melting pot.”
“Listen,” Avery protested, running her hands through her hair. “I get that’s it’s the craziest thing I’ve ever said. But remember the whole point of Castle’s mutilating quest is to kill the Novaks. If they knew he was trying that, would they, the big bads, want to take him out first.”
“Eri Novak was the one to start Legion, right?” asked Dayton, holding his hand out to Avery. “You saw all those pictures of Castle and Claire Novak being chummy? So he wants to stab them in the back, but for immortals that’s nothing more than a friend telling you a white lie you’ll forgive in a few days.”
“I think trying to kill them is slightly worse than that.”
“And I think you’re trying to hold on to any connection to your family. I don’t mean to be harsh Ave, but you’re reaching. That alliance doesn’t exist anymore, and you don’t know why it existed in the first place. You don’t even know what you’d be risking with the Novaks. You could just end up making things worse.”
“Damn it,” Avery swore, turning around on her heel. She wanted to believe there could be a clear shot to taking out Castle, that she didn’t have to slew through the dirt like she had planned. She wanted to know why her family would ever place their lives in the hands of vampires.
Dayton stepped closer, she could hear his unsteady breath behind her. “You want to rescue those other wolves. You want to stop Castle before he burns the world. You want to do good and you can’t do that by siding with the bad.”
Avery used to want home. Sawyer said darkness was a part of being a wolf. And her mother said being a wolf meant freedom.
Avery’s enemies were all around her, trying to box her in. Restrain every movement. Blind her eyesight. Weaken her resolves. They’re tried to put her in a cage.
“You’re right,” she sighed, letting go of that maniac breath. “Tomorrow we do intel on Matthew, Luke will be here soon after and then we rescue those wolves.”
But the thing with putting a wolf in a cage, is that the animal always breaks free. Avery had her pack. Avery had her faith. She had power where she never thought she’d ever grasp it. And even if she would never lay eyes on her homeland, Avery felt herself belonging into this world, belonging to no one else but herself.
Avery Dunning doesn’t march to the rhythm of their beat. No, she will sing her own tune. And it will be a wolf’s roar.
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As I was writing this chapter I realized something. We're getting closer and closer to the end and soon we'll have to say goodbye to Avery and all these characters. Dammit it, made me cry.
So I'm getting in the good, awesome bits before that end comes, and maybe lay some groundwork for future stories.
Until Tuesday.