27 Home
Maybe battle isn’t the right word, that seemed to be something more grand and
glorious. It just wasn’t desperate enough. But “fight” really didn’t serve up to the memory and gravitas of what happened that night.
Blood and Novaks and Luke and wolves and vampires and coming back to life…
There were scars she wouldn’t heal from this time, some running deeper than her marred face. But Avery accepted it. The pain and the hurt and the relief when her lungs still worked, and heart still pumped seemed to be the most realest feeling after all that crazy. A small token, tangible proof that she was still alive.
The hours that followed…. They were near disorientating but still grounding.
Claire Novak didn’t explain much, “not yet,” she only told Avery. But the scary part of her was yet to be revealed when she spoke in action. Instead the woman slowly simmered down from her own hurricane of death, nodding her head at Avery to follow. The scary part was that Claire understood that Avery was deathly afraid—for her friends’ wellbeing.
So no deliberating, no ultimatums or compromises or any scheme as Arturo
Castle would have done. Claire got into Avery's trusty Jeep without invitation, blood-soaked and whistling as she played Candy Crush on her phone.
“I think I’m going to throw up,” Avery muttered, feeling her head spin as she got in with the dark queen.
As Sophia said, Castle had moved everything in advanced. They drove two hours, with Claire only asking a few questions about Avery’s life alone. The woman had more tact than her counterpart, Nathanial, seeming curious as to how Avery had stayed a nobody all these years.
Avery was too tired to play coy, so she answered. Claire didn’t seem to want to tear her throat out, and honestly Avery knew there would be nothing she could do to stop Claire if Claire wanted too.
The large factory was set up like a mad science lab, medical equipment, cold storage, rows of gurneys, vials of blood and venom and cruel looking instruments. But nearly empty.
Cocking her head to the side, Claire heard a scuffling somewhere, told Avery to be quiet and together they tiptoed to the locked storage on the end. Claire broke the handle off with a clean snap, throwing the door wide open and there were Sawyer, Reece, Adam and the rest of the shifters, blistered skin as a fog of wolfsbane smoke slithered out the small room.
It took them a few hours to heal up, but Avery had never been more happy to see Sawyer. He took one look at her and knew something was beyond wrong. He wrapped her in his arms, crushing her against his chest and she finally cried. Maybe until morning, maybe only a few minutes, she can’t remember. She could only remember him cradling her all the while, running his hands over through her hair and reminding her that it would be okay.
Afterwards, Claire lit the whole building on fire. Enough that Castle wouldn’t have a syringe to save. “And if it’s any consolation, my family will hunt him down,” she said with a careless shrug.
The days that followed were even more of a haze.
Reece, Adam, Sawyer and Avery went back to Jackson, one final time.
They trekked all the way up the forested mountain, and buried Laurel way above. It broke them. Seeing the mound, standing there in silence only holding Sawyer’s hand. Breathing in the cold night air and thinking how did it come to this. Once Laurel and Avery couldn’t stand each other and now Avery wanted that snarky blonde to be standing next to her more than anything.
All four of them said the same thing. It was hard to imagine a life without Laurel Forbes.
Claire had one last thing to do before she went her own way. With Avery and her friends’ grief fueling their bodies, the five of them set out on destroying all evidence of what Castle was trying to do. Claire was pretty vindictive with shredding all that paper, even more so when a rogue vampire came along still believing in the doctrine. But they rescued the wolves.
Seven frail, thin werewolves, some haven’t seen the sun in months if not years. It was as much for them to handle as it was for Avery and Sawyer. The younger ones were pretty hostile, and Claire was less than kind when their behavior was not all that gratuitous. Avery had to intervene several times, and Sawyer had to intervene a few more when the wolves lashed out and tried to take her head off.
But it was understandable. These people were kept as prisoners, cattle for Castle to milk and drain.
It took a few days for everyone to get their heads together, to make a plan. In those few days it was enough for the group to splinter off.
First was Claire.
She was surprisingly calm and poised, normal when she wasn’t being a total nightmare. She sometimes slipped off to make a few calls, and Avery didn’t press.
Then one day Claire nodded her head and Avery walked over, her skin not crawling but her heart still pounding whenever she neared the other woman.
“It seems you have your hands full with this lot.”
Avery glanced over her shoulder and watched the crowd. Most of Reece’s shifters weren’t all that social with the werewolves, but they were of strong willed. Adam was having a hoot, playing a game of soccer with Sawyer and three other wolves, Reece calmly standing back and watching. Reece had his brooding face on, thinking hard.
“I’m still adjusting,” Avery answered truthfully.
Claire nodded. “You know what you’re going to do with them?”
She shook her head.
“Well, if I can give you some advice, take them home. The old hunting grounds still stand, and I might know of one or three wolves that survived the purge that killed your family.”
Avery stilled, her head reeling. “In New Orleans?”
“It might give you the answers you’re looking for. So if you do, come find me and we’ll talk.”
And that’s how she left, as dramatic as she came. But knowing Avery could find out the truth, put the last piece of the puzzle in the frame sat with her for weeks.
Even during the full moon, which was the second most scariest thing she had ever seen.
A few days before, they all packed up and moved further north, trying to loose themselves in the woods before the full moon. Sawyer wanted Avery to stay in town while it all happened but she wouldn’t leave him. After everything that happened, she wouldn’t leave him for one night.
And after everything, nearly killing, Avery needed to see it for herself.
So the shifters helped chain everyone down, deep in the forests. No one else was around for miles. There was fear all around. The shifters and Avery for what they were about to witness, Sawyer for where Avery and his brother stood in the middle of this, and the rest of the wolves being restless as this was the first time in a long time when they could just be themselves.
When the moon reached its peak, the first bone broke. It was like a bad special effect. The vertebrae under their skin pushed and lengthened and rippled. Their shoulders rolled until they were screaming face first in the dirt. Their legs snapped in half. Skin broke around their growing fingernails. For Sawyer it took just under an hour. For some it took up to three hours of their bodies breaking before they were animals.
They broke through every chain like it was nothing. A few of the trees that they were bound to snapped like twigs under the force. The wolves were snarling, wild and savage. With their new senses locking in, they picked up on the human, on Avery and leaped forward to attack.
Sawyer explained it beforehand. Wolves only recognize other wolves. Everything else was prey. Not even Sawyer, in that first moments after he turned, recognized Avery. But the shifters had turned, their wolf form forming a barricade around Avery.
The werewolves skidded to a halt, pausing. She could see their ears prick, snouts low as they considered. It was a few minutes, them being confused by their descended shifters and Avery standing their before recognition finally came and they saw Avery for one of their own.
She held her breathe, hands braced for anything. And then she watched as one by one they bowed they heads to her, tails tucked. Her heart skipped but it was only for a moment before the eight turned on their heels and ran.
The morning found her sleeping against a tree, curled underneath a blanket. She awoke to bright light filtering the woods, Sawyer curled up against her legs with his hands out stretched onto her lap.
She took a moment to look around, seeing wolves and shifters all around their small camp. With the morning light, the call of the birds and smell of the earth, it felt better. Everyone was still asleep, snoring in bunches around a dead fire. She spotted a few beer bottles lined up on a rock, a fresh dirt smell roaming the place that settled her heart.
The shifters were the next to go, and that was harder than she was prepared for. But it had to be done. The four of them were doing their best not to cry, forming a huddle together.
But Reece had to learn how to lead his pack, had to find his way and come back and set his father straight. And Adam would follow his best friend, his Alpha, wherever he went. Avery knew it wasn’t goodbye, not for real. Despite being two different species, they would always be one pack. They were family and when the time came they would fight together again.
“You know,” Reece told her before driving off. “what you managed to achieve here, if I hadn’t seen it, I wouldn’t have believed it. You’re a legend, Avery Dunning. I’m glad to call you my friend, and role model.”
“You’re going to make me cry,” she laughed, pulling him in for one last hug.
“Well who would have thought to see the day scary Avery Dunning would cry.”
“Shut up, Adam.”
For a few weeks after that, things were still up in the air. One or two wolves went, trying to seek their old family and packs. But most stayed, surprising even Avery. But the strangest thing was Sawyer starting to call her Alpha whenever the other wolves asked for guidance.
“She’s the one that rescued all of us. She’s the one that makes the plan to keep us safe, and she’s the one I put my faith in. She’s Alpha.”
By the second full moon, she had her pack. Six wolves called her Alpha, and their animals recognized her as such. Maybe word was getting around—an Alpha and a small pack of werewolves, something that hadn’t existed in a long time—because they got word from the outside as well.
Dayton had put his New York cruising plans on hold. He couldn’t do the normal human summer before college when his best friend was leading a pack of werewolves — his words. With his ear to the ground, Dayton received a message which he passed on to Avery.
With Castle ruined, Luke Andrews had nothing but his pack. But even the blow to his reputation couldn’t stand the fact that now he was no longer the only werewolf Alpha left. Especially one that he failed to kill, and she nearly killed him in return. His pack wouldn’t stand for it, and he had a point to prove. Neither were the bad guy in this scenario, Luke had to go straight without Castle, but it was the way things had to be done.
The newly reinstated Wolf Kings were at war with the Hunting Dogs.
Trying to adjust, Avery called Luke on her way to her next destination. “Are you sure? Wouldn’t it just be better for our whole species to just let things be?”
He sighed on the other end. “You know I like you, Avery. I get why those wolves are following you. But too much bad blood. It’s the way things were even before there were vampires.”
“Maybe the way things were isn’t the way to survive, Luke.”
“This isn’t personal, Ave. But anyone that does the initiation into your pack gets what my men are missing. I have to prove my worth to them, show them I can still keep them safe.”
“So be it,” she said, hanging up the phone.
War with the Hunting Dogs.
One chapter closed and another one opened. Clean slate is what she needed. And to do that, Avery needed to put an end to her ghosts.
Sawyer, herself and her five pack members made their way down to the south.
Avery got out of the car, wide eyes taking in the untamed land of the bayou. It was alive in the very air, the symphonic cry of cicadas vibrating through a still breeze, the smell of wood and dirt and sweet water taking her in.
“What’s that there?” Sawyer asked, pointing further down.
Looking over her shoulder to where the others slowly took in their surroundings, Avery started for the water. The ground was rough and sloping and unkept. She walked along, touching every tree and running her hands through the grass before she found the large, dark structure.
It was a massive barn, with add-ons and a dock leading up to a wide river. She could see behind the barn a few more, smaller structures and a trailer close to the side. Immediately a few men went off to search the place.
Avery waited, holding her hand out for Sawyer to take before going into the barn.
The entire place was what her mother had described, carrying a sense of both freedom and home. The main floor was a large living space, a dining table stretched across the middle that could seat twenty. Further to the barn doors was an array of old couches and tables and rugs. The wooden beams held lanterns and draping twinkle lights. Part of the east wall was knocked out, a passage leading to five small bedrooms along one side and a massive kitchen with its own exit on the other. Avery peeked out the door and saw the porch go off towards the center of the habitat, smaller buildings scattered around a big stone pit. Each looked like it could house two or three people.
“You want to take a look at this.”
She turned, following back inside and spotted Sawyer up the stairs. “What is it?” she asked, feeling excited as she dashed up.
First was another living area, cozier and secluded with large windows opening up to the river. As they walked around, Avery started to spot trifles that made her heart leap in bounds. A silver, dust coated framed picture. A stack of leather bound journals. A small white crib, on those silly little rocker legs that nearly made her cry.
Sawyer held her hand fast. Avery blinked, hard to believe what she was looking at.
There was a room on the furthest corner, only separated by a short wall and threadbare curtain. A bedroom, she found, walking in slowly. Smelling faintly of rose and lemon.
She picked up the single picture on the bedside table, smiling and trying not to cry as she saw a brunette woman with her back facing the camera, a close up, holding a tiny baby. The woman was naked, from her bare shoulders and back. And on her neck was the same birthmark that Avery had.
With a shaking hand, Avery slid the picture out the frame. She turned the photo over, reading the familiar handwriting on the back. Layla and Avery.
It took her a few minutes to compose herself, clutching the photograph against her chest. Avery curled up on the bed, sobbing quietly. She didn’t mind that it was dusty and probably had moths, it smelled of home.
Avery was home.
She then went to go find Sawyer, already hearing life start to filter in as her pack
made themselves home in this wonderful place. But as she wiped her tears coming
down the stairs, she saw two women leaning against the dining table.
“You made it,” Claire said. She beamed widely at Claire, smiling almost proudly.
“Am I going to get any trouble from the city?” Avery asked, suddenly aware that New Orleans wasn’t just home to werewolves. It was the mecca of the supernatural world.
The other woman, as dark haired as Claire but taller and green eyes, humph. “The witches and the vamps are always looking for trouble, but it won’t be anything an Alpha can’t handle.”
“And besides,” Claire smirked. “You’re here on my invitation. Makes all the difference.”
“Right,” Avery scowled, still unsure.
The other woman rolled her eyes, seeming annoyed at Claire as she shoved passed and held her hand out for Avery. “I’m Diana Parrish.”
Shaking her hand, Avery reeled back. “Wait, the Diana Parrish I read about… but you’re a werewolf. And born over five hundred years ago.”
“Eh,” Diana smiled awkwardly. “Long story. I’m a hybrid. A result from someone else’s mad experimenting.”
“Only around to keep me in check,” Claire teased from behind.
Ignoring Claire with an eyeroll —Avery found it hard to believe that anyone would be so casual with the Claire Novak —Diana continued. “It happens every few centuries, a new freak arises. Gilead Novak, myself and Claire are the only hybrids in existence. Well,” she turned to face Claire, “Claire’s often more than that.”
Avery took a deep breathe, thinking back to the battle. Two months ago, funny how the times flies. But the memory of all the impossible things Claire did, the golden color of her eyes, the way she moved the fire…
“Diana was born a wolf, I was magically made into this monster with a lot of loopholes and a secret my dad kept from me,” Claire explained, seeing the stumped look on Avery’s face.
“So,” Avery frowned, “that’s why you didn’t want Castle to hurt me? Because you’re a wolf yourself?”
“No. But let me show you.”
Claire started walking for the door, leaving Avery there frozen.
“C’mon Dunning, before the sun sets. Don’t worry about your pack, Diana is sort of a worldwide ambassador for werewolves.”
Laughing at the incredulity of that statement, Avery had no choice but to run after Claire. She had so many questions and this might be the only time she ever got any answers.
Claire walked quick and straight, marching straight into the wild woods with Avery stumbling after her.
“What do you mean, ambassador?”
“Diana wasn’t one for arranged marriage because she believed in werewolves having free will. Now she spends most of the time traveling the world, helping people that didn’t know they were werewolves until they turned, trying to rally them into packs, showing them how to survive. She cares for the species survival, but being… being what she is turned most werewolves away from us… we can never join any pack so we just help them from afar.”
As she told Avery all this, the ground got steeper. The trees suddenly broke into a clearing where a huge cluster of boulders, nearly ten feet high, stood. Claire jumped over them in one quick stride, but Avery had to clumsily scrambled up and skid over the other side.
“Ouch,” she muttered, landing hard and nearly twisting her ankle. She wiped her hands on her pants, looking around to see the boulders stretched all around her. She and Claire were in a wide ring, about thirty feet wide. Avery rolled her shoulders and craned her neck. Above was a clear blue sky, the dark of the trees alit in bright yellows and greens.
Claire spoke softly. “Wolves are about power. They are about family. Always welcome at the table, understanding each other in that rage you always feel, but sometimes you have to earn your place. They used to fight here, tussle and wrestle. It was mostly good fun, but at times to blow off steam… especially when the city bit.”
Avery almost didn’t hear her speak, Claire’s voice grew so quiet.
The ground in the middle was compact and hard, almost showing Avery the story as Claire told it. Avery could almost hear the sounds, feel the pulse of the men and women that once fought here.
She looked up, watching something hard and bitter cross Claire’s face. It was the same look Nathanial gave her when he said he was sorry. The same look Claire had when she first looked at Avery. The same look Avery had when losing and still having to fight.
Knowing what she knew of Claire, the folds that made her into the myth, Avery felt sorry for the immortal. “You fought here too?”
Claire nodded. “I once believed in God, or something like that. And then I found out that the world was hell. I was lucky enough to find people that I loved, a city that I could call home, but the price I had to pay… Claire Novak, the monster. Even I get weighed down and tired by that name. I do what I do, mostly to protect the few I care about. So when I need to not be their protector, I come here. I scream. Diana lets me spar and kick her butt. Mostly I come here to be alone.”
Smiling to herself, but with sadness growing more and more in her eyes, Claire turned around and pointed to one of the rocks. “I’ll sit on top of there, drink a few beers, feel the earth and just… Just be Claire for a moment. And pay my respects.”
“Pay your respects?” Avery asked.
She watched as Claire walked towards the rock she had been pointing to and run her hand over the rough surface. “The monument of Kings. Every Alpha ever known has had his name carved into these rocks, almost seeming to give strength to the ones that come to this place.”
Avery walked over, reading the hundreds and hundreds of names carved down over centuries, if not millennia. She saw Claire’s hand rested next to one name in particular, reading the name.
“Theo Dunning,” she whispered, frowning. “I read that. You knew him, back then. The packs arranged for him and Diana to marry, but they didn’t. And I saw a picture of you two dancing.”
Claire smiled. “Maybe one of the best Alpha’s this pack ever had, he led them out of a really dark time.” She grew still for a moment, lost in her memories. “Theo showed me this place. When I needed to get away from the circus, we’d drink beers and laugh and stop being the grand gods others saw us as. Here, I could just be Claire.”
Avery quietly gasped, her eyes widening in realization. “You loved him?”
Claire smiled, and Avery was shocked to see tears in her eyes. “They always think monsters like me don’t know how to love. How to care for someone. How to eat and read and work and pray like a normal person. But he never saw me as a monster."
Feeling herself reel in this revelation, Avery thought she finally understood. “How did he die?”
Claire laughed. “By being a man, stupid ego getting in the way of rationality. There was a war going on, and I needed to face one of my toughest enemies. I told him to stay behind, but he wanted me to stay. But I couldn’t let the Novak’s down. So I went. And he didn’t listen. My enemies can’t kill me, but they love to break me.”
“They killed him?” Avery whispered.
“I could have protected him. But I just didn’t see it until it was too late. Nate too, we made mistakes leading up to that point and Theo paid the price. And I never actually had the chance to tell him I loved him.”
And so Claire Novak went on paying her debt by protecting Theo Dunning’s descendants. She couldn’t protect someone she loved, so she tried to protect his legacy. And Avery was a part of that.
Avery looked around her, at the monument of Kings and felt so incredibly small. It was surreal. The men that died and the sacrifices made, she was now so sure that the bonds that tied these people together were so beyond blood. That Claire Novak was an enemy, but honor bound in the strangest of ways.
Avery felt like she had so much more to learn about being an Alpha. Standing there, home at last, she felt still. With a war with Luke on the horizon, and Legion always hovering around, Avery would have to finally come out of the shadows.
“So,” Claire asked, shaking away the vulnerable look in her eyes. “What will you do?”
“I don’t know yet,” Avery muttered to herself. “I’m still trying to figure everything out, decide whether or not I should be a full wolf. It’s like you said, to protect the ones I care about, I’ll need to do some heavy things and I don’t know what that will make me. The person I felt I was when I was punching Luke to death, is that the person I have to be?”
Claire chuckled. “Who says you can’t have it both ways? Good, bad. Monster, saint. It’s a part of who you are. Obsessing about the choices will tear you apart and pull you down a path you can never come back from. Take it from me.”
“Gee, thanks. Roll with the punches,” Avery deadpanned.
“Seriously, Avery. You are everything already, every instinct is already inside of you. You don’t need to make the choice. You only have to accept what is already there. Be the Alpha you want to be. Fight every battle. Love harder than you thought. Wear those scars with pride because it’s a wonderful human thing, something not all of us are lucky to have. Everything else will follow.”
Strange as it was taking advice from the grim reaper and boogieman wrapped up in one, Avery went back to the pack alone. Claire would be Claire, the dark and relentless ruler of the city where vampires and witches roamed free. Avery would make her mark in the wilds, maybe with a secretive nudge from Diana. Avery wanted to take her pack down the old route, like Luke said, the way it was before there were any vampires. So she didn’t know whether Claire still felt indebted to the Dunning’s, but Avery figured it would be best to cut ties. But she wouldn’t be surprised to find Claire sometimes sitting alone, drinking beers at the monument.
With the next month, a few more wolves found their way to Avery, rumors of the Wolf Kings resurgence traveling around and people coming to see if it was true. Some, turned to Luke, making it clear that if they weren’t with him, they would be considered an enemy or obstacle in the fight to come.
Until they were ready, she was more than happy with her pack here. Loud dinners out in the open, everyone dancing and singing and no longer worried about being hunted.
Avery sat on Sawyer’s lap, smiling as she watched them celebrate and get drunk. Freedom it felt like.
“You did that,” he muttered. He kissed softly across the bare skin on her shoulder, holding her tighter around the waist.
“We did that,” she corrected. She locked her fingers around his, smiling. “I couldn’t have done this without you. If ever I needed a reason to fight—”
He leaned forward, catching her mouth with his own.
“We’ll fight together.” Sawyer breathed slowly, running his finger gently over her scars. “You lead, and I’ll follow.”
*****************
The end.
Oh.... Sweet lord, I wasn't ready for the end. Wolf Among Us is officially done. And Avery got the ending she deserved. Not all wrapped up in a happy ever after, but something meaningful. Obviously I left the Reece storyline and the war with Luke's pack as opportunities to come back and write spin-offs, but our girl needs to rest.
But speaking of spin-offs, after finding out why Claire had been protecting the Dunnings it seems there is quite a story behind her... Well Reign of Kings is up and on my profile for you to read just that. Take a look.
Until then, thank you all for taking your time to read this story. Thank you for the continuous support, and allowing me the space to challenge both myself and the usual werewolf stories found on wattpad.
Bye!