Chapter 64

Ethan’s Pov

Ava left the library in a huff. She stormed out of the room, leaving me there to think about what she was saying.

She’d been acting stranger and stranger as the weeks went on. At first, I thought it was her just getting stressed by the responsibilities of being a Luna. As the days came and went, though, and the closer we got to the wedding date, the more upset she got.

After the wedding she was back to her old self for maybe thirty minutes before she went back to clamming up around me and refusing to talk to me and let me in on what she was thinking. I tried to track back her odd behavior to a key moment.

Maybe I had done something. Maybe something was happening in her private life that I didn’t know about.

The furthest back I could remember her acting the way she did was Olivia’s birthday ball. That was the time, at least, that I started noticing her stress.

Since then, she’d been distant with me, creating new rules for the two of us, and making strange comments about me and Olivia. Specifically when we were together. I couldn’t understand her - couldn’t understand where her mind was.

I went back into the living room where Mars and Olivia were on the couch watching a movie. I thought, with how close Ava and Olivia were getting, maybe one of them would know something.

“Ethan!” Olivia perked up when I walked into the room.

Mars turned away from the television screen to look at me. He took note of my disheveled hair and the way I nervously kept twisting the watch on my wrist.

“How’s Ava?” Mars asked, nudging his chin in my direction. “Olivia said you two were about to have a pretty serious conversation.”

I looked at Olivia, she averted her gaze with an embarrassed flush on her cheeks.

“Did she now?” I asked, crossing my arms over my chest.

“I may have noticed something.” She murmured.

“She left the room before we could really finish having that conversation,” I said with a playful glare. “Has she said anything to you, Olivia?”

“What do you mean?” She leaned over to take a sip of her drink that was resting on the coffee table.

“Ava just,” I paused, looking for the right words, “She’s been acting strange and saying passive aggressive things. I was wondering if maybe you knew why?”

Olivia thought to herself. Her eyes darted back and forth as she recalled the moments that she’d spent with Ava, trying to draw attention to all the times she may have said something or done something out of character for her.

“She always clammed up when I talked about being in love with someone other than Andrew?” Olivia said, though it was more of a question than a statement. “I didn’t really get why, thought maybe she just felt bad.”

I took her words in, and that’s when I started fully connecting the dots. Ava saw Olivia and I together at the ball. She must’ve heard something wrong, saw something and over complicated it in her head.

Ava thought that Olivia and I had feelings for each other. That’s why she felt as though she needed to tell me that Olivia and Mars slept together the previous night. That’s why she was always so quick to run to a different room with Olivia and I were together in one.

Ava misunderstood it all for so long, and now she was mad at me. I didn’t think I could take her staying mad at me.

“I know what happened,” I breathed out in a quick gasp. “Is she in her room?”

Mars gave me a quizzical look, “She ran out the front door about thirty minutes ago, man.”

Without another word, I abandoned Olivia and Mars, leaving them to their movies, and ran out of the house to my car in the driveway.

I threw myself into the front seat, revved up the engine, and tore out into the street. There were only two places that I knew she would run off to when she was hurting like she was: The bakery or the children’s home.

I took my best guess and started at the pastry shop. I parked out on the street out front once I got there, I barged into the shop, but she was nowhere to be seen. I cursed myself softly, and ignored the questions from the waitresses at the shop as I left.

I jumped back into the car and rushed to the children’s home. Ava had taken refuge there more often than not, I should’ve checked there first. I was wasting time, letting her believe something that wasn’t true. Something that was so far from the truth.

I made it to the children’s home. The red brick walls stood out against the white plaster of the buildings surrounding it. I had only been once before, but it wasn’t easy to miss.

I pulled to the side of the road and jumped out of the car. I went inside to see if Ava was there. The little old lady at the front desk told me she was out in the yard with Baron.

I didn’t remember who Baron was, I assumed it was one of the kids, but when I got outside I was sorely mistaken.

Baron was a grown man, good-looking and tall, and he was holding onto Ava. My stomach turned; I could feel the anger rising like a bile in the back of my throat. I couldn’t look away as his arms were wrapped around her.

Maybe it was innocent. Maybe I was misinterpreting it.

When Ava saw me standing just a few feet away from the two of them, her eyes widened. I think that’s what triggered me to move.

I stormed up to the two of them, pushing Baron’s shoulder and moving him away from Ava.

“What the hell?” He glared at me as I shoved him away. He didn’t recognize me at first, I could tell that much. I saw him once in passing, but my face and relationship to Ava must not have stuck in his brain.

Despite the confusion, his eyes widened as well. He looked guilty though, unlike Ava who just seemed surprised.

“What are you doing?” I demanded, my voice quiet but seething.

“I was just teaching her some basketball,” Baron puffed out his chest as he spoke, trying to assert dominance over me. It didn’t work out in his favor.

I was taller than him by a few inches, and I stepped forward to really showcase that. He was trying to intimidate me, and it wouldn’t work.

“That’s not what it looked like.” I blinked, glaring down my nose at him.

“Why do you care what it looked like?” He tried to reach for Ava’s hand, and I felt a stir in the pit of my stomach. The wolf inside me, the animalistic and possessive side, pushed my body in between him and Ava.

I shoved his hand away from her, throwing his shoulder back a little at the force. Sometimes, I’d forget how strong I truly was.

Baron, upset at being shoved away and refusing to submit to my dominant energy, decided to challenge me instead. It all happened in slow motion.

He reared his hand back, closing it with a fist, and threw his arm forward to try and hit me in the face.

I dodged his fist by stepping to the side, but I forgot Ava was standing right behind me.

In one smooth job, Baron’s punch collided with the side of Ava’s face, knocking her to the ground.