Chapter 5 Forth Chapter

**AVA**

I look in Liam's eyes and all I could see was sadness Ember kept telling me I can trust him. Liam's hand touches my cheek and his thumb wipe something wet from my eyes.

"You know my story Liam, my pack was murdered, my first mate abused me and rejected me and that hurt me. Can you promise me none of this will happen with you?" Ember is in the back of my mind practically bagging me to accept Liam as our mate.

Come on Ava, you knew James but you hardly know this guy. Plus, he doesn't look like the type to really play with his mate's emotions and he sounds sincere enough. I know you make the final calls with the body but don't deprive us both of a mate because you can't trust someone. I sit there confused for a minute as Ember practically guilt's me in to not reject Liam. Liam's an Alpha and is also the Alpha of one of the largest packs in Canada. This could just all be a ploy to get laid while he's visiting Crescent Moon and then reject me before he leaves. I won't accept him not yet anyways but, I won't reject him either. Liam's scent dances its way through my nose driving me insane, he smelled of chocolate and it drives me crazy. I can feel Liam softly rubbing my back gently pulling my head into chest. Something about being in his arms made me feel safe, like they were made to hold me. He saved me from being beaten to death the very least I could do is give him a chance to prove himself. I nuzzle my head against his chest so I can hear each gentle thump of his heart as I feel my body slowly starting to get tired.

"I promise I will never hurt you. It's late now and you need to get some rest. But I promise I will be by your side the whole night and when you wake up we will talk about everything." He says as he lays a kiss on my forehead. He stands up to help me get comfortable in the hospital bed. He lay beside me and holds me close humming lightly as he rubs my back with a circular motion. I took in a deep breath of his scent and slowly begin to drift off to sleep.

I wake up the next morning in my hospital bed, the spot where Liam laid was empty, as well as the cot where Tyler was sleeping. My chest tightens as I lift myself off the bed and grab the bag of clothes Tyler had gotten me out of the chair and made my way to the bathroom. As I reach for the handle to the bathroom door it twists out of my hand and the door opens, I let out a small scream and jump backwards falling over the little table that was next to my bed.

"Are you okay? Please say you're okay Liam will kill me if I hurt you for a second time."

"Tyler please call me Ava. I'm okay I won't tell Liam if you don't tell Liam." He laughs as he helps me to my feet. "Did the doctor come in yet? I want to get out of here." Tyler smiled softly as he moved so I could get to the bathroom. I smile as I close the door and make my way to the sink. I look at myself in the mirror as I take off my clothing and shocked at the extent of all my injuries. Last night I was too tired to even really pay attention to myself. I turn on the water and let it get warm and lower my head into the sink allowing the water to run thru my hair. The water runs brown and my hair smelt of what I would call swamp water. When the water begins to run clear once again, I wring my hair out and wrap it in a towel on top of my head. I take a face cloth and carefully clean all the dried blood off my face and begin getting dressed. As I finish getting dressed, a loud bang comes on the door followed by yelling and James's voice. What is he doing here? Can't he just leave me alone? I flick the lock on the bathroom door in its locked position and lock myself in the bathroom and let Tyler take care of him. I can hear Tyler's muffled shouts for James to leave while James is shouting at him that him and I are mates.

"I'm her mate she has to accept me!" I scoff at every statement he makes; he tells Tyler he loves me, and he wants to make sure I'm okay. Yeah, right buddy if it were any concern of you, you would have stopped it when it was happening. Not only coming to check up on me, does he think I'm stupid? He only wants me for my blood.

"Ava Love its me." Liam's voice calls out and he lightly knocks on the door. "Can you come out?"

I stand up from sitting on the toilet and make my way to the door slowly opening it. I see James in the corner with Tyler blocking pathway between him and I. I open the door fully and look at Liam.

"Why is he here?" I ask as Liam wraps his arm around my waist pulling me close to him, looks of jealousy wash over James face. Before Liam could get anything from his mouth James was trying to force himself past Tyler only to be met with a strong shove backwards.

"Stay away from my Luna. Alpha Quinn you and your family have inflicted enough pain on her already." Tyler hisses thru his teeth as James go flying back, I have never seen anyone stand up to James before let alone stand up for me. I stood there frozen not knowing what to do.

"Ava I'm sorry, I'm sorry for everything and how my family treated you. I'm sorry for failing you as your mate. Please forgive me and give me a chance to earn your forgiveness!" James looked at me with sad eyes. I feel Liam's grip slightly tightens around me as James once again tried to get past Tyler. I open my mouth to say something to James, but Liam beat me to it.

"Alpha Quinn. As I know you are fully aware you and your family have inflicted a great deal of pain upon Ava. But since you rejected her and she accepted, you're simply no longer Ava's mate. A matter of fact I am." He pauses looking down at me, I see his eyes go from being angry to soft and sweet. He turns his attention back to James who's standing there dumb struck. "And I also have every intention of taking her back to Blue Moon territory after the Treaty meeting."

"You can't do that with a member of my pack Collins I'm sure your aware Ava is a Crescent Moon Pack Omega and you simply cannot just kidnap a member of my pack." James eyes turned black, and he glared daggers thru Liam.

"On the contrary James. You see I not only know Ava as your pack Omega as you call her, nor simply as my mate. No I know her as a lifelong friend, a person I use to grow up beside. Now if you want to play with laws, you also cannot prevent mates from being together nor can you refuse to let the pair leave together. You see James you cannot stop me from taking her when I go. The only way she is going to stay here is if she wishes to remain here which I highly doubt she wants to." Liam kissed the top of my head and I give him a smile. I turn my attention to James and think for a moment. Why would I want to remain here the abuse I have endured why would I want to continue going thru it. Even if I run the chance of being rejected by Liam when we get back to Blue Moon, I have a small chance of happiness and a chance to get out away from the Crescent Moon pack without becoming a homeless Rogue.

"Like Liam has said the Moon Goddess granted him to me as my second chance mate and I have happily accepted him as such. I will be leaving with him when he leaves. I will never forgive you and I will never undo my rejection for you. And you can mark my words ill make you and your pack rue the day they attacked Silver Lake and killed my family. Now get out!" James stumbles backwards at my words. He rejected me, abused me, and now he has lost me, permanently. James began muttering under his breath as he turned and walked out being closely followed by Tyler. A few moments later the Doctor was coming entering with a small stack of papers tucked under his arm. He placed them on my meal table.

"Miss Stark. Alpha Collins has already taken care of all your discharge paperwork and your medical record transfer. I just need to go over everything with you to make sure you understand and get your signature on a few things." He said with a smile.