“There is no solution,” Christine whispered. She looked like she wanted to say more, to get closer to Avelyn and tell her everything that was in her mind.
Max straightened his back and smiled as best as he could. “Now, I don’t want to hear you say that. What’s done is done, and there’s nothing we can change now. All that matters is what we do next. We have a month at our disposal, let’s make the best of it. Jocelyn? Are you with me?”
Avelyn had almost forgotten about Jocelyn. She hadn’t said much, and she had been silent and brooding the whole time. She saw her cross and uncross her legs.
“Yes,” said Jocelyn, although she sounded reluctant. “I’ve no idea how you think we might find a solution, but yeah… I’m with you.”
“As long as we stick together,” continued Max, a gleam of hope in his eyes, “we have a chance.”
Avelyn didn’t say anything. She avoided Christine’s eyes, and wrapped the covers tighter around herself, hoping they’d get the message that she was waiting for them to leave her alone. She didn’t have the power to hope. Actually, she didn’t even know what to hope for.
“Let’s give her some space.” Of all people, Jocelyn was the one to say the words. She rose from the sofa and headed for the door. Christine sent Avelyn a last look which remained ignored, and followed her. Max leaned down to leave a kiss on her forehead, and did the same.
The door closed behind Max, and Avelyn let out a long, shaky breath. “My God,” she whispered. She couldn’t think past those words. Her brain simply refused to process anything else, so she lay in bed, wide awake, staring at the ceiling. The headache was completely gone, and her neck and shoulder didn’t throb anymore. She almost wished the wound hurt, so she could feel something, but either the painkillers had done an unexpectedly amazing job, or the werewolf venom had finished healing her. She felt like she was floating. No direction, no purpose. She just was. And, for a split second, she wished she were no more.
***
“What was that all about?” asked Max while he, Jocelyn, and Christine were walking towards his office.
Christine sighed. “She will tell you herself.”
“Should I be worried?”
“No.” She smiled.
“You know I trust you, Christine.”
They stopped in front of the door and the old woman squeezed his arm gently. “And I’ve never betrayed your trust. Have a little patience. She is too shaken to tell you now, but she will. I did what I thought was right at that time.” A flicker of sadness crossed her eyes. “It… it didn’t work out very well.”
Max studied her suspiciously. Christine had been like a mother to him, especially after Maria, his father’s second bride and Max’s mother, died. The woman was the elder of Clan Blackmane, and for good reason. She was wise, calculated, and completely devoted to the family and the three packs. He knew without a doubt that she would never hurt Avelyn, just like she never hurt Sabine.
“You have to promise me something, though,” Christine continued.
Max heard Jocelyn sigh in frustration. She opened the office door and went inside.
“Anything.”
“Don’t be too hard on her. Think about her when she came here the first time. Remember those long days she spent locked in that room. Promise me that once she starts talking, you’ll let her finish and you’ll take at least two minutes to think about it before you say anything. All right?”
He stared at Christine dumbfounded, unsure if he should start freaking out. A few minutes before, he had thought things couldn’t possibly be worse, but now he wasn’t so sure anymore. “All right…” he said reluctantly. She gave his arm another firm squeeze and smiled reassuringly. He knew that smile. It had always been Christine’s way of telling him everything was going to be fine, and it was more powerful than words.
“Are you two finished?” yelled Jocelyn from inside the office. “Kevin just texted me. He’ll be here in five minutes.”
Christine nodded, letting him know he’d better listen to his sister. She turned to leave, and Max watched her as she crossed the corridor and went down the stairs. There was nothing he wanted more than to go back to Avelyn and check on her, make sure she was fine, and maybe try to find out what he was dying to know. But that had to wait. Sabine’s escape had caused so many other complications, and if they weren’t careful, it could set in motion a terrible chain of events. He went inside the office and closed the door behind him.
“Did he say anything else?” he asked.
“Nope. I take it as bad news. If he had found her, he would have texted that instead of ‘be there in 5’.” Jocelyn was cleaning his desk, sorting out some papers and throwing them in two different drawers according to their contents. Max sat down on the sofa and watched her work. It wasn’t real work, obviously. She was just trying to keep busy. Normally, he would have told her to stay away from his things, but right now he couldn’t care less. He had nothing to hide from her, and all the documents and reports were related to the construction company and the fox-shifters.
“How do you even work here?” She tore a sheet of paper into pieces and threw it in the bin.
“Hey! What was that?”
“Matt’s illegible notes. You don’t need them. I gathered everything worth mentioning in the reports.”
A knock on the door, but the person didn’t wait to be invited in. Kevin moved fast, closing the door behind him and stopping in the middle of the room, between Max and Jocelyn. His clothes were a complete mess, jeans hanging low on his hips and T-shirt crumpled and covered in dry mud. He had forgotten to buckle his belt, and when Jocelyn fixed her gaze on his crotch and raised an eyebrow, he immediately took notice and fixed the problem.
“What’s new?” asked Max in a dead serious tone.