Tangled

195

195

195 Ava: A Familiar Face

. "Ma'am, can you explain how you entered pack lands without detection? And how you made it all the way to the alpha lodge?"

There's suspicion thick in his voice, and I see Vanessa tense from the corner of my eye. Mrs. Elkins looks around at the hostile faces, bewilderment plain on her features. "Ava, dear, are you in some sort of trouble?"

Glancing at my guards, all on alert and intent on saving me even from a little old woman, I sigh.

Their questions are imminently reasonable, and I'm wondering the

same things. Not to mention-Selene's hiding under the bench is beyond suspicious.

I can't shake the feeling that I'm about to hear answers I'll regret having heard.

No matter how I look at this situation, for an old woman to have

accidentally stumbled onto me here, a thousand miles away, without knowing my true identity...

There's something more going on.

Straightening my shoulders, I take a deep breath, ready to side with my bodyguards against the sweetest woman in the world.

"No, Mrs. Elkins. But we are going to need some answers."

She hugs her parcel a

little closer to her chest, looking over each of my bodyguards in turn, before nodding to herself. Her faded eyes crinkle at the corners as she offers them a placating smile. "I didn't walk through your pack lands,

I never expected to add my former boss being held up by a flock of bodyguards, a solid thousand miles from Cedarwood, to my list of fucked up shit that happened today. O

So it takes a minute for me to process what I'm hearing.

"Mrs. Elkins?"

Selene flattens against the ground, her ears going back as she belly-crawls her way to my bench.

well, frankly, she's been weird as hell for

"Ava! My dear girl."

welcoming smile have me so intensely, terribly homesick for Cedarwood that I have to blink like a maniac to keep the tears at bay. "Mrs. Elkins, how did you get here? And o

She's a friend of our

younger than any of these men, but they respond

I have. Even Vanessa gets people to listen to

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Ava, A

the old woman, I can see that she's carrying a huge parcel, hugging it

dear. Are

as she reaches for my face, as though reassuring herself I'm really

"I'm fine."

paper-thin skin soft against my palm. My mind is still working at wrapping itself around her being here, in the flesh, a thousand miles from home. "How did you get here, Mrs. Elkins? I mean, not that I'm not happy to see you,

Ava, it's a story for the ages. But that can wait." Her eyes, sharp despite their age, sweep over me with a critical gleam. "You've lost weight, Ava. Have you been

my head, a rueful smile tugging at my lips. "Actually, I've gained weight. Even though I look skinnier. Must be all the muscle I've

you're here of your own will?

of these

frowns at the bodyguards, their

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A Familiar

mutters something about bull-headed men before turning to Mrs. Elkins with a polite smile. "Why don't we head inside? I'm sure you've had a long journey." The bodyguards tense, their postures shifting subtly to block the path. Vanessa's eyes narrow, and she takes a moment, her gaze unfocused.

out a small ziplock bag. "Here, Ava. I

with a smile. "Thank you, Mrs. Elkins. You have

fingers can close around the bag, it's snatched out of my

you w

whirl on the bodyguard in question. "What the

my glare with a stoic expression. "I'm sorry, Luna, but we'll

would never hurt me. She saved me in Cedarwood. She's a genuinely good

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A Familiar

addresses Mrs. Elkins't

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