Chapter 12 Keeping Busy

• Ava tried to keep herself busy, she watched movies. When she was tired of that, she decided to read some books.
• She went to the library to get a book. When she got there, she picked a book of fairy tales that looked interesting and was about to leave when she tripped and fell down with the book. She bent down to pick up the book when she spotted something dusty underneath the bookshelf. She pulled it out, to her surprise it was a photo album.
• She took the album out and used a rag to clean the surface, why would the album be underneath the shelf and be so dusty? She thought to herself.
• Ava examined it, it looked like it hadn't been open in a long time. She shrugged and opened it to look at it.The first picture she saw was of a young man and woman, if not for the fact that it was an old picture and the clothes they wore was old fashioned. She would have thought it was Ryder and another woman.
• The resemblance between Ryder and the man was much.This man must be Ryder's father, Ava thought to herself and the woman must be his mother. She continued flipping through the picture, she laughed when she saw Ryder's baby pictures. He was very cute, maybe she could tease him about it later, that is if he didn't bite her head off.She then saw Lily's baby picture, she looked so innocent like she couldn't hurt a fly but Ava knew better than to believe her innocent looks.There was a young boy who stood close to her in the picture, he looked to be around the same age with her so he couldn't be Ryder. She looked at the inscription'Lavender and Lily'Who was this Lavender? Ava thought, she kept flipping through the album. Lavender and Lily were featured in more pictures but as they grew older they started to take photos separately.
• Then the pictures stopped, Lily flipped through, only empty pages remained. Who was this Lavender and why was he on the family album? Where was he now?
• She resolved within herself to ask Helena when she got back from the hunt. Ava was just about to retire from bed, when she heard a scream coming from the direction of the forest. This wasn't the normal happy scream which had been coming from the children.
• This was a scream filled with terror.
• Ava rushed out of the house to investigate, as she did so, she remembered that she had promised Ryder not to leave the house but this was an emergency, she thought to herself. Ryder would understand.
• She got to the forest and met the children been threatened by some men, from a glance Ava could see that they were rogues. They must have banked on the fact that the adults would be at the hunt to sneak in. She picked up a long stick from the ground and brandished it at them.
• "Leave them alone."
• She told the men trying to look intimidating. The men looked at her and burst into laughter.
• "Such a fiery beauty, I will take you with me to camp. I will definitely find good use for you."
• One of the men who appeared to be their leader said with a sneer as he approached Ava.
• "I said let them go."
• Ava said as she swung the stick in between his legs and hit hard. He immediately fell to the ground in pain clutching his privates. The rest rushed forward to attack Ava.
• "Go!"
• She yelled at the children. They quickly ran away while she remained behind fighting the men. Now, Ava was a very good fighter but she couldn't handle several men at all. She had no hope of winning the fight, she just hoped that she would be able to hold on till the children had gotten far away. Soon the men had overpowered her, they kicked and threw punches on her as she lay on the ground. Ava's only thought was that at least the children had gotten far.
• All of a sudden, the punches stopped and the men flew off her.
• Ava opened her eyes weekly and saw a man dressed in black fighting them.
• 'Help had come' Ava thought as her eyes fluttered closed.........
• Ryder was running in his wolf form, happy like the rest of the pack when he felt that feeling of unease that only came when Ava was in danger. He quickly ran to where they had kept clothes to change into after the hunt. He changed back to human form and started to put on the clothes. Jayden ran up to him and changed to human form as well and put on some clothes.
• "What is the problem? Why did you shift to human, the Hunt is not over yet." Jayden asked.
• "Something isn't right back at home, I can feel it," Ryder said.
• "Do you think Ava is in trouble? It's just she and the children in the pack. What trouble could she have possibly gotten herself into?" Jayden wondered.
• "I don't know but I am going back to check." Ryder said.
• "I am coming with you." Jayden told him.
• They were about to leave when the children ran into the hunting ground, they were led by Vivian.
• "Vivian, what is it?" Ryder asked her.
• "Alpha Ryder, Ava is in trouble, she needs help." Vivian said in a breathless voice.
• "Calm down Vivian, tell us exactly what happened." Ryder told her.
• By now, all the pack members had shifted back, worn their clothes. Some of them were comforting their children. Vivian's mother held her in her arms and made sure she calmed down. Vivian started to explain. She told them how the rogues had attacked them in the forest and wanted to take them away then Ava had showed up to save them. She had fought the rogues all by herself and told them to run.
• "So where is Ava right now?" Ryder asked.
• "We left her there." Vivian replied.
• Ryder started running to the forest, Jayden and the rest followed him.
• 'Please Ava, hold on. I am coming' Ryder said in his heart, calm and writing something...