AN: Not edited.

Chapter Thirty-Three- Ava's Story

On the car ride home Jack had remained especially quiet, I could tell he wanted to know what I had told Mina, but he was waiting until I had brought it up myself instead of asking questions.

"How are you?"

He seemed shocked that I was asking him this question because there was nothing actually wrong but I was more concerned because I knew he was jealous that he hadn't found his mate yet.

"I mean that Casey found his mate Jack?" I explained slowly like he was having problems understanding me.

It took him a few seconds, blinking and shaking his head to finally answer me, "Well I'm happy for him of course, but I really want to meet my own mate." He said wistfully, with a sad smile.

"Well you will I mean you never know, he might have met his mate but he has to wait at least another 14- 16 years before he can even see her in a romantic light... You could end up meeting your mate by then." I said trying to focus on the brighter side of this situation for him, but I didn't think I understood until he spoke again.

"Casey is still the lucky one between the two of us, I mean it might sound weird but he gets to learn her as she grows up, by the time they get to that stage where they can mate, he will know everything about her, he will know what she's afraid of, what she likes to eat, what her favorites are, he will be a part of all her memories and they'll still get to make new ones together in a different way. Between all of us he has the best deal, I mean this isn't the best situation as we all know but even now as she's only a little baby, she knows that he is hers, she claimed him in the kitchen," he explained completely.

I wasn't sure how to answer him when he spoke like this, but I didn't have time he just continued "Moving here felt right which is why we came, we all know that the paths you take, bring you closer to your mates, if we had gone somewhere else Casey wouldn't have met his mate, you wouldn't have met yours, and Jamie wouldn't have met Sam; although Sam is a bit much," he joked towards the end making me laugh.

"He really is, I don't even know Jamie that well and he seems like a bit over the end for him. I'm hoping that Jamie can calm him down some because I'm not sure I could put up with it for long."

"So you're okay with Ava?" I asked one last time.

"Oh yeah, its' a shame she spent all this time as a pet in Gabriel's care, I mean it just seems a bit weird..." he said confirming my thoughts exactly.

"I feel the same way I think that there was someone in his house that made her fearful of shifting... I mean she followed Gabriel around, it's impossible that in three years she never not once heard anyone explain to a new shifter how to shift back to their human self." It felt great to have someone to talk my thoughts out with and Jack was always my go to guy.

"It just seems that she is very aware of her surroundings, even in my bedroom when she woke up she was searching around. Then walking down, the kitchen, and she doesn't like yelling, so I'm not sure what's going on. I think she can speak better than she lets on though," I told him.

"What do you mean?"

Taking a moment to explain, "When I'm reading her thoughts, sometimes she has more awareness to words that she would if she were younger. Like it might be weird for her to speak out loud so she stumbles on words but when it comes to speaking in her head I think she's far more advanced." I struggled to explain to him.

"I understand what you're trying to say, she hasn't spoken out loud in a while so it's hard, but in her head, there is nothing wrong up there we just have to wait for her to get her stride and comfort levels up," he said simply.

"Exactly," I exclaimed. 

"You seem attached?" he said tentatively, trying not to upset anything or me.

"Well, I just feel like I know how she feels, not exactly but pretty close you know?" I grappled to describe how I felt about Ava correctly. "It is more than just trying to do the right thing when it comes to her Jack, my wolves want her around as well."

He laughed, "Well I don't think you'll get any trouble from Casey with that, he's over the moon that she'll end up staying in the house."

At that I had to laugh because I remembered this morning when he saw her, "He was thinking of all the things he can do with her, then after naming all the girly things he had this frightening idea that she would end up like a shallow girly girl, so he threw in playing with cars, because 'I like cars'" I said in my closest Casey voice, Jack laughing.

"I bet anything they went overboard today in getting things for her," I looked at him confused, "Casey and I have been saving money since we were able to start working years ago, because we wanted to be able to support our mates, buy them things and start our family. She's a child, so there are more things in the world made for children to keep them occupied. I'm sure once he went online, he found many things he thought she would enjoy so he bought them." He said shaking his head, me just nodding my head in understanding.

When we finally made it home, different men walking in and out of my house, wearing overalls and smelling strongly of paint met me. Jack just started laughing as we entered,  "Hey Chelsea..." Lucas said looking at me while looking at the chaos that was currently happening.

Lifting my eye brow he began explaining, "Well we spoke to Mikael earlier and did research of our own and once we learned she would be able to stay we just went all out and made it permanent and Violet, well she kind of went overboard but we thought for sure that you wouldn't be home for another two or three hours because you had class..." he rushed out ending with a sheepish look upon his face.

"She can stay?" I asked focusing on the most important things.

"Yes, Mikael said call him when you get in," he said and I immediately just walked away going straight to my study upon my floor, Jack and Lucas right on my heals.

Dialing the phone it only rang a few times, "Hey Mikael its Chelsea," I began.

"Oh hello can you hold on for a few minute?" he asked politely.

"Yes," I said distantly putting him on speakerphone while I concentrated on the sight outside of my study window.

Instead of being angry I was slightly smiling to myself at the sight that graced me in this moment, Ava, Casey and Noah were outside playing in what looked like a tree house but way too big. Attached to the tree house was a slide but right next to it was an actual mini playground to the side. It wasn't taking up all the space in the back yard, and was farthest away from the pool, but it had three swings; one child the other two for adults, two slides, monkey bars, and a little bridge that connected directly to the tree house.

Jack came to my side to see what I was looking at and started laughing, at his brother chasing around Ava in this little park they built for her. "I told you, you can't build a park for a grown up mate," he said through his laughter.

I shook my head, "how the hell did they get this done so fast I was gone for like 5 hours?"

Jack still laughing at my expression, Lucas sheepish still said "well Casey saw it online and sent us out to buy it for him we brought it back, we paid about 2 or 3 other guys to help us get this done, plus Nathan and Ray helped."

As we stood watching, waiting for Mikael to return back, I was happy as I watched Ava playing. She was happy, shrieking in laughter, as she was either being chased or chasing Casey. I was happy she adjusted nicely to me not being there...  

Turning to Lucas I asked, "Where is everyone else?"

"Well, Andrea and Violet are in her room, putting her clothes away, the painters changed the room to a very light shade of Lavender and white, now they put lots of fans and opened all the windows to let the air circulate quickly, we also has someone come to put safety locks on her windows so she can't hurt herself and go out on her balcony. When she's older sure but right now we just thought it would be best if that weren't an option..." he said looking to see if I agreed which I did so I nodded in agreement.

"Well Ray is now in the basement putting together an indoor play area for her near our gym so that if the weather outside isn't the best she can still play. Most of the things for her room haven't been moved back in yet because we didn't want them smelling like paint so I think she may have to spend another night or two in your room. If she even sleeps in her room at this point, we weren't sure of that..." he drifted off.

"I think she might I'm not sure myself, I don't mind either way..." I answered.

"Earlier we spent some time child proofing the house, we have lots of sharp things that if she were to be running and slipped that would be broken and or hurt her so we actually moved some things around." He said but this didn't bother me at all, as long as they didn't touch my art studio, dance studio, bedroom and study I would be fine.

"They bought her some dolls and toys, but she wasn't really interested in anything but Birdy and asking every 30 to 40 minutes when you'd be back," he said but that actually made me smile that she missed me.

"Chelsea," I heard Mikael speak.

"Go ahead I'm listening."

He sighed "Well first when I looked for her, I found Avalina Prosper, she's five years old and was given up for adoption when she was born. She was in an orphanage, but the orphanage had a fire and some people speculated that 5 children were caught in that fire and were burned alive but they couldn't be sure. What bothers me is that they weren't able to definitely able to say that those five children were killed, which makes me think that this fire was a cover up."

"A cover up?" I asked surprised.

"Casey told me that she was bitten,"he spat out angrily, "well I believe that those four other children were taken, and changed. Ava probably ran away and was able to escape them and luckily end up with Gabriel... The fire happened when she was two years old."

"Why?" I asked confused.

"All day I've been checking and it seems like this isn't the first type of situation, this same story, has happened over 5 times in different states."

"So someone is kidnapping orphans and turning them? Why would anyone do that?"

I heard him sigh again, but I also heard Jack and Lucas growling, "The only reason I can think of is, taking these kids so they can train them to make an army. Turning them young makes them dependent on the person that turned them, but for whatever reason Ava was able to get away."

As I listened to him, this was making less sense than more because once she was with Gabriel she should have been able to shift back. Although she was only two years old then so maybe age prevented it.

Making an army? I hated to give Rian more credit than anything else in the world but I really thought she had something to do with this. I mean maybe they made a mistake and the trail led them back to where Ava was when they kidnapped Ava. I made a mental note to speak to Jack about this later with everyone here at once.

Looking out at her playing with Casey I was happy she was able to free herself however she got that done, she was a fighter and now she had a family with us.

I must have drifted off in my own head because I saw Jack snapping his fingers in my face trying to get my attention, "Chelsea!"

"Oh sorry," I apologized I was just thinking, "What's up?"

"Well, I'm flying in tomorrow and will be bringing along some adoption papers, it will appear to be on the up and up so she will be adopted by you Chelsea? That is what the others had told me?" he asked probably trying to make sure he had heard them all correctly.

"Yes I want to adopt her," I said happily that I was able to keep her, she belonged with us.

"Ok, no problem by tomorrow she will be Ava Hobbs, and I heard you found your mate?" he questioned surprised.

"Yeah, but we're taking things slow..." I lied. Not wanting to rehash everything over the phone.

"Well I hope to meet him when I come tomorrow." He said before hanging up.

Well I got to keep Ava, not like she was a pet but I wanted her with me because it just felt right, she belonged in our family and it would make Casey happy.

With that out of the way, I went downstairs to the kitchen to start making dinner since Gabriel was on his way.

Be nice to mate when he comes over, I heard Aria say surprising me since she and Avena had been quite silent for most of the day.

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