Fifty One

Her mouth fell completely open.

“Oh my God,” she breathed.

Not angry or dramatic. She was genuinely shocked—the words falling out of her like she hadn’t meant to say them.

Aiden’s expression didn’t change, he rested backwards and sat on the table nearby. “I specifically told you not to cause trouble throughout. How hard was it for you to do Zyla?”

But she wasn’t listening anymore at this point. Her eyes had moved from his neck to me—sitting on the couch, wrapped in a jacket that wasn’t mine, clearly in the middle of recovering from something significant.

Then back to Aiden.

Then back to me.

“Did you…” she started. Stopped. “Did you actually…” She pointed at the mark. Then pointed at me. Then back at the mark. Like she needed to triangulate the information before her brain could accept it.

“Did you DO it?” she finally said, and this version carried the weight of all three attempts combined.

“You MARKED someone.” She said it like an accusation. Like a crime. Like she’d come home and found the furniture completely rearranged without any discussion or notice.

Her hands went to her hair—not to fix it, just something to do with the shock. “You marked her—who is she? Why is she on our couch? Why does she look like she lost a fight with an entire pack? And more importantly does she smell like death—”

She stopped and sniffed.

Her eyes went sharp and serious for the first time. “I smell venom. She was poisoned?.”

Wow that fast, she was quite sharp and smart. But I kept quiet and watched.

“She was,” Nathan confirmed quietly.

Something shifted in Zyla’s face. Just for a second, the dramatic indignation dropped entirely and something genuine slipped through—actual concern, real and unguarded.

“Is she okay, are you okay?” she asked, and her voice was completely different in a softer tone. Like a different person had briefly taken over the controls.

I blinked twice wondering if I was imagining things?

The way she switched emotion was crazy.

“She’s healing,” Nathan said.

“Good.” The word came out quickly and decisively like she was relieved.

Then—like a switch flipping—the previous energy slammed back into place.

“But who even IS she that you would mark her to save her?” She crossed her arms, the suspicion fully back now. “I don’t remember you having such a kind heart, Aiden. What’s going on…she must be special to you, c’mon introduce me?”

“It’s best you don’t concern yourself with—” Nathan tried shifting the topic knowing where it was going wasn't a good path.

“Aiden, who is she?” Zyla turned to him instead, clearly deciding Nathan wasn’t going to cooperate.

Nathan looked at Aiden and mouthed ‘NO”

But Aiden smirked and raised his eyebrow at him.

He had already made a decision.

“Her name is April Quinn,” he said. “Daughter of Howard Quinn. Alpha of the Black Shadow Pack.” Aiden said and looked at me in a strange way with that smirk on him and I wondered just why he had made a full introduction about me to the girl in front of me.

All of a sudden the room went very quiet.

Zyla didn’t move for a full three seconds.

That alone was enough to tell me something as definitely off.