The Unfortunates | COMPLETED

Part 45

The moment Kali arrived, she was put to work.

She was given the task of helping Kathleen organise the suspected abuse files, because it gave her something to do, and it meant that she was near Avery almost all of the time.

Avery sighs, hearing Kathleen and Kali chatter before she walked into the room, swinging open the door nonchalantly.

"Good afternoon, ladies," she smiles, and Kali laughs.

"It's 11 am, Ave," she corrects, and Avery shoots her a mock glare.

"Don't ruin my entrances, little worm," she chuckles, and Kali sticks her tongue out at her.

"We have five files left, Ave, and then we're done - I can't believe this took two weeks," Kathleen sighs, sitting back in her seat.

"Brilliant - that's really good to hear, at one point I thought you'd never finish," Avery teases.

The two girls roll their eyes at her with smiles on their faces.

The energy around the pack is calmer this week.

York was still in his coma and showed no signs of waking up, but things had moved on. Freya and Sam were still under armed protection, and Avery had every available tracker hunting down Elijah Preston.

She had put her energy into leading and setting an example for other Alphas.

Maybe the only Alpha she hadn't spoken to on the phone in the past fortnight was Roman, and she had spoken to Carolyn instead.

The woman was understandably upset that Avery had left without saying goodbye, and what was meant to be a two-minute informative call turned into a two-hour gossip session.

Apparently Roman had gotten suddenly strict when he had arrived home, banning relationships between couples who weren't mates, only giving permission if they had both been rejected.

Carolyn was disgusted by this rule, as she was the one who had to console the families who had been ripped apart. A lot more than usual Unfortunates had families in the Lancaster pack, and most of them had settled down among themselves, or with rejected wolves, which was rare everywhere else.

Avery had offered to speak to Roman, and Carolyn shut that idea down almost as quickly as she had suggested it.

They had a weekly phone call booked in now, and the next would be in a few hours, while Avery got her hair done.

"Have there been any phone calls?" Avery asks, sitting down at her desk and spinning on the chair for a moment.

"Yeah, Alpha Addison wants you to call him back, and Meredith McConaghy used some aggressive words when commenting about how long it's been since you spoke to her," Kathleen chuckles, shaking her head.

"Aw shit, what does Zephyr want?" Avery mutters to herself, clicking on the answering machine.

Checking her emails first, she spots no subjects of note, so she decides to reply to them while she gets her roots done.

"Girls, if you want to take a coffee break, go ahead - I'm not sure what this call is about, and I don't want to startle Kali if I shout," Avery warns, and the two women get up from their seats on the floor, carefully avoiding the stacks of files.

"We were going to take one soon anyway - unlike you, we were here at 8 am," Kathleen taunts, and Avery sticks her tongue out at her friend while she waits for Zephyr to answer the phone.

"Avery?" He asks tentatively, and she lets out a noise of confirmation.

"I'm here, what's up?" She asks curiously, kicking her legs under her chair aimlessly.