Marcus paused. “I mean… theoretically it’s Charlie. He gives all the orders.”
“But in reality?” Kallie prodded.
“Oh, Ava.” Marcus gave a laugh. “It’s always been Ava.”
I nearly choked on my smoothie. “What, it’s not me!”
“It’s absolutely you,” Kallie added.
“Charlie was Team Captain for the Darke Games!”
“Yeah, because you told him to be,” Kallie said, rolling her eyes. “He’s always been a reluctant leader. He doesn’t move unless it’s your idea first.”
“Charlie’s the boss— everyone calls him that!”
“Okay, but who’s pulling his strings?” Marcus sipped his smoothie. “Because his brain isn’t working unless someone’s there to turn his head.”
“Clearly,” Kallie mumbled around her straw.
“I’m not the leader. I’m just here,” I said.
“Bullshit,” Kallie said. “The whole prophecy was about you. You’re taking over the Elvish empire and keeping it alive when Cameron wants to run it into the ground. You’ve always been the Warden’s number one enemy, and you’ve guided the group whenever it’s time to take action and go to war. Charlie’s the one making the plans, but the big picture revolves around you.”
“Em-hm,” Marcus said. I didn’t notice before, but on closer inspection, I saw that there was something wrapped around his neck. Underneath his shirt was the unmistakable sight of black leather.
He was wearing a collar. By hell, Kallie. I wasn’t the only one dictating things to my man.
Or… former man.
I really wished I knew what I wanted, because until I did, Charlie wouldn’t know what he wanted, either. Relationships were complicated, because every person and couple was different.
But if this was our personal dynamic— and I was sure it was now— I had to figure out where I was going to lead us.
“What are you creating?” Marcus asked curiously, looking over Kallie’s shoulder. She’d painted a picture of a white wolf against a snowy background, and it looked pretty good. He beamed with pride. He was really into teaching her how to paint.
I turned my canvas around to show him mine. On it was a depiction of a giant purple dick, the words butt stuff written across it in neat cursive.
“Ugh! Gross, Ava!” Marcus complained. He stomped out of the room, completely insulted that I’d used his precious paint to create such an obscene work.
Kallie laughed. “I think it’s perfect. It’ll look great in your bedroom.”
“He’s just jealous that I've become a master artiste with one work.” I put the painting down so it could dry.
Kallie leaned in, giving a sly smile. “Marcus is my puppy dog. Charlie’s been a bad boy. It’s time you train him, because that’s what he’s looking for. Give him some commands and see how it goes.”
I mused upon the suggestion. “It could work, but we have a kid now. Where does Casey fit in?”
Kallie frowned. “That does complicate things.”
“If I don’t want our son, and he does, what should we do? I’m not taking a child away from his father because I don’t want to raise it.”
“This is a lot to decide in one day,” Kallie said. “Just take it one step at a time.”
“I can’t. This feels like an overwhelming decision, and there are too many options.” I was cleaning the brush fiercely, stabbing it into the water cup until the bristles were bent. “I can’t figure out if we just ended up in a bad place, or if we were toxic together. Were we bad for each other, or was it the kind of situation where it was the right person, wrong time?”
“There's no such thing. You have to choose to be the right person for your partner, and keep choosing him every day,” Kallie said.
“How can I choose him if I don’t know our love was real?” I asked. “We could’ve fallen in love because of all the trauma we went through, and if that’s true, our relationship doesn’t mean anything. It was just a bunch of emotional wounds bringing us together. We tried to heal those wounds through each other, then we ripped them open to be worse than before.”
