Avery and Lilith are quickly moved to an office just off the dining hall, Council members hurrying them along.

Alpha Petty is dragged with them, and Zephyr and Roman follow quickly, being turned away at the door.

The three stand awkwardly in the office, Avery's hands covered in blood.

She tries not to retch when she notices, and Lilith snatches a bottle of water off the desk, pouring it over her hands to get rid of some of the blood.

"You weren't as freaked when you did this to my face," Scott mumbles, and Avery glares at him.

"That boy was just a kid, and he was going to kill himself. He's innocent in all of this. You,  however, were the opposite of innocent," she snaps, muttering her thanks to Lilith.

"So.. guilty?" Scott smirks, and Avery bares her teeth at him.

"Alpha Petty, you stay in your corner, and we'll stay in ours," Lilith announces, pulling Avery back to behind the desk, where she sits her down and stands behind her.

"At least you didn't get blood on your dress," Lilith sighs, and Avery lets out a weak laugh.

"That would have been easier to fix," she grumbles, running a hand through her hair, and getting her fingers caught in a knot.

"This day just keeps getting worse," she whispers, and Scott lets out a hoot of laughter.

"There's a bit of a difference between a young boy trying to commit suicide, and you having a knot in your hair," he scoffs, and Avery glares at him again.

"I didn't say there wasn't, I just said my day was getting worse. Actually, the longer I'm around you, the shittier things get," she retorts, and Lilith cringes.

"That wasn't your best, and I've known you since this morning," the curvy woman mutters, shaking her head. 

"Lilith, really?" Avery mutters, and Lilith chuckles, shaking her head again. 

"What the fuck was that? The Council will ask and I'll find out anyway." Lilith grumbles, and the two stay silent.

"I can't say. The whole room would have known, if Scott had kept speaking," Avery growls, rubbing at her neck.

Scott watches her silently, shaking his head at her.

"Then why don't you just say it?" Lilith continues probing, leaning down to look into Avery's eyes.

"I can't say," Avery groans, frustrated, "there's a binding spell on both of us, and he was gonna break it."

"Jesus Christ," Lilith mutters, sitting on the desk.

Scott stays quiet, his dark eyes roving over the two.

"How's your mum?" Avery asks out of the blue, and Scott twitches.

"She's fine. She asks for you sometimes," he replies quietly, and Avery nods.

"Do you give her the Christmas cards I send every year?" She questions, and he nods, looking out the window vacantly. 

After a few minutes of complete silence, in which Lilith wants to die because of the awkward tension, some members of the council bustle in, Roman and Zephyr forcing their way in with them. 

"What was that?" Zephyr asks first, after waiting a moment for someone else to speak.

Roman walks over to Avery, and takes Lilith's place beside her, sitting on the desk and taking one of her hands silently, squeezing gently.

"Is the boy okay?" Avery asks, her forehead scrunched up in worry.

"You got whatever was in him out in time. It looks like he was poisoned just before he came into the hall, but we've never seen anything that acts so quickly," the elder says, and Avery and Scott exchange a glance.

The girl that has been attached to Scott's hip appears, standing a little behind him, her nervousness clearly portrayed on her face.

She's short, barely coming up to the middle of his chest, with curly black hair and sallow skin. 

Scott reaches out and clasps her hand briefly, before releasing her, which looks like it pains her a little; Avery's heart goes out to her.

"We want to know about what happened six years ago, including what happened between you two," one of the men nods, sitting on one of the stools by the minibar, looking awkward, as he's a rather large man, and the stool is rather small.

"I'd rather not discuss that. I don't know about Alpha Petty, but I don't think any of our personal business pertains to the nature of this case," Avery sharply says, her eyes flickering between each of the council members, noting her brother isn't present.

"I agree with Deputy Alpha Wilcott for once, this isn't a matter for discussion," Scott nods, but the council stands firm.

"We need to know the entire story," one repeats, and the two exchange slightly horrified looks. 

"One of you start before we kick your mates out of the room," one warns, and Lilith and Zephyr move into a corner, and out of the way.

"I tried to mark her," he sighs, and the two share a look of distaste.

"What?" Lilith blurts out, her eyebrows shooting upwards.

Zephyr hushes her but looks equally shocked. 

"We were in a consensual relationship for six months," Avery butts in, "at the end, he tried to mark me, convinced he didn't have a mate either."

His mate looks extremely upset at this revelation.

Avery feels her heart squeeze, and she wants to comfort the girl. Scott keeps his distance from his mate, not even looking in her direction.

His face is tight, and his cheeks are red.

Roman glances at Avery, and gently squeezes her hand, silently letting her know he's there and listening.

Her heart warms a little at his small gesture, feeling immensely comforted in the fact he hasn't run away screaming his head off. 

"Is that it?" A council member asks with a raised eyebrow.

"We had essentially formed a bond, bar the marking," Scott groans, rubbing his face.

He and Avery are both slightly pink now, neither looking at each other.

"And then what happened?" The same member probes and Avery glares at him.

"He tried to mark me, and then we had a very huge disagreement, which ended in me slashing his face," she responds coldly.

"I did deserve it," he mutters, "but that isn't why we're here, so could we talk about the relevant information now?"

After gaining an irritated nod from the council member who is bothering them the most, the pair look at each other and sigh.

"We were on a run about a week before the end of our... thing, when we came across a vampire," Avery starts, inhaling deeply, "he was starved and dehydrated, and very obviously left for dead. We took him with us back to Scott's packhouse, where he was slowly healed."

"In return, Carlos informed us about vampire practices. He is still loyal to my pack, and has essentially become a member of it. He warned us about a new drug the vampires had been formulating with a band of rogues," Scott continues grimly.

"Why was this not reported at the time?" One of the council interrupts, and the two turn and glare at him.

"It was. Nobody listened to us, because we were twenty-two, and none of you liked to see an Unfortunate with an Alpha, a bias many of you still hold," Avery bites back, her tone scathing.

"We were told we couldn't trust a vampire, so we decided to carry out our own investigation, Avery having her university background, and both of us having Alpha training," Scott sighs, running a hand through his long hair.

"We stayed in the woods for two days until we found something. We found the body of a child rogue, who had no identification or registration in any database. He had been poisoned so severely that his body was contorted," Avery grimaces, closing her eyes as she remembers the scene.

"Nobody knew the child, and we couldn't figure out what the poison was until Avery sent it to one of her human contacts, who analysed it for us and discovered it was a mostly silver mixture, with garlic and wolfsbane mixed in," Scott adds, clenching his jaw.

"How would vampires know that garlic slows our healing process?" One of the council members mutters, and Avery rolls her eyes.

"We managed to find out where the rogues were, so I don't think it would be too hard for a vampire to figure it out. They reek," Avery grumbles, scrunching her nose up.

"The mixture makes people go crazy. They burn from the inside out, and they scratch at their skin trying to get relief. Avery cut into the boy to allow the toxin to escape," Scott sighs, sitting against a bookcase, and beginning to braid his hair.

His mate slaps his hands away gently and braids it for him silently, not looking around the room except when she gets to the end.

"Oh," Avery quietly exclaims, throwing her a hair tie. 

"So when would the boy in the hall have been dosed?" One of the younger council members asks, and Avery juts her chin out.

"Most likely just before he ran into the hall. It's very fast-acting, and it doesn't take long to seriously damage you. The assailant most likely followed him from where he found the maid's body," she sighs, hearing a muffled gasp from Lilith in the corner.

"I've seen this stuff before," she gapes, standing up from where she's sitting.

"They tested it on some of the rogues I knew," she cringes, shaking her head rapidly to try rid herself of the memory.

"So you've seen how it works," Avery murmurs, cocking her head to the side.

"That's why I checked his neck. I wasn't sure it was what I thought, but there was a syringe mark on his neck," Lilith responds quietly, mostly speaking to Avery.

Some of the council asks her to repeat what she said, but she remains silent. 

She doesn't trust them, and she might be right not to, Sonya whirrs to life with this comment, scaring the shit out of Avery, who almost topples out of her chair, but manages to right herself before anyone notices. 

"When we found the encampment, it was too late. The vampires in question had killed forty rogues, and they didn't see it coming. We guessed that they attacked their partners at night, so the wolves died in their sleep, which is a small mercy, I suppose," Scott states, leaning into his mate slightly.

"We spent the next three days hunting the vampires, and we killed them all - or we thought we did," Avery growls, her eyes flashing. 

"I don't know how one of them would have gotten away," Scott agrees, shaking his head.

"Whoever tried to kill that boy, staged the maid as a distraction. Figure out who did all of that, and you have your lead back to that drug," Avery sighs.

"And trust us, you want to find that lead and that drug source," Scott warns, and he and Avery nod to each other.

The room slowly empties until it's just Avery and Roman sitting with Scott and his mate, silence surrounding them.