by DD Prince
I shrug. “I’m not trying to be heartless, but none of this is an Ivy problem. It’s a Tyson problem. I didn’t ask to be here; I don’t want to be here.”
I’m trying to say all this with a calm and detached manner but of course I’m failing. I’m not calm. I’m broken. I wish I could be detached. But all of this feels very, very attached to every part of me.
“And no matter what, you guys, you don’t have to worry about me telling anybody any of your secrets, so –”
“Ivy,” Cat tries, reaching out and grabbing my hand. “Mason –”
“Regardless of what is or isn’t wrong with Mason –” I hear Ty growling from the other room and get a full-body shudder “That was done to me. Me.” I flatten my palm on my chest. My sore, empty chest.
Ty is suddenly in the room with us and he looks furious.
“I never want his name on your lips again, Ivy. Never!”
My mouth drops open. My stomach pitches. I don’t like the look in his eyes. At all.
“Out, women. Now.”
“Son…” Cat rises and puts her hand on his forearm. “You need to –”
“I tried to stay awake all night and absorb your pain, Ivy, so you wouldn’t feel it. I tried. And I feel bad. I have never felt worse than this. It didn’t work. But you know what? I think I’d do it again. If anyone thinks you’re not mine –”
“Tyson!” Cat calls and I can feel the winces from both her and Bailey.
Ty ignores her.
“Deep down, I know – so I’m telling you I’d do it again, Ivy. I’d fuck you in front of him again if he put his eyes on you. This time, though, I’d kill him while I was doing it. You. Are mine. Mine, Ivy! I’m sorry I hurt you, I am very,” he thumps his chest with a fist “fucking sorry I hurt you. But I won’t lie and say I won’t do it again because you’re mine! Mine to love. Mine to fuck. Mine to protect, and –”
A lone tear trails down my cheek. “Protect? Really?” I ask, my voice steady, even, and by his reaction, it delivers a blow.
A phone rings. Bailey’s.
“Go, women,” Ty orders. “Your talking is doing nothing. It’s time for me to fix this with Ivy.”
Suddenly, I don’t want them to go. I really don’t.
Bailey’s phone stops ringing and then starts to ring again. She looks at the screen and then slips by Tyson, answering it.
“Tyson,” Cat tries.
“Mother, will you please purchase me a phone and put in everyone’s numbers and drop it off to me?” He reaches into his pocket and hands her a wad of cash.
“Yes, okay.”
“Do that, please.”
“Okay. No problem. Son, can we talk for a quick moment?”
“Trust me,” he looks into her eyes. “Trust me. I’ve got this.”
She looks over her shoulder at me.
“Don’t go. He’s gonna use sex to try to get me to…” I shudder, “submit.”
“Damn right I am,” Tyson tells us.
“You’re a fucking jerk,” I shout.
His eyes blaze with anger.
“And you’re mine! Even when you’re angry at me. And I’m going to show you."
“Angry? This isn’t angry, Tyson. This is destroyed.”
His face falls.
“He loves you,” Cat says. “You’ve got a beautiful gift here, Ivy. Forgiveness is going to be important in the years to come. Be sure you don’t make it so that you can’t ask for his forgiveness if you someday make a grave mistake. Trust me, you never know if you’ll be able to apologize for something or if something or someone will suddenly take that ability away from you.” Her eyes are haunted and that tells me right there that there were things unfinished between her and Tyson’s father when he was killed. There are things she’s haunted about.
“That sucks that something like that happened to you, Cat, but you were married.”
“You’re married, too, sweetheart,” she says.
“I’m not,” I insist.
“Well, you two fix things and then we’ll have a wedding so that you’ll be married in both of your minds.” She blows me a kiss, gets on her tiptoes and he leans down so she can kiss him, though he doesn’t take his eyes off me, and then she leaves.
“Tyson!” Bailey pokes her head in. “Here a minute.”
“Later, Bailey.”
“It’s important,” she insists.
His jaw flexes and he turns and disappears from the doorway.
I sit there a second, blankly, then cover my face with my hands, blowing out a breath… a sigh? I don’t even know.
I get what Catrina said. That whole “Never go to bed angry” kind of thing, but that’s for people in relationships. We’re not in one, not one that I agreed to anyway. And if I had, even if I had, what he did to me wasn’t okay. What he did was a dealbreaker. If we had a deal. We didn’t.
I’m his captive right now. And that’s not okay either.
48
Tyson
I follow Bailey and my mother outside onto the porch.
I don’t know what the fuck to do. One second I want to kiss my Ivy’s feet and beg for forgiveness and the next, I want to throw her to the floor and fuck her, join our bodies and show her how much we belong together.
Bailey’s eyes are huge.
“Ivy’s sister showed up in Arcana Falls looking for her.”
I straighten. “What?”
“She pulled up at the four corners, Cicely called Riley’s office, but Mason answered and went right over there and took Amelia Brennan. Cicely said he identified her as his mate.”
I sit down on the step and catch my breath and try to make sense of this news.
“There was witchcraft at play, Tyson. That could explain everything. We need more information, but it could be why Mase reacted like that. Can I talk to Ivy a second?”
I gesture to the door, but then jump to my feet and stop Bailey before she gets over the threshold. “Wait,” I say.
My mother speaks up. “She doesn’t need this information. She doesn’t need to worry about her sister before her and Tyson reconcile, Bailey.”
My mother has taken the words from my mouth.
“I agree,” Bailey says. “We’re all on the same page. I just want to ask her one question. Don’t worry, I won’t make things worse.”
She goes inside.
My mother has hope in her eyes. “This could be the answer.”
“Is his sense of smell fucked up enough that he’d not recognize that she’s not his, only has similar blood because of a sibling?” I ask. “My nose recognized Aunt Lucy as your sibling, Bailey as Grey’s.”
My mother shrugs. “I’m not quite sure what’s what with Mason’s senses, but I want to talk to our Scottish contacts to ask the questions. The fact that the guys say Ivy told them there’s witchcraft at play is a big deal. I wanted to ask Ivy about that, but she wasn’t very receptive. We’re going to have to call the local coven and get some answers.”
“Will there be answers?”
“There’d better be. They’re required to document every single spell they cast. If they don’t? It could cause a war. They’d have to answer to every supernatural being council in the country.”
“How are mates chosen outside of scent? Should someone else have been mine?” I ask. “I don’t care if that’s the case, Ivy is mine, but I’m curious about this. Did the witch spell alter destiny?”
“It’s a complicated matter, son. I have no answers. It wouldn’t be the first time a coven interfered with what would normally happen with a myriad of factors outside our knowledge. Fate? Compatibility? Chemicals? We don’t know what makes someone attracted to someone else. With alpha shifters, it’s especially complex. It’s sometimes been said that you’re all at the mercy of past generations of witches who very carefully ensure the balance of things in nature. Is that true? I don’t really know. Is it a matter of love at first sight? Sometimes. Sometimes a couple grows up together and realizes out of the blue
that they’re mates. Witches are very secretive and there’s also nature at play so while we don’t have all the answers, neither do the witches.”
“Well, that’s as clear as mud,” I grumble.
“I know,” she whispers.
“It doesn’t matter. She’s mine.”
“But if there’s a reasonable explanation, maybe it’ll heal things with you and Mason.”
I bare my teeth but say nothing.
“At least that’s not a no,” she says and taps my arm affectionately.
“I like you, Catrina Savage. I’m glad you’re my mother.”
She looks startled for a beat at my words, then she laughs.
I like the sound of her laugh, even if my expression doesn’t show it right now.
“I need to work on my way with words,” I add.
She smiles bigger and throws her arms around me. “I love you, my boy. I’m so glad you found your way back to me.”
I squeeze her tight. I take in her scent and instead of reminding me of the pain I was feeling at knowing her scent was on Cornelius, I now have other feelings associated with her scent. Care. For who she is. For all she’s shown me of herself so far.
“Go fix things with your girl. Please know, being gentle might be the key here, son. Rather than listening to your alpha instinct to take control of her. And I want you to know, I have all your father’s diaries. He talked a bit about his approach to fighting off his temper. He got tips from his father, who also had temper issues.”
I nod.
“You’ll have to learn the ancient language to read them,” she adds, “but Bailey learned from our elders. I’m sure she can help.”
Bailey comes outside. “Amelia Brennan is the older sister,” she says.
My mother looks alarmed. And then just as quickly, her face changes, like something makes sense to her.
“What’s this?” I demand.
Bailey lowers her voice, presumably so that Ivy can’t hear. “If a witch made some spell to match two sisters with two alphas from the same pack, really, it should’ve been the older sister with the older alpha. Our pack works chronologically with such things. Always has. Though it was strange that Riley mated before Mason. We figured that although he was third in birth order, it was because he took second alpha place instead of Mason. As for you and Mason… being in the council together, you being born first and him being born right after you, if you’re destined to be mated to girls from the same family, logically you should be paired with Amelia and Mason should be paired with Ivy.”
My blood heats on the verge of boiling at those words.
“Hear me out,” Bailey pleads. “I know you don’t like the sound of that, but I think something must have malfunctioned in that spell. We need to reach out to that coven and get them digging through all their grimoires.”
“When was Mason born?” Cat asks Bailey.
“January 19,” Bailey says.
“Only one day after Tyson,” Cat says softly. “Maybe not even a full day. Tyson was born just before midnight. I don’t know what time Mason was born, but… What about Ivy’s sister?”
“Ivy said they’re born a year apart, to the day.”
Enough of this. “I don’t know where all this is going and right now I don’t much care. Can you go buy that phone, Mother? Leave it on the step here when you do, if you have time for that.”
“I’ll make time,” she says. “I’ll be back quickly.”
“Good. Don’t knock. I’m going to be busy.”
“Tyson, be sweet. Be whatever sweet you were that had you winning her over,” Bailey suggests.
“I can only be me.”
“I respect that. It’s just that she’s very wounded in her heart, and – if you break a woman’s heart – you can’t always mend it.”
“You’re heard. Go, women. Please.”
Bailey nods and heads to Cat’s car. So does Cat.
I go inside and lock the door.
Ivy’s not in the bedroom. I see the door to my old room is slightly open. I find her sitting there on the floor against the wall with the yellow book in her hand.
Her pretty eyes look dull, red-rimmed. And they look more blue than purple right now and I don’t know why, but I find that alarming. Her lower lip protrudes in a pout when she looks up at me from the book.
“The guy wearing the yellow hat set a trap and stole the baby monkey from his life and took him away. He kept him. Maybe that monkey would’ve been better off in the jungle. Maybe the guy with the yellow hat was a monkey thief. How did I ever like this book?”
“Are you saying you think you’re better off without me? Am I the man in the hat?”
“I don’t know what I’m saying.” She puts the book down. “It’s like those old cartoons that we watched as kids, thinking nothing of it and now seeing how racist they were. It’s disappointing. It’s disappointing to think you feel some way about something and then realize you were stupid.”
I sit on the floor in front of her.
“Mason Quinn has your sister,” I say.
Her body jerks in shock and her eyes meet mine.
I swallow. “I could’ve kept that from you hoping to get you to forgive me instead of making you angrier, but I won’t hide things from you. I don’t know much, but she went to Arcana Falls to find you, she somehow knew to look there, and I’ve heard word that Mason left with her.”
“My sister’s wedding is in a couple weeks.”
“Looks like she’s getting married today, instead. Tell me about this witchcraft regarding us.”
Ivy blinks rapidly at nothing, processing this news I just told her, I guess.
Finally, her eyes meet mine.
“My aunt went to a fortune teller, my mom said, when I was a baby and paid money to the witch for some special supernatural happily ever after for me and my sister. I didn’t know about it until yesterday.”
“Seems there’s some mishap at play,” I say. “My mother and Bailey are trying to track down the witches.”
“To have it canceled?” she asks and the hope in her eyes feels like a blade sinking into my chest.
Her expression drops, realizing the effect her words have had, I think.
“To get information. According to typical pack pairings, the first alpha born in the calendar of a council mates first. They seemed to think if the spell was cast against my pack with your family that your sister should have been paired with me and you with…” I can’t even fucking say it.
“Mason,” she finishes for me.
The anger rises in me so quickly that it takes everything to tamp it down.
Her eyes flash with fear and I see my hands, see the fur receding. I half-shifted briefly.
I must learn to control that somehow. It’s never been this out-of-control. Maybe my father’s journals will have some answers. Maybe I can ask a witch what Cornelius would have injected me with so I can give that to Ivy.
“Ivy, I can’t help what I am any more than you can,” I say, using her words from not long after we first met.
Her eyes point to her hands.
She fiddles with her fingers in her lap.
“But I will do everything I can do to fix this between us. I fucked up. I’m sorry. But I’m me. I can’t promise you it’ll never happen again, or I’ll be lying. And I do promise never to lie to you.”
She continues staring at her hands.
“I wanted to come back here and fuck you until you submit to me. Make you come over and over until you know you’re mine.”
She cringes. Physically cringes. This hurts.
I keep talking. “But I’ll give you space instead. I love you, Ivy. I’m very sorry to make you hurt like this. To make you recoil at the idea of me touching you.” I swallow and let out a big breath. “I’ll do my best to be a good mate to you. I changed my mind. I can’t live in that city with the stench and the noise and so much pavement. We can live here, or we can live in Arcana Falls. It’s up to you.”
> She says nothing.
“Now, I really need to run, and I also need to … do wolf things. So, I’m gonna go do that. Please stay here. If you leave again, I’ll just have to hunt for you and if I do, I can’t promise I won’t fuck you until you submit. I’m fighting all my instincts right now and believe me, it’s not easy. Obey me, please. Do you know how to reach Catrina?”
“I have Bailey’s number saved,” she says softly. “She sent a text with a bunch of peoples’ numbers.”
“Give me your phone. I need to phone Catrina. I’ll ask her to come sit with you while I’m gone. If she can, she’ll be here soon. If she can’t and can’t send Bailey, don’t leave.”
“It’s in my purse,” she says softly, not looking at me.
I bring her the phone. She presses buttons and passes it to me, still not looking at me.
The phone makes a noise and then Cat says, “Ivy? It’s Cat. Bailey’s driving.”
“It’s me. I need to run. When will you be back here?”
“Um, half an hour, an hour maybe? I’m just about to the electronics store to get your new phone, honey.”
“Can you wait with Ivy until I’m back? I need to –”
“Run? Of course you do. Yes. I’m glad you’re taking your energy out on the forest. Giving her time to think is a good idea.”
“See you soon.” I pass the phone to Ivy, kiss the tip of her nose, then get up and leave.
I’m still not good with my words, but I think I got my message across.
And now, I need to run and rip things apart.
But I don’t want to risk Ivy running and harming herself, so I shift to wolf, and I mark the property with my scent. It didn’t help when she left and got bitten by the snake so I can’t bring myself to leave.
Instead, I pace the property around the cabin until my mother’s car pulls in. She nods at me and I run toward the road.
49
Ivy
Amelia and Mason? My stubborn, alpha female sister and the wolf shifter that Tyson fucked me in front of? The guy Tyson wanted to kill?
