“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?
This is crazy.
This is c-r-a-z-y!
All of it’s crazy. I look at my phone. Missed calls from Amelia, from Ben, and from my mother.
I call Amelia’s line.
No answer. I text her.
“Please get ahold of me! 9-1-1! Are you with someone named Mason?”
I stare at the phone for the longest time, waiting for the read receipt. Waiting for her to reply. Nothing.
I call my mom.
She answers on the first ring.
“Ivy? Thank God!”
“Hi Mom, um –”
“Where are you? Where the hell are you?”
“I’m at Tyson’s.”
“Tyson’s,” Mom says.
“And Amie came looking for me and apparently some other werewolf got her and is claiming her the way Ty claimed me.”
“Werewolf?” Mom repeats.
Oh shit. Shit. Shit. Fuck.
I bite my lip. “I wasn’t supposed to say that.”
“Never mind all that for now. Are you okay? Is she okay? Are you okay?”
“Um, I don’t know about her. I’m … not really okay, but that’s mostly … feelings.” I wince.
I don’t know how else to explain it. I can’t possibly tell my mother what happened. She already knows too much.
“Does your instinct tell you your sister’s okay? Do you know this werewolf that has her?”
I blink. I bite my lip. I let out a long breath.
“Ivy?”
“I think she is. All these people, Mom, they’re good people, I think. They care about one another. The mating thing is really important to them. I don’t know how Amelia’s gonna feel about all this, but I don’t think she’s in danger. You can’t tell anybody what they are, you can’t, Mom. It’d be dangerous. For all of us.”
At least I hope she isn’t. My sister’s mouth can get her in trouble. But with the way a werewolf deals with a mouthy mate…
My head spins at the notion of some guy trying to make Amelia Brennan submit.
My head spins in general because so much has happened in a week.
“What can I do? Do I come there?”
“I think maybe wait, Mom. I’ll talk to Tyson’s mom or Bailey, another girl here I’ve been talking to. I’ll see what I can find out.”
“How am I supposed to just sit here, Ivy?”
I shrug. “I don’t know. I just… don’t know. I’ll call you back when I know more, okay?”
There’s silence on the line. Loaded silence. Mom feels helpless and she doesn’t do well when feeling that way. Who does, though?
“Don’t you dare make me sit here for forty-eight hours again.”
“I won’t.”
She sighs.
“To you, what’s the best and worst case scenarios here?” I ask her. That’s something she’s always done with us when faced with what feels like an impossible scenario.
“Best case, your sister either falls in love or gets home without a hitch. Worst… someone hurts her or makes her upset.”
“I think right now she’s probably got a very horny wolf shifter pursuing a relationship with her. She’s going to have her hands full with that, but I can tell you from experience, it’s not unpleasant.”
I can’t believe I just said that. And of course I’m only talking about the beginning. I can’t possibly tell my mother how things have turned for Tyson and me.
“And Mason? He’s … extraordinarily hot,” I say.
My hand lands on my neck and I squeeze at some stiffness. It happens to be right there, right where he bit me. Images flash through my mind of my first time with Tyson. That first surprising knotting experience.