“This isn’t okay. Any of it. Especially not us being kept apart.”
“Kept apart?”
“He won’t let me see you. He took my phone, my keys. He’s blocked me in his driveway. He’s chased me down repeatedly when I’ve tried to leave…”
“Does he punish you with sex, too?”
“What?” I gasp.
“Um… Tyson is very… intense.”
“He punishes you with sex? What the fuck, Ivy? You’re okay with this?”
I glare at Mason with a don’t you dare expression. But he already threatened that the other day in the woods, didn’t he?
His gaze darkens and his eyes work over me.
“Um…” Ivy say shakily, “it’s kind of like a honeymoon period as Bailey explained it. He wants to be alone with you. He wants you two to have time to bond, probably. Bailey says all alphas are really protective and very clingy when they’re first mated. I’m only a little bit ahead of you on this journey so I’m no expert or anything, but I’m telling you, if you let yourself think about the pluses instead of the things that seem strange… I know the supernatural angle is hard to get a grasp on, but Amelia… give it a chance.”
But I should have a much better grasp on this because I’m already more aware of the supernatural angle than she is. Yet I don’t.
Conflict and pain thrum inside me. I try to fight the tears back, but I think I’m about to fail.
“I’m gonna marry him,” she says.
“What?”
“Isn’t that strange? You were getting married instead of me and now we’re both already married in shifter eyes. But Tyson and I are talking about doing it people-style, too. Soon. So… you can be my maid of honor!”
I hard-blink.
“What’s happening with Rick?” she asks casually.
Ugh.
“Amelia?”
“Yeah, I’m here. I ended it. Long story, but… back up for a sec, Ivy… how can you be jumping this fast? Have you lost your mind?”
“Maybe. But I love him. I love him, Amie, and despite that things haven’t been perfect…I can’t imagine my life without him.”
“Haven’t been perfect? I’ll say. You haven’t even filled me in, but I already know things haven’t been perfect. Snake bites and dangerous fevers and getting kidnapped and dragged back here after you left. And here you are talking about getting married just a few days after all that?”
“I think you’re gonna have to get there on your own,” Ivy says. “I’m only days ahead of you and believe me, I was skeptical at first too. I also made a run for it, more than once. But Amie, if you open your heart and let yourself take a really close look at it all, I think you’ll see. This is amazing. We’re so lucky to have this.”
I growl in frustration. “Who are you and what have you done with my sister?”
“I’m right here. I’m here and I’m happy, too. Happier than I have ever been. Mom is moving here, too. We can have this and have her and it looks like her happy ending is coming, too, according to Aunt Nelle’s letter.”
“What about our baby brother?” I demand. “If he doesn’t have a she-shifter soulmate we have to cut him out of our lives?”
“Leo is gonna be in school the next three and a half years away from us. We’ve got time to figure it all out. And you know him. He’s chill. He’ll be approved to be let in on all the secrets.”
I’m ticked. Absolutely ticked. And it’s going to manifest itself with more tears if I can’t stop it.
“You deserve so much happiness, Amelia,” she whispers, her voice laced with emotion. “Please give things a chance. It’s the best feeling in the world to know you’re with your soulmate. I want that for you, sis.”
The dam breaks and I burst into tears.
Mason takes the phone from me and pulls me into his chest.
“I am, Ivy,” Mason says softly into the phone. And then he says goodbye and puts the phone down, wrapping his other arm around me.
I don’t speak, I just let him hold me, the purring soaking into me and making my body relax while also causing my throat and chest to feel clogged with emotion.
32
Mason
“What do you want for breakfast? Crepes again?”
She shakes her head, still snuggled into my chest.
Lies. She wants crepes.
“What then?”
“Nothing,” she rasps out.
Her stomach rumbles, contradicting her.
“You can try to lie with your mouth, but your stomach tells the truth.”
“Hmpf.”
She pulls away, keeping her eyes aimed away from me, sips her coffee and stares out the window.
“Eggs?”
She rises, takes her mug, refills it, adding cream and sugar and then she opens the patio door off the kitchen to go out onto the deck without replying.
I lift my phone and send a text to Riley.
Checking in. I’m here, whatever you need brother. Check in when you can. Offload onto us if you need things covered for work or the pack. We’re all here for you.