Once Upon A Pack (Royalverse #1)

Chapter 46

forty-six

It takes everything in me not to sprint to the Omega Suite before Duncan finishes his explanation.

Bast and I arrive back from Lyledon to find the nervous attendant waiting by the carport, wringing his hands. He launches into his story without delay, and we manage to listen…

Until he says, “It’s been about four hours since anyone has seen either of them, Your Highness.”

Then I’m gone.

Bast and I rush into the east wing, running up the back stairs that spit us closest to Ivy’s double doors. They’re firmly shut but unlocked.

I stand on the threshold, chest heaving. The room looks fine, apart from an unmade bed and a few pillows strewn on the floor. The sun has set, leaving the space dark except for the dimmed chandelier overhead… and the nest?

Where someone is purring .

Bast and I glance at each other and simultaneously lunge for the stairs. He’s faster, of course, and beats me to the landing at the top. When he freezes, blinking in shock instead of snarling, I feel marginally better.

“Uh, hey?” he says.

Dair’s voice hisses from the cocoon of velvet curtains and gilded glass. “ Shh . She’s sleeping .”

Bast’s stunned expression makes sense when I step around him. Dair is naked, sprawled in the nest with Ivy bundled into his side, resting peacefully across his purring chest.

Bast cracks a grin, kicking his shoes off to wade in. “I see you two worked your shit out.”

I’m not so optimistic. Removing my own Oxfords, I cast Dair a long, examining look. One he would normally return with a growl or at least a glare.

This time, he only stares back, his features solemn but calm. “She busted in on me and ran,” he admits. “I chased her down here, but she—we figured it out.”

She looks normal, but unease shifts in my chest anyhow. I shuffle forward on my knees, noting the way Dair has to smother a growl when I get close enough to bend over Ivy and scent her. He lets me do it, holding his vicious Alpha in check so I can see for myself.

Ivy smells like heaven. Warm, sugared gold. I nuzzle her bare shoulder with my nose and brush a light kiss there before retreating, tension leaving my lungs. “Seems perfect,” I comment. “She wasn’t scared?”

Dair swallows loud enough for me to hear. “She was,” he mumbles, “But that almost made my Alpha calmer, somehow? It activated his protective side, I guess.”

Pride warms my center as my eyes roam over my gorgeous darling’s profile. Of course she didn’t hide her fear or act like she knew what to do—my guileless girl. The fact that her softness brings out the best in each of us is exactly why we need her.

It seems Dair is finally ready to admit that.

“She’s like a special key that opens all three doors,” he murmurs, waving a hand at us. “I didn’t think that would be possible, because of the way I started out in this pack. I thought I’d fucked up your chances of finding your true mate—or, if you did, I was convinced she’d be wrong for me.

“But from the first time I scented her, I knew. She’s mine. And she’s yours. Which means all the selfish reasons why I joined this pack didn’t fuck everything up, after all.”

If I was already surprised, now I’m shocked . A feeling that only doubles as he continues, meeting my eye with a determined stare.

“I owe you an apology,” he states, certainty radiating from his voice and expression. “It was messed up, approaching you when I knew you needed help with bullies, pretending I wanted all this. Worming my way in to serve my own interests. I’m sorry I did that.”

He turns to Bast next. “And I’m sorry you got shoved in the middle. You had to do a lot of work to keep everything together.”

A crease mars his forehead as his dark brows draw together, betraying how hard he has to work for his final statement. “Thank you for doing that,” he says to Bast, then faces me again. “And thank you for not… giving up. On me. I want us to figure out how to get Ivy to feel like she belongs here, because now I know I do, too.”

Gruff emotion scrapes the inside of my chest. My throat works as I swallow past it, nodding. Speechless.

I should have known Bast wouldn’t be.

A grin bursts across his face, and he lunges forward. “Awww, DAIR!”

He doesn’t care that our packmate and omega are naked. He goes right in for a bear hug, squeezing them despite Dair’s protective growl and Ivy’s sudden squeak of surprise.

“You woke her up!” Dair grouses.

But Ivy giggles before she even gets her eyes all the way open, turning to find Bast’s face for a kiss. “I’m sure he had a good reason, right, my lord?”

Bast’s buttery toffee scent deepens as he rubs his nose over hers, pure happiness lighting his features. “Correct, angel. Your duke was just being nice . To us .”

Dair uses the hand not clutching Ivy to pinch the bridge of his nose, leaning his head back with a groan. “I was not nice .”

Bast grins wider, and Ivy joins him. Always partners in crime, those two.

“Yes, he was,” Bast mouths, earning a scathing glower from Dair. Luckily, Ivy captures the duke’s attention a moment later. His entire face relaxes the second their eyes meet, melting into a look of fond concern.

“You good?” he murmurs. “Still feeling okay?”

As her sweetness thickens, Ivy snuggles closer and nods into his tattooed chest. He sets his chin on her crown, and Bast moves to her other side, flopping into the pillows with that same exuberant smile.

Something warm aches behind my ribs, stretching to fill my whole chest. Pride, I think.

I picked these guys. And they’re everything Ivy needs.

Except for me.

She makes that clear with a quiet whine. Her dainty fingers float up and wiggle, beckoning me closer with a hushed, “Please, Ash?”

I move to join them, falling on the other side of Dair.

After all, you don’t say no to a queen.