Rage

Chapter 6

Chapter Six

Ivy

“ Y ou will if you want her to live. This is time sensitive.”

I pause, forcing myself to keep breathing in and out through my nose and willing my eyes to stay clamped shut. The voice doesn’t belong to Hurst or the others, and it takes a moment for me to register that there’s a body next to me. I focus on the smell and remember I came up to Ewan’s room with him after the scare earlier this morning. I never thought I would fall back asleep, but my body calmed in his presence, and here I am, still curled up next to him in his bed.

Ewan tenses beside me, and his palm finds its way to my hip, rubbing gentle circles against my skin as he speaks, but I still don’t dare move. The words out of Oliver’s mouth are not what I was expecting from my mate. A cold sweat starts to break out across my forehead, but I stay still, not wanting to brush it away. Ewan’s hand continues to move, seeming to sense the discomfort in my body.

“You have no idea when she’ll go into a heat.”

Oliver’s voice is low and quiet when he responds. “You can smell her as much as I can, and you know it’s coming soon. You push her until she’s in one. Use him if you have to. You have a week or I’m getting rid of her and starting fresh.”

Ewan’s voice is calm when he speaks again. “How do you plan to do that? You already killed one of my mates and he is rotting away in your basement—this is the only way you continue your line. She can’t take your knot if she’s not in a heat, and you certainly can’t put her into one.”

“Fuck you!” Oliver seethes, my body tensing with his tone. “I’m going to work. Get your head on straight and don’t fuck this up.”

He must have noticed my body moving because after Oliver storms out of the room, I hear the heavy sigh that comes out of Ewan. “You can stop pretending. He’s gone.”

I scramble away from Ewan, sitting upright against the headboard and heaving breath into my lungs. “What the fuck was that? Is he sending me back? What did I do?”

I know my voice sounds incredibly frantic, but that’s exactly how I feel.

Ewan’s brows furrow, and he scoots his body so he’s sitting against the headboard next to me. He stretches out a hand and hesitates. “Can I touch you?”

I nod, and he slips his arm around my shoulders, tucking me in close.

“He’s not sending you back, and based on your reaction, I’m not sure I want to know what happened to you there. Who were you living with?”

“The Forrester pack,” I reply, glancing up at him.

Ewan’s jaw tenses, and he shakes his head. “Alright, we can deal with them later. First, we need to manage Oliver.”

“What was that?” I ask, my body still shivering from the terror that ripped through me when he started talking about killing me.

It’s funny—I wanted to die every day for the last few months, but now the thought of it scares the shit out of me. Or maybe it’s less about dying and more the fear of not dying. Of being stuck in that house for the rest of my life, going through a heat and being tied to them for all eternity.

Ewan swallows. “It’s a lot, but I need you to trust me, Ivy. I know we only just met, but you feel it, don’t you?”

I chew on my bottom lip but give him a small nod of my head. “Yes, I feel it. With you, but not with Oliver.”

He smiles and instantly apologizes. “I’m sorry. I know I shouldn’t be happy right now, but I’m so damn glad he found you—even if the circumstances are complete and utter shit.”

Ewan leans in and brushes his lips across mine, giving me a soft and quick kiss.

“That man isn’t your mate. That’s why you didn’t feel anything toward him and never will. He’s not actually Oliver.”

“Wh—what?” I ask, my brows pinching together, my face certainly betraying my clear shock at this revelation.

Ewan rubs a hand over his face, scratching the stubble he has growing on his chin and cheeks. I’m not sure if he always has it or not, but he’s beautiful with it. “Can we go downstairs and make some coffee? You thrashed around a lot last night, and it took a bit for me to fall asleep once you settled down.”

“Oh—ummm—I’m so sorry. I did?—”

“Stop,” Ewan states, holding up a hand. “I’m not upset about it. I just have a lot to tell you, and it would be easier with coffee.”

Once we get downstairs and we each have a delightful vanilla latte in front of us, Ewan starts to unpack the reality of my future. And it’s bleak as fuck.

“Drake Bergman. That’s who you met at the bank, and that’s who is pretending to be Oliver. They were twins, and when the two of them sent their blood in, Drake was informed his only mate had passed in a car accident the year prior. Instead of moving on from the tragedy, he got angry. And even angrier when his brother was told he had at least two mates. Florian and myself. That rage he felt grew more and more as the next few years passed and the three of us became closer, purchasing this house and moving in together, discussing how we could start a family. We had no idea there was another mate, that you even existed.”

“What happened?” I question.

Ewan swallows roughly. “I’m not entirely sure, but some altercation, and Drake killed Oliver before taking up as him.”

“He killed his own brother?” I ask, pausing with the coffee mug resting against my lower lip.

Ewan nods, and tears twinkle in the corner of his eyes.

“When? And what about Florian?”

“It was a year ago now. A little over that. It took some time before he was willing to let me be around other people, but Florian has a much shorter temper than me, and Drake has never trusted him.”

“Florian is alive?” I state, not positive how my body can handle more shock or information at this point.

He nods again.

“This… this is all so much. What does he want with me?”

Ewan’s face turns somber. “He wants children, and for some reason he won’t settle for another route. Drake knows that if I can get you to go into heat, you’ll be able to take a knot from any of us, and he fully plans for it to be him. It’s the only reason he’s kept Florian and me alive. He’s aware he may need both your mates for it to happen.”

Fucking hell.

My breathing becomes a bit more rapid, and Ewan immediately places his mug down, coming around the kitchen island to wrap his arms around me. No matter how much the Forresters fucked me up, Ewan’s touch feels immediately different. My heart rate regulates instantly, and when his breath tickles across my neck, my nipples peak and I feel a pulsing between my legs.

“Shit,” I breathe as Ewan drags his nose along my neck.

“Fuck,” he groans, pressing himself against my back. “This isn’t a good time for you to start.”

“Start what?” I ask, feeling his cock hardening against my ass.

“A heat. Have you had one yet? Usually wolves will go through them with their mates, but someone your age has typically had a few already.”

I shake my head. “I’m not a full wolf. I’m a mutt. I can’t shift, and I don’t have heats.”

Ewan’s hand travels to my waistband, but he pauses, waiting for confirmation. Aside from the one young wolf back in my old town who was willing to slum it with a mutt, I haven’t found anyone else willing. And despite still trying to process all the mind-bending information he just dropped on me, I lean my body into him, allowing Ewan to slip his fingers past my waistband.

They trail over my hip and dip lower, cupping over my pussy before he slips them between my legs. I suck in a breath, and Ewan groans again.

“Fuck, Ivy. You’re drenched in slick. You’re going through a heat soon, whether you like it or not.”

As much as I want him to continue, Ewan removes his hands and grabs both my coffee and his before heading back toward the stairs.

“Are you sure? I’ve never gone through one, even with the Forrester pack.”

“They weren’t your pack. They weren’t your mates. Your body knows you’re with us now, and we’re going to need to adapt.”

I follow behind him at a clipped pace, trying my best to ignore how painful the pulsing between my legs is getting.

“Where are we going?”

Ewan casts me a glance over his shoulder, and the corner of his mouth turns up in a smirk. “I need you to trust me, Ivy. I know this is all happening fast and you don’t know me, but you’re going to need me. And soon.”

I chew my bottom lip again, feeling exactly what he’s saying. My body needs him, even if my brain is warring with that fact. “Alright. Where are we going?”

“To meet Florian.”