Chapter 51
Wyatt
I felt as if I’d barely fallen asleep when Skye woke up.
Her breathing changed, speeding up slightly. For a moment, I thought she was having a nightmare, or about to have a panic attack from one. But instead of freaking out, she teleported.
It was an odd sensation. One moment her weight and warmth were pressing against me, the next, it was just…gone.
I didn’t sit up right away, choosing to watch the bathroom door since she sometimes teleported into the bathroom instead of trying to climb over all of us. Sure enough, the bathroom light flicked on and then off, and then the closet light flicked on.
I sat up completely, watching as Skye appeared in the bedroom, searching the ground for something. She slipped her feet into some shoes, then hurried out the open bedroom door, so distracted she didn’t notice I was sitting up and watching her.
I hopped out of bed, hurrying into the hall just in time to see her teleport from the kitchen. I shook my head as I went to the fridge, finding a bottle of water. Maybe she was going to Willow? Or Mia?
Something vibrated, startling me. I whirled around, and the same sound echoed again.
My vision focused on the counter.
It was a phone.
I stared at it.
It vibrated again.
It was Skye’s phone.
Skye left without her phone.
I breathed out slowly, lowering the bottle as my heart began to pound.
Suddenly, I was four years old again, too smart for my own good, seeing my dad’s phone light up on the counter.
I’d seen him enter his password hundreds of times, knew it by heart because it was my birthday.
I’d looked through his phone, finding hundreds of messages between him and a woman who wasn’t my mom.
Skye’s phone was in my hand before I could second-guess myself. I’d seen her passcode hundreds of times, because it was her birthday. The uneasy feeling I’d been ignoring in my gut was back, and I couldn’t stop myself.
My stomach churned as I typed in the code, opening up the phone to find her texts. The phone continued buzzing, messages from my sister and Mia pouring in, but that wasn’t what caught my attention.
She was texting with…someone.
A secret someone.
Instead of a name, there was only a tornado emoji looking back at me.
Who the hell could that be?
It was a man. Of course it was a man. A student.
My eyes darted across each message quicker than I could process. She’d been texting him for months, a few mundane things here and there related to their classes, but also they were…
My heart cracked.
They were playing the question game Skye and I played.
After a bit more scrolling, I knew who it was.
River fucking Mac had been texting my fucking Key while sitting in his counseling sessions, looking me in the face.
The irony was almost overwhelming, but I’d examine that later. I now knew exactly how Aiden felt when he realized I’d been hurting Skye when they first started dating.
I heard someone move into the hallway, and then feet padded across the media room. Rafe would’ve just shadow-walked, so that meant it had to be–
“What are you doing?” Aiden’s voice was loud in the quiet of the penthouse. I turned to him, feeling like I was at the end of a tunnel. His gaze zeroed in on the phone, and his eyes widened. “That’s not yours…”
“Did you know?” I said hoarsely. “Do you know how long this has been going on?”
Aiden’s eyes widened even further. “You’re going through her phone? Holy shit–”
“Did you know?!” I nearly shouted. “That she’s been meeting up with River fucking Mac like a booty call?”
Aiden froze at my raised voice, his hands outstretched almost placatingly. He shook his head. “Think about this for a second,” he said slowly. “You’re violating her privacy.”
He had a point. I wasn’t thinking rationally. The fact that Skye was sneaking off with someone who still came to my counseling sessions and looked me in the face while he was fucking my Key–
He was fucking my Key.
Had he been fucking her longer than me? I’d only fucked her twice, one of which had been like, an hour ago–
Skye’s phone cracked in my hand.
“Dude!” Aiden cried. “She’s going to fucking flip–”
“I’m going to fucking flip!” I shouted.
“Wyatt?” Rafe’s voice was rough from sleep. He appeared at the kitchen opening, only wearing a pair of sleep pants. He rubbed at his eyes. “What’s going on?”
“Wyatt’s being a psycho,” Aiden said.
“Skye is…cheating on us,” I whispered.
Rafe went preternaturally still, then lowered his hands so he could see us more clearly.
“What?” he whispered.
“No, she’s not,” Aiden said forcefully.
“And Aiden knows,” I went on, my voice growing louder. “He fucking knows and he didn’t fucking tell us.”
“Isaiah?” Rafe snarled.
“Holy shit,” Aiden groaned, looking up into the ceiling.
“Worse,” I choked out. “River Mac. The little asshole that Aiden attacked. The one Skye just told us not to worry about.”
“He deserved it,” Aiden muttered petulantly.
“Wait, wait, wait,” Rafe said loudly. “The guy she told us she liked? The guy that ran from her?”
“Yes,” I groaned.
“It’s not like that,” Aiden protested.
“Skye is fucking the dude you jumped in the quad? And you’re okay with it?” Rafe snapped.
“I already told you, I jumped him because he rejected her at first,” Aiden said defensively. “You would’ve, too. What kind of an idiot rejects Skye? Besides Wyatt.”
Skye’s phone cracked even further in my palm. I barely registered that a shard of glass from the screen had cut into my hand until blood began to drip on the shiny marble floors.
“She’s lying to us!” I bellowed.
“She didn’t lie to me,” Aiden sneered.
“Why was she hiding it?” My voice shook. “She could’ve told me–”
“No, she couldn’t tell you,” Aiden argued. “You’re jealous of your own Link-mates, Wyatt!”
Rafe pinched the bridge of his nose. “Wyatt. Have you ever considered why she might feel like she needs to lie to us?”
“How are you okay with this?!” I cried.
The wooden dining table groaned, drawing our attention for just a moment before Aiden started up again.
“Look. She told me they had a moment, and feelings started developing. I beat his ass because he ran after kissing her, and then they made up. I had no idea they’d fucked. I’m not lying.”
“Wait,” Rafe pinched the bridge of his nose. “She said in her messages that they’d fucked, or you’re just assuming that?”
“They fucked,” I whispered.
I looked down at the shattered screen, the two worst messages still taunting me.
I wish you’d reply
It wasn’t nothing to me
“Shit, it must’ve been when we were gone,” Rafe said.
Aiden was silent.
“He knew,” I whispered. “You knew!”
“Wyatt–”
I launched at Aiden, wrapping my hands around his neck and taking us to the ground.
Rafe jumped on me, his fingers between my hands and Aiden’s throat. We rolled across the floor, knocking things over. Aiden’s arms sparked, and I jumped, rolling away just before the sound of electricity surging buzzed through the dormitory.
The sound of shattering glass erupted throughout the penthouse, every lightbulb bursting at once.
Aiden’s arms ignited, and Rafe dove away from him. Aiden stood, keeping his arms lit so that Rafe stayed back.
Rafe scrambled to hide behind me, keeping his gaze down so he couldn’t see the flames.
We…
We were a disaster.
This entire fucking Chain was one big fucking catastrophe.