11. Chapter 11
Elias
When we pulled into the long driveway of the Carrington estate, Hunter was already reviewing the marketing notes on his tablet while Ronan quietly surveyed the property through the window, no doubt cataloging exits and security cameras without even realizing he was doing it.
I'd volunteered to come before Hunter had even finished explaining the purpose of the meeting, which was primarily to work on the ad campaign with Arabella.
I had no interest in the details of the marketing campaign - but I did have an interest in getting to know Ivy better.
Hunter knew it, and Ronan definitely knew it.
The two of them had exchanged a look the moment I'd mentioned wanting to hear more about her hormone-balancing spray, and I hadn't bothered denying the real reason I wanted to tag along.
Arabella opened the door the moment we set foot on the porch, looking every bit the polished ambassador that we needed. She was beautiful and seemed eager to get to work. And yet my eyes moved past her almost immediately.
We greeted the Carrington Pack, who were all smiles and greetings as we stepped inside. The alphas in the pack started heaping praise on Ronan and Hunter, while Arabella started chatting away, her voice louder than anyone else’s.
“Oh, you simply must have some of the cookies I made earlier!” She said, grabbing a tray and holding it out toward us. I took one, even though I wasn’t hungry at the moment.
“Thank you, Arabella,” I said, and she beamed at us as each of my pack accepted the food from her.
I thought it was a bit odd that she was already offering us food - it indicated interest from an omega.
Though theoretically, it could have been her scent at the gala that we all smelled.
Yet, it didn’t seem to match her personality.
And I had my eyes on someone else entirely.
I spotted Ivy standing several feet behind the rest of her family, looking like an afterthought.
But she was all I could focus on. She wore a pale green sweater tucked into dark trousers with comfortable flats instead of heels, her hair loosely pulled back into a ponytail.
She didn’t wear much jewelry in comparison to the other omegas in the family - just a simple silver necklace.
I found her all the more charming. She dressed for comfort rather than appearances, and somehow that only made me want to smile. She looked like someone who had been interrupted in the middle of an experiment, and I found the image unexpectedly endearing.
The moment she noticed me, she gave me an excited smile that made my heart leap.
I wasn’t sure if I’d ever felt this kind of crush on anyone before.
I stepped aside, letting Hunter deal with Arabella and her mother - he was the only one who really needed to talk about the marketing campaign anyway.
In a few moments, I was next to Ivy, already feeling excited to see her again.
"There you are," I said, hoping I wasn’t being too forward.
"Hi. It’s good to see you again," she said in a soft voice.
"I'm still hoping you want to have that conversation about your ideas on the mood-balancing spray. You do seem like the brains of this operation anyway,” I said, giving a tilt of my head toward her family, who were so absorbed in flattering Hunter that they didn’t notice I’d stepped away.
Whatever nervousness Ivy had been carrying seemed to disappear, turning to genuine excitement at my words. Her eyes seemed to light up whenever we started talking about science.
"I do," she admitted, almost laughing. "I've actually been working on it since we talked."
"I was hoping you'd say that. I have a lot of ideas to bounce off of you - I looked up some studies on mood balancing that I’m sure you’d find very interesting.” I said, and her eyes got bigger.
“I’d love that! Maybe we can go over it together in the lab. I have the beginning formula for a prototype, and I’d love your input!” Her excitement was palpable, and that made me even more invested. I loved a fellow research nerd like myself.
Before she could continue, Clara stepped gracefully between us, a smile plastered on her face and her hands wringing together tightly.
"I'm sure Ivy appreciates your kindness, Dr. Vale," she said smoothly.
"But she does have a habit of getting carried away discussing these little projects of hers.
I wouldn't want her to take up your afternoon when I'm sure you have many more important things to do.
" Clara said, shooting a look at her stepdaughter. I noticed Ivy’s shoulders sink ever so slightly, the excitement disappearing from her face almost as quickly as it had appeared.
Now she looked almost nervous. That didn't sit well with me.
"It's no trouble at all," I replied with an easy smile. "Actually, hearing about her work is one of the reasons I wanted to come today."
Clara looked confused. "Oh. Well, Ivy hasn’t been to college, so I’m not sure how much she could keep up with your knowledge-” Clara started to say, but I held my hand up.
"Please, Mrs. Vale, I adore speaking to a fellow science enthusiast. Especially one who can actually understand my dissertation," I continued pleasantly, giving Ivy a wink. "The honor is all mine."
The silence that followed was brief, but Clara smiled bigger, her face tight as she looked over at Arabella.
“Alright then. Make sure to grab a few more cookies, Arabella worked on them all morning!” Clara said as she floated back toward Arabella and my pack. I looked back toward Ivy.
"You said you don’t mind showing me your lab? I'd love to see where you've been working on the spray." I said as Ivy finally relaxed.
“Of course! Let me just check, I don’t know if…
She hesitated before glancing uncertainly toward her father, who caught my eye. I smiled reassuringly at him before addressing him directly.
"Mr. Carrington, would it be all right if Ivy showed me her workspace for a little while? I'd love to hear more about the formulation she's been developing." I asked. Her father barely looked away from Hunter.
"Of course. Go ahead." George replied, waving his hand dismissively as though the request couldn't possibly matter.
The ease with which they agreed caught me slightly off guard, though after a moment, I suspected why.
I was only a beta. They weren't worried.
The idea that I might have any interest in courting their omega clearly hadn't crossed their minds. If only they knew.
I followed Ivy upstairs, and the moment she opened the door to her laboratory, I understood more about her than I ever could have from another conversation.
The room was large, and every available surface had been organized with meticulous care.
Shelves overflowed with carefully labeled bottles, botanical extracts, fragrance materials, handwritten notebooks, and rows of experimental formulations on a whiteboard, while the large workbench in the center of the room was surrounded by beakers, pipettes, scales, and enough specialized equipment to tell me she'd spent countless hours refining her ideas.
"It's not much," she said quietly. "Most of the company's equipment is in an official lab and warehouse, but this is where I come up with ideas." She said, looking shy but proud. I looked around slowly, smiling despite myself.
"Perfect," I said, and she looked over at me, surprised.
"You think so?" She asked. I realized she was talking about the lab. I was talking about her.
“Yeah, I do.” I smiled, looking at the way she bit her lip. "I think it's obvious you put a lot of time and care into this place."
She smiled, and I noticed that when she gave a truly genuine smile, her nose scrunched up. "I practically live in here."
She reached for a small glass spray bottle and launched into an explanation about her new spray idea.
The shy woman I'd met downstairs disappeared, and was quickly replaced by someone entirely different.
She stood straighter as she explained her vision, her voice growing into a confident tone.
Before long, she was explaining hormonal regulation and with an enthusiasm that made it impossible to look away.
At least, impossible to look away from her.
I tried very hard to pay attention to the prototype she was holding, but I kept finding my eyes drawn back to her face instead.
She became more animated every time she explained a new theory, punctuating her thoughts with small gestures while unconsciously tucking her hair behind her ear whenever it escaped her ponytail.
The more excited she became, the more beautiful she seemed, because of the joy that radiated from her.
"...which is why I think the spray should interrupt the hormonal cascade before cortisol levels fully spike," she finished, looking proud and excited.
“I think we found a winner here,” I said with a smile, and she blushed as she looked down. Again, I wasn’t talking about the prototype - I was talking about her.
“Sorry, was I talking too much? I don’t want to bore you.” She said, and I shook my head.
"Ivy, I haven't been bored for a single second," I said, and she blushed. The shy smile that followed somehow made her even more beautiful.
Time passed without me noticing as we bounced effortlessly between discussions of her product theories and future research ideas, each topic naturally leading into another until it felt less like we’d only recently met, and more like we’d been working together for years.
I couldn't remember the last time I'd enjoyed talking to someone this much.
“So, that’s why I use the pheromone replica-” Ivy was mid-sentence when one of her fathers poked her head into the lab. She straightened suddenly, moving slightly away from me at the lab table.
“Y-yes, George?” She asked as he gave her a look.
“The meeting’s nearly done. Is she holding you hostage up here?” He asked, looking at me.
“I think more the other way around,” I joked, giving Ivy a wink.
George nodded, frowning slightly. “But I’ll let you get back to your projects,” I said to her while George turned to leave.
I had to go back downstairs eventually, though I wished I could stay up here all day.
I hadn’t met many people who could engage me this way.
“Well, I suppose I’ll let you get back to your pack as well,” Ivy said, moving to get off her chair. She started to put some vials away in a closet nearby. My eyes landed on a pale blue silk scarf draped across the back of a nearby chair.
Without thinking, I reached for the scarf, lifting it just enough to brush it beneath my jaw before carefully placing it back exactly where I'd found it. The movement lasted barely a second, driven entirely by instinct before my rational mind had any opportunity to intervene.
I stared at the scarf afterward, slightly shocked at myself. I’d just scent-marked her scarf. I’d never really done that before - it was a possessive move, but I didn’t even realize I’d been feeling that way. It simply felt right to leave some small trace of myself with her.
Eventually, we made our way back downstairs, where Hunter and Arabella were wrapping up the meeting. I smiled at Arabella, and while I appreciated her intelligence and social skills, my attention didn’t linger on her as the pack turned to leave.
“So? What do you think? Any bets on whether one of those two might be our match?” Ronan asked as we got into the car.
“Could be, or could be someone else entirely,” Hunter said. “A Bond profile will let us know for sure.”
I looked out the window, already wanting to schedule another meeting so I could be near Ivy again. I didn't care what our Bond Profiles eventually said. If she would allow it, I could happily spend the rest of my life courting that remarkable woman.