36. Chapter 36 #3
"A beta guard." The words felt absurd even leaving my mouth. "As if that somehow makes any of this acceptable. A guard isn’t what she needed.” I said, my anger escalating as I spoke.
“She needed help! She needed alphas, she needed someone to care whether she lived or died!
" I shouted as the woman visibly recoiled.
"It wasn't our choice." She said, fear in her eyes. I shook my head, my anger filling to the brim.
"Don’t you understand? The heat I smelled wasn't normal.
" The words came out faster now as the medical side of my brain took over completely.
"Her body was overloaded. Her heat was suppressed for far too long, and when it breaks through that level of suppression, it would have been exponentially harder on her system.
" The youngest staff member's face immediately paled.
"We were told it was necessary." I reared back as the woman spoke. "The family wanted Ivy's cycle delayed."
My eyes widened at her words. "Why?"
The woman hesitated, looking around, as if she could get caught.
Then she whispered, "Arabella had appearances scheduled.
" My mind immediately raced back to every event from the past several months.
The launch party. The interviews. The dates with our pack.
Surely they wouldn't have… but the evidence was clear. This was beyond anything I’d ever imagined.
"They forced her to suppress for Arabella's convenience?
" I asked. I didn’t wait for an answer as I closed my eyes and rubbed a hand across my mouth.
Every warning sign I'd ignored came rushing back, from the descenter burns to her constant exhaustion.
All this time, I'd assumed she was neglecting herself.
Now I realized she was never given a choice.
"Where is the rest of the family?" I asked quietly. The staff exchanged another nervous look.
"They've been staying at the hotel." One of them said, and I frowned.
"What hotel?" I asked, incredulous that they weren’t here.
"With Arabella." A younger worker answered.
“What? For how long?” I wondered if they had Ivy with them. If she was there, I was going to stop at nothing to retrieve her. This was my mate. My real mate, one who’d just gone through a heat alone. Nothing in this life prepared me for the uprising of rage that thought brought out.
“Is Ivy with them? Be honest.” I asked, stepping closer.
“No! Like I said, we don’t know where Ivy went. Her family left the moment she started her heat.” She said, and just when I thought things couldn't get worse, they did.
“Her family left her here alone? With just a guard?” I said, and terrible images flashed through my mind.
"They thought it would be easier.” The woman said, wringing her apron in her hands. “They said Ivy's heat was... distracting." Distracting. Like she was an inconvenience. Like she wasn't their own daughter.
A pulse of pure rage surged through me so violently that for a moment I genuinely struggled to breathe.
I thought about that tiny room upstairs, and the scent of a suffering omega - my own mate.
My own match that suffered needlessly as I went about living my life unaware.
I thought about Ivy suffering through one of the most vulnerable periods of an omega's life, completely alone, while the people responsible for her well-being abandoned her here, checking into a luxury hotel with her step-sister.
And then, I felt a surge of the most painful guilt I’d ever felt.
All that time while Ivy had been isolated and suffering, we had been taking Arabella on dates.
We had been comforting her, turned against Ivy while we catered to a liar.
We had listened to Arabella while she painted herself as the victim, and we allowed ourselves to believe every word.
Even when our own mate told us the truth.
For months, I knew something wasn’t right. Yet Ivy had stood in front of me, trying to tell me the truth, begging me to see her. And we denied her. I stumbled, gripping the wall as I lifted my hand to my chest. I’d failed her. I’d failed my mate.
The one who I’d secretly wanted all along was the right one for us. And instead of listening to my gut, to my heart - I’d listened to a damn piece of paper that was so easily manipulated that we took another omega as ours right in front of our mate.
I turned toward the door, and the staff immediately stepped aside. My phone was already in my hand before I reached my car. Hunter answered on the second ring.
"Elias?"
His voice sounded normal, and this was the last time it would. Because things were about to get so very bad. I gripped the phone so hard my hands hurt.
"I’m at Pack Carrington’s house. Get Ronan and get over here." I could feel Hunter’s concern through the phone.
"What? What happened?" Something in my tone must have reached him because his voice immediately sharpened. "Elias, what happened?" He repeated.
I looked back at the house one last time, my eyes lingering on the stairs up where Ivy's room sat hidden away from the rest of the family like something shameful. For months, we had been looking at the wrong person. When I finally spoke, my voice was low and deadly serious.
"We've made a catastrophic mistake.”