Chapter 21 #2
Ian’s reigned in his emotions better than Liam, but he doesn’t check the lesser alpha to restrain himself. The message is clear. He doesn’t disapprove of me being pinned down like this.
The pack lead doesn’t sit on the edge of the bed like Cole did earlier. Instead, he stands to the side, looming over my body.
“Ariana.” There’s enough give in the dominance for me to move my head and face him. His pale blue eyes pierce through me. “I’m only going to ask you these questions once. I don’t want to hear excuses or lies. I don’t want to hear anything other than yes or no. Do you understand me?”
“Yes.”
Ian’s lack of anger is scarier. “Yes what?”
That’s more than yes or no, I think. “Yes, alpha.”
“Good.” He clears his throat before barking. “You will answer my questions honestly. In the way I’ve instructed you to do so previously. Did you tell Amy to get out?”
Well, shit.
“Yes, alpha.”
“And did you tell her she would be replaced?”
Why couldn’t he have phrased it the same way as Liam? My lips won’t form into the word no, even though I didn’t say she would be. I only implied it.
I relent to the bark, not of my own volition.
“Yes, alpha.”
“Amy said she saw you with a whole other group of men through the window. She says this isn’t the first time.
According to her, the same men have even repeatedly passed by the apartment entrance.
” That’s news to me. “You left with them in the morning and didn’t return home until evening. Is this true?”
“Yes, alpha.”
“What do you think people will say? How does that make us look? Our omega’s out running off with another pack while we’re off working?” I hope Amy’s paying attention. He’s saying almost the exact words I recited to her before, only without the addition of the cage.
These questions I don’t answer. They require more than a yes or a no, which I have not permitted to speak beyond.
It’s not another bark that comes next. Instead, Cole speaks for the first time.
“Stop it. You’re scaring her.”
Am I afraid? I’m not sure. Apprehensive, maybe. My hollowness from earlier has returned, I think.
It doesn’t matter, because I’m not the one he was referring to. Liam subdues his pheromones back to their normal sage scented state. It remains tinted with anger, but it doesn’t stop me from moving.
Sitting up, I get a good look at my company.
Ian’s still next to me, towering over the nest. I want to reach for my phone, but he’s blocking the nightstand.
Liam’s at the foot of the bed, halfway between me and Amy.
The woman in question is pressed into Cole’s chest by both his arms, body trembling.
Liam’s voice loses its rage. “I’m sorry, baby. I didn’t mean to.”
Baby. It’s so close to his pet name for me. Baby and babe. Amy and Ari.
The sage scented alpha whips back around to me. “The bracelet. Where is it?”
In my sleep-addled state, it doesn’t register to me which bracelet he means. My mind is too preoccupied with the weeping woman at the door.
“In the closet,” I mumble to him.
There’s nothing surprising about Amy telling the pack what I said, in retrospect. Nor is there any shock in her embellishing it, claiming I would personally have her replaced.
I’d forgotten about her tendency to lash out when she feels upset. I was truly trying my best to help her. I led the horse to water but I couldn’t make it drink. I just forgot to consider that it might kick me as well.
She returns my stare amidst sobs. Cole looks at me intently too, as if he wants to ask a question. With Liam gone and the pack’s focus on me, she raises her eyebrows. It’s a question and an answer in one.
‘See?’ I can imagine her saying. ‘I’m not you.’
Belatedly, I realize I’ve forgotten a much more important detail. The bracelet is not in my jewelry box. Liam can search all he likes, he won’t find it there. I’ve just sent him foraging into my closet.
My eyes slide over to the walk in’s entrance. On cue, like something out of a horror movie, the alpha on my mind reemerges, gripping something in his hand.
My pulse starts to pound in my chest so hard it hurts. I know what he’s clutching before he raises his arm, lifting it to show to Ian.
The pack lead takes a long look at the jacket. Holds it to his face, sniffing it disdainfully. When he lowers it, he’s looking at me with a stare so cold it makes my veins turn to ice.
“I didn’t know,” Ian hisses, chest rising heavily, “that you were such a whore.”
Apprehension was an understatement. I am beyond, without a doubt, truly and utterly terrified.
“Ian,” I’m springing out of bed, so hastily I tumble to my knees in front of him. I don’t get up, wrapping my arms around his leg. “Alpha, please, listen to me.”
“I’m sorry, Ariana!” A loud wail comes from behind me. “I didn’t want to tell them about the other pack. I know I promised you I wouldn’t! I just felt so guilty hiding it.”
There’s a hostility in the room I’ve never felt before. Amy’s words boil it over its tipping point, making the rage he’s been suppressing spill out of Ian.
“No food.” He shakes me off his leg, sending my body down to slam against the floor.
My side aches with the force of it, but something tells me this is only the start.
“No phone. No walks. No one leaves or enters this room unless I tell them to. No one touches or speaks to Ariana without my permission. Lock the closet. Strip her bed.”
“Please don’t,” I whine pathetically. “That’s too much.” I can deal with house arrest. I have for years. This though? This might kill me.
My pack lead ignores me and turns to the others, silently asking for objections. When no one dares to speak, he looks down at me again, face full of disgust.
“Anything we’ve given you has to go. You wanted other alphas so badly? Ask them for what you need. See if they give you what we have.”
He wants to leave me with nothing. Starved, with only the clothes on my back. Not even a nest to my name. I have no way to contact anyone, not even my parents without a phone.