Chapter 29
Emery
I don’t remember the walk to Eloise’s, just that my feet take me there without consulting the rest of me.
The city is cold and sleepless, the air prickling at my skin like static.
I’m in nothing but a threadbare hoodie and the dress from yesterday, which means by the time I reach her building, I can’t feel my fingers.
My eyes are raw from crying. The bag slung over my shoulder is heavier than the day I moved in with the pack.
I almost laugh at that, but my lungs don’t have the energy.
Eloise lives on the second floor of a house that’s been split into three apartments. I ring her buzzer and immediately regret it—she probably has class in the morning or a deadline.
But no. Eloise answers the door and immediately pulls me into a massive hug. “Oh, Emery. I’m so sorry. I just saw the viral post and I was on my way to the manor.”
I wrap my arms around her and sob into her shoulder. But then her words catch up to me. I pull back and stare at her through tears. “Viral post?” Then it clicks. My heart sinks and my voice turns into a whine. “They posted it?”
Eloise’s eyes narrow but I know the anger is pointed at anyone but me. “Who is ‘they,’ Emery?”
“Everhart Pack.” My pack. Until this morning. I start crying again.
Eloise pulls me inside and locks the door behind us.
She guides me to her couch and I tell her everything that happened, from everyone in the pack officially claiming me to discovering that draft on Wyatt’s phone that he apparently posted at some point after I left this morning. Which really wasn’t all that long ago.
It didn’t take them long to double down. And he’d been so apologetic and guilty-sounding. I can’t believe I nearly fell for it.
“I’m going to make us both some tea,” Eloise declares before vanishing into the kitchen.
She returns with two mugs and more tissues.
“Are you sure Wyatt is the one that posted that blog, Emery? I thought everything was going so well with the pack. You all seemed wonderful at the debut event and donor drive. Except for Ranier, anyway. But you told me that worked out, too?”
“It did.” Which is why this was such a shock. I close my eyes and sip the tea. “Wyatt looked surprised to see that draft in his dashboard. And maybe I shouldn’t have pried, Eloise. But you’ve seen it. It’s awful.”
Eloise glances out a window behind my shoulder for a long moment. Her brow creases in thought. “Is it possible he was hacked?”
I bite my cheek while I consider. “Yes, I suppose so. But that would mean someone knew he ran Royals Anonymous, and I was under the impression that only Bastion and Ranier did.”
Eloise gently holds my hand. “The impression you had in the few seconds you were all together with that information out in the open?”
I breathe in as tears start to fall. “Maybe I shouldn’t have run, Eloise.
But it was all just so much. Ranier’s father has out it out for me.
The press, too. And my parents…” I shake my head.
“They’re supportive, but they didn’t want this for me.
It was like everything I’d been worried about came true all at once. ”
Eloise sets her mug down and takes mine before pulling me into a tight hug. “Your parents want nothing more than to see you happy. And if they’ve been watching the news until today, they’ve seen that, Emery. Let’s focus on you for right now. What do you want to do?”
“I have no idea.” I should call my alphas and sort things out.
I should ask Wyatt if he was hacked, and apologize for what I said and for leaving.
But all I want to do is stay here in Eloise’s home with her and hide until the virality of that post dies down.
I want to run until the confidence of the omega that walked into Selection Day returns to me.
Eloise levels me with a stare. “You can stay here as long as you like. But you’ll have to talk to them at some point.”
“I know.” Maybe Ranier changed his mind again after claiming me with his bite mark the other night. Maybe that was just for show, or torture now.
I’ll never know if I don’t ask. But I’m not ready to. Not yet. Panic still swells within me, brighter than the sun, and my tears are still falling. I need to regroup. “Okay. Can we at least spend a few hours here before anything else?”
“Of course.” Eloise stands up and begins tossing pillows and blankets around to make her couch up to its maximum coziness level. “Pick a movie and I’ll get us some ice cream.”
I smile warmly at my best friend. “That sounds perfect.”
While she’s gone, I try to wipe my face and fail. There’s still paint under my nails. I think of the ruined canvas back at the pack house, the streaks of color and the way I’d felt holding it. That might all be gone now. I want to feel angry, but there’s nothing left but empty space right now.
If Royals Anonymous was hacked, there is hope.
If it wasn’t… My fairytale is over.
Eloise returns with a pint of chocolate and two spoons, plus a bottle of wine. She sits next to me, pulls the lid off the ice cream, and hands me a spoon. We watch trash TV until the room is dark except for the glow of the screen. Just like we used to.
My phone buzzes but I just ignore it. There will be time for everything else later.
I’m right where I need to be right now.