Chapter 62 Ivy
Ivy
Ithought the numbness would disappear, but it only seemed to grow. Having only blank walls to stare at, I’d gotten lost to the nothing feeling in my chest. The emptiness I’d blamed on losing my bonds—on losing Orion.
And yet, somehow, it’d been replaced by anger. By desperation and sadness. I’d snapped myself out of the empty darkness and found a small ember of strength again.
But now, I was barely hanging on, and I had no idea whether I felt safe enough to fall.
I knew, without any doubt, they would catch me. My mates would be there, and they’d fall with me if they had to in order to drag me out of the darkness. But I didn’t want to put them through that. It didn’t feel like their cross to bear.
I might not have had my bonds, but Orion was alive. Somehow, he survived. And all I had to do was find a way to wake him.
And by some miracle, they could stop me from giving birth in less than two weeks. In the compound, it’d seemed so close, too fast. Now, though, I couldn’t imagine two weeks passing, couldn’t fathom what it would feel like to have these babies. It didn’t feel real anymore, now that I’d escaped.
I brought the sleeve of my mate’s sweater to my nose and breathed in. My sense of smell was weirdly sharper, maybe due to the pregnancy. I could tell almost clearly that it was Maeve’s. The soft scent of vanilla and the ocean tickled my nose, more comforting than I ever could have imagined.
The undershirt was Rowan’s, the fabric clinging to my body.
Normally, I’d consider it constricting and too tight, but I found a bit of comfort in it, especially with him gone.
The sweatpants were a little snug where they sat around my stomach, but Elias had rolled them up at the ankles for me and helped me into a pair of Adrian’s socks.
The only one we didn’t have clothes for was Thor, though he seemed unbothered, especially with the towel wrapped around his waist. I’d gotten his hair clean, which was so much thicker than I’d expected, and it was now in a plait awaiting scissors no one would get for me. And the beard…
I’d get to that eventually.
Once again, I had no shoes, though the socks felt like enough as I walked through the bedroom, Thor following closely, Elias barely a step behind me. Maeve glanced at me from the balcony doors where the storm continued to rage on, with no sign of stopping any time soon.
“I have yet to find bedsheets or comforters,” Maeve said, looking at the giant bed.
“Making it is a ten-person job,” I replied, stopping at one of the posts. The gauzy curtains were tied to it, but the wood was old, marked by whoever once had this house. “And I’m not tired. But I could use some food.”
I hadn’t eaten since before the puking fiasco in the cage, and I’d been running on empty for too long. I had no idea how much time had passed since then, but my stomach tightened with hunger.
Maeve looked past me to Elias, who cleared his throat. “Let’s hope there’s food. If not, we’ll make the request.”
I couldn’t help but raise a brow. “You guys planned a rescue mission and trip to this unknown place without bringing food?”
Maeve pressed her lips together, while Elias rubbed the back of his neck somewhat shamefully. “I’m joking,” I said.
My wolf mate blew out a breath as he moved towards me. “I’m sorry, Angel. That’s on me. I should have planned better.”
I shrugged, but Maeve cleared her throat. “I changed the plans last minute. We were going to return to the Underworld. But that’s before we knew it was a rescue mission.”
A pit formed in my stomach as I looked between them.
I hadn’t even really wondered how they’d known.
Not how they knew about my escape, or the pregnancy.
Obviously, Maeve and Elias could scent the changes in me.
I knew shifters and vampires could generally tell early on when someone was pregnant, but they knew before they found me.
And somehow, they knew I’d escaped. They knew about the twins before me saying anything.
Elias and Maeve shared a look, one full of uncertainty. “Let’s find you food,” Elias said finally, meeting my stare. “And maybe him some clothes.”
Thor blinked at Elias, brows furrowed, but he shook his head.
I released a breath and wrapped my arms around myself. “Okay. I want to see what else there is here.”
Neither of my bonded mates responded as we left the large bedroom. My room sat at the end of a short hall, with two doors framing either side of it. Maeve carefully pushed one open, taking a step inside and allowing me to see what Orion had set up.
To my surprise, it was mostly empty except for trunks. The walls were a pretty pink, clearly fixed up like my room, the ceiling a clean white. It had a door that connected to my balcony, but light curtains covered it and the large window overlooking the forest.
“What do you think this room is meant to be?” I asked quietly, stepping in behind Maeve.
She looked over her shoulder at me, then flickered her gaze over the room. “Could be for the girls,” she replied, before meeting my stare again. “Or a nursery.”
My hand went to my stomach, a little bit of hope flickering in my chest as I took in the room.
Unfortunately, it would be a great nursery, and Ry knew that.
I could imagine it all now; the rocking chair by the window, bassinets on one side of the room, with the changing table on the other, closest to what I guessed was the closet.
A huge rug on the floor for both babies to roll on, play mats and those silly baby songs playing softly.
I blinked hard to clear it from my mind and shook my head. “Maybe Orion was going to set something up,” I said, dropping my hand to my side and walking to the trunks. “Or he was preparing for something.”
I wouldn’t let myself get hopeful, not yet.
Not until I could breathe again, knowing the twins would be safe from Dante.
Slowing the pregnancy back down would only help for now, but it wouldn’t stop any of Dante’s other threats.
He didn’t care about keeping my mates in line anymore.
Dante would cut the twins from my stomach if he had the chance, and that terrified me.
The trunks didn’t have any locks, at least not from what I could tell, so I opened one carefully.
At first, I saw only a blanket, and when I ran my fingers over it, the soft material made me think of fur.
Soft fur, like that of my wolf’s. The colour was a deep black, almost a blue hue, so probably a throw blanket.
One I would be stealing if it got any colder here.
“These might be the sheets we’re missing,” I said, picking the blanket up. Much heavier than expected, I almost dropped it.
Until I saw what it was hiding.
A cache of weapons. Knives, guns, and rune stones filled with magic.
“I believe he was preparing for more than just your stay here,” Maeve murmured. “I think he also prepared for war.”
No sheets—yet—but more trunks scattered throughout the house. I avoided Orion’s room, but we’d checked in with Hawk, who was still asleep.
There was no sign of the others, though every so often between the cracks of thunder, I was sure I heard them talking somewhere in the house. Every time I did, I couldn’t help but shiver.
“This place is a little creepy,” I murmured, looking up at the tall ceiling in the massive room at the front of the house. It was either meant to be a dining room or a living room, but without furniture, it just felt…eerie.
Elias moved to a set of pocket sliding doors leading into the other end of the house, opening them with a gentle push. “It still needs some work, but otherwise, he did a damned good job restoring it.”
A flicker of warmth appeared in my chest for Orion. He’d likely brush off the compliment and move along. But Elias was right; Orion had done an amazing job, and he’d done it all alone during time he had to steal.
Elias stepped aside so I could enter a hallway separating the empty room from the rest of the house.
The hall itself was dark, one end submerged in thick shallows, the other opening up beneath the stairs.
There was another set of doors that I opened, eyes widening as I took in the obvious dining room.
Obvious because there was a long table surrounded by chairs. But the room was in disarray.
“We found something he never got to,” Elias muttered, moving in behind me. Over the smell of rotten wood and decay, the scent of pine and earth that I associated with Elias tickled my nose. “Don’t walk any further, just in case.”
I could almost imagine myself stepping on a rusty nail. “I can’t remember the last time I had a tetanus shot,” I replied, stepping back into his embrace. “I don’t think it’d be good for…”
Was it too early to make jokes about the babies? Probably. If Thea were here, it would be my coping mechanism. She was probably the only person who would understand the internal war playing out within me.
One side tentatively happy to be pregnant, the other in absolute denial because it shouldn’t have happened this way. She would get it.
Elias, though, snorted. He might not hear my thoughts anymore, he seemed to know what I was thinking anyway. “Let’s go that way,” he said, pointing to the space under the stairs.
I looked around him towards the darkened end of the hall, shuddering. “Yeah, I’ve seen this movie. There’s probably a poltergeist hanging out down there, waiting…” With Thea, I’d make a joke about Rosemary’s Baby, but alas, I doubted Elias, Maeve, or Thor would understand it.
Again, Elias snorted, pushing me down the hall away from the darkness. I had a feeling that was why Orion had left the doors closed. For all we knew, there was a creepy basement. Maybe even an even creepier crypt somewhere on the island.
“Do you have any idea who might have had this place before Orion?” I asked as we moved into the larger space under the stairs.