“What? What is it? What happened?” Grieves asks. “Is it Haven? Is she okay?”
God, I hope she is. I’m not sure how much more our omega can take.
Ren flicks her eyes up to us. “It's… it’s not Haven. I mean it’s from Haven, but she’s fine.”
That has us relaxing some, but not all the way. “Okay, so then what-” Piers cuts off as she taps on her screen and a voice emerges from it.
“Miss Aureline. Miss Aureline. Is that a bite I see on your neck?”All of us freeze, Ren more than anyone, I’m not even sure she’s breathing. Her fingers tighten on her phone, until their tips go white with the pressure.
With a curse I find my pants and pull out my own phone and one quick search later and I know exactly what Ren is looking at.
Bonded Behind Closed Doors, the Ashbourne Pack Couldn’t Wait.
There are pages of pictures of Isadora wearing a loosely tied scarf. A video of it slipping. The clip of the paparazzi asking if it’s a bite, knowing that it is.
It's a set-up, pure and simple, a fake.
But our girl doesn’t know that.
“Where were you all day?” she asks softly but doesn’t wait for an answer. “The whole time I’ve been here one of you has always been by my side. You never leave me alone and today… Today I was alone. What were you doing?”
“Getting ready for tonight,” I say quickly. “For bringing you to the theater. Getting things in order. Securing the venue.”
Her brow wrinkles. “And that took all day?”
“Well, no.”
“So you were with her?”
We all exchange a look. Its Court that blurts out. “It’s not what you think, Pix. I swear.”
Moisture fills her eyes, shimmers along her lower lashes and it kills me. But she’s still here, still standing in front of us, and that’s a gift. “So explain it to me, please.”
All of us sag in relief. And I’m nodding emphatically. “Yes. Of course. We went to have a conversation with her, to tell her-”
“To tell her we would never bond her, never marry her, never elevate her to the position of princess,” Grieves finishes bluntly for me.
“We wanted to be clear of her before we made a true commitment to you,” Court adds. “It was important to all of us that we start this next section of our lives with no roadblocks.”
Piers brushes his fingers lightly over hers, trying to get her to loosen her grip on her phone. “She didn’t take it well.”
I snort. “That’s putting it mildly.”
Florence looks back at her phone, at the image there. “How did she end up with a bite on her neck?”
“Are we sure she did?” Grieves asks, pushing into her back to peer over her shoulder at the screen. “I wouldn’t put it past her to fake it just to cause problems.”
Our omega hums as she zooms in on the picture. “It looks real.”
God, what a gift she is, letting us explain, believing us when we’ve given very little reason for her to.
“What happened after you told her you weren’t going to be with her?” This question is directed at Forsythe who scrubs a hand over his mouth.
“She… tried to change our minds.” He’s inching around the truth, clearly not wanting to give specifics.
But Florence deserves to know everything so I explain, “she dosed herself with a heat stimulant. It caused a spike while we were with her. She thought it would force us into a rut.”
“She did what?” Florence hisses, fingers tight on her phone again. Piers tsks and plucks the cell from her hand, probably worried she might throw it against the wall.
