I gave Dem a side glance as we both took a deep inhale. “We should prop open some windows.”
“Probably a good idea,” he agreed.
We quickly got to work cleaning and packing, and the apartment became more and more empty of Ivy’s things as she started stacking a few boxes by the front door. Dem and I gave the entire kitchen and bathroom a good scrub, along with vacuuming the floors and cleaning the windows. Once finished, we noticed we’d not seen Ivy come out of her room in a while. Her absence always bothered me, and now I was concerned about how she was handling all of this.
“Ivy? How’s it going?” I gently opened her bedroom door with Dem right behind me.
Ivy was sitting on the bed with a tissue in her hand, holding a stuffed animal. She sniffled a bit, and it was clear she’d been crying.
“These are happy tears, I promise!” she held up her hands as if guilty of something.
Seeing her crying broke my heart. “Ivy, you’re allowed to be sad about this. Can you tell us what you’re feeling?”
I wanted to fix whatever was hurting her, pull her tightly into my arms, and take all her pains away. But right now, I knew she just needed me to listen and acknowledge her feelings.
She looked at me as I sat down on the bed next to her, Dem taking the other side and rubbing her leg for comfort.
“My parents gave me this bear when I was twelve years old after my first solo role. He’s been everywhere with me, and oddly enough, it just hit me weirdly that I didn’t bring him with me yesterday.”
“Of course not,” I said, thinking of a way to cheer her up. “He needed to watch over the remainder of your stuff. He understood his role.”
She burst into laughter, wiping the tears away. “I guess he did, didn’t he?”
Dem pressed a gentle kiss on her cheek. “We’ll triple-check nothing gets left behind, okay? And we can call Dr.Laughlin if we do need to get back in here for whatever reason.”
“Thank you.” She grabbed both our hands and squeezed them. “I’m all done here. I was only in this apartment for about a month, yet I’m so connected to it.”
Dem and I loaded up the rest of Ivy’s stuff while she investigated the whole apartment several times over, ensuring nothing was left behind. After we finished, we returned to the living room to wait for Ivy.
“I think that’s it. I’m ready to leave,” she said, looking at us both.
Ivy walked over to the counter and left her keys behind. With a large sigh, she walked back to us and reached for our hands.
“Let’s go,” she said, leading us out the door.
Chapter eighteen
Locked
Ivy
It was another Monday morning as I sat in Dr. Laughlin’s office for my weekly checkup.
“I got your apartment keys. Thank you for that,” Dr. Laughlin smiled at me with a small chuckle. “So you’ve moved into the packhouse, and you’re all living happily ever after now.”
“Seems like it. Am I crazy? This was so fast!” I said, wiping my sweaty palms against my shirt.
“Nope, not fast at all. Pretty common, actually, with how quickly scent-matched packs pull in their mates. It’s just plain biology at this point. You want to be protected and taken care of by them, and they want to be with you and look after you.”
“It just seems like I’m rushing into something here,” I sighed. “What if I’ve made a huge mistake?”
“If I were to tell you to leave your pack tonight, how would you feel?” She asked me, checking my chart briefly as she talked.
I let the thought sit in my head to see how my omega side dealt with the idea. My mind screamed in anger, forcing a soft whimper out of me.
Dr. Laughlin smiled. “Don’t like that idea, do you? And there’s nothing wrong with that. The beta lifestyle you lived told you to take things slowly. The omega in you wants to be with her pack. And I can sense you do too, I can see it in your eyes and the way you talk about them.”
I smiled, picturing each of my packmates. “Yes, I love our time together so much.”
