The impact of smelling the pure, natural perfume of our mate was already overwhelming, but knowing that she’d been here, in heat, and in pain… it made my heart feel like it was being yanked out. My body felt possessed, every instinct in me demanding I go to her and claim her, to soothe her and help her. I turned to Elias, my breath coming fast and shallow.
“What happened?” I roared, my alpha desire to tear down anything in between me and this omega reading up inside me.Elias tried to calm me, using his best beta voice, but I could barely hear him past the heartbeat in my ears.
“The scent is Ivy’s. She went into heat, her family left her here. She was suppressed for far too long, she likely needs medical attention-” Elias’s words faded as my feet took me toward the source of the smell, my body raging at the little amount of information I did absorb. Ivy - she was left here, her heat suppressed for too long. And she’d been through it alone, with no one to help her. Everything in me was ready to tear apart whoever had done this. Because I knew now that this scent, so full and rich, belonged to our true mate. And it sure as hell wasn’t Arabella.
I came to a stop in the tiny room where the scent was the strongest. It was a shabby space, not matching the rest of the house. I spotted a scant comforter, the obvious spot where Ivy had suffered her heat, the scent of pain and need blending with her perfume. I fell to the floor, grabbing the comforter and bringing it to my face, breathing in her pain.
I barely heard Hunter behind me, his gasp as he smelled what I did. I felt a single tear on my cheek, something I hadn’t felt since I was a child. I could practically feel her suffering lingering in the air around me.
I turned to Hunter, my face showing a multitude of emotions, but primarily rage.
“She went through italone!” I roared, and his eyes darkened. “Our mate!” I cried out, holding the comforter to show him. Hunter, for the first time, realized how wrong he had been.
“This whole time…” He said, his words trailing off as the horror shone through his eyes.
A violent surge of emotion tore through me, so powerful that it was almost disorienting. For months, I had been trying to understand why I couldn't stop thinking about her. When Ivy wasn’t around, I noticed, unable to stop searching for her even when I knew she wasn’t going to show up. I had convinced myself it was sympathy or misdirected care.
Now I knew that my bond had been trying to tell me the truth long before my brain was willing to listen. And I would have - if we hadn’t been fed a series of fucking lies from every single member of her family. The realization filled me with a rage unlike anything I had experienced in years.
I wanted to find her fathers, Clara, and every other person who had treated Ivy like she was nothing. The thought of them locking her away in that tiny room while they played happy family with Arabella made something dark and dangerous stir beneath my skin. Every alpha instinct I possessed demanded action.
I stood, my blood boiling as I tried not to lose it. I thundered down the stairs to see Elias holding a scarf. “Where is she!” I demanded, and he shook his head.
“No one knows.” His voice ached with guilt, and I let out a roar so loud that the entire neighborhood would hear it.
Then the guilt arrived, unfurling in me as I looked at my pack. No matter how furious I was at her family, I couldn't escape the fact that I had been standing right beside them while it happened. I thought about every dinner where someone made a comment at Ivy's expense and I let it pass. I never would have imagined that an entire family would band together to hurt their own daughter like this.
My instincts had been screaming at me that something wasn't right, and I chose not to push harder because I believed there had to be a reasonable explanation. And there was an explanation - Arabella had stolen Ivy’s profile, claiming it as her own. Claiming us despite knowing her own step-sister was our true mate.
The memory of the launch party hit me with brutal force. I could still see Ivy standing there while we shielded Arabella behind us. Hunter had barked at her - ordering her to leave Arabella alone, to leaveusalone. We’d ordered her to stay away, and she had. I could still remember the look on her face when we chose someone else over her - a look of utter defeat. She’d given up, and I couldn’t blame her. We’d done the worst thing possible to an omega - rejected her, failed to protect her, ignored her. At the time, I'd told myself we were protecting our future mate. Instead, we’d driven our true mate away, and now I could see that she had been in the hands of monsters this whole time.
My chest felt like it was being crushed beneath the weight of it. The only thing that mattered was finding Ivy. I needed to findher, protect her, and beg for her forgiveness for the rest of my life. Every thought in my head had narrowed to a single objective - find my omega.
I looked across the room at Hunter and Elias and saw the same devastation reflected on their faces. Whatever happened next, the people responsible for this were going to answer for it. But before any confrontation, before any explanations, before any reckoning - we had to find her.
And I would exact retribution on those responsible for this mess. But if anything happened to Ivy before we reached her, I wasn't entirely sure there would be enough self-control left inside me to survive it.
Chapter 38
Ivy
I sipped my coffee slowly, feeling a rare peace in my chest as I sat on the small wooden porch and watched the morning sunlight through the trees. For the first time in years, there was no tension in my back, though I still had the ingrained jumpiness of being constantly aware of who might walk into the room and criticize me for existing. But day by day, that was getting better.
The silence surrounding the little cabin was more peaceful than anything I could imagine. I'd only been here a few days, yet it already felt as though I could breathe again.
The cabin belonged to Mara's grandmother, a kind older woman who'd asked almost no questions after Mara brought me here without warning. Instead, she'd simply shown me to the smallguest room and told me there was soup on the stove if I got hungry. The simple kindness of it had nearly made me cry.
Everything about this place felt different. For the first time, no one forced me to cook or monitored what I ate. I heard no comments about my body or looks, or criticisms about how I didn’t measure up. I didn’t have to worry about deadlines for product ideas or being blamed for delays.
The absence of control was so unfamiliar that I kept catching myself waiting for it to return. Every morning, I woke up expecting anxiety to crash into me the way it always had at home. Instead, I found myself listening to the sounds of the forest and realizing that my heart wasn't racing anymore. My thoughts finally slowed down, and not having to anticipate what might set someone off finally allowed me to have a decent night of sleep.
My nervous system was finally realizing the danger had passed. I hadn't realized how bad my life really was until I lost everything. The feeling was both wonderful and terrifying.
I had almost no money beyond the small amount of cash Mara gave me from the returned lab equipment. I no longer had access to the family business, so my career was effectively over. My name had likely been dragged through every social circle that mattered. Logically, I should have been terrified. I had no idea what would come next. But, instead of fear, I was starting to feel more excited. For the first time in my life, my future belonged entirely to me.
A soft vibration against the table pulled me from my thoughts. I looked down and saw another text on my phone. Thankfully, Mara knew where my family was keeping it, so I was able to at least take that with me before I fled. I honestly didn't even have to unlock the phone to know who it was from.
Pack Vale had been trying to call and message me for the past few days. Each message seemed more frantic than the last.
