Chapter 11

"I have to go " Ivy said into the phone fast and quiet. "Someone is outside."

"Call me back when you can " Priya said. "Please. Do not sit on this alone."

Ivy hung up. Stood up. Her heart was pounding. She opened the door before whoever it was could even knock.

Kade stood in the hallway with his hand raised halfway through a knock. It looked like Kade had been standing there working up the nerve for longer than Ivy realized.

"I was not going to bother you tonight " Kade said. "I just needed to see that you were okay. I can go."

"Don't." The word came out before Ivy could even decide to say it. "Come in.. I am still angry. That does not change just because you showed up looking like that."

"Looking like what?"

"Like a man who has not slept and knows whose fault that is." Ivy stepped back to let Kade in anyway.

Kade sat in the chair by the window. It was the spot Elena had taken an hour earlier. Ivy noticed, in a way that everyone in this house seemed to prefer that chair over being close to her on the bed. Maybe it was easier to say things from a distance.

"I owe you an apology " Kade said. "Not the kind I gave you in the kitchen. A full one."

"I am listening."

"I knew you were my mate the second I smelled you in that clinic. I told myself the contract mattered more than the truth. I thought the truth would have scared you off. I needed an heir more than I needed to be honest. That was selfish. I let Damon say it in front of the pack instead of telling you myself. Even if I did not plan that moment I let it happen of stopping it the second I could have." Kade looked at Ivy, steady and without any walls up this time. "I am sorry. Not because I got caught. Because it was wrong. I knew it was wrong the whole time I was doing it."

Ivy studied the face of Kade for a moment. Ivy was weighing the apology against four days of truths.

"That is better " Ivy said finally. "It is not enough yet.. It is better."

"I will take better."

Something eased in the chest of Ivy, a little bit enough to notice. Ivy thought about the voice of Priya on the phone about the registry and about the sealed record with the name of her grandmother half-buried in it. Ivy thought about how easy it would be to tell Kade now and how Ivy was not ready to do that yet.

Kade had kept a secret from Ivy for four days. Ivy could keep one for a night.

"Get some sleep " Ivy said instead. "You look like you are about to fall over."

"I will. Soon." Kade did not move to leave. Ivy did not ask him to. "Can I ask you something?"

"Depends what it is."

"When your phone rang earlier. Before I knocked. Who were you talking to?"

The stomach of Ivy tightened. "Priya. Just checking in. Making sure I was handling everything okay."

It was not a lie. It also was not the truth. Ivy felt the words sit wrong in her mouth the second Ivy said them. It felt like an echo of every half-answer Kade had given Ivy all week.

Kade studied Ivy for a beat long like Kade had caught something in the voice of Ivy that Kade could not quite name yet and then Kade let it go.

"Okay " Kade said. "Get some rest."

Kade left before either of them could say anything. Ivy sat down on the bed. The phone was still warm in the hand of Ivy. Ivy felt the weight of the settle into the chest of Ivy right next to all the other secrets already living there.

The knock that came twenty minutes later was different. It was fast and urgent.

"Ivy it is Rhys. You need to open up."

Ivy opened the door to find Rhys out of breath. It looked like Rhys had run the way from wherever Rhys had come from. The scar-through-eyebrow face of Rhys was tight with something that was not his easy calm.

"What is wrong?"

"Damon just pulled the packs archive. All of it going back a hundred years including the sealed records." Rhys kept the voice of Rhys low. Rhys glanced down the hall like Rhys expected someone to be listening. "He told the archivist it was due diligence, given tonights announcement. Nobody believed that for a second."

The blood of Ivy went cold.

"He is looking for something."

"He is looking for a reason " Rhys said. ". From what I hear he already has someone, on his side who knows exactly where to dig."

"Who?"

Rhys hesitated. In that hesitation Ivy already knew the answer was going to be bad.

"Elena " Rhys said. "She left the compound an hour ago. She told the gate she was visiting her sister. Nobody has heard from Elena since."