Oops! Still Your Mate

Chapter Thirty

Ivy woke up from her sleep gasping from breath, the dream she had felt too real to just be a dream. It was like the flames itself was licking her up. She felt burnt and exhausted and her bones felt like they were about to fall off. The pain was so excruciating and she was sure it was not up to half of Zeke's daily pain.

Pain he had carried with him since he was old enough to understand what pain was. The events of last night came upon her and she sighed. She lost her parents also but she had a grandmother who took her through, who showed her the way but Zeke, he had known. Just a desperate uncle who assumed his father's position and didn't care to deeply investigate their death.

A selfish uncle who had only used him as an instrument and a tool for his own selfish use. And if from what she was thinking and the evidence available, her parents were involved in Zeke's parents death, she didn't know how he felt when he realized she was his mate.

Something clicked immediately, she needed to see him. But what she met was a behavior she couldn't fathom. He was staying away from her.

And she noticed Zeke's behavior immediately, and she could vaguely tell the reason why he was staying away from her, but she didn't bother. The incident of last night after the dinner took a toll on her and she wasn't in the mood to entertain Zeke after all. Enid still paraded the pack,feeling like the Luna but ivy said nothing, did nothing.

She returned to her room at night, exhausted and with a banging headache. But that was when she saw it, the note placed under her doormat, just peeking out a little so she would be able to see it.

She picked up the note cautiously and looked around the hallway to make sure no one saw her as she stepped into her room before locking the door behind her.

She unfolded the note and sat on the floor to read. The first thing she noticed was the neat handwriting, like it was written intentionally. The next thing she noticed was Hale.

The note read : Evidence of your parents death, compiled and hidden, but I found a way to get ahold of them. Your parents are not who you are thinking them to bed. They are innocent. The Hale couples was just a tool, curated by someone even bigger in power to take the fall when everything fell south.

I think you should know that. The person behind your parents death is known but I can't tell you that now. You would have to come personally and Alone. Emphasis on Alone. Don't dare coming with someone else, don't tell anyone about this. This should be kept a top notch secret and I would know if you tell anyone especially Zeke. You parents were just instruments, not architects.

Meeting place is outside the border in two days time at dawn.

And then the note was signed with a single P.

Ivy reads it three times, each time evaluating what would go wrong, evaluating the risks and each time making a decision. One that was never too hard to take.

She knew it could be a trap, one of those old traps to catch her, but who was she? She was just an ordinary girl that the moon goddess gave an alpha mate who refused her. No one would probably want anything from her. Zeke had said as long they weren't mates, she was safe.

Thinking of Zeke, maybe she could tell him or even Tessa. The person would be unable to hear through closed doors but that was a risk she was unwilling to take. But the meeting, it was a decision she had made. And she was telling no one, not Zeke, not Tessa, not Lucas. No one.

She reached for the back of her pocket and retrieved the scrap of paper that Tessa had given to her from the archive room. “Would get to know the truth soon.” She muttered to herself and folded the paper, together with the note before dropping it on her desk.

“Two days.” She muttered and she could feel misty shift inside her. She would take it like misty was as nervous as her.

A single letter A flashes in a mind eye and with it comes the gore memories she didn't want to remember. Memories that hurt even when they weren't hers. Zeke's memories.

The fire, the screams she would never forget because she could only imagine how much it hurt. She remembered Darius reaction to what she did at the dining hall. How his eyes went flat and cold. Like he was trying to hold back.

Two days. That was all she needed. The truth would surely come to light soon. She picked herself up and slumped into her bed, her eyes wide awake, with a fast pounding heart.

Plans comes to her mind but they don't seem feasible. Even with the way Zeke had been training her, she was unsure if she would be able to get herself out of trouble if it gets to that. Maybe that was why Zeke wasn't accepting her, he said she wouldn't be able to defend herself.

“Just focus, okay?” Misty grunted from inside her head.

“I'm trying okay.” She replied and stretched her hands towards her table, retrieving a note and a pen. “Let's plan,” She clicked her tongue against the roof of her mouth.

But deep down she knows there's another main reason she's going, and why she isn't keen on telling anyone not necessarily to free her parents. She wants to return with enough information to strengthen her claims and present it to Zeke herself. To tell him the truth herself. She wants to bring it to him, clean and complete. With enough evidence.

No doubt between them because if she was being honest, she was getting tired of Zeke's attitude and the doubts.

Just the truth, plainly and whatever that would come after.

Two days hold the answer.