Athindrya

Chapter 4

Ivy woke up the next morning with a pounding hangover. Her head was humming as she sat up in bed. She thanked her past self for thinking about putting water out for her future/present self. Ivy tested the mind link for Lilka.

Lilka? You up?

Hello Sunshine. How’s your head? Ivy didn’t appreciate the mocking tone.

Fine. No thanks to you.

Ha. It’s thanks to me that you aren’t passed out in the middle of a human street. Lilka snorted out.

It was true that Ivy could handle a lot more alcohol than humans, but she’d never really thought about it much. She apologised to Lilka who just sighed and accepted. All concerns forgotten, Ivy hopped in the shower, put on the first clothes she could find and set off to find the rest of the gang.

Walking into the common room of the leisure building, Ivy immediately spotted her equally hungover friends sprawled out on the sofas. Mei looked relatively normal, but then again, she’d never been a huge drinker. Lorelai, Seff and Cyran however looked just as rough as she felt. She plopped down next to Lorelai.

“How you feeling today?” Ivy tried to make conversation but was met with just a bunch of grunts. Part of her was thankful no one replied, she leant her head back and closed her eyes. She only got a few moments of peace before Draven wandered in with the distinct smell of coffee. Opening one eye she saw him sit down on the other side of Lorelai and hand her a steaming cup.

She knew she needed to get going and do some training, but just a few more minutes of shut eye.

You’re gonna have to get up eventually.

Piss off Lilka. Ivy was not in the mood for the smart arsed wolf. She heard her giggle at the other end of the link.

Ivy sighed as she leaned forward, forcing herself upright, ignoring her spinning head. Walking past Lorelai, she grabbed her arm pulling her into the land of the conscious. Her protests only spurred her on, as she manoeuvred them to one of the training rooms.  

“Do we have to do this? It’s my birthday.” Lorelai whined.

“Yes, it’ll wake us up.” Ivy said, hardly convinced by her own words.

Instead of dragging the mats out, the two girls just stood around trying to accommodate to the bright lights.

“Ok we should probably get a move on.” Lorelai groaned.

Both of them were about to start when Ivy’s phone rang. Thank god she thought. Without looking at the name on her phone, she answered and was greeted by Marcus’ voice asking her to come to his office.

“Saved by the bell?” Lorelai asked after Ivy had hung up.

“Yeah. Want to come with? Not sure I’ll make it without throwing up.” She said making fake gagging sounds.

“Sure.” Lor chuckled, as they both headed off towards to main building.

Arriving in front of the same wooden door, Ivy turned to Lorelai, and asked if it would be alright for her to wait outside. Lorelai nodded and Ivy walked inside.

“Knocking miss Slane.” Marcus sniped without lifting his eyes off his paperwork.

Déja-vu. Lilka remarked a bit sarcastically. Ivy snorted, grabbing Marcus’ attention.

“Right, let’s get right down to the point.” His attention was all on her now, making her a bit ill at ease. She much preferred it when he was only half paying attention to her.

Keeping her eyes on him, she nodded at him to go on.

“I spoke to the Council and they agreed to let you stay here until your birthday, but they will need you to make your decision on that day. You can’t have the cake and eat it.”

She sighed. She knew it was a long shot to have asked for this, but a part of her had hoped they would allow it.

Bastards.

Shut up Lilka.

“Fine. Not like I have much of a choice anyway.”

Marcus exhaled, he knew she was right, but there was nothing he could do about it.

“So what do I have to know? The details of it all?”

“Well, it is now almost definitely your old pack, so the Council would want you to start there.” Lilka growled at the mention of their old pack.

Ivy had prepared herself that it was probably going to be her old pack, but she thought she’d have more time to come to terms with it all. Maybe during her investigation of the other pack. But now it seemed all too real.

The walls appeared to be closing in on her. The bookshelves that surrounded the room made it so much worse. It was as if she was falling into Alice’s rabbit hole. Her eyes couldn’t focus on anything as she sat there staring at Marcus’ desk. The lights seemed to flicker as she tried to get a handle on her emotions.

Pulling herself back into reality she saw Marcus’ worried expression as he observed her.

“You alright?” He asked.

“Yeah, I’m fine.” She asserted. He didn’t look convinced, but he didn’t insist knowing he wouldn’t get an answer out of her anyway.

“The Council have given you till your birthday to choose, but you and I both know they won’t stop there to make you a part of this.”

“Then what’s the plan.” Her patience with the Council was wearing thin, not helped by the fact that Lilka wholeheartedly agreed. Lilka was meant to be the one to reason with her, but then again Lilka had never been good at handling her own emotions.

Marcus explained to her that she’d initially have to incorporate herself into the pack life, relaying information directly back to the Council. But typical Council, wouldn’t make contact with her. Once they had decided there was enough to go on, she was to bring the Alpha of the pack back to Athindrya for questioning.

This wasn’t what Ivy was used to at all. She usually just had to bring rogues in or find bounties for rich Alphas or other clients. There was the occasional human that contacted the Council (not knowing what it was exactly) and asked for their help. Athindrya prided itself on keeping the peace, and that was how they did it.

But this seemed different. She just would find the person she was looking for, bring them back to whoever had hired her and that was that. But now she had to fake her way into a pack, which was the last thing she wanted, and stay there until the goddamn Council decided she could return. And on top of all that she now had to make her choice.

After finalising the last of the details, Ivy got up to leave. Not only could she still feel the effects of the hangover, but now she had another huge cause for a headache.

Shutting the door behind her, Ivy spotted Lorelai a little down the hall on her phone. Lorelai noticed her walking over and got up to join her.

“By the look on your face, I’m going to guess that didn’t go well.”

Ivy didn’t even have time to reply when a shoulder bumped into her, causing her to stumble.

“Oi. Watch it.” She said.

He turned round clearly about to apologise when his eyes snapped to Lorelai. Both of them went utterly still until they simultaneously whispered the word “mate”.