She lets out a gust of breath, eyes wide, heart racing.
“You get me?” I try.
“I want to see Ivy. That’s what I need right now.”
“I’ll give you what you need as long as it’s good for you. Ty and I don’t think that’d be good for either of you right now.”
Amie’s eyes widen with renewed rage. She singes me with a scowl.
“Compromise. Phone her. You can talk on the phone. But I’m right here while you do, and I’ll end the call if I think it’s unproductive.”
“I called and she didn’t answer,” she spits. “He’s probably got her phone like you’ve tried to keep mine from me.”
“You’re a good little hunter, though, aren’t you? Or do you have a shifter’s nose?” I bop her nose with my finger.
She growls at me. “You’re just a lousy hider.”
“I’ll try harder next time.”
Amelia looks away sourly.
I lift my phone and text Bailey.
Is there still a house line number for Savage House? Or does Ty have a cell yet?
Amelia lifts her coffee and curls into a ball, staring out the window and blowing out a long breath. Her knees are jiggling rapidly. She needs to work off this energy. I’ll help with that after she settles down. If she doesn’t settle down, I’ll still help her with that.
Bailey dings me a moment later with a phone number for the house. There’s still a land line there and she says she was just talking to Ivy on it a few minutes earlier. She also says she heard Ivy got wind Amelia took off and is worried about her, so someone calling Ivy would be a good idea.
I call the number.
“Talk,” Tyson answers.
“Ty? Hey, man. It’s Mase. Can the girls talk?”
“Yes. She took off again? I take it you have her.”
“I do.”
“Good. I’ll get my Ivy. Wait.”
“Talk to your sister, baby.” I pass Amie my phone. “She heard you took off and is worried about you.”
31
Amelia
“Hello?” I say into the phone. I’m curled into myself, my feet planted on the couch cushion. Mason wraps his arm around me. I shrug him off. Or try. He doesn’t budge.
“My Ivy’s coming,” Tyson informs.
His Ivy? I roll my eyes. These shifters.
I hear giggling and then Ivy answers breathlessly, “Hey. Are you okay? I heard you took off. Are you all right?”
“You heard I took off and yet you’re giggling when you answer the phone?”
“Ty said you were safe. That Mason caught you already. Are you okay?” she asks.
“We need to talk. About all of this. About what we’re gonna do about this shit.”
“Are you okay?” she repeats, slower.
“Duh. Obviously not!”
“What’s wrong?”
“What’s wrong? You just told me you heard he caught me when I took off and you’re asking what’s wrong? He won’t let me leave, Ives!”
“Because you’re his one and only. He wants you. He loves you.”
I blink hard. Am I really talking to my sister here?
“Are you high?” I ask.
“Nnooooo. Should I be?”
I give my head a shake. “You are high. On wolf shifter dick.”
She giggles.
I bonk my forehead on my knee repeatedly while I swallow down my pain, my feelings of dismissal here.
“I’m happy, Ames,” she says in a dreamy voice. “So happy. I know we haven’t had a chance to talk properly, but this is it. The stuff they write the sappy love songs about. My happily ever after. And I’m so relieved, because you get to be part of it, being Mason’s happily ever after. Sometimes when these things happen, people don’t get to stay in contact with their family, but we’ll be able to!”
I hard-blink. “As if either of us would be okay with that.”
She holds the phone.
And anger flares. Because this reaction has me thinking Ivy would pick Tyson if she had to choose between him and her family.
“This is witchcraft,” I hiss. “And it’s bullshit that you would consider picking him over the rest of us.”
“But I don’t have to. Because you’re mated with Mason.”
“Against my will!”
“Did Mason take you against your will?” she asks softly. “Was it… ough-ray? The first laiming-cay?”
She’s asking if my first claiming was rough. She’s obviously asking in front of Tyson.
I hear masculine mumbling. It sounds like she has her hand over the phone.
I swallow hard. “No. That wasn’t … no, not like that, but everything I’ve been enlightened about and all that’s happened since then hasn’t exactly been okay.”
“It will be, though. I was thrown too by all the intensity and everything that happened. It hasn’t been easy for Ty and me but we’re figuring it out. And I’m so happy you’re here, Ames. So happy.”
Mason’s eyes are on me as she talks to me. I look away from him.
Emotion is trying to claw its way up my throat and I hate this. I feel so weak right now. I also feel like I’m the only one around here with any common sense.