I shake my head. “You’ve been acting like… like this is the best thing that’s ever happened to you. And most of all, you didn’t say anything. I had to hear it from a stranger. A stranger who took great pleasure in telling me that happened to you, and she told me it happened in the very place you were standing while she was telling me and there you were, laughing with Mason and Tyson when just two weeks earlier-”
“I know. I was going to tell you after the wedding. I was giving you time to settle in with Mason, I was giving you time with the pack to see how amazing it could be to be part of this. How amazing it will be.”
“Sherry said Cat Savage made them sand the floor to sand out the blood and claw marks you left. You. You’re not an animal with claws and yet what that animal did to you…”
“Stop.” She raises her hand and takes a big breath. “I don’t need a reminder.”
I reach for the cup of coffee.
“And Mason wanted you and couldn’t have you because Tyson proved you’re his and so Mason got me instead.”
“That’s not true,” Ivy says sharply.
“Sherry said-”
“Sherry is a bitch, everyone says so, and she doesn’t know what she’s talking about. Mason didn’t make any moves on me. Mason just got confused and Tyson can read things from the other council alphas and it turned him primal. Apparently primal matings happen occasionally. What happened to me wasn’t the first time this pack has seen it happen. It’s most likely to happen early on after a mating and we were very early on.”
“Yeah, so none of them stopped it because it’s perfectly fine for a woman to be brutally raped in front of a bunch of people.”
“Tyson is their top alpha.”
I scoff again and sip my coffee.
“Nobody knew why Mason had a strange reaction to me. From what I’ve heard, he was on his way home that night that Tyson and I met and something weird happened that we now figure was the witchcraft to do with whatever Aunt Nelle set in motion. He was missing for days and doesn’t know where he was. Mason was messed up from that night until the Strawberry Moon party and being around me and Tyson messed him up more. I don’t know all of that story. Did Mason explain it?”
“We haven’t really talked,” I say softly.
“Talk to him. Bailey came by to drop your purse off last night and Mason was a total wreck, she said. They tried to keep all this from me so that I wouldn’t get upset at our reception, but I couldn’t find you, Mom couldn’t find you and there was some murmurs in the crowd that let me know something was up. And then I watched Bailey punch Sherry right in the mouth, so I knew something bad was happening. Bailey isn’t a violent person.”
This shocks me. I say nothing. Bailey knew, obviously, and she’s just another person who didn’t tell me anything.
“I wanted to come, right away, but Bailey said you were sleeping, she talked to Mason, and he told her we could come back in the morning. Bailey is downstairs right now. She might be able to explain more about the primal thing that happened to Ty and-”
“I don’t need to hear it, Ivy. It doesn’t affect me. If you’re over it, which; I don’t get, I guess you’re over it.” I shrug. “I’m not going to drag you away from here against your will the way he dragged you back against your will. But if you wise up and decide that you’re done with him and you need my help finding a way to get away from him, I’ll do everything in my power to help you.”
“What about you?”
“I’m outta here.”
She shakes her head. “Talk to him. Hear him out.”
“Nobody told me any of this. Not you. Not him. Not anyone else who’s been around me pretending I matter.”
“You do matter.”
“Yeah, well I’ve been walking around in a state of idiocy thinking I finally found my happily ever after. Going against my gut instinct which told me to keep my guard up. So I get how you got fooled too, Ivy…”
“I haven’t been fooled. I got to know him. I fell in love with him for who he is. He’s sorry for what happened. He’s proven to me again and again that he is worthy of my love. His primal instinct kicked in. That’s all. He was so sorry for hurting me. I’m not afraid of him. I’m fine.”
I take another sip of my coffee and set it down. I flop down to the bed and close my eyes with a heavy sigh.
“Talk to Mason.”
“I don’t need to hear Mason defend himself. He did that already, and it doesn’t matter.”