Chapter 15

Sienna found Damon just as he was sneaking another round of gifts to the Davenport Estate gate.

He'd barely set them down and turned to leave when Ivy came out and called after him, telling him to take everything back and return it all.

Damon forced a smile. "It's fine, Ivy. Don't worry. My dad cut off my accounts, but I still have some savings of my own. Don't worry about me."

Ivy frowned and was about to speak.

But Sienna had already burst out from around the corner, pointing at Ivy and screaming. "I knew it! All that talk about not wanting Damon, about giving up on him—it was all lies! You disappear on purpose, playing hard to get, just so you can drag his attention back to you. Isn't that right?"

Ivy frowned and stared at her, expressionless.

She hadn't seen Sienna in a while. The girl looked worn down, thinner. Her temper had gotten worse too.

Not like before, when her first move was always to run to Damon crying and pouting until he caved and gave her what she wanted.

Damon shot a nervous glance at Ivy's face, feeling embarrassed.

He snapped at Sienna. "Who told you to come here? Did you follow me? Go back. Now."

It was the first time Damon had ever spoken to her like that. Her eyes filled with tears immediately. "Damon, you promised you'd protect me forever. But ever since Ivy left, you chased her all the way to the Capital. I've been alone in Thornfield, so lonely, so scared. Damon, are you really just going to abandon me?"

The Davenport elders inside heard the commotion and came out to see what was going on.

Ivy took a step back. She felt the sudden exposure of having her past laid bare in front of everyone.

Rhys saw her discomfort. He reached over and took her hand, gave her a reassuring smile, then turned to join the Davenport family in watching the spectacle unfold.

Without a response from Damon, Sienna cried even louder.

She spotted Ivy holding hands with a man—this must be the Arranged Bond everyone talked about. He looked about on par with Damon, maybe even better. Jealousy churned inside her. She turned and dropped to her knees in front of Ivy, sobbing. "Miss Pemberton, I'm begging you. Please give Damon back to me. I'll die without him."

Rhys couldn't help it. He laughed out loud.

Ivy looked at him, confused. He lowered his voice. "Terrible acting. Honestly, Biscuit fakes being sick better than that when he wants treats."

Ivy couldn't help but crack a smile.

Biscuit was the family's Border Collie, but he was overweight, so everyone in the household kept his snacks on lockdown. To score some, he'd fake an injury one day and play dead the next. His acting skills were practically award-worthy at this point.

Seeing that Ivy hadn't spared her even a glance, Sienna seethed inside. She shuffled forward on her knees and reached for the hem of Ivy's dress. "Miss Pemberton, you're the one who said you didn't want him. And now you've lured him here. What about me? What about me and my baby?"

Damon's mind went blank.

He whipped his head toward Ivy and scrambled to explain. "Ivy, no—I never touched her. Believe me. I never did anything to betray you."

Ivy's expression didn't change.

She sighed softly. "Go home, Damon. Both of you. Don't come here again. This—it's disturbing me and my family."

Those words hit harder than any breakup or argument ever could.

Damon went white as a sheet. He opened his mouth, and a tear fell before any words came. "What about me? Am I not your family anymore? We promised each other we'd be together forever. How did we... how did we end up here?"

How did they end up here?

Ivy didn't know. And she had no intention of answering that for Damon.

She just took Rhys's hand and turned away. "Let's go inside."

Rhys nodded, then glanced back at Wren—his little cousin who'd been itching to jump into the fray on Ivy's behalf—and gave her a look that said she was free to go wild.

Wren flashed an "OK" sign. She waited until Rhys had taken Ivy upstairs, then marched down the steps and shot Sienna a disgusted look. "Lady, this isn't some drama school. If you want to put on a show, don't do it here. And your boyfriend broke my sister-in-law's heart. Now he's back to harass her. That's his problem, not hers. Instead of dealing with your man, you come here to throw a tantrum at my sister-in-law, who's already moved on? Are you out of your mind?"

Damon still hadn't recovered from the shock of Ivy calling someone else family. Hearing Wren's words, he blurted out, "I'm not her boyfriend."

Wren had been dying to go off on him. Now that he'd walked right into it, she rolled up her sleeves and sneered. "Oh, right. Not her boyfriend. Not her boyfriend, but you kept ditching my sister-in-law to go running to her? Not her boyfriend, but you made my sister-in-law hand over her things to give to this girl? So generous—how come you never donated a million to me? But thank the Goddess you're trash, or my cousin would've spent who knows how many more years pining."

Ivy was listening from upstairs. At that last part, she couldn't help turning to look at Rhys. "What's this about pining?"

Rhys looked away, flustered. "You misheard."

Ivy narrowed her eyes at him, demanding an answer.

The truth was, she'd had her suspicions since the very first time she met Rhys.

He knew her too well. Paid too much attention to what she liked. According to Wren, Rhys wouldn't even look at previous Arranged Bond candidates. He'd done everything in his power to get out of every match. Eventually, the Davenport family stopped bringing it up altogether. But the moment he heard that Ivy's aunt was looking for a bond, he went and made it happen himself.

Without that, Helena's family would never have been able to reach a top-tier Pack like the Davenports.

No matter how she looked at him, Rhys wasn't telling the truth.

Finally, Ivy pulled out her trump card. "We're not even bonded yet and you're already keeping things from me. In that case, maybe this Marking Ceremony should just—"

She'd only meant to threaten him into telling the truth. She didn't actually mean it.

But Rhys panicked the second he heard it. He reached out and pinched her lips shut so she couldn't finish.

Ivy glared right back at him.

In the end, Rhys caved first. "Fine. But you have to promise that after I tell you, you won't bring up canceling the ceremony again."

Ivy hesitated for two seconds, then nodded.

Even if he had been secretly in love with her, that wasn't a reason to call off the ceremony. She'd just been bluffing.

Rhys let out a breath. "Okay. Do you remember that summer camp you went to back in high school?"

Ivy nodded.

She'd never been into that kind of thing. She would've rather stayed home during break. But Damon liked it, and the Thornes were afraid he'd get into trouble on his own, so they specifically asked Ivy to go keep an eye on him.

Rhys went on. "That's when I decided I liked everything about you. I was going to introduce myself, but they told me the guy next to you was your childhood sweetheart, and that you never talked to anyone besides him."

That was true.

Even if she'd wanted to talk to others, Damon would've gone full possessive mode and done whatever it took to scare every guy away from her.

But—

Ivy looked at Rhys, puzzled. "That wouldn't have stopped you."

Damon could intimidate other guys, but he couldn't have done anything about Rhys.

Rhys dropped all pretense. "It didn't stop me. I went up to him and he tried to fight me. Lost. Got hurt. And then you were holding him, crying so hard it broke my heart. That's why I backed off."

He also told her that all these years, he'd never stopped keeping track of her.

When he heard that Damon had broken her heart over a rogue she-wolf, he felt angry—but mostly, he felt relieved.

He finally had a chance to get close to Ivy without causing her pain.

So he agreed to the Arranged Bond and waited for her to come to him, step by step.

When he finished, Ivy held her arms out to him. "For being honest—come here. I'll give you a hug."

Rhys's face lit up. He immediately pulled Ivy into his arms and refused to let go. Together, they watched the scene still unfolding below.

Downstairs, Wren had had her fill. Seeing Damon's eyes still drifting upward, she glared. "You're still here? Do I need to have someone throw you out?"

Damon snapped out of it. Humiliated, he grabbed Sienna—who was gearing up for another outburst—and dragged her away.

She was right.

All of this was his own doing.

He'd felt sorry for Sienna, and that's why he'd left Ivy behind to comfort her, again and again.

He'd gotten tired of Ivy's arguments and frustration, and that's why he'd started thinking Sienna was sweeter, more understanding—and let himself get closer to her.

And it was him who, after Ivy first mentioned breaking the Mate Promise, had smugly used Sienna to provoke her, hoping she'd feel threatened enough to come crawling back.

He'd walked himself to the edge, step by step, and pushed Ivy into someone else's arms.

All of this was his own doing.

Once they were past the Davenport Estate gates, Damon's legs gave out. He collapsed to the ground.