Chapter 120

Hugh’s POV

While I am loathe to accuse Sylvia of anything, those words could hardly be anything but threatening. What could she possibly mean by something like that other than the obvious: she does not expect Ollie to return?

Fortunately, I am not the only of my brothers to find her words suspicious. Declan, who has been treating her the coldest out of all of us for the past few days, turns to her and says icily, “Explain yourself, Sylvia.”

Sylvia’s eyes go slightly wide, like a deer caught in the headlights. She fusses nervously with her hands before saying, “I just think she’s run away, that’s all. She hasn’t been back and no one’s out looking for her. Why do we even care anyway? Who cares if Ollie is some northern princess or whatever?”

Perhaps we have kept Sylvia in the dark for too long. After all, as someone dear to us, shouldn’t the revelation of our mate be something we should share with our family? Yet all of us have been hesitating in telling her the full truth. She must suspect something is wrong, given our foul moods lately.

But can she understand that Ollie is our mate? She’s never shown any affection for Ollie in the past, voicing clearly that she wants the girl as her servant. Would she be more understanding now? Or would this make things even worse, seeing now that she would have to share her time with us?

Regardless, facts are facts, and her ability to deal with Ollie being our mate won’t change that Ollie is in fact our mate.

So while my brothers mull over what to do, I bite the bullet and admit, “Ollie is our mate, Sylvia.”

Her eyes went even wider, impossibly wide, like they might bug right out of her head. It would have been amusing if not for the seriousness of the conversation and the weigh Ollie’s potential rejection weighs down on my heart.

“Ollie…” Sylvia says the name like it’s a curse. “That’s your soulmate? All of yours?” She looks to each of us, disbelief in her voice like she expects one of us to deny it and tell her we were joking.

As we all just stare at her blandly, eventually she seems to get the hint.

“The Moon Goddess is playing a prank to give you a mate like that. An omega!” Sylvia says. “You have to reject her!”

“No,” Wes says at once.

“She is ours and will remain ours,” Conrad says firmly, with no room for discussion or doubt.

Sylvia’s face goes pale. “I don’t believe this,” she scoffs.

“You will accept this in time,” Conrad says.

“I won’t!” she shouts, hopping to her feet. “How could she be your mate?! She’s wolfless!”

“She has only been hiding her wolf from us,” I say. “She was frightened for us to discover the truth.”

Sylvia grumbles under her breath. “She should be afraid…”

“Sylvia!” Wes gasps. “What are you saying?”

“You are already taking her side over me!” Sylvia shouts, then turns and storms out of the room.

None of us go after her. In the past, we would have, I think we all know that. Wes looks down, somewhat guiltily, and his hands ball up into fists.

“She can’t say those things about Ollie,” he says.

We are all in agreement then.

“It doesn’t make sense,” Conrad says. “She is our sister. Why would the Moon Goddess give us a fated mate that cannot get along with our dearest family member?”

We all fell quiet once more, lost in thought. Truly, I don’t know, though I indeed found the things she said to be reprehensible. It makes me wonder if Ollie and Sylvia would ever be able to get along.

“Professor Hunter,” Declan says, and the man jumps. Perhaps he’d been hoping to disappear into the wallpaper with how closely he had been standing against the wall. “Would you be able to pull DNA from anything? A hair, or even a cup that someone used?”

His eyes are on the spot where Sylvia was just sitting, her discarded cup of cooling tea on the coffee table.

My brows shoot up at once. “You can’t think…?”

Declan looks at me first, and then at Conrad. “You are right. Why would the Moong Goddess give us a fated mate that cannot get along with our sister? Unless, of course, our sister is not our sister after all.”

“Declan!” Wes says, aghast. “How can you say that?”

“We know Ollie is our mate,” Declan says. “That is indisputable now. So it calls to question the other half of this point. Sylvia, herself.”

“But to doubt her?” Wes says, though less outraged than a moment ago.

Before Declan can respond, Conrad does, “It’s worth it just to be sure.”

To show my support, I walk over to the tea cup, pluck it off the coffee table and present it to Professor Hunter. “I trust you’ll do this for us,” he says. “And urgently.”

“I’ll do it for Ollie,” he says. “She’s too good of a girl to be treated like this.”

Declan starts to growl.

“You need to treat her better,” Hunter bravely says, then smartly sees himself out. We all stare after him, seething just a little.

Ollie’s POV

I travel for a while longer yet, before stopping to shift back to human and take my phone out of my bag. I promised to check in with Ella along the route, and I’m overdue for a call.

As I unlock my phone, I notice I’m already under twenty percent of my battery left. Perhaps I should start running nearer to roads, so I can find a town and maybe a library or store to plug my phone in and charge it.

For now though, I found Ella’s contact information and pressed call.

“Ollie, thank the Gods,” Ella says. “Where are you? Are you okay?”

The signal seems spotty, with her voice crackling, though I can still understand her. Again, I think that I should be travelling closer to the roads now. Out in the forest like this only makes things more difficult, it seems.

“I’m still traveling,” I say.

“Gods,” she says again. “Where are you going to sleep tonight?”

I haven’t really thought about that yet. Last night, I’d run through the night. Having the strange sense that someone was following me, I didn’t feel like stopping.

Tonight, I really need to get some rest. I can’t sense anyone anymore but I don’t know if it’s because no one is there, or is it because I’m so sleep deprived, I can’t trust my own instincts anymore.

I can only hope that it’s the first reason and not the second.

“Maybe I can curl up as a wolf…”

“Are you sure this is a good idea?” Ella asks, worry in her voice.

“It’s too late for that now,” I say.

“Still…” Ella says.

“I’m okay, Ella. I promise. I just have to go north and then –”

Suddenly, a loud crack fills my ears as pain shoots from the back of my head. Crumpling, I feel myself start to fall. At the same time, darkness fully takes me.

Ella’s POV

“Ollie? What was that?” I ask, startled by the crack and grunt I’ve heard on the other end of the phone. “Ollie?”

She doesn’t answer. Through the crackling phone, I hear what sounds like footsteps, and then the call cuts off.

Something happened, that much I know. I don’t know what, but the noises I did hear makes my blood go cold.

I promised not to share anything about Ollie’s leaving or her route to the brothers, but hearing that…

“I’m sorry, Ollie,” I say, “But you could be in trouble.”

Immediately, still holding my phone, I cry out for the quadruplets while hurrying to stairs, and their floors of the manor.