Page 60 of The Princess and the Pack

His cheeks are pink—a shy sort of hesitancy in his demeanor. “This is just one of many I made, love. Not sure where the other is.”

“You made this? How?”

Oran is red up to his ears. “A year is a long time to be away from your Fate-blessed omega. Had to find something to do with my hands to keep myself sane. Thought you’d like pretty things made just for you.”

I can’t help the rush of perfume that fills the air despite the serious topic at hand. Oran is quite romantic. More so than I even realized and so very sweet being this shy.

“I don’t know what to say.” I look at him, then my husband, then my bonded. Each with adoration pouring for them in waves.

“You don’t have to say anything,” Sloan chuckles. “Just a small gift for our omega. It’s the normal way of things, Ivy.”

I smile, my heart fluttering. But there’s still something I don’t quite understand.

“If packs keep omegas healthy, then why are more people not speaking of this? Why is nothing being done?” I ask, trying to piece together the information they’ve laid out.

“Most people don’t know Ivy. Or if they do, they’d rather die young than break from tradition. Legacy over life.”

That’s insane. Absolutely asinine.

“My brother doesn’t know. If he did, he would never allow...”

Cillian hums, trying to keep me calm. “But we didn’t know that, darling. I’ve heard wonderful things about Hawthorn before meeting him, but the fact remains he was a royal of a very prestigious kingdom whose parents succumbed to the same fate as mine. I was terrified when I scented you, because I knew if I lost you, I wouldn’t be able to go on.”

“Why would you lose me?” I can’t imagine how finding a scent match would lead to loss. I’m not like his father.

“You were here for your visit, and we all realized the same thing—you were ours. I didn’t know how something like that would go over. You couldn’t scent us to verify the truth. What if you hated the thought and demanded to leave? What if you had been happy, but Hawthorn, like my father, found it beneath your prestigious name? Would he have rescinded our betrothal and taken you away never to let me see you again?”

My heart thunders at thinking of being taken away from him, from any of them.

“My brother is not cruel.” Is all I can manage.

“I don’t believe so either, but Ivy, this is so different from anything either of us has ever known. I wasn’t prepared to risk it. I forbade Oran and Sloan from telling you, from even being around you for fear that one of us would do something stupid and ruin everything.”

“Forbadethem? Youkept themfrom me?” My pitch is rising, as is my anger, except it’s not at his father anymore, but rather at him.

Can he not see how wrong he was?

Cillian throws his hands in the air, a bit exasperated. “I was out of my mind, Ivy! Here you exist in the world, the most precious, important thing in my life, and I hardly knew you. I thought if we could just wait until we were married and you were here, where no one could take you away from us, we could ease you into the situation. Explain things. Court you without fear of interference. And after you hopefully accepted us, we could tell your brother—be public with my court. Change the landscape around this barbarism and just be as we meant to.”

I cackle, humorless, dry. Such romance, yet so much idiocy. “And what? You thought me so unreasonable that I would work against my own interest—against my ownlife? You thought I wouldn’t want to be pampered and loved into old age with my three Fate-blessed alphas? You stole time from us. You didn’t trust me with my own life.”

Sloan attempts to reassure me through our connection, but I don’t want that now. I want to understand why Cillian would make it so that I wouldn’t know Sloan or Oran as I should.

“I was wrong, darling. I know that. And I’m so sorry for lying. But I panicked. I saw what happened to my mother, and even the idea that you could—I can’t even speak it. I was wrong.”

He was. He hurt me with his lies. Hurt himself and his packmates. I understand his heart, I truly do, and it breaks for the pain he’s endured. But the fact remains that he thought so little of my capacity to understand that he kept me in the dark.

“I’m angry,” I say, simple but true. “I’m angry for all that’s happened to...to your mother, to all noble omegas. What could happen to me and my sisters, my little brother...But I’m also sad, Cillian. I’m sad you lied. If you had only come to me, you would have learned that this—a pack—is something I’ve always wished for but never thought I could have. Had I known, I would have never let anyone take me from you, from any of you. And we could have gotten married at once.”

“But Ivy, you hadn’t come into your omega senses yet,” he reasons. “It didn’t feel right to tell you when you couldn’t experience scenting us for yourself.’”

I’m so confused. So torn and uncertain where to place all this madness. I turn to Oran. “Why did you agree?”

“Ivy.” He hesitates. “What was I to do? I trust Cillian. I didn’t agree, but I understood him. I watched his mother die—my mother too. I didn’t want the same for you. And if I’m honest, I wasn’t certain you would want me. Scent match or not.”

How can he say that? How could I ever look at him—the most passionate, handsome, and attentive alpha—and not want him?

Sloan has been decidedly quiet. “And what about you?”

---