Chapter 507
IVORY
“Ivory,” he said.
Finist
“You’ve put him through a wall and watched me punch him and been in the same room for eleven minutes,” I said. “The clinical space requires a specific atmosphere for optimal treatment outcomes. You’ not producing that atmosphere.”
“I’m being very calm,” Kael said.
“You’re being controlled,” I said. “There’s a difference. Controlled requires an object to be controlled abou Calm doesn’t.” I held his gaze. “Go. I’ll brief you when the treatment is complete.”
He looked at Killian.
He looked at me.
“Margo,” he said.
“Margo,” I confirmed.
He left. Nina followed, because Nina was going to go where the Alpha went until the situation was stable. Jordan left with the pocket mustache, which was still slightly visible and which I was choosing not to comment on because there was only so much any reasonable clinical environment could be expected to absorb in a single session. Elite left with the quiet efficiency of someone who’d gathered what she’d come for.
Aria was the last to go. She paused at the door and looked at me – not with the checking expression that Kael had, not the assessment. Just present.
I nodded, once.
She left.
The secondary clinic was quiet.
i
Killian was on the treatment table, the fourth compound doing its work, looking at the ceiling with the expression of a man who’d gotten further than he’d expected and was processing what further meant.
“She’s good,” he said. About Aria. The observation delivered with the flat certainty of someone who’d been watching.
“Yes,” I said.
“You arranged her,” he said. “I know you did. I found out eventually.”
“Yes I said.
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Chapter 507-
“That was a significant thing to do.” he said.
“Yes,” I said.
Finishe
I applied the closure compound. The final step. The treatment was technically complete. Forty-eight hours of monitoring and the injury would resolve without complication, assuming the monitoring protocols were followed.
I was going to be the one monitoring.
Because Margo was efficient and capable and I trusted her completely and also she was not the person who’d been in the room with the decisions that had brought us here, and some things required the perso who understood the full picture.
And because despite everything – despite the wall and the eleven years and the debt I’d called and the forty-five seconds and all of Killian was here because he’d had nowhere else to go.
I understood that spec
“The monitoring p
the secondary kit
“Are you going
“Yes,” I said
etter than most people.
the professional voice. “Every six hours. The compound I’ll leave with njury type. The instructions are clear.”
“Why”
I
ely. I was putting away the treatment materials, restoring the secondary clinic to
n all clinical spaces, doing the systematic closing-up that marked the end of a
er,” I said finally.
y reason,” he said.
hat’s relevant right now,” I said.
the closing-up.
bt,” he said.
id.” I said. “The monitoring is professional courtesy, not debt.
here a difference, he s
es,” I said “There’s
put the last of t
irhe year fur
e past for
y clinic that I’d designed during the second on I’d been trying not to look at directly for
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Chapter 507-
Firshed
“You should sleep,” I said. “The compound does its best work when you’re not fighting it. Sleep helps.”
“Ivory,” he said.
“Sleep,” I said.
He looked at me for a moment. Then he lay back on the treatment table with the compliance of someone who’d used all his energy getting here and had decided that the remaining energy was better spent on recovery than on conversation.
I went to the door.
“The fated mate thing,” he said, quietly, to the ceiling. “I’m not going to push it. I just-wanted you to know that I know it’s not a simpling and I’m not expecting anything
I stood at the door.
“Good,” I said. “B
“I know.” he
“And poss
“I kno
simple thing and I’m not in a position to deal with it right now.”
time,” I said.
not in any direction you’re hoping for.”
said, with the specific quality of someone who’d made peace with something difficult e peace rather than the difficulty
ing else.
the corridor where the three guards were waiting and told them the treatment was that Margo would be arriving for the first monitoring check in six hours and that nobody entry except Margo and myself and the senior leadership unless the situation changed.
ent to find Kael.
brief him on the clinical situation- I’d do that, but that wasn’t the immediate thing.
immediate thing was that my inner circle had been in that room and had seen me lose the ofessional composure for forty-five seconds, which was forty-five seconds more than they’d ever seen om me, and I was going to have to have the version of the conversation where I acknowledged that a had appened and wasn’t going to pretend otherwise.
It was the kind of conver
One conversation
The corridor
I walked
en how to have.
if go toward the thing I’d ordinardy walk
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Mated To My Mate’s Worst Enemy
Chapter 508
A passionate storyteller who brings emotions to life through her words. When she’s not writing, she finds peace nurturing her garden.