Chapter 14

Ollie’s POV

When I blink my eyes open again, I’m staring up at the drop ceiling of the school doctor’s office. The bed I’m in is uncomfortable but familiar, and there’s a scratchy blanket draped over me, pulled up to my chin.

“Ollie, you’re awake,” Ella says with clear relief. She gets up from a nearby chair and comes straight to my bedside. When she’s closer, I can see the worry lines etched in her face.

I glance away from her then, searching the rest of the room, but there’s no sign of the quadruplets. Had I imagined them helping me? Was it merely a fantasy, being in Conrad’s arms?

I’m afraid to ask, but Ella notices my distraction.

“They aren’t here,” she says. “Well, not anymore.”

“But they were here?” I ask.

Ella stares at me for a long moment, a flat, disapproving look, as if she’s disappointed that I even care. Honestly, I’m also disappointed with myself, but this fated mate bond… it makes me long for things that I shouldn’t. Especially right now, I feel too tired to fight back against this longing in my chest.

“Conrad carried you here,” Ella says, taking mercy on me. “The others followed. They stood around for a bit but then they heard Sylvia needed them.”

Sylvia. Of course they would go running to her. “What happened to her?”

“Supposedly, she passed out too. They’re all probably at the emergency room right now, making sure their precious angel didn’t crack a nail or something.”

“Ella, that’s unkind,” the school doctor said as she came into view. She must have been sitting at her desk, around the corner, behind the partition.

Ella hung her head a little in shame, though I heard her mutter under her breath, “Sylvia’s for sure faking it.”

It seems likely that Sylvia did fake fainting, especially as she was the one to bully me. If she heard the brothers had helped me, she would have gone to any lengths to get them away from me however she could.

The quadruplets would go running to protect their precious sister, no matter the occasion. Though it hurt, it didn’t fully surprise me that they left my side to rush to her and care for her.

What does surprise me is that that helped me at all.

Over the past few years, they had grown progressively colder toward me, more often than not at Sylvia’s influence. It couldn’t be enough for her to be welcomed into the family, Sylvia had to see me torn down piece by piece.

Because of her constant lies about me, the pair I had once considered my mom and dad lost faith in me, and the brothers started treating me like dirt.

Now, I was given less consideration than a servant or a pet. They despised me so much it was as if they had forgotten all of our history. At Sylvia’s whim, they forgot that they knew me, and replaced that knowledge of the person I am with the devilish image Sylvia wanted them to see.

Inside my mind, Scarlet whimpered softly and sadly.

Turning my head, I once more stared at the ceiling, wishing I could go back in time somehow and relive the moments I was happy – before Sylvia saw me as a threat to her selfish hold on the brothers and their attention.

“Ollie,” the doctor says.

She moves around Ella to stand closer to me. When I glance at her, I’m faced with a stern expression.

“You cannot keep suppressing your wolf like this. With your fated mates constantly around, your body will need to consume more and more energy to keep your wolf hidden. Eventually, you will run out of energy, and your body will suffer to compensate.”

“I can do this,” I say. Why couldn’t she understand? “I have to. I can’t be bound to them.”

“This isn’t a matter of willpower, Ollie,” the doctor says. “This is scientific fact. If you continue to suppress your wolf, you will face long term health consequences. Weakness, headaches, fainting… And it will only get worse from here.”

As I am already experiencing many of those symptoms, I worry about what might be next. Without energy, I’d probably sleep more, or maybe it would be difficult to walk… Would I eventually have to be admitted to the hospital?

“Can you really not tell them the truth?” Ella asks. I could hide my feelings from the doctor, but not from my best friend, who could see through my charade in an instant.

In my heart, I wish I could tell them, just as I wish they would accept me, love me, and keep me safe and happy as proper fated mates should.

I reality, I know that’s just not possible. They are cold and unfeeling toward me now. They’d be more likely to confine me than anything else, hiding me away so they’d only have to deal with me when the bond required them to.

“Would they truly treat us so terribly?” Scarlet asks softly in my mind.

“I will not be bound to them,” I says firmly, to Ella and Scarlet both.

“Then you can reject them,” Ella says. “It doesn’t have to be permanent.”

“Do you really think they would allow that?” I ask her. The brothers are prideful. Again, it is much more likely they would just hide me away than to face any type of public ridicule for rejecting a fated mate.

Ella falls silent.

“There is another solution,” the doctor says. “It is not one I would usually recommend, but… you are in a particular circumstance, and it is my duty to give you every option, whether I agree with them morally or not.”

“What is it?” I ask, interest piqued. There is nothing I wouldn’t do to escape this situation.

“If you can find a way to have sex with one of your fated mates…” the doctor says. “It should appease the bond enough that it will stop draining you so much.”

Ella’s eyes go wide as the doctor spoke. Then she looked at me, just as the doctor does, both seemingly waiting for my reaction.

Truthfully, I don’t know how to act. I think I might be in a small state of shock.

Yes, I’ve been fantasizing more about the brothers lately, and yeah, okay, I’m not exactly disgusted by the thought of falling into bed with one of them – though I’m still not totally sure what to expect in that regard…

My first impulse is to reject the idea outright however, based solely on how the brothers have been treating me.

But then I think of my failing health…

With my final exams coming up, I can’t really afford to be sick. I need to be at my best to excel enough to be eligible for a university in a different pack. In addition, I will need all the energy I can muster to help manage the quadruplets’ coronation ceremony.

Maybe having sex with one of them is the perfect solution.

Then I remember the party, and how Hugh, not knowing who I was, gave me his number.

“I’ll think about it,” I say in front of the doctor, because I don’t want her to think less of me.

She seems to know anyway because as Ella and I leave, she calls after me, “Use protection!”

My face burns as I scurry away.

Ella guesses the truth instantly as well. Once we are in the hallway, she says, “You are thinking of Hugh.”

“He did give his mate his number…” I say.

“Then we better get her a phone to text him,” she says.

Together, we go to the department store and pick up a burner phone, the kind you can add minutes too. After buying a phone with a new number and some minutes, I save Hugh’s number, then open a text message to him.

“What should I say?” I ask Ella. I’ve never done anything like this.

“He’s your mate,” Ella says. “What does your heart tell you?”

Maybe I should try to think of something clever. Hugh’s clever, so he might appreciate that.

“Be yourself,” Scarlet says. “You are his mate.”

He already knows I’m shy and nervous. He might be suspicious if I suddenly start acting like someone else.

So I type, This is your mate. Can we talk?

And I hit send.

I start to tuck the phone away, when it buzzes in my hand.

Hugh already replied.

I open his message and read.

I’ve been waiting for you.