Chapter 82

Ollie’s POV

I’m entirely frozen after reading that text, though Hugh can tell that I’ve read it. His messages continue.

Are you there?

We should talk about this.

No one told him. He found out on his own.

I didn’t know what to believe. How much aid did he have finding out on his own? Did the brothers try to protect my secret or was this like with Declan, where Wes and my recklessness led Declan right to us?

The messages from Hugh hang in the air as the messages from Wes start coming through.

Please let’s talk.

We can work this all out.

Conrad isn’t such a bad guy…

I exit out of the messages screen again, even as they continue to roll in. I can’t bother reading them, not while my heart is beating so fast and my head is out of control.

At least… not until a message comes through from Declan too. Then, my curiosity wins out over everything else, as well as my desire to always please Declan. I click on his message and read it.

This doesn’t end us.

That resolves nothing, nor does it give any explanation. It’s just Declan staking his claim… which I shouldn’t like as much as I do.

I’m annoyed with them and with myself. Maybe I should run away, but… no. I don’t need to. Conrad might have found out that his brothers are in contact with their bonded mate, but none of them know who I am.

I don’t have to run away to disappear. All I have to do is turn off this phone.

So I do, pushing down the button. Before it fully shuts down, it continues to chime with message after the message of the brothers trying to reach out to me.

Maybe it shouldn’t be such a shock that Conrad found out. It was likely only a matter of time before he did, especially since all of his brothers knew.

Perhaps my error was choosing Hugh first, as he’s never been known for his discretion. Declan was better with secrets… But when I was a virgin, I wasn’t ready for the kind of sex Declan is into. Even now, we are having to slowly ease into it.

Perhaps Wes? No… he would eventually have felt guilty and shared everything with his brothers.

My only way out of this situation would have been to never allow myself to enter into it. The best way I could have avoided all of this was to never reach out to any of them at all, to keep hiding, and let them wonder forever about their mate.

“I need them…” Scarlet reminds me.

Being with them gives her powers a recharge, so the effort of hiding herself and our scent doesn’t overly drain us. If I avoid them, then I will grow weaker and weaker…

There’s no easy solution here then.

But we did just see Declan not all that long ago. We should be okay for a while. Long enough for me to put the burner phone in the nightstand and forget about it for a while.

So that’s what I do.

That night, I head upstairs to help serve dinner to the family. This is something the brothers have dictated that I do more often so I am more ready to serve Sylvia at school – something I am truly not looking forward to, after that terrible meet and greet.

Even so, there’s little I can do to stand up to the brothers so I have to agree.

In the hallway outside of the kitchen, I notice Conrad exiting from the dining room. His eyes are on the ground, looking stormy, and his hands are curled into fists. Did he have a fight with his brothers?

“Good evening, Conrad,” I say. I don’t want to think that his bad mood has something to do with me, but if our positions were reversed, and my theoretical siblings were hiding my mate from me, I would be irate.

Almost like he doesn’t hear me, he doesn’t reply. Instead, he storms down the hallway like a man on a mission. I quickly duck out of his way so I don’t get run over. I’m still uncertain he even knows I’m there.

What a brute. As he disappears into the stairwell, I’m glad I’m avoiding him as his mate. Would I still be invisible to him then?

I’ve served dinner off and on for years, so it’s like a habit now. Doing my job right, no one seems to pay me any attention. In some situations, this would probably upset me. I like having the brothers’ focus on me, and I miss the mother-daughter relationship I use to have with Diana.

But around Sylvia? It’s always a relief when she doesn’t notice and bully me.

Tonight, she seems to have bigger concerns. “What is wrong with Conrad, anyway? Did he lose a hockey game or something?”

Conrad liked to win, but he wasn’t a sore loser. The only time I ever saw him upset after a game he lost was when he thought it was his own fault. He could be too hard on himself.

Sylvia would know that if she actually cared about any of them. Instead, she only cared about herself. Even now, I bet she was thinking about how Conrad’s absence affects her and only her.

“He has a lot on his mind,” Hugh says.

“Like what?” Sylvia asks.

“It’s personal,” Wes adds.

Sylvia glares. “What’s so personal that he can’t tell his darling sister about it?”

The mood at the table shifts, adding tension. Even Diana is looking at her sons with some curiosity. It isn’t like them to withhold anything from Sylvia.

I brace myself for what is surely the inevitable, that they will tell Sylvia the truth. My stomach starts to sink because I expect this outcome. They haven’t been able to keep me secret from each other. What choice do they have of keeping a secret from their darling little sister?

Yet, I wait, and am left waiting.

Wes and Hugh glance at each other, while Declan remains stoic.

“It’s not something you should concern yourself with,” Declan says. “He’ll figure it out on his own.”

Sylvia pouts her bottom lip. “What kind of answer is that? I’m allowed to worry about my brothers…”

“He wouldn’t want you to concern yourself,” Declan says in a way that feels final, like someone shutting a door.

Sylvia sits back in her chair, stunned into silence, a rare feat.

Though I keep my face carefully neutral, inwardly my heart soars. They don’t know that I am their mate, but it feels so good to have a secret between us, just the brothers and me. And not Sylvia.

The rest of the meal is somewhat awkward, with Sylvia pouting and the brothers atypically not catering to her every whim. Toward the end of the meal, Diana looks at me.

“Ollie. Please take a plate of food down to Conrad,” she says. “I’m sure he’s retreated to his floor.”

I dip my head in acknowledgement that set to obeying her request.

In the kitchen, I get a hot plate of food, then take the elevator to Conrad’s floor.

His bedroom and study are empty, the lights click out, but as I walk down the hall, I hear the huffs and grunts of exertion coming from his personal gym.

While there is a bigger gym on one of the other floors, Conrad and Declan each have a smaller, more personal gym room on their floors too.

When I walk into the gym, Conrad is throwing his fists into a punching bag.

He’s shirtless, with sweat trailing down the working, shifting muscles of his back.

My mouth goes dry.