Chapter 97

Ivonne's POV

"Guess it's gonna be a long one," Jarvis muttered, his lips forming a smile but his voice sounding annoyed for some reason. Again I didn't ponder on it.

"How about a drink or refreshments, snacks maybe?" Martha listed out in a question, her gaze moving around the room till it stopped on me and she offered me a meaningful look as she blurted the words, "help, anyone?"

"I'll go get them," Lora offered, granting me a calming smile.

Unknowingly my finger had begun tapping on my exposed thigh, the realisation that I was still in the robe and naked underneath not lost to me, as Tobias muttered in my head,

'Cover your thigh baby.'

'I thought your attention wasn't on me?' I inquired through the mind-link and scoffed, a bit loudly that the eyes of Mother and others shifted to me, provoking me to utter a "sorry."

'My attention will always be on you Ivonne,' he declared without any hint of doubt, the assurance in his silent statement making me relax a bit and I raised a brow at him to which he winked.

"Ummm, I'm ready to start," Martha uttered, her eyes fixed on us which indicates she noticed our exchange.

'Yass baby, he's ours!' Ria whooped in my head and Tobias snorted, probably hearing that and I tried to so hard to maintain a calm smile on my lips as I faced Martha.

"Wait till she brings the refreshment," Mother said for the first time to the lady settled in the couch immediately after hers.

"There she is, finally," Martha clapped her hands in glee at Lora's appearance with a tray. There was a jug of orange juice left over from breakfast, same with leftover waffles, crackers and spring rolls which I had no idea was made.

"No wine?"

"It's not good to have wine first thing in the morning dear," Mother advised, a fire in her eyes. "Take it from someone who had spent 2 years in hospital despite being a silver wolf, health first dear."

"2 years is the exact time I spent in the hands of my kidnappers if I calculate it correctly," Martha blurted in a hoarse tone, her eyes going soft and I suddenly felt sorry for her, that was if her words were true.

"You don't look like someone who has been kidnapped," Reed muttered, tone lacking affection or any hint of softness, instead his stare pinned on her, a skeptical mood around him which I could feel due to our sitting positions.

"Well, that's because I took the past 3 months to recover from the onslaught I faced at their hands," she further explained.

"How did you do that?" Tobias inquired, his brows furrowing. "I thought when we were in a relationship you said you had no one to rely on and had no family."

"Eeerh yes," she blurted and nervously scratched the back of her head, avoiding eye contact with everyone in the room but me and then she smiled with droopy eyes and sniffed, "sorry it's just a lot."

"Oh," mother mumbled a look of sympathy crossing her facial features.

"Can you start from the beginning?" Jarvis inquired, "so all these can fit into a complete picture."

"Okay," she exhaled and took a waffle, moaning at the taste in her mouth as she chewed on it and grabbed the glass of juice which Lora must have poured out for her before going to stand behind Jarvis.

"It goes like this," she said in a muffled voice due to the food in her mouth and swallowed. "Remember the day I went missing?"

"Yeah, it's still as clear as if it was yesterday," Tobias uttered, prompting me to discreetly send him a stink eye which he didn't catch except for mother who made a calming motion with the palm on her lap.

"Awwwn," she cued and Ria rolled her eyes while I scoffed. "Sorry," I murmured an apology, "I have an itchy throat."

"Yeah, we had an argument, and hadn't been on speaking terms for a week," Tobias narrated, a faraway look in his irises with a downward tilt to his lips.

"I tried begging you that morning but you had no time to listen to me and said something about going to the mall."

"Yes," she affirmed, her lips in a pout as she stared at Tobias sympathetically.

"The next thing all your stuffs was gone and I couldn't contact you," Tobias growled and my vision trailed to his fingers which clenched briefly.

"We searched the whole pack and the neighborhood ones to no avail," Jarvis added, teeth clenching as he appeared to be recalling the scenario. "We even traced your scent to the human world but there was no hint of you there, it was like you vanished into thin air."

"Those we thought who knew you were not even able to answer our simple questions," Reed growled, his eyes hardening and it was the first time I had seen the man who appeared to be always playful, angry.

"It was as if some magic trick had played out," Jarvis almost spat, anger in his eyes. "It was as if we were playing a game as no one gave us an answer."

"Ummm, I think I should excuse myself," I started to say, rising to a standing position as I felt a bit uncomfortable while they had the conversation going.

It was something that occurred in the past and my absence and I totally understand which is why I planned to leave hence I was already feeling left out.

"Why do you think so?" Tobias raised a question as well as a brown in my path.

"Ummm," I started, trying to rake mg brain for something to say before I smiled at them and gestured to myself. "As you can see, I'm not properly dressed."

"But you seem comfortable in it," Reed murmured in a frown.

"And no one would dare give you an inappropriate look," Tobias muttered, his gaze sweeping the men in the room, "right?"

"Right," Jarvis and Reed both muttered with no form of hesitation.

"It's not about that," I argued, "I planned to freshen up once you had come down and left for your office at the pack house."

"Well that was what I planned to do until she came in," I explained, holding my robe in place as if it was about to fall off.

"Sorry I interrupted your plans," Martha spoke. "It's no biggie," I smiled as politely as I could.

"Sit baby, hmm?" Tobias urged, grabbing my palm and offering it an affectionate squeeze. "She has a story to tell us."

"Yeah, in an interesting one of how I escaped the shackles of the wicked ones," Martha declared dramatically, an emotion I couldn't decipher rushing through her brown eyes.

In the moments it took me to try to understand the glance, it disappeared ad quickly as it came and I smiled, dropping back in the couch, a palm directed at Martha, "carry on."

"Back to that day. I honestly went to the mall in the nearest human city," Martha began her narration. "But just as I was returning to the pack, I got kidnapped."

"So how can you explain the disappearance of your clothes from our room and the car?" Tobias interrogated, asking the question that popped into my head.

"A question I too need an answer to," Martha said to everyone's surprise. "Barely 24 hours after I was kidnapped, my clothes were thrown into the room I was being kept."