88

88
ELLA
“I’m going to see Claire tonight. I finally decided to get the bond between the twins and I severed,” I blurted as soon as we were outside.
I had been holding it in for so long and thinking about how to tell him about it—it just seemed sensible to get it all out without beating around the bush. “That’s… that’s great,” he stammered and tried to hide the grin that danced at the corner of his lips. “You’re getting it done tonight? How can I help?”
“You’re not mad?” I asked and arched an eyebrow.
“Why would I be?”
“I don’t know… I didn’t tell you before deciding and I just… I think springing it up on you right now seems rather unfair and impromptu.”
He chuckled and playfully pinched my cheeks. “You’ve got nothing to worry about, Ella. It was your decision to make anyway. I stayed away from the topic because I realized that nothing I said would convince you. You had to come to that decision yourself—and I’m happy you’ve done that.”
“Thank you,” I replied quietly and started walking down the front porch. He followed suit and repeated his question.
“So, how can I help?”
“Claire says I need you around for a part of the procedure. I don’t know when, but she says you have to be available,” I answered, trying to stay as vague as possible.
I didn’t want to mention the fact that he would have to be a blood donor if I couldn’t bring myself to tell him that I was still considering not bonding with him. It felt like I was using him to achieve my goal and then dropping him to the side, but that wasn’t my intention.
I was going to stick around after the process—I just wanted it to be at a point where I wasn’t attached to anyone at the hip and I could think with a clear head.
If the bond still happened after I had fully recovered, I had no problem exploring a relationship with Quincy. But right now, I wanted to give myself a chance.
I still craved the world waiting out there. I wanted to see what it was like to live far away from everything that had to do with packs and being a werewolf.
I was happy to be stronger than I ever was a few weeks ago, but there was no way I would be able to explain that without coming off as an asshole. Things were better this way.
“Works for me. Would you want me to drop you off?”
“That’d be great,” I said and handed him the piece of paper which had the address Claire had given me.
When we got to the garage, he stopped and asked for a minute to get the keys to Eve’s car. I agreed and waited for him, but when he came out of the house, he informed me that May had offered her truck instead.
She said it would have more space to contain anything we needed to carry to and fro—which made more sense. But at the same time, I was also filled with anxiety because it meant that he had told her about going to meet Claire.
I didn’t have a problem with that, seeing as I had mentioned a part of it too, but I felt a little pressured. If May knew, the others would eventually find out—and I didn’t want to think about what their reaction would be when they found out that I didn’t bond with Quincy.
The drive to the location was quiet and quick. We stopped at the mall because Quincy was convinced that I would need more snacks. After that, we were parked in front of a warehouse, which had a small door by the side. Claire was standing in front of the door.
“Welcome,” she said to both of us and forced a smile onto her face. “Are you ready?” she added and turned to meet my gaze.
“Ready as I’ll ever be,” I answered and forced a chuckle—but it sounded more like a desperate attempt at humor in spite of the anxiety I was feeling.
“Very well then,” she replied and turned to Quincy. “You don’t have to be here now. We’ll need you when she requires a transfusion. All you need to do is eat well and sleep even better because this is going to be a strenuous process for both of you.”
I glanced at Quincy, but he didn’t seem to be taken aback by the fact that I hadn’t mentioned he had to be a blood donor. “Alright. How long would the process take?” he replied, and Claire shrugged before answering.
“First, this isn’t a procedure that’s usually done because people are often happy with the mates they’ve been fated to. A rejection is an anomaly—especially one between alphas and an omega. The timeframe is different for a lot of people. I can’t give an exact duration for it. We could be done in half an hour or three days. It’s up to fate at this point.”
Quincy nodded slowly and turned to me. “Whatever you need, let me know. Good luck,” he said and patted my shoulder before walking back to the car.
Claire and I stood by the door and watched until he drove into the distance. “He seems very supportive,” she said after a short silence.
“I wonder how much of that support he’s going to have left when he realizes I don’t want to initiate a bond with him during the procedure.”
“You didn’t tell him about that part, did you?” she asked, and I shook my head in response. “Well, thank you for telling me because it means I have to be extra careful while we’re at it—and let’s hope he takes it well.”
“Hope is all we have,” I muttered and watched as she unlocked the door with a key she pulled out of the pocket of her trousers.
I looked around the space as we walked through the doors. The walls and floors of the warehouse were lined with tarp, with a bed in the middle of it.
To its right was a chair and a small table. There were equipment for the transfusion next to the bed, along with some other things I couldn’t recognize.
Slowly, we walked toward the bed and Claire gestured toward it. She took the items I was holding and neatly stacked them in an overhead cupboard next to the table, then walked away to a different section of the room that had a small room—which I assumed served as the changing room.
A few minutes later, she was back and we started the procedure. First, she instructed me to lie down and close my eyes. Then told me to visualize a place or an event where I felt genuinely happy and peaceful. This place or event had to be connected to the twins somehow.
I stifled a chuckle at the thought of ever feeling peace while being around the twins, as the image of the waterfall slowly made its way into my mind. Lyla might’ve shown me the place, but the twins had also found their way there—which made it the only place I had found peace and simultaneously felt assaulted by their presence.