Page 76 of Ellie 3

“Fine, but this isn’t as much fun as brownie. I get sex then, not itchy icky and a stupid arm sling.”

Oh fuck, she was whiney and adorable.

I was cooing over her when I realized an argument was going on and focused on it.

“Look, I’ll give a blood oath or whatever else you want since apparently that’s required becausehesays so,” Byeol said with a dramatic and exasperated tone. “But I’m not letting some witch we don’t know do anything to my fucking brain. No, not even for you, Mum. That’s insane that you are even considering this!”

Ha-yun lost patience and grabbed her arm, spinning Byeol to face her. “The problem here is notoneof us believes you would honor any agreement you would make. None of us trust you after what you did with the Alpha of Atlanta and that was about more than Ha-joon. That was a mess for ourfamilyand embarrassing.

“And even if not all of us get along with Ha-joon, we know we can trust him. He would not risk us to protect his mate. I would bet he not only knows the witches well, but has seen exactly what they will do, so it’s not a risk of it being the first time. He wouldn’t risk damage to us for this.You would, so the problem here is completely and totallyyou, Byeol.”

“I like you now that you’ve opened your eyes to who your brother is,” Ellie muttered. “Really, you’re an impressive woman, Ha-yun. It’s why I want to name you my successor to run ASH if I die. You would—”

This time I did move my hand over her mouth before she said more… But then I saw more than my father had figured it out. Mum and Ha-yun had.

Shit.

Luckily, Alan came in with one of the witches I remembered from the last disaster.

I nodded towards Byeol and my brothers. “They’re the main, bitter problems. Ellie let it slip she had magic.”

“And more,” Mum warned. “They could put the pieces together later.”

The witch dipped her head to Mum. “I’ll gently take the whole conversation in this room then. Your son can fill you in on the important details you needed later.”

“I think that best,” Da agreed, surprising me. He smiled when I did a double take. “I agree with what Ha-yun said, Son. You’ve worked with this witch and trust her.”

“I have and I do. I saw what she did,” I confirmed, glancing at Byeol. “You’ll have a headache, but you’ll be fine after we go eat. That’s it.”

“It hurts because they fought,” the witch clarified, but then snorted. “And they were monsters, so I didn’t give a shit if they hurt. I will be gentle with your family.”

“We should move in together,” Ellie said after the witch handled my brothers. She smiled as I slowly looked at her as if she’d grown another head. “In a few months if we’re still doing good. Yeah, we should—I don’t want to keep with the your condo or mine. Even if we’re a few floors apart. It’s silly. You always have to go back downstairs to grab stuff or—”

I kissed her. Gentle but full of love. “Yeah, that sounds perfect. Just remember you said this and don’t take it back because you’re high.”

“I won’t, but I am in pain again,” she said under her breath. “Alan forgot to set the IV faster for me.”

“I’ll handle it.”

“You always do,” she sighed happily.

And I always would as long as she let me.

21

Ellie

Eight Months Later

“Are you ready for this?” Theresa checked.

I sighed and gave her a look to show what I was really feeling instead of the mask I normally kept on. I wasbeyondready. The fact our meeting with our father had been delayed this long was an annoyance that ground on me more than I liked to admit.

But the fucker just always had to be a fucker.

When he found out we were both coming to visit him, he assumed why and tried to kill himself. The asshole almost succeeded, but luckily a guard found him at the last second and he was revived.

Barely. They’d had to keep him in a coma for months while his body slowly healed. We were more than human but not unkillable or perfect. And blood loss to a vampire did toxic levels of damage to our bodies fast. It was our Achilles heel in many ways which was why it was so effective for suicide or a quick murder.

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