Chapter 21
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?”
osedly, she passed out too. They’re all probably at the emergency room right now, ing 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.
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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
sh 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
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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?
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