Her heart rate had picked up during his little speech, and she noted her sister and Travis had fallen silent as well. Would Cyrus actually rip it off her finger? She swallowed, not wanting to find out. Her panties soaked. Oh boy. She didn’t want to deal with why that happened. . He wouldn’t hurt her. She knew that beyond a shadow of a doubt. If he’d wanted to do that, he could have done so in the brownstone. She tugged at the ring, and it slipped off her finger easily. It had never fit perfectly, which had always seemed sort of apropos somehow.
“Here.” She handed it to him, and he exhaled a breath loudly.
“Thank you.”
“Yep.” She nodded, looking away. “Maybe you should finish up telling them what happened and how Nathan ended up in the basement. I have a headache. I want to go home.”
Cyrus stood up. “I’ll have Mitchell take you.”
She nodded and tried to ignore the sting of his easy acquiescence. He really must not want her to stay. She tried to be reasonable. It would be too much to expect him to take him herself. He was Alpha. There were things for him to do, plans for him to make in regards to her parents, especially now that it seemed to directly concern him. He’d not spoken to her in hours except to order her ring from her finger—Cyrus had made his feelings toward her very clear since they’d arrived in the building. He wanted her out of the way where he didn’t have to worry about her.
Lilliana stood up. “I’ll walk you out.”
“Thanks.” She smiled, still not looking at Cyrus. Her head really was pounding, or she would never leave her newfound sister. She hoped she didn’t have to go too long without seeing her again.
They walked a distance into the hall, and Lilliana pushed the button for the elevator. Her sister held up her hand to her own mouth indicating she wanted her to be quiet. They entered the device and were halfway down before Lilliana spoke.
“You don’t have to stay here with him if he’s awful to you.”
Betsy touched her head, wishing she could rub away the ache. “What?”
“We can take you back to Philadelphia. I mean, Travis has a treaty with Cyrus, and I’m sure it would be breaking some clause of it to do that, but there is no way I’m going to allow my sister to be abused—arrangement or no arrangement.”
“Abused?” It took Betsy a full thirty seconds to realize what Lilliana meant. “Cyrus? Oh, he’s not abusing me. If anything, he saved me from that.”
“Betsy, he threatened to rip the ring off your finger.”
“He wouldn’t have done that.” She believed that despite all the turmoil. “He wanted to. He’d thought about it. But he never would have touched me.”
“How do you know?”
Betsy smiled. She’d been a wolf for only a couple of hours, but she’d picked something up her sister hadn’t? “Because underneath his bluster, I smelled something else.”
“What was that?”
“Fear.” They stepped out of the elevator together. “Cyrus actually asked me to take it off so he didn’t have to think about it anymore. There was a difference.”
Lilliana nodded. “Well, I certainly know how it is to live with an Alpha male who occasionally has dominance issues. Travis can get possessive to the point of my eyes crossing.” Her sister sighed. “Look, I guess I know we technically met only today, and we don’t know each other, but you have family, okay? And somewhere to go if you don’t want to stay here.”
“Thanks.” Betsy liked the warm feeling Lilliana’s words created. She didn’t fear Cyrus, and the thought of leaving him actually made her kind of nauseous. Not because she was his mate—that word still felt foreign—but because she belonged to him. He’d shifted for her, brought her back to her human self, cared for her, and now he was working to solve her problems. Even if he ignored her when she’d rather he paid attention, that didn’t warrant abandoning his care.
But it had been a long time since she’d known she had somewhere to go if she needed help—that was a gift unto itself.
She exchanged numbers with her sister and headed toward Mitchell, who waited at the entrance for her. If she hadn’t seen Cyrus endlessly texting, she’d think the other wolves could communicate with him telepathically. Nathan had given her a phone for the sole purpose of allowing him to reach her. Her sister’s number was the first one she’d ever gotten to enter.
She walked out onto the street toward Mitchell. He stood by a blue Town Car and held a door open. Once she was inside, he climbed in after her. Betsy could have easily taken the subway, but if someone wanted to take her downtown another way, she wasn’t going to complain. Besides, if Cyrus had ordered the car, that’s how they’d be going. Mitchell would never contradict him and she’d never be able to convince the driver to turn around if Mitchell didn’t agree