Mated To My Mate's Worst Enemy (ARIA) novel Chapter 356

Chapter 356

A/N; i forgot i said i was going to give a response, i’ll do so in this chapter, hence the extremely long content. I’ll try to keep it short and brief.

Chapter 356

KAEL

I thought about the third year. About the mornings I hadn’t remembered, the gaps in my memory that was filled with overwhelming pain, me forgetting basic english language and having no idea what was being said, but i hid it out of stubborness.

—

I also thought about the specific quality of Ivory’s face during that period the controlled worry she’d maintained but never showed, because showing it showed that she had no idea how to save me and she was a healer, and Ivory needed to be good at her job because it was expected of her and she had made sure she couldn’t get a problem, she did not know how to solve,, the way she’d never once let the management of her own fear become something I could see.

She’d been watching me disappear and deciding what to do about it.

“She saved me,” I said. And the words came out plain – not dramatic, not anything except what they were. “Not in the abstract. Not in the way of someone who was kind and present and supportive. She actually – she made the choice that kept me alive. And she didn’t tell me. And she’s been carrying the knowledge of it, and the cost of it, since before the amnesia and through the amnesia and after the memories came back.” I stopped. “That’s an enormous thing to carry.”

“It is,” Jordan said quietly.

“I’m going to talk to her soon,” I said again, because saying it twice made it more likely to happen than saying it once. “Before anything else moves.”

“Okay,” Jordan said.

I picked up the letter one more time. Looked at it without reading it.

Then I put it in the locked drawer of my desk. Not discarded – kept. Kept carefully, in the place where I kept the few things that mattered enough to protect.

1

“The morning meetings,” I said. “What order.”

Jordan straightened back into function, back into the Second mode that was natural to him.

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“Coalition follow-up first – they’ll want acknowledgment of the celebration within the standard window. Then the security review for Sera’s continued presence. Then-”

“Then the Damon intelligence update,” I said. “Whatever Nina has from the

“Then that,” Jordan confirmed.

–

past week.”

I stood. Put the morning on. Settled into the function of the role the way I’d been doing it for years the putting on of Alpha, which was both a performance and a genuine state, both a tool and a reality, in ways that had taken time to stop feeling like contradiction and start feeling like simply how it worked. The letter was in the drawer. The morning was in front of

Ivory was somewhere in the clinic complex beginning her day with the methodical care of someone who’d placed a difficult thing on someone else’s desk and was now waiting to see what they did with it.

I was going to do something useful with it.

I owed her that much, regardless of what she’d said about owing.

I found Nina at the end of the morning’s formal meetings, when the work had progressed enough that I could step sideways into a conversation without it being an interruption of something critical.

“Sera,” I said. “Is she requesting authorization today?”.

Nina looked up from what she was writing.

“Margo documented a request this morning. Passed it to me as per the current protocol. I haven’t yet forwarded it to Aria.” She paused. “I was waiting for your awareness.”

“Forward it,” I said. “With the documentation of everything from yesterday. Complete file.”

―

Nina made a note. “The authorization conditions Aria set – you’ve reviewed them?”

“I reviewed them last night,” I said. “They’re appropriate.”

“Some pack members think they’re too lenient,” Nina said, neutrally,

“Some pack members wanted me to throw Dan’s congratulations back at him instead of giving them politely,” I said. “We can’t govern by the most aggressive available option at all times.”

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Nina’s expression indicated that this was an acceptable position. “Aria’s handling it well,” she said, and the words were careful Nina was careful when she was saying something she’d observed rather than something she’d been asked.

“Yes,” I said. “She is.”

Nina looked at me with the specific assessment she deployed when she was deciding whether the conversation had reached its actual point yet.

“The letter,” I said, because she was clearly already aware of it. I’d had approximately four hours to co

whether Ivory might have told Nina before putting it on my desk, and had concluded that the answer was almost certainly yes. Nina and Ivory operated as a unit in ways that had been true since before I was Alpha. 1

“Ivory told me,” Nina confirmed.

“She told you before she wrote to me.”

“She told me when she got her memories back,” Nina said. “I’d had questions since before that, based on thin

that didn’t quite add up in the original timeline. When she confirmed the full – we discussed what to do with it.”

picture I

“She decided to tell me herself,” I said.

“She decided that immediately,” Nina said. “The discussion was about timing and method.” She held my gaze.

“I want you to know that I agreed with her decision. The original one. About the letter. About the arrangement.”

I looked at her.

“You were deteriorating,” Nina said, and her voice was the flat honest register that she used when she was saying something she’d decided to say regardless of how it landed. “In the third year you were losing ground faster than you were holding it. I could see it. Ivory could see it. The pack could see it. We were all watching and none of us knew what to do except Ivory, who figured out what to do and did it.” She paused. “I would have done the same thing in her position.”

“You would have told me,” I said.

“No,” Nina said. “I wouldn’t have. Because you would have refused and you would have been wrong.”

She met my eyes directly. “I don’t tell you things when telling you would result in you making

O

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Chapter 356

bad decisions out of pride. That’s not new. You’ve been aware of it for years.”

+10 Free Coins

“When has it happened before?” I asked, partly because I was genuinely curious and partly because asking gave me something to focus the reaction on.

“Multiple times,” Nina said, with the serenity of someone who had zero intention of elaborating.

I looked at her for a moment. “I’m not angry,” I said. “About the letter. I want you to know that. I’m working through it isn’t the primary thing.”

[anger

“I know,” Nina said. “You’re not someone who leads with anger when it’s someone you love doing something hard on your behalf. That’s one of your better qualities.” She turned back to her work with the efficiency of someone closing a segment of conversation.

“Talk to her soon. She put that letter on your desk and then went and started her clinic day. She’s been carrying it since she got her memories back. She deserves to stop carrying it alone.”

I thought about that. About Ivory starting her clinic day. Treating patients, documenting, managing Sera’s complicated presence in her space, doing all the ordinary demanding work of what she was – with the letter’s placement sitting somewhere in her mind, waiting to see what I’d do with it.

“Today,” I said.

“Good,” Nina said.

I walked back through the pack grounds toward the clinic complex, as i watched life play out in front of me. My people, safe, happy and well taken care of by people who made this possible. My team.

Shadowmere was doing what it always did. Continuing. Functioning. Being exactly the complicated, loyal, impossible thing it was regardless of any individual drama running through its center.

I was going to talk to Ivory.

I was going to tell her what I needed to tell her and hear what she needed to say and we were going to have the full conversation rather than the careful-around-the-edges version that was all that had been available since the trial chamber and the memory restoration and everything since. 2

It wasn’t resolution. But it was the conversation that needed to happen. And I’d been putting it off because I hadn’t been ready and Ivory had asked for space and both of those things had been correct for their respective moments.

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The moment had changed. I knocked on the clinic door.

“It’s open,” said Ivory’s voice, from inside.

I went in.

Author Note: Greetings, It is Whisper 119 and boy oh boy, it has not been easy. First i would like to apologize for the delay in releasing chapters, and to address a lot of things.

Writing this book, i had a vision of what i wanted to show, but that doesn’t mean the readers cannot interpret this in their own way.

The contrast between Aria and Ivory has been a core issue. i would like to clarify. Aria’s core issue in this story is her insecurity. It has been present from day 1, Aria is very insecure and this is what is used to define her, but luckily she has been growing a bit of a backbone, the hard way. People view her as a victim more because the story is shown from her view and therefore her interpretation of it. 1

Ivory is the total opposite of Aria, confident, secure and knows how important she is, in people’s life. ivory has always been one of integrity and doing the right thing irrespective of her feelings. The story is parallel, You will see similar situations that Ivory and Aria would find themselves in and how they resolve.

For example; Sera had leverage over Aria and Ivory. Ivory told Kael the truth instantly regardless of how it might blow up, because she knew Kael hearing it from her was better than kael finding out through Sera. Aria kept the truth from kael, even when kael refused to read that letter, Aria has always kept things from him, making it explode in public in front of everyone, making her integrity questionable. Same case different outcome.

3

Another thing i would like to address; Aria and Kael love’s story. It is an arranged marriage, they both love different people and are trying to navigate it. But that doesn’t mean he can’t learn to love Aria, but him instantly loving Aria and choosing Aria over ivory in situations that Aria can’t even bring evidence she is innocent, when they do not have the years of history that can make anyone insist Aria is not behind a particular incident, that is unrealistic.

Ivory has never caused problems for Aria the way Damon has caused problems for Shadowmere in general, even after she got her memories and after that first attack.

I won’t deny the pack took it to extremes a bit, but Aria got mated and expected to immediately be given respect, love and trust instantly without even working for it. And when people had opinions that didn’t suit her, opinions that she basically eavesdropped on, she internalized it and kept doing things that was subconsciously pushing them away, 3

But the moment she stopped performing and started doing things because she wanted to do them irrespective of what other might feel, she got their protection. They watched her,

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defended her numerous times, and actually was present seeing she was capable of doing wonderful things just like Ivory had been doing consistently. Aria finally stopped comparing herself to ivory and started taking accountability for her actions.

3

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