Mated To My Mate's Worst Enemy (ARIA) novel Chapter 510

Chapter 510

ARIA

"And then he helped her get out," I said. "At cost to himself. Which is why he's here and not somewhere else." I held his gaze. "I know what he did. I know the history. I know the policy and what it means and what he represents. And I know you're angry and I know you have the right to be angry." I paused. "But you put him through a wall this morning. At the gate. In front of half the pack." I let that land. "I think that was the moment."

Kael looked at me.

"The moment," he said.

"The one where the history was expressed directly," I said. "Through the gate wall. Where everyone saw it and understood what it meant. That was the moment." I held his gaze. "Everything after that is administration. Interrogation. Security protocols. Decisions about what happens to him and whether he stays or goes and what conditions apply." I paused. "Not another swing."

The corridor was quiet.

Kael looked at me for a long moment.

Then he looked at the wall again. At the corridor. At the five people around him.

"She's not wrong," Ivory said.

"She's not wrong," Jordan confirmed.

"She's accurate," Elite said.

"The gate wall," Nina said, "was the moment. Yes."

Kael made a sound that was not agreement and also not disagreement — the specific sound of someone who'd been presented with an argument they found correct and were finding the correctness annoying because it meant not getting the thing they wanted.

"Fine," he said.

"The interrogation," Nina said, already moving forward into operational mode, "should happen tomorrow. When the first monitoring window has passed and Ivory's confirmed the compound isn't resurging. He'll be more cooperative with the injury stabilized."

"He'll be more cooperative," Jordan said, "full stop. He came here voluntarily. He submitted to treatment. He gave us an opening account." He paused. "He wants to cooperate."

"He wants shelter," Kael said.

"Both can be true," Jordan said. "He wants shelter and he's willing to cooperate to get it. That's a workable dynamic."

"What does he know about the root," Ivory said. "That's the question that matters. He was in the room with the decision-makers. If they discussed activation — if they had a timeline, a method, specific conditions—"

"Tomorrow," Nina said. "Full interrogation. Everything he knows." She looked at Kael. "You don't have to be in the room."

"I'm going to be in the room," Kael said.

"It might be more productive if you weren't," Nina said.

"I'm going to be in the room," Kael said.

"Then," Nina said, "we're clear that the room does not involve wall incidents."

"The room involves questions and documentation," Kael said. "That's all."

"Good," Nina said.

"Probably," Kael said.

"Kael," Nina said.

"Questions and documentation," he said, with the tone of someone making a commitment they were going to honor through effort rather than ease.

"Tell Martha," I said again. "Someone tell Martha before the evening meal."

"I'll tell Martha," Ivory said again.

"Specifically not to—"

"I know what to tell Martha," Ivory said. "I've been managing Martha's specific approach to people she disapproves of for years. I know the conversation."

"Has it worked before," I said. "With Martha."

There was a pause.

"Define worked," Jordan said.

"Has the person been fine after the meal," I said.

Another pause.

"Fine is also a spectrum," Nina said.

"Alive?" I said.

"Alive," Kael said, with confidence. "Martha doesn't kill people."

"She makes them regret existing," Jordan said. "Which is different."

"Tell her," I said. "Before dinner."

"The mustache," Jordan said, "is officially retired."

"The mustache," Kael said, and his voice had the warmth-adjacent quality of someone finding something funny in a day that had also been heavy, "was iconic."

"Thank you," Jordan said, with the dignity of someone accepting a tribute.

"The beard," Kael said, "was less convincing."

"The beard was a commitment piece," Jordan said. "Not a realistic piece."

"The hat," Ivory's voice came from the far end of the corridor, already heading toward Martha's kitchen, "stays on."

"The hat is yours," four people said simultaneously.

She didn't look back, but the quality of her walk changed — just slightly, just for a moment, the specific small adjustment of someone who'd heard something they'd needed to hear.

I watched her go.

*She's building toward something,* Silver said.

*I know,* I said.

*The conversations she said she was going to have,* Silver said. *She's getting ready for them.*

*I know,* I said.

*Are you?* Silver said.

I looked at the corridor. At Kael and Nina and Jordan and Elite. At the secondary clinic direction. At the pack grounds through the window at the end of the hallway.

*Yes,* I said.

We went to find dinner.

a/n: Its been 11 shitty days, I know, my sickness have decided not to free me despite my medications, and it's so not cool especially with the rumored hantavirus spreading panic, but I am not as sick as I was in the first week when I was barely mobile, my readers could see I haven't replied anything in a while, I apologize.

And I have been reading the comments and people are nitpicking my words, but also with the nitpicking, they are pointing out things that are not entirely true and I would like to use this medium to reply some.

Some of y'all had been on my tail; new readers mostly on how Aria is being treated unfair: I had a specific reader who was complaining as early as chapter 70 and from the tone of her comment, she hated my book, she kept commenting until chapter 467 or 468, which is commitment, honestly. But I would like to point this out, WE the readers are the only ones that knows the full story. Yes we have acknowledged Aria suffered, but can we also acknowledge that 50 percent of her problems existed because Aria was being Aria, I don't know how anyone was even barely to read through that woe betide me chapters of Aria POV, that kept pulling my hair, but she caused her issues.

Like I always said, I used realism in my books. I know people were expecting Aria to move to shadowmere and just be perfect at everything, even breathing will bring sounds of applause and love declaration and then we see the harsh realities and we all decide ivory was the problem. Ivory of all people! Okay jordan is a saint, but ivory, come on, she was literally the only one that had nothing bad to say especially with Aria eavesdropping on everything.

Sorry I strayed off. I'll continue in the next chapter.