Chapter 55

chapter Fifty Five

*Ariya*

Ivan ran down his idea and my eyes lit up right along with his.

"Ivan, you're a genius! If we tweak a few things we might be able to cover you if you don't transition back immediately. I know I don't remember all of it yet but that might be able to work for that too." I suggested.

"That's true! I'm curious though. If I'm in wolf form and someone else shows up how does that work for my memories? Wouldn't I forget all of that though?"

I furrowed my eyebrows, "I wonder how that would work? Maybe Drake can adjust the lock again? We need to make sure it doesn't mess you up completely. If you're in wolf form you should keep your memories regardless of someone else being around. Otherwise that can cause a lot of problems. We'd be fighting you and them at the same time."

"That needs to be fixed immediately." Ivan agreed.

"I could reach out to them to have them do it right now." I offered.

"That won't work, Ari." Ivan said.

"I mean I know you haven't done a link with anyone but you should be able to get one if I'm right here with you."

"That won't work either. I don't know all the details yet but I'm not able to communicate with anyone like that. I think it had something to do with me needing to bond first. Until I bond I'm not able to communicate that way. I think that's part of why they jumped me that night." Ivan explained.

I looked at him, worried, "But if you can't communicate that way until you bond and you can't bond until you shift and you can't shift unless you have your memories, but you can't have your memories if someone is around, but we can't fix that part unless they can"

I was beginning to panic. There were so many potential disasters. Maybe Boss was right. Maybe he was steps ahead of us. Maybe we wouldn't be able to pull this off. Maybe my plans would just end up getting everyone killed.

"Easy, Ari." Ivan wrapped his arms around my head, pulling me to his chest.

My breathing quickened as the panic set in more. I didn't want to lose anyone. I had lost so much but according to Boss I didn't really lose what I thought I had. I was so confused. I didn't realize what was real or not real anymore. I just knew I couldn't lose Ivan. I couldn't lose Keo. Or Caleb. Or Drake. I couldn't lose them. I wouldn't be able to make it through this life without them.

"I'm right here. I'm not going anywhere. You're ok. We will figure this out. Breathe, Ari. Everything is ok. We will find a solution. We always do. No matter what happens, there's an answer. We just need to take a step back and look at the bigger picture like Boss told you." Ivan comforted me.

Hot, fresh tears spilled down my face. I wanted to calm down and I wanted to figure it out but there wasn't time. The panic was rising inside of me. We had to figure out how to handle Ivan's hair. We had to figure out how to handle him shifting. What were we going to do if he shifted and couldn't shift back. How would we explain his absence? Would it make sense to have him shift here? What if he howled? What if he wasn't in control? What about his memories? If someone was around and he was in wolf form, would his memories lock? What would happen to him then? What would happen to him mentally if he was a wolf? He wanted us to bond so I could feed and we could get out of here at any point but what if there was more to what Boss could do? What if our thinking has always been wrong? What if Boss knows everything already but he's just confirming? What if Boss already knows that Justin is Ivan? What if everything has just been a lie this entire time?

"Come back to me, Ari." Ivan whispered.

I felt like I couldn't breathe. I felt like the walls were closing around me. I felt like the world was caving in and no matter where I turned a thousand more problems came up. I didn't know what to do and I wasn't sure if we would be able to figure it out. If we made the wrong move someone could die. We didn't have room for errors. We needed to be perfect.

The smell of blood hit my nose like a shock to my body. I jolted in surprise. Breaking out of my thoughts. Ivan had cut his finger open to get my attention. My eyes changed and my fangs forced their way out. I looked at Ivan, his eyes were glowing his wolf's blue.

"Don't take too much or you might actually kill me, princess. But you need it. Careful of the chains though." Ivan said softly.

I licked the blood off of his finger and my eyes rolled back in my head. I groaned as I put his finger in my mouth, scraping my teeth against his skin. I sucked the blood from his finger and felt my body ignite. I felt my strength returning the more I took.

"Ari, come back to me." Ivan put his other hand on my head.

I let go of his hand and looked at him. His eyes glowed blue as he smiled at me. My heart melted as I looked up at him getting lost in his eyes. Ivan leaned down and kissed me gently.

"I'm not really sure how to heal you." I said, a little embarrassed.

Ivan chuckled, "I wasn't sure if you did or not, that's why I cut my finger. Good thing we didn't just jump straight to an artery."

I went pale, mortified about the thought of not being able to heal him.

Ivan laughed, "Don't worry, I'm sure Drake or Keo can explain it and then we can practice with my finger again since those wounds seem to close up quickly. From there we can work our way up."

I relaxed in his arms and nestled my head in his chest, "Ok. But promise me you'll use the blood that Boss makes you give me to take the edge off first. I don't want a repeat of when I was trying to get Keo out of here. We're lucky that Mya was able to heal you that time."

Ivan laughed, "Yeah that could have gone very badly."

"Yeah. We need to avoid taking unnecessary risks."

"Are you ok to continue talking about everything?"

I shifted, uneasily, "Not completely. But we don't have much of a choice, do we?"

"That's true. One problem at a time. I'm sure Keo, Drake, and Caleb are coming up with ideas of their own as well. We just need to come up with whatever we can to do our part. Just like you made multiple plans for combating Boss, we need to be able to have multiple plans for tackling these obstacles."

"What if something happens that we didn't think of?" I asked.

"Then we'll handle it as it happens. We can only plan for whatever we can think of. If something unexpected happens we need to be willing to roll with the punches. Or duck."

"What?" I laughed.

"When life throws punches at you, you can either sit there and take it, roll with it, or duck. You don't have to take every hit to the face."