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Mentioning the guys has the sinking feeling back in my stomach, and my annoyance with Ryker melts away as I slump back into him.
“I thought I could help them, but I was wrong. I couldn’t even find them, which is pathetic considering all I had to do was follow our bond.”
Saying it out loud makes me realize how stupid it was that I even followed them in the first place.
The guys were right to leave me behind; I froze just at the sound of them. How could I ever help them? I can’t even help myself.
“Being afraid of them is a good thing. It can help you stay alive,” he says, and I realize I must have spoken aloud. “They attack without remorse. They don’t care who they kill or what they destroy. It’s what they’re made to do.”
“I know.”
“What do you mean, you know?”
I don’t answer immediately, and he doesn’t push, though I’m sure he wants to. Instead, we ride in silence again as I contemplate what I should tell him. He was kind to me without knowing me when I first got here. He helped me when I was lost and alone and never asked for anything in return. Most people don’t feel the same, though. They never have, and they’ve never done anything to hide that.
Would he hate me just because of who I am, just like the rest of them?
I really hope not.
“I’m from here,” I tell him in a rush before I can change my mind, and I feel him stiffen behind me.
Shit, okay, maybe not the best way to start this. Saying that first makes me seem like a fucking liar.
Stupid.
“I didn’t know until after you helped me. Apparently, I was sent to another realm when I was younger. I didn’t remember my time here, but I do now. I remember them. I remember the way it felt when they chased me through the woods years ago—how sure I was that they were going to kill me. I survived, obviously. The king sent me away, and I started over, but Garrett came looking for—“
“Garrett! As in the crowned prince, that Garrett?” he asks, cutting me off. It should annoy me, but for some reason, it doesn’t. It seems to be something he does as if he just can’t contain himself.
Ryker needs more friends to understand how a conversation is supposed to work.
“I don’t think I’ve ever met another Garrett,” I say with a chuckle, hoping to break up some of the tension, but he didn’t find me funny. It’s strange, he doesn’t seem anything like the guy I met in the woods when I first got here. He was much more laid back when we met in the forest, joking and teasing me even if he was a bit awkward. He was like that for the first few days until he took me toward the village in a rush. It was as if he was worried about something, rushing to have me leave when he didn’t seem to mind my presence before.
Ryker’s quiet. I expect him to explain, but he doesn’t.
“Ryker?” I try to coax him back into conversation, but still, he says nothing. The silence stretches, and in the dark forest, it quickly becomes suffocating.
Unable to take it anymore, I turn to look at him over my shoulder. His bright purple eyes glow bright, and a frown mars his features. His eyes focus as if he’s coming out of deep thought as he sees me, and his brows knit together as if it’s painful for him to look at me.
“No.”
The one word is hardly more than a whisper, but I don’t miss its raw emotion.
“What, Ryker! What’s the matter?” I press, annoyed by his sudden lack of conversation. A few minutes ago, he wouldn’t leave me alone.
“You said you were going to look for them? Your mates, and that they were going to the other village to fight?” he asks, and all I can think to do is nod, thrown off by the sudden turn of the conversation. Something about hearing Ryker talk about my mates makes me uncomfortable. It doesn’t help that I’m damn near pressed against him like a second skin right now as we wander through a dark forest at night, alone—and I don’t hate it.
Fuck, I need help.
He heaves a sigh and tightens his legs around mine, holding me tighter to him as he gathers the reins tight in his hand. He's doing the exact opposite of what I need him to do right now, considering where my mind already is.
Not that I can or will tell him that.
My inappropriate thoughts are quickly forgotten as he taps his heels twice into the horse’s sides, and it takes off, forcing me to turn around and grab the reins with him.
“What is going on? Why are you suddenly in a rush to get me to them? You didn’t seem like you gave a damn before I mentioned Garrett,” I shout back to him as we somehow miss every tree in the damn near blinding darkness.
Being without my beast is hard enough as it is, but in moments like these, it’s damn near depressing knowing I’m the only one again.
