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We didn’t speak for several minutes. The only sounds were our heavy breaths and pounding hearts. This had seemed like a good idea before, but now that I was actually here, I started to second guess my decision to confront him. I braced myself and summoned the courage to speak.
“You’ve been following me.” My voice held less bite than I intended and came out as a rasp. My heart was beating so hard against my chest, I was sure he could hear it.
“Hmm,” he rumbled. A shiver ran through me.
“Do you know who I am?” I breathed, my voice trembling slightly with restraint as I forced myself to continue to face away from him.
“No. But I know who you are to me.” There was a softness to his voice that I didn’t expect, mixed with the resonance of power and authority.
My eyes shuttered closed at the sound of his deep soothing voice and I could feel heat building in my core, my bodyreacting to his proximity. Every part of me was completely aware and focused solely on him. He inhaled deeply before exhaling a sigh, likely scenting my instant arousal in his presence. His own filled my nostrils, clouding my mind from thinking clearly.
“Your name,” he strained through clenched teeth.
My eyes opened, and my brows furrowed, reality coming back to me.
“What?”
“I need to hear your name.” His voice was a desperate plea, and a gentle caress to my soul.
I took a deep breath, attempting to gain some semblance of myself. Slowly, I turned around to finally face him, craning my neck to look up at him.
My mate.
He removed his hand from the tree and stood fully, towering over me. My breath caught in my throat when my eyes locked with his. Silver irises, shadowed from underneath his hood, bored into me, seeing my very soul. His lips parted, and he released a small gasp before slowly removing his hood, allowing me to see his face. The silver of his eyes glinted through the darkness, as if they contained lights from the stars themselves. I remembered those eyes from the first time I saw them. I couldn’t forget. I saw them every time I closed my own.
“You first,” I taunted. “Seeing as you’re the one who’s been stalking me since I left Ilrek.” I willed the bite in my voice to return. My eyes hardened in challenge and looked down my nose at him, regardless that he was over a head taller than me.
But I couldn’t blame him for what he had done. If he hadn’t stayed so close all this time, I most likely would have been driven to find him on my own.
He was the most breathtaking thing I had ever laid my eyes on. He was a vision. A vision made by the Gods just for me. Theside of his mouth twitched up into a smirk, eyes narrowing in amusement yet burning with hunger.
“I’d like to think of it more as shadowing rather than stalking.” His voice was rough and husky. I was thankful for having my mask in place to hide my smirk at his smart-ass remark.
After a moment of silence, I crossed my arms and lifted my brows, letting him know that I was still waiting for his answer.
“Fair enough,” he chuckled then lifted his chin slightly. “My name is Ryker.”
“Ryker,” I said slowly, testing his name on my tongue. It felt natural, sweet even. Like honey.
His smirk fell and his pupils widened slightly when I said his name. He lifted his hand as if to reach for me, but then stopped himself and dropped it back to his side. Silence sat between us as we studied each other. We were suspended in time, in our own world, as if nothing else existed in the moment except us.
“You still haven’t told me your name.” His eyes never left my face.
He stopped breathing, waiting for me to speak. I didn’t plan to answer him and make him suffer just a little bit longer for telling me to run and hiding in the shadows, denying me what I desired. But I couldn’t stop my mouth from moving as my name spilled out of it.
“Kya,” I said in a near whisper.
Ryker’s eyes darkened and his lips twitched into a small smile.
“Kya.” He spoke my name is if it was the most precious word to cross his lips. It was as if my name was made to be spoken by him and his voice alone.
My eyes softened as I looked back up to those silver irises. We stood there, gazing at each other. I didn’t know how much time had passed because it felt as if time stopped. There was no awkwardness, no anxiety. My soul knew his and was meant tobe with him. The mating bond was gifted to us by the Gods, two halves of a single soul bridged together by the divine.
As difficult as it was, I resisted reaching out to touch him. A deep feeling of doubt washed over me as I thought of our first encounter together in that alley.
He told me to leave, to run. He didn’t want this. He didn’t wantme.
Seeming to sense the change in my emotions, he tilted his head and pulled his eyebrows together in a silent question.
