Page 23 of Never His Mate

I don’t know why. I don’t know how. But there’s one thing I do know: that when Ryker just claimed me in front of Aleks, in front of the whole of Charlie’s, when he said my mate like that… he fucking meant it.

He barrels into Aleks, swiping with his claws from gut to shoulder. Between the force of his hit and his perfectly aimed strike, Ryker knocks Aleks to the floor. Straddling the stunned vampire, he keeps him down while he goes to town with his claws.

It’s a show of dominance, and not a single soul steps in to stop it.

My wolf doesn’t want me to interfere, either. A mate should be strong enough to protect what he considers his, and watching Ryker slice Aleks open so single-mindedly is intoxicating to my other half. It proves that we were right to think of Ryker as a match for us, that the moon picked the best mate to bond us to.

Only that’s my friend he’s attacking, and despite my instincts warning me not to get involved until it’s over, I can’t. I just can’t stand by and let this happen.

“Ryker.” I lace my voice with as much of a command as I can manage. Sure, I’m probably blowing up my spot if the supes pick up on my hidden alpha nature, but I have to. For Aleks. “Stop this. Now.”

He immediately jerks his head over his shoulder, searching for me. “For my mate, I will.”

That’s all he says before he climbs up off of Aleks, wiping his bloody claws on his pants before using the back of his hand to swipe at the spray of blood covering his cheek.

I know he’s not dead, but that’s a small mercy when I see the mess that Ryker has made of my roommate.

“Aleks.” I race over to him just as his eyes blink open. A sigh of relief escapes me as I help him into a sitting position. “Are you okay?”

He mumbles something in Polish.

That’s not a good sign. “What?”

“I said, Roman’s not going to be happy about this.”

Probably not. The head of Muncie’s Cadre is really big on secrecy, and Ryker just turned Aleks’s chest into so much ground beef. I mean, that’s what it looks like. Chunks of pulverized meat with blood everywhere.

“It’ll be fine,” I mutter. If anything, any unaware humans who made the mistake of an evening drink at Charlie’s will just finally figure out why the fang-friendly bar is so different than some of the others in Muncie. We usually have more supes in here this time of day anyway, so it shouldn’t be too bad.

And if it is? I’ll worry about that later. Right now I have to take care of Aleks.

Charlie’s got a bona fide blood bank in the back. It might cost me my next couple of paychecks, but I’m gonna make sure that Aleks recovers enough so that he can go out and find a fresh donor himself. A couple of blood bags will seal him up tight.

After that, I’ll take care of Ryker. The time for pretending that he’s not here for some reason is past. He proved that by the way he went after Aleks like that. He’s a threat to me, too, and I have to handle it.

I use my shifter strength to bring Aleks to his feet, looping his arm around my shoulder to keep him there. Then, as I help him toward the backroom where we keep the blood, I point at Ryker. “You. Stay.”

“I’m not your dog,” he snarls.

“Yeah? Well, I’m not your mate,” I shoot back. “The sooner you get that through your thick skull, the better we’ll both be.”

Ryker shows me his canines. “Yeah?”

“Yeah.”

His eyes go from dark gold to molten lava. “Have it your way, Gemma. We’ll see about that.”

And, though I told him to stay, he walks out of Charlie, secure in the knowledge that—despite being covered in Aleks’s blood—no one will try to keep him from leaving.

Not even me.

Because I recognized that look in his eyes. Ryker’s wolf was in charge just then, but he wasn’t looking at me with anger.

That was need.

Desire.

Lust.

And I’m in trouble.

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