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“What?” I snap. “If you’ve got something to say, spit it out. Look, I fucked up by even mentioning that. I didn’t mean it. I’m just—” A harsh exhale. “I don’t know what I am. Sorry. Maybe this was a mistake.”
Maybe the whole night was a mistake.
I start to storm away from Aleks. I’ve made it about four steps before I feel the chill of his palm pressed to my forearm as he latches onto me.
Out of the corner of my eye, I see Ryker suddenly get to his feet.
I shake Aleks off. “What?”
“Roman has allowed him to court you.”
At that moment, I forget all about Ryker. Ironic, since I know that’s exactly who Aleks is talking about, but if Ryker doesn’t think I can handle Aleks, then he really doesn’t know me at all.
“What did you say?”
“That’s what Gretchen was referring to before. It’s why he’s still in Muncie. Why he’s allowed at Mea Culpa. Roman approved it.”
Okay. Maybe I’m being an idiot, but I don’t get it.
“Approved what?”
“He claims you’re his mate. I don’t know how he convinced Roman, but he did. He asked for permission to court you inside of Muncie when it became clear that you consider this your home.”
Supes—whether they’re shifters or vamps—respect the mate bond. Like my kind, vampires have their own mates. Some fated, some chosen, but it’s for life, just like a shifter’s bond. If Ryker showed proof that I was his intended, that would’ve been enough for the Cadre to back off. And, like it or not, there was an arrangement made between my dad’s pack and Ryker’s.
That’s not even getting into the fact that he’s also my fated mate...
But he asked? I find that so hard to believe. After all, he is an alpha. The Alpha. They don’t ask.
At least that explains why Aleks didn’t look surprised at all before.
“You knew this?”
Aleks nods. “Roman informed me this morning when he warned me not to get involved in a shifter’s mating. I wasn’t punished for my role in yesterday’s… mm… altercation, but only because I could plead ignorance. He won’t believe that a second time.”
And, yet, if I hadn’t dragged him onto the dance floor earlier, Aleks would’ve gone after Ryker as soon as he walked into Mea Culpa.
Hang on—
“Why would you be punished? Ryker attacked you.”
“And he did so because he believes you’re his mate and I interfered. Unless you renounce him and choose another mate, he’s at no fault.” The look Aleks gives me is so searching, I feel like he can see right through me. “Will you do that, Gem? Or do you like the fact that he’s finally chasing after you?”
I gasp. My hand flies toward Aleks’s face on its own, and it’s just pure reflex that has me retracting my claws before I slap him.
My chest is heaving. My wolf is up and pacing, desperate to be set free as the alpha side of me overwhelms the human I’ve been pretending to be. Aleks knows what I really am, and he knows how I feel about Ryker, and no matter how thoughtless my comment was, he just took it way too far.
I’m a female alpha. Being a bitch is part of the job description. But Aleks? He’s always such an aristocratic, gentile, mature male that I guess I never expected him to go for the low blow like that.
He’s already trying to make his apologies but I’m just not willing to hear him out. Maybe later. Maybe tomorrow. But now?
No fucking way.
After warning him not to follow me, and knowing from the shamed expression beneath the imprint of my hand still on his cheek that he won’t argue, I make my escape.
It isn’t until I make it to the club’s exit that I realize something: I don’t remember seeing Ryker in my rear view as I booked it across the dance floor.
It shouldn’t matter.
