Page 35 of Never His Mate

Not. Gonna. Happen.

Leaving the flowers where they are, I grab the plate and march back out into the hall. I plan on bringing it to the kitchen and unceremoniously dumping it in the trash. However, as soon as I leave my room, my senses start to ping and, before I think better of it, I let them guide me to my living room.

No. Not the living room.

The balcony.

Peering through the glass door that separates the balcony and the apartment, I see Ryker out there, back against the railing of the fire escape. He arms are folded behind him, perched on the top bar of the railing. His bare feet are crossed in front of him.

Oh, boy. No shoes. When a shifter takes off his shoes, it’s a sure sign that he’s preparing to shift. Clothes are pretty easy to replace if you go wolf before stripping down, but a good pair of boots is a waste if you can’t kick them off in time.

I should pretend I don’t see him. I should just chuck the pizza and go back to my room. I’m almost a hundred percent sure he wasn’t out there a few minutes ago, but now that he’s back? He’s looking for my reaction. He wants to see how I accept his ‘gifts’.

That seals it for me. He wants to see?

Sure thing.

I throw open the door and step out onto the balcony.

You’d think that, after spending the last few minutes with Ryker’s scent whirling around me inside my enclosed apartment, I would be able to handle being next to him. That would be a nope. The second I get within his space, his scent goes straight to my head.

Luna, he smells so, so good. It’s not fair.

A tiny, secretive smile tugs on his lush lips, as if he knows exactly what I’m thinking. Then, with a nod at the plate I’m still holding, he says, “Hungry?”

There’s a hint of an arrogant tease in the one word that pulls me toward the surface. I might’ve been drowning in the Alpha’s presence, but the way he seems so sure that I’m going to accept any kind of food from him reminds me what I was going to do with this pizza.

I give Ryker a steely look and, with a quick flick of my wrist, send the paper plate and the pizza flying off the balcony, like it’s some kind of delicious frisbee.

Ryker watches it fly, then shrugs his shoulders. “And here I thought you were a fan of sausage. Maybe next time I’ll bring the pepperoni.”

“Don’t bother,” I tell him. Then, because I have to know, I demand, “What are you doing here? I thought you’d still be back at the club.”

That’s a lie. I know he already left, but if I say what I really suspected—that I’d been worried he’d left the club with a bombshell vamp or two on his arm—then he’d just turn around and accuse me of being jealous over him.

And, Luna damn it, he’d be right.

Can he tell that I’m full of shit?

Maybe, considering he snorts and says, “Yeah right. We both know the reason why I was watching you dance with your bloodsucker boyfriend, and it wasn’t to pick up a date of my own. Once I sensed you getting ready to go, I was out of there.”

“Okay,” I say, trying to ignore the way my wolf perks up at his admission—or how she snorts herself when she hears Ryker call Aleks my ‘bloodsucker boyfriend’. “But you shouldn’t be here. I already told you, Ryker. This is my territory. Go back to yours. Go back to Accalia.”

“Oh, I plan on it.” Ryker uncrosses his legs and widens his stance, spreading his arms out along the railing. Getting cozy, is he? “Not without you.”

“Why?” I still don’t have the answer to that question that’s been haunting me since he first showed up. “You forgot about me for a year. Then, out of nowhere, you’re here and you think I’m just going to go along with your courtship bullshit.”

Because that’s what this is. The claiming, the showing of his dominance as he fought Aleks, the way he marked the bar, then brought food to my freaking bedroom. These are all shifter rituals that take place during the mating dance—and they’re all a year too late.

And it’s not like I expected Ryker to do all of this stuff last year. I didn’t. I went along with the arranged mating because I knew that he was my fated mate. When the moon said I was his intended mate, Ryker accepted it, too, until the moment he didn’t. Why would he have to work for such a sure thing? The courtship rituals were for shifters who were trying to convince their mates to accept them. Ryker didn’t have to convince me of anything.

Of course, that was last year. And, no matter what he says, I’m not his mate. Not anymore.

The fact that he’s trying to involve me in his one-sided mating dance is proof enough that he knows that. But it’s not going to stop this determined alpha from trying.

Why? I just don’t get it. Why now? The now is what counts. The why he wants me is pretty obvious. Hello, female alpha here. But now? He could’ve come after me a year ago. Why now?

“A year,” I say again, hammering home the point. “What? Did you forget about me?”

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