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Fisting my hand, I awkwardly scoot away from him. Once there are a few feet separating us, I climb up from my knees and shuffle as far away from him as I can get.
When there’s some space between us, Ryker calms just enough. He slumps against the corner again, head bowed into his chest. His panting goes from rough gasps to a gentle wheeze. If I didn’t know better, I’d say he’d passed out.
He hasn’t, but if that’s what he wants me to think, I’ll give him his moment. He didn’t ask for this. Obviously he didn’t want me down here with him. That was all his council’s brilliant idea.
Since I don’t want him to worry that I’m still staring at him, I look around the basement. It’s not overly large, maybe as big as the living room back at Aleks’s apartment. Apart from the chains screwed into the wall and its unfortunate guest, there’s nothing else down here. It’s obviously rarely used, and I can see why.
The walls are made of cinderblock, but there are deep gouges in each brick. Scratch marks, claw marks cover the place. I see smears of old blood, and though my senses aren’t what they’re supposed to be, I know it belongs to Ryker.
There are no other scents down here except for his.
I can’t help myself. I have to ask.
“Ryker?”
His head shoots up, proving that I was also right when I thought he was faking. He shifts as closely to me as he can without tugging on his chains. “Mmm?”
“How long?”
He’s finding it hard to focus on me. Or maybe he’s trying hard to resist the urge to crawl over to me.
‘Cause, yeah. I’m having a hard time leaving him by himself on the other side of the basement.
“How long for what?”
“How many times have you been chained down here?”
Because I know for damn sure that it’s not the first time. If he’s blaming the moon… there’s been a lot of moons for Ryker.
“You want the truth?”
I don’t tell him that I’ll know regardless. “I always want the truth. I thought you figured that out by now.”
“Then this is my twelfth.”
I gulp. “That’s every full moon since I left.”
“I was a shifter without his mate. I didn’t know where you were. No one could find you. I was a danger to the pack… and to anyone who stood in my way to track you down. I could control my wolf every other phase of the moon. But when it’s full, this is the only option I have.”
I know why, too. Moon fever. When the Luna is at her strength, our wolves come to the forefront. Our animalistic instincts become almost undeniable. It’s why I always get lonely during the full moon, and why I run a few days leading up to it. You get itchy, too, and pretty fucking desperate to find someone to scratch that itch.
Mates rut. It gets easier after you’re in a committed, bonded mating, but two unattached shifters working their way through the mating dance can spend the entire full moon banging away.
Two alphas with a bond? No wonder he’s chained up. I’ve heard stories about shifters who fell prey to moon fever. They’ll chase their mate across miles so they can ease their lust.
And the pack council thought it was a good idea to throw me down here with their feverish Alpha.
Well, hell. We already had sex once before. If it’ll stop his suffering, I’ll take one for the team.
“It’s not the only option.”
