Page 7 of Never His Mate

His voice has dropped, gone husky as he demands, “Where do you think you’re going?”

“Let go of me, Ryker.”

“Oh, sweetheart. I don’t think so.”

I yank but, as strong as I am, Ryker is stronger.

Crap.

He tsks. “You’ll stay here, Gemma. With me. You started this. Let’s finish it.”

“No.”

“No?” His smile widens, but there’s no humor in it, only lust and an expectation that I will obey him. “You’re my mate—”

A lump lodges in my throat at his words. Because, as he says them, it just about kills me that he’s telling the truth.

Gee. I wonder what made him change his mind?

My mom always warned me that a male shifter will do anything to make me his if he ever found out I was a born alpha female. I thought Ryker would be different, but I was wrong. He already chose Trish. She told me so, and so did he. No way in hell am I gonna let him change his mind just because I’ve foolishly let them all in on my secret.

With my other hand, I slash at his forearm. Blood sprays from the gash, covering the both of us. He wasn’t expecting me to do that, and I take advantage of the way his grip goes slack to break free.

I’m off his lap and on the opposite side of his desk before he can staunch the blood flow with the edge of his shirt. Thanks to our advanced healing abilities, there won’t even be a hint of a scar come morning, but I’m secretly glad he tended to it anyway. I didn’t mean to get him so deep this time.

Not like I’ll let him know that.

I point a claw at him. “Don’t start that shit, Ryker. Not now.”

“What? The moon said—”

“Forget the moon,” I snap. “I think you’ve made it pretty clear. I’ll never be your mate.”

You think I would have succeeded in pissing him off by now. Nope. That sexy little grin from before makes another appearance.

“You will,” he says. “You are.”

I turn away from him, glaring at the rest of the council. “Never. His. Mate,” I say, making sure to enunciate each word separately so that they can’t pretend to misunderstand. He already rejected me with each of them as witness when he said that he never intended to mate me. Welp, turnabout’s fair play, right? Now I’ve rejected him, and it’s time to get the hell out of here.

I don’t look over my shoulder at him. Instead, I gauge the distance between me and the door that I thankfully left open, and pray that I’ll reach it before the rest of the wolves break out of their stunned stupor.

I make it three steps before one of the council members lunges at me. He’s a big guy, bulky, with dark hair and meaty hands so I know it’s not Shane. I side-step him easily, my claws outstretched in front of me.

I didn’t kill Ryker. That doesn’t mean that the rest of his council is safe from me.

Right now, no one is.

The air is brimming with tension. One wrong move and I’m poised to shift. As a wolf, there’s only one shifter in this room who can beat me—and the Alpha is still sitting at his desk.

The big guy misses me, but I can sense someone else sneaking up on my left. I snarl and drop down to a crouch before—I recognize him—Jace can try to get his paws on me.

Finally, Ryker gets to his feet.

“No.” His voice echoes with the command. “Let her go.”

“But, Alpha, she’s—”

She’s what?

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