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17
Shane stops me when we get to the middle of the stairs. He gestures for me to wait, then disappears out onto the next floor of the cabin. I take a deep breath, stubbornly trying to filter out any other scents from the basement. No surprise now that I know this is his place and I’m more attuned to him than I want to admit, but it’s still pure Ryker.
Even if I couldn’t rely on my gut to tell me that he was being truthful, I’d know from the layers upon layers that permeate this place that he’s spent a year’s worth of full moons chained up in the basement. Those chains… they’re not new. The wild scratches that cover the walls… yeah.
It’s true. It’s all true.
Too bad I’m not sure what that means.
Shane comes back after a few minutes. Pressing his forefinger to his lips, he warns me to be quiet before gesturing for me to follow him out of the basement.
He keeps going once we’ve entered the main floor, but I pause.
I can’t help it. Apart from the night I barged into his den at the Alpha’s Cabin, I’ve never been inside of Ryker’s personal territory unless you count his rented room and I don’t. I can feel him in this space, almost as if his fingertips are caressing my overheated skin instead of just the way he imprinted so totally on the room.
Though Shane kept the lights off, after the gloom of the basement, my sight’s recovered enough that I can pick out some of the details from the shadows. I see a leather couch, and a coffee table carved from sturdy wood; no glass like Aleks’s fragile furniture. He has a fireplace, too, and an empty mantleplace trapping it in its grate.
The mantle is empty, but the wall right above it? It’s covered in at least ten different photos, all different sizes, each one rimmed in a dark frame. Squinting, annoyed that my sight’s still a little wonky thanks to the mercury, I try to get a peek at the subjects of the pictures. I recognize Ryker’s dad, the former Alpha who passed at the end of last year. The striking woman with the dark hair’s gotta be his mom; she’s in more than a few of the pictures. Ryker as a pup… fucking adorable. No other females, I can’t help but notice.
That’s not all I notice, either.
There are two missing. I might have thought it was just a stylistic choice, the way that Ryker hung the frames haphazardly over the mantle, if it weren’t for the nails still jutting from the wall. Who removes the pictures and their frames but leaves the nails and the empty gaps?
Weird.
I find myself drawing closer to the wall of photos. It’s Ryker’s family, and I even see a candid shot of Ryker and Shane that looks pretty recent based on the hairstyles. All people who mean something to him, I’m guessing… so who was in the pictures that he took down?
My stomach tightens. Could it be—
“Gem?”
At Shane’s call of my name, I give my head a clearing shake.
What the hell is wrong with me? I’m supposed to be sneaking out to make the pull of the moon easier on Ryker, not spying on the guy.
There will be time to obsess over the missing photos later. When Ryker’s not suffering from Luna fever, and I’m not sweating out mercury. I still can’t shift. Though I can sense my wolf stirring deep in my chest, the mercury has left her feeling heavy and drowsy and detached. I can’t tap into her, not yet, but knowing she’s still with me is a bit of a relief.
Soon, girl. Soon.
“Coming!”
* * *
Shane dida perimeter check before he told me it was clear. It seems as if the rest of the pack was either too preoccupied with the full moon to run a patrol, or they respected their Alpha too much to set a babysitter on him. Either way, Shane had no problem letting himself inside of Ryker’s cabin or waltzing right outside of it with me in tow.
I have no idea where he plans to take me, and I’m not so sure I really care. My head’s still spinning over everything that has happened to me since I decided to follow the moon’s lead and go searching for Ryker.
Shane’s thoughts seem to be on the same track as mine. Though he’s quiet as we jog away from the cabin, heading toward the patch of woods that’ll eventually lead me back to my Jeep, I figure he’s gotta be thinking the same things as me because he opens up the conversation with a sigh before saying, “I’m sorry, Gem. For what my packmates did, and for my Alpha’s lack of control. None of that should’ve ever happened.”
I’m not even going to argue that one.
Still—
“Don’t worry about it. It’s not your fault.”
“I’m the Beta. If it’s not my fault, whose is it?”
“We can start with the ones who thought it was a good idea to slip me some mercury and throw me into the basement with Ryker.”
