Page 87 of Never His Mate

“Do I have to be? No. Am I? You know me better than anyone else, Gemma. What do you think?”

Honestly, I think he’s fucking with me. If he honestly believes that I know him better than anyone—and he does, because I don’t scent any deception on him—then I don’t know what that says about either one of us that I kind of, sort of feel the same about him.

Maybe it’s an alpha thing. I don’t know. Most of the time, he just gets me. Like now. Like asking me what I think.

What do I think?

“I think I deserve the truth. Too many people have lied to me—”

“I never lied.”

No. He didn’t. I’m beginning to think my ability to tell when someone’s lying is an alpha thing because, no matter how hard it was to hear, Ryker never lied to me.

But he’s also very good at not telling me the complete truth.

“Alright. Prove it,” I dare him. “When did you decide that you were going to go after me? When I slipped up and everyone realized I was an alpha?”

“I covered that up,” retorts Ryker. “The council guessed, but no one else knew you were an alpha.”

At least that explains how the other packmates treated me when I went looking for Ryker. They guessed, but only Ryker and Shane knew for sure—until I went and used an alpha howl to control Jace, Dorian, Bobby, and… huh. I still don’t know the big guy’s name.

I think about asking Ryker, realize that that can wait, then say, “You didn’t answer my question. When did you decide I had to be your mate?”

“I didn’t answer you because I thought you already knew.” After a moment where I stay quiet, he shrugs. “Same as you. When I fully accepted that you were my fated mate.”

My heart drops.

That didn’t work the way I expected it to, did it?

Source: www.allfreenovel.com