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One upsideto pulling two doubles back to back? Charlie doesn’t mind when I call him up and ask if I can cut out a couple of hours early.
There’s coverage. Our schedule isn’t set in stone, either, so as long as I don’t leave Tony and Hailey and Sherm short-handed, Charlie gives me the okay to cash out and go. And if Hailey suspects that my “generous” gift has anything to do with my early night, my human friend is too busy wondering when she’ll see Dominic Le Croix again to say anything when I tell her that I’m done for the night.
I made it until eight before I couldn’t take it any longer. From Hailey, I know that Jimmy was given the envelope last week; coincidentally, it was the day Ryker left for the Alpha gathering, and if it had gotten to me earlier, I would’ve spent the whole time he was gone freaking out alone.
A week is too long to even think about tracking down the chick with black hair. Apart from the basic description Jimmy gave to Hailey, I have no way to know who else is involved or how to find her. Wicked Wolf Walker is a no-brainer, but at least I can be reasonably sure that my sperm donor didn’t march into Muncie to drop off a ruby in order to screw with me.
Oh, no. That’s not his style. But relying on someone weaker to pass the message along? Even if they’re human? That totally is, especially since Muncie is so well protected, it would probably take a human to cross into the city and deliver that damn envelope before Roman’s patrol would let another wolf in.
Even so, my first instinct is to go searching for the mysterious black-haired woman. It’s impossible, I know that, but my second instinct scares me so badly that I almost want to hunt Muncie for a ghost rather than give in to that other urge.
I don’t, though. Instead, I reach into my back pocket and, my heart rate quickening, I take out my phone.
Under contacts, I have all of seven names. Three co-workers, Charlie, Aleks, my mom, and—
“Hello?”
At the rich, gravelly, familiar voice, I shudder out a breath. It scared the shit out of me that, with the ruby shoved in my front pocket, the one person I wanted to talk to most was Ryker. Not because he’s an alpha. Not because I want him to protect me. But because I just wantedhim.
“Hey. It’s me.”
“Gemma? What’s wrong?”
Because something has to be wrong, right? Otherwise, I wouldn’t actually be calling him.
Shifters don’t really use phones. Ryker is no exception. As the Alpha of his pack, if someone wants to get in touch with him, they can arrange to talk with him in his office of a den inside of the Alpha’s cabin. Outside shifters? They have to request permission to meet with him, and tradition dictates that it be done in person to show the appropriate levels of respect.
However, when he first started to seriously pursue me two months ago, he realized that I had a phone to keep in touch with my new human friends—and Aleks. Hell if he wasn’t going to make it easy for me to reach out to him when he was in Accalia and I was in Muncie.
Of course, he’d rather I visit him up on the mountains. Since that’s not happening anytime soon, he makes time to run down and see me. Calling on the phone is a last resort for him.
Me, too, I guess.
His surprise that I’m actually contacting him has my whole body tensing up. I don’t know what that says about our… whatever we have. Relationship? I’ll go with relationship. Because calling us ‘fuck buddies’ is just wrong in so many respects.
It’s my fault. I know it is. Whether I can bring myself to believe him or not, Ryker has made it clear that he’s ready to be my bonded mate the moment I’ll accept him. I’m the one who can’t bring herself to take that plunge.
If physically mating is all we do, that’s because I’ve made it that way by putting off actuallybecominghis mate.
I almost lie. I know from experience that my innate lie-detecting ability relies on my nose and I figure it’s the same for Ryker. Over the phone, he’d never know I was lying—but I can’t do it. I called him for a reason, and though I’m not really sure what that reason is, I find myself telling him all about the envelope.
It doesn’t matter that the ruby is seemingly meaningless to him. I tell him that—to me—it’s proof that the Wicked Wolf knows exactly where I am and how to get something to me, and that’s all he needs to hear.
“I’m coming back. I’m leaving Accalia right now.”
“What? No. It’s fine. I’m… I’m okay. He dropped the envelope off a week ago—”
“Right,” Ryker points out. “When I was in the middle of bumfuck nowhere with the other Alphas. He wanted you to be spooked when I wasn’t around. Don’t tell me that wasn’t on purpose.”
I can’t. I already figured out the same thing, but that doesn’t mean I need Ryker dropping whatever he was doing to, I don’t know, hold my hand or something. I’m a big girl. Iwasspooked, but now I’m aware that my psycho sperm donor has eyes on me. He can use a human to get close to my job. I’ll be more vigilant now that I know.
“Ryker. It’s okay. I promise. I didn’t call because I want you to protect me—”
“You’re my mate.” His snarl is so loud, I have to pull the phone away from my ear. “Like hell I don’t. It’s my job to protect you.”
I know Ryker. Telling him that I’m not his mate—not officially—will bring that bulging vein of his out. Telling him that I’m a freaking alpha in my own right and he’s wasting his time trying to stand in front of me might just make poor Duke explode.
