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A request and a ‘thanks’? “You sure you’re okay?”
Ryker sets his jaw. His fingers are folded into a fist in his lap, almost like he’s fighting the urge to grab for his bar again. “Will be fine once we get up to Accalia.”
“I’m a good driver, you know,” I say. The traffic has thinned out a little now that we’ve left downtown Muncie behind. The urban sprawl has become more rural as we hit the dirt roads that mark the separation between the Fang City and pack territory. “Made it all the way from Lakeview to Mountainside in one piece.”
“It’s not that.”
“Then what is it?”
Ryker shrugs, slinking against his seat. I can see him flexing his right hand, like he wants to grab for the bar again but doesn’t want to give me the satisfaction of calling him out on it.
Ah, Luna.
It’s one thing to tease him. To poke him. To needle him. You’re supposed to be able to tease the male you love, right? But as hotheaded and reckless and impulsive as I can be, I don’t ever want to be knowingly cruel. If something is bothering Ryker, I have to be considerate. Poking fun at him? That’s not considerate.
As the Alpha, he seems untouchable. Unflappable, too. The only time I’ve ever seen emotion rule him is when he’s horny or angry.
Uncomfortable is a new one for him—and for me.
So, gentling my voice as I turn up the mountain path as slowly as I can without offending him, I ask, “Would you rather drive?”
Alphas like control. It’s just part of who we are. In fact, it’s why I own my car in the first place. Like any full-blooded shifter, I’d rather run if given the choice, but sometimes I don’t get that choice. Knowing that I have another mode of transportation, a way to escape… that’s how I hold onto my control.
I figure that I’ve hit the nail on the head when Ryker looks at the wheel again with a slightly wistful expression—but then he shakes his head. “Better not.”
“You sure?”
“Yeah. I… I don’t know how. I usually rely on my wolf to get me around, so I guess I just never bothered learning how to drive a car. My dad knew, and when I became Alpha, I rarely had to leave Accalia.”
For a few seconds, I’m quiet, letting his confession wash over me. It doesn’t matter that he can’t drive. Especially in such an urban city, I know tons of people in Muncie who don’t, and it was the same back in Lakeview. Like Mountainside, we had communal vehicles kept in the pack garage. Every packmate could borrow one if they need to. I only had my own because my dad figured that, as a repressed alpha, it would make life easier for me.
But that’s me. Ryker never had to hide what he was. He grew up the only son of the Mountainside Pack’s Alpha, and when Henry Wolfson died suddenly two Decembers ago, he always knew he’d follow him into the position. Ryker is beloved in Accalia. No one would dare to challenge him.
Not even his former Beta.
Because while Shane is desperate to become an Alpha, even he knew better than to face him head-on. Nope. He was a slimy, sneaky, two-faced bastard who acted like his loyal friend and right-hand wolf while secretly plotting against Ryker.
Ugh. I really hate that guy, and apart from all of the other reasons why I’m looking forward to performing the Luna Ceremony with Ryker, knowing that I’m taking away his only option by bonding myself to his former Alpha tomorrow night is just the right amount of poetic justice. When he finds out—because I have no illusions that he won’t sooner or later—he’s gonna freak.
Heh.
Good.
“You know,” I say after a moment. “I’ll teach you. I mean, if you want me to. If you’re going to be coming to see me in Muncie, it might be helpful to know how.”
I wait to see if he’s going to shut me down. Though Ryker is seemingly on board with the whole “Gem stays in Muncie” plan right now, I’d be a dingus to believe he’s not going to try to do anything in his power to convince me to relocate entirely to Accalia.
But he doesn’t.
He actually smiles—a real smile, not a smug smirk—before he says, “I’d like that.”
I shouldn’t be so surprised. Ever since I said yes, he’s been a lot more agreeable.
I really, really like that.
I return his smile. “It’s a date.”
Ryker’s husky laugh warms me all the way to my toes. “I’m gonna be bonding you to me tomorrow night beneath the Luna and here you are, still planning dates like it’s the beginning of our courtship. Shit. I got this whole mating thing backward, didn’t I?”
