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Ryker’s laugh is a bark. I’m so glad he’s enjoying this… whatever it is. “Really, Gemma? Is that any way for the female half of the Alpha couple to treat her packmates?”
“What?” I shrug, pointedly swallowing my instigating urge to remind Ryker that we’re not the Alpha couple yet. “You can’t blame me for having a bad connotation with the name.” I point at the big guy. Don’t ask me why, but something about him reminds me of that pulsing vein of Ryker’s that regularly appears when I’ve pushed him just a little too far. “Besides, Jack is too close to Jace,” I add, using that as an excuse for what I say next: “So, how about, instead of B.G., I call you Duke? Sounds kinda like Jack, just with a ‘d’ sound in the beginning instead.”
Poor guy. He shoots a wild look over to his Alpha as if he actually thinks he’ll get some help from that corner.
Ryker uncrosses his arms, holding up his paws in a “don’t get me involved” gesture.
Oh, yeah. His pack council is on their own when it comes to me even if these four already have shown me loyalty.
Then again considering what these shifters pulled the last time I was in Accalia, that’s not only fair.
It’skarma.
I might have forgiven Audrey. I’m working on dealing with my issues in regards to Trish. But these guys? As much as I regret using my howl on them, I still can’t forget how they poisoned me, pulled a hood over my head, then threw me at Ryker—all while still thinking I was an omega! Like, he could’ve torn me to shreds!
My wolf gets riled up at the reminder. She prowls around inside of my chest, leading me to rumble a soft growl of my own.
Ryker’s smile only grows. Jace swallows roughly but holds his ground. Bobby and Dorian, the younger and less dominant deltas, take a few hurried steps back while the big guy—who I’m definitely going to call Duke now—looks like he’s regretting whatever brilliant idea has them coming to see me.
He takes a deep breath, then rumbles out, “We want to be your guard.”
15
“I’m sorry.” I had to have heard that wrong. “What?”
“A personal guard,” confirms Jace. “While the Alpha is responsible for the safety and well-being of the whole pack, the four of us will keep you safe when you’re on pack territory.”
Right. Because they can’t follow me into Muncie.
Except they did once before, didn’t they? On the night of the last full moon, when Ryker was chained up in the basement and he was able to convince Roman to let Jace and Dorian watch the front and back of my apartment building.
I hadn’t argued then because I knew how hard it was for Ryker to be separated from me during the full moon. I was struggling with our forced separation pretty badly myself. Holing up in my bedroom, scarfing ice cream and giving myself orgasm after orgasm with my battery-powered boyfriend, it took everything I had to pretend that the two wolves with their shifter hearing couldn’t pick up on me moaning Ryker’s name.
But now I see that for what it was. Not just concern for my safety—though that had to be a big part of it—but Ryker was seeing how far he could push me, maybe even Roman, too, almost as if he knew eventually that these four would want to throw their loyalty behind me.
Ah, Luna. That night had been some kind of trial run, hadn’t it? For my very own personal guard.
No. No way.
Even if Ryker insists. Even if my howl did something to these guys. Don’t care.
No.
“I don’t need a guard,” I say as firmly as I possibly can. “I’m an alpha. People need to be guarded from me.”
“Well, yes—”
“And in Accalia? Are you telling me that I have something to worry about while I’m here?”
“Not that, no—”
“Exactly,” I add triumphantly. “I don’t know what makes you think that I need protection, but I promise you, I’m fine.” And please, please, please don’t let this insanity have something to do with me being a female alpha and not just Ryker’s intended. “So thanks, but no thanks.”
That should’ve been the end of it. I said no, I didn’t snarl at them, and I’m ready to go on my merry way.
Not Ryker, though.
Straightening up from his lean, he scratches the underside of his jaw. “Sweetheart.”
