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So, rather than bring up Aleks, I just say, “I appreciate it, but if any vamp in Muncie sees this, it won’t do the same thing that a vamp fang does. The gold will give it away.”
Because vamps mark their mates—and prospective mates—with a pure fang, snapped right from their gums. They can do that since their regenerative properties regrow their fangs. I’m not sure if it’ll work the same way for a shifter, but I guess Ryker didn’t want to find out.
Or he wanted it to be gold on purpose. So that itcan’tpass as a vamp fang.
Yeah. I’m going with the second option, especially when Ryker says, almost off-handedly, “I still want you to wear it for me. But if you don’t think it’ll help keep you safe in the Fang City, maybe it’s time you give it up.”
“The necklace?”
“No, Gemma. Muncie.”
And… there it is. I’m actually surprised it took this long into our time together tonight for him to bring it up.
I pull myself into a sitting position. Now that the conversation has taken this turn, I’m pretty sure more sex is off the table.
Gee, I wonder why? I guess something about Ryker trying to push up against my personal boundariesagainjust totally rips me out of the mood.
Even though I know what he’s going to say, I play my role to perfection; I guess, in some ways, I’m still an actress at heart. “Gee, Ryker. If I can’t live in Muncie anymore, wherever will I go?”
He knows I’m being disingenuous on purpose, but he’s determined and he’s opened up this can of worms and Luna knows that nothing is going to stop him from trying to get his way.
“You can come with me.” He moves around to my side of the bed, leaning down to cup my face in his hands. “Come home.”
But that’s the problem. Accalia isn’t my home. Pack territory isn’t my home. Right now, Muncie is.
I haven’t been back to the mountains in six weeks—and for good reason, too. I still have nightmares involving the black hoods Ryker’s packmates wore the night they poisoned me with mercury and threw me to the mercy of a chained, feral alpha wolf.
I’ve never told him the precise details of what happened during that full moon. He knows in general what went down: how I followed our bond to the Alpha cabin, met Audrey, she put mercury in my Coke, then Ryker’s pack council presented me to him because they believed that, as his intended mate—hisfatedmate—I should just bond with him already.
It’s the little things I kept secret. The hoods, for one. How terrified I was when the mercury kicked in and I was cut off from my wolf. How, as an alpha, I was used to being in charge, and his packmates made me feel weak.
Ihatethat they made me weak.
My wolf wants revenge. Going back there won’t be good for anyone until I can forgive the Mountainside Pack for what they did to me otherwise my wolf will push me to after it.
Not poor Audrey, though. Of them all, I’ve forgiven her, even if she was the one who gave me the doctored drink. All she had wanted was for her pack to have its Alpha couple, and I can understand that. I don’t have to like it, but I can understand it.
But her brother is Shane Loup, the former Beta who betrayed the whole pack. Instead of siding with him after his betrayal came to light, she stayed behind, proving her loyalty to her Alpha while she cut ties with her traitorous brother. For that alone, I can forgive her.
I still want to smack her mate, Grant, though.
And Ryker really thinks I’ll be happy up on the mountains? No job? No friends? No independence? Just the status of Ryker’s mate?
Maybe that’s what other shifters want out of life. Maybe that’s whatIwanted when I was still pretending to be Omega Gem. But not now. Not now that I know better.
I shake him off. He lets me, stepping back as I climb out of the bed. His gaze dips, running over my naked body before his eyes land on his necklace again, but I don’t care.
He laid down with an alpha wolf. Now he’s about to go nose to nose with one.
Once I’ve put a few feet between us, I perch my hands on my hips, giving him one hell of a daring look.
“Speaking of the pack,” I say, purposely changing the subject, “have you found a new Beta yet?”
Ryker’s eyes snap to mine. His nostrils flare, his jaw going tight.
And, oof. I regret asking that almost immediately.
Impulsive Gem strikes again.
