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Is it me or is Ryker biting back another grin? “Good question. Only way to find out is to meet with them. Unless you’re avoiding them, that is.”
He doesn’t come out and accuse me of being a coward, but he doesn’t have to. Both of us know that I have mixed feelings about the Mountainside Pack’s den. To put it simply, the den is the place that I intruded on the night I convinced me and my wolf that Ryker rejected us. I’ve gotten past that—and I really mean that—but ever since we became bonded mates, the den presented a new issue.
I’m part of the Alpha couple now. If I’m in the den, any packmate can meet with me.
And I… I’m not so sure I’m ready for that yet.
I’ve cost Accalia so much. One packmate dead, one a betrayer, one stolen away from pack territory. There’s no denying that it’s my fault, no matter how Ryker tries to.
Even now he’s teasing me, trying to keep me from falling back into the same anger and aggression that’s been plaguing me ever since we heard the news about Trish Danvers.
Because I know what he’s doing, I resist the urge to break the clipboard over his head. Showing a great deal of restraint only because I love this idiot, I settle on sticking my tongue out at him—predictably earning a comment from my mate about what I could do with my tongue if I was willing—before I glance down at the list again.
At the top of it, I see a very familiar name.
Audrey Carter.
I swallow a sigh.
Yup. I played right into his claws, didn’t I?
* * *
I spendthe next few minutes trying to think of a million different ways to get out of this but it’s obvious that none of them are gonna work. Nothing short of using my alpha nature against them will keep the other shifters away from me, and even if I really don’t want to do this, I tell Ryker that I’m ready to tackle the list.
My mom is an Alpha’s mate. Growing up, I had a front row seat to what it was like to be part of the Alpha couple. If you asked anyone in Lakeview, they’d tell you that my dad is the Alpha so he’s the wolf in charge, but my omega mother has the most power in the pack because she holds the Alpha’s heart in her hands.
I’ve always envied their mating. It’s not a fated one, but I always thought that made it that much more special. My dad chose my mom because he looked at her and knew she was the one; though, if you hear him tell it, he figured she was the she-wolf for him when she sank her fangs in his hind legs to protect her pup. Either way, it works. Twenty-five years later and they’re as much in love today as they were the day they asked the Luna to bless their mating.
Watching them, I know what’s expected of an Alpha’s mate. After all, ever since I was fifteen, I’ve always known that I was meant to be Ryker’s—I just thought I might have a little more time.
Knowing that Ryker was not only an alpha wolf, but the next in line to be Alpha of the Mountainside Pack, I expected I would have to wait. Pack tradition says that the future Alpha doesn’t get to bond with a mate until they take over a pack or build their own, and Henry Wolfson was still the leader of Accalia.
Turns out, it only took eleven years. Ten until the Luna confirmed what both Ryker and I sensed so long ago, and another year while I hid out in Muncie, nursing my wounded pride after Ryker “rejected” me in front of his pack council. Not as long as it might have been, since his father might have been Alpha for years longer if he hadn’t died in a freak car accident, but long enough for an impatient female who was head over heels for her male.
All I wanted was Ryker. All I’ve ever wanted was to be with him. He could’ve been a delta wolf instead of an alpha and I wouldn’t have given a shit. When I looked in his dark gold gaze, my wolf recognized her mate in his.
I saw forever.
But he is an Alpha. Nothing changes that. Even when I first came to live in Accalia—when I was still playing the part of Omega Gem, the coddled princess from the Lakeview Pack—I knew that I was coming to mate the Alpha, to eventually be a part of the Alpha couple.
I guess I kinda just disregarded that when it seemed as if the Mountainside Pack didn’t want me here. Back then, Trish made it clear that I wasn’t good enough for her Alpha, and she wasn’t the only one. Shane did everything he could to land that message home, too.
Then I rejected Ryker because I felt like he rejected me and… yeah. I never thought we’d be mates.
For one of the only times in my life, I was pretty stoked to be wrong.
Reality set in a few days after the last full moon started to wane. So what if I’m an alpha in my own right? As Ryker’s bonded mate, I have an important role in the pack that, honestly, I should’ve remembered before now.
Whoops.
Looks like I’ll be getting a crash course the next morning, shortly after breakfast. Ryker got into contact with Grant, letting the council member know that I’m free to talk to his mate starting at nine a.m.
At nine on the dot, there’s a tentative knock.
“Come on in.”
The door swings inward, followed by a pretty female shifter. She’s at least a good decade older than me, though a non-shifter would never be able to tell thanks to our supernaturally slow aging. She has chin-length blonde hair, soft brown eyes, and a gentle nature about her that definitely fooled me once before.
