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Ryder is pacing the floor now, his mind working. Every time he looks at me his eyes are full of pain and determination. He’s trying to figure out a way to fix me, save me. These people, who are apparently my siblings, are the first people who cared enough to even think about trying to fix me. It’s so beautiful it breaks my heart.
I pick at the food Rachel brought me, tapping my foot under the table. The girl Ryder called Cookie brought my shoe back in record time, and Ryder put it back on me, apologizing again. I feel a bit like Cinderella, but instead of my prince putting my shoe on, it’s my brother. Miraculously, my ankle feels as if it never was hurt.
I slip out of the booth, Rachel scooting out of the way, and I begin to pace myself. A nervous reaction, I need to move. In such a short amount of time I’ve lost my mother, discovered my father’s dead and is the creep my mother said he was, and discovered two siblings.
I stop in my tracks when I turn, my eyes landing on a man looming in the shadows. I can barely see him, but from what I can he’s as strong as an ox and a giant in the flesh.
“I thought you said the doors were locked?” I say to Ryder, not looking away from the beast of a man I can't quite see yet. I take a step back, shrinking as if I need to protect myself from him, but Ryder steps between us with a growl.
“Jax, Ruby isn’t here. They snuck off this morning.”
A sudden spike of jealousy stabs my heart. I’ve never felt jealousy, so I’m struck by the rush of emotion like a slap in the face.
“Your name is Jax?” I mutter, narrowing my eyes to try and see him in the shadows.
“Ruby…?” the man in the shadows says, almost sounding confused as he steps forward.
I swallow hard. His eyes catch my attention first, ice blue, almost white, under blonde brows and perfectly styled hair. He’s wearing a button up t-shirt that stretches over bulging muscles that seem too impossible to be true.
“No, my name isn’t Ruby.” I chuckle nervously and step around Ryder. I need to see this guy closer, I need to really see him. “My mother named me Olivia, but everyone calls me Cricket.”
“Cricket…fits you…” he says, and it’s almost like he’s choking on the words.
He steps forward suddenly, and every muscle in my body tenses, but his giant hand reaches up and tucks a strand of hair behind my ear. I shiver, reflexively covering my hand with his, and looking up into his serious face and searching for…something.
All at once, the room seems to have disappeared. All I can feel is his hand on my face, all I can smell is a cologne that clings to him like nothing I’ve ever smelled before. I have a sudden urge to reach up and grab his collar to pull him down to my level so I can smell him better.
“I’ve…never seen you here before?” he almost whispers, and I take a step closer without willing my body to do so. Heat radiates off him like a fire. His hand under mine is so large and strong that mine is like a child’s.
“I was raised in the city. I just got in today…” I bite my lip, looking away for the first time since he stepped from the shadows. I look down at my feet, and see his. He’s wearing fancy black shoes, polished to a shine, and they’re so big they dwarf mine. Everything about him dwarfs me.
“Why don’t you give her some space, ya brute?” I hear Rachel say, and before I know it she’s got her arm around my waist and she’s pulling me away from Jax.
I look over my shoulder as she directs me out of the bar. Is he…reaching for me? A fire like I’ve never felt starts to burn in my abdomen. His eyes are blazing, possessive, needy—
Just like that, the swinging doors of the bar block him from my vision. Rachel pulls me to the fence around the porch and sits me on the banister before sitting next to me.
“Who was that?” I ask, craning my neck to try and see him through the window.
“Who, him? That’s Jackson. He’s nothing but a big bully. Trust me, you ain’t missin’ a thing out here. He’s broken more of Bob’s furniture than anyone in Silver Dawn or Dark Moon combined.”
“Silver Dawn? Dark Moon?” I ask, genuinely confused, but unable to look away from the window.
“The packs, silly…” Rachel says, pulling a hair tie off her wrist with her teeth and tying her hair up in a messy bun.
“Packs? Wait, does that mean…?”
“Yup, packs, like ‘awoo’,” Rachel says, holding her hands around her mouth and mimicking a howl.
“There’s more than just us?”
“Girl, there’s a shit ton…did your mom never tell you?”
“All she told me is I was a worthless animal she should have left at a kill shelter…” I mutter.
Rage flashes in Rachel’s eyes. “That’s bullshit!” she shouts, pulling herself off the banister and staring at me. “We’re a proud, powerful species! How could she…fuck she was raised better than that…”
“I wouldn’t know anything about how she was raised.” I lower my eyes, rubbing my arms. I suddenly feel so cold, so weak. I’m more tired than I thought. When I look up again, my eyes meet Jax’s in through the window and my heart skips a beat.
