His brows shoot upward. “Putyouon my back? Nah, sorry, Carina, but I’d like to keep my paws. Given today, can’t say how Ryder would react to that.”
“Why would he care…?” But he’s already walking away, leaving my question unfinished and hanging.
So I set off into the woods, in the direction of his mother’s lake.
The moon ishigh in the sky when reaching him, following the howls to the exact location we met. The first place I ever saw him, though he didn’t realize he was being observed.
His back is to me—bare in human form—and he’s bent over with his head on his knees. It snaps up at my approach, and its black eyes shift to a familiar silver seconds before an imposing—and very naked—body walks me back the way I came.
“Did Inotsay to go the fuck home, Carina? Why are you here?”
I once read showing fear to a predator, especially a wolf, makes you the prey. It’s for that reason, even though Ryder looks like he’s seconds away from literally snapping my fingers off, I reach for him, resting my hand on the space above his heart. “For you. You need someone who isn’t looking to you as Alpha, but rather a friend.”
His jaw clicks loud enough the sound carries. Then like I’m a petulant child, he jerks his finger in the direction of the town of Banff. “Thanks, but not needed. I want you gone, Carina. I meanit. For the millionth time, go the hell home. I’ve told you why; don’t make me say it again.”
“Because you don’t want to hand me over. When it would save your father, it made sense, and now that he’s—now, it’s different.”
“Yes!” He throws his hands up in the air but never brings them back down. Instead, he tugs on his hair, pulling strands in front of his eyes. “I need you safe! You’re so fucking determined to run off and get yourself taken, to be harmed or fuckin’ worse, and I can’t be around to watch that. Iwon’t.”
“I’ll leave.”
His hands drop from his hair, relief masking the heartbreak.
“But only after sitting with you. I’m here as your friend. Nothing more.”
He growls. A full-on wolf growl that makes the silver of his eyes flash threateningly. I’m preparing for round whatever we’re up to when his head tips to the side and he walks towards me. “Believe me,kamahki, you and I arefarfrom friends.”
Ouch. Asshole.
Despite telling myself not to be this man’s prey, to be his equal, the suddenness of his movement draws my steps backwards, my heart taking off in my chest.
“You wanna stay?” His words melt around the intimidating and ominous smirk which reveals his incisors. “You wanna continue playing pack with me? Guess what,kamahki, Iamthe pack. I’m the fucking Alpha. You stay, you submit tome.”
Oh, Hecate, what have I started?I step back, and it’s tracked.
“Running from your Alpha, little witch? That’s a bad idea. Makes you a bad pack member. I’ll have to remind you of your place.”
He comes forward, and I continue backwards.
“R-Ryder, I’m only here to help.”
“No, you’re here to make my head explode. It’s all you’ve done since tripping into my life.”
We both, at the same time, look to the small span of trees beside us that I once hid in before he discovered me.
“I’m sorry,” I say, because it feels right to.
“Sorry for driving my instincts up the fucking wall? Now that Dad’s gone, they’re worse. Which is why you can’t be around me any longer.Go. Home.Before I carry you there myself.” His eyes pinch in the corners. “It’s for your own good.”
We’ve circled back around. No more threatening Alpha, back to the angry voice of no reason.
“Protecting the pack is my entire job, and since you’re so insistent on staying with us, that makesyoupart ofus. It makes you mine to protect. So, I’m ordering you, as Alpha, to go home.”
Don’t poke the bear? What about the wolf?
I’ll take my chances.
I take three steps, until I’m back at his side, and I stab my nail directly into his pec. Maybe that makes me stupider than the woodland creatures that don’t run fast enough from predators, but so be it. My point will be made.
