With a quickly suppressed yawn,El sank back into the chaise on the dais and tried not to look as bored and as tired as she felt.
Ryan, at her side, must have noticed because he murmured, “Did I tire you out, baby?”
She grinned at his satisfied tone.“Maybe.”
“Way to stroke my ego,” he retorted, a very masculine and very definite pout on his lips.
Patting his knee, she mocked, “There, there.”
He chuckled, shook his head.She watched as he cast a gaze over the proceedings and wondered what it was he saw.
In a way, Ryan reminded her of her granddaddy.He’d always been watching from a distance.Never really integrating.Always staying out of things so he could look at the bigger picture and stay fresh.
She’d learned chess from her grandfather.He’d played at what she’d always believed to be Grandmaster level, but he’d always shrugged that off.Said the level didn’t matter, only the way in which he checkmated her.
She could still remember their last chess game.It had happened three days before he died.He’d had a stroke, and suddenly, the center of her world had fallen out from under her.
Those had been some of the toughest days of her young life.Of course, with every passing year, something happened that came in competition with the misery of that time.The year she’d been kidnapped and held for ransom.A few days ago, watching Jamie killed before her eyes.
She often wondered why she couldn’t have a quiet life.Why things had to be so complicated, but the truth was, even as she could grumble at her own heritage, she could sense Ryan fought with his own too.
“You don’t want to be leader, do you?”
He stilled at the question, which she guessed was kind of out there.By no way had he displayed anything that would indicate he wasn’t happy being a leader, but she got the feeling that the Pride was supposed to be a little more… sociable.Yet here he was, and she his new mate, on a dais, separated from the rest.
Plus, he’d barely integrated with anyone from the Pride as far as she could tell since her arrival here.Not that she could judge.She’d spent most of her time in the lodge.But Ryan was the leader.He only seemed to speak with Marc and Trip, and then his PA, Adam, who called a lot.
“Why do you ask that?”he questioned, turning to her with an inquisitive look on his face.
“Because you’re very aloof with your power.It’s like you don’t mind watching but don’t want to get involved.”
He tapped her gently on the nose with his pointer finger.“You’ve got that exactly right.”
“Why?”
He shrugged.
“Do you want to be leader, just prefer to be unsociable?”
“Not particularly.But I don’t have a choice.”
“Everyone has a choice,” she argued.
“No.I don’t.You know the gold links?Very few, if any can do that per generation.It’s so rare that some states don’t even have a governor, as you call me.They have to share with another state’s.”
“Seriously?”
“Yeah.”
“How did you get to be leader if it wasn’t something you wanted?”
“When I was younger, everyone knew I was strong.It was in my heritage too.My mom is crazy strong, and she’s from a Shifter female family too, so that makes our lineage potent.I wasn’t a threat until I met Trip and Marc.When I became part of a Triad, I was—we can’t rule without a Triad in place.”
“Why?”
“They pick up the slack where the leader lacks.”
“Wow, that’s unfair.”
