“Give that back!” I demanded. That ring had not only been a gift from Cali, but it allowed me to communicate with both Cali and Samara via shadows.
He was cutting me off from my best friends.
“No.” Cade gave me a humorless smile. “We all have our roles to play. You need to accept yours. Bastian and Ryker will show you to your room. Warrick, with me.”
He turned and strode out, having to duck to pass through the door because this secret Fae room had not been built for six-and-a-half-foot-tall bear shifters. Ursanthropes only came in two sizes: large and extra-large. Cade was the latter.
“Feel free to throw her off the third floor.” Warrick gave me one last hateful look before silently stalking after Cade.
There was only one person I knew who hated me with the same intensity that Warrick did, but that person at least had a reason to. It was a stupid reason, but a reason all the same.
Warrick acted like I had a choice in being here. Like I hadn’t spent the last three years trying to find a loophole in the agreement. Cade and Bastian had blocked my every attempt, making it clear I was joining their pack whether I wanted to or not.
There was no way Warrick didn’t know this, so I didn’t understand why he despised me the way he did, but the feeling was mutual.
“Come along, my darling Rynn.” Bastian raised his hand, curling his fingers in a beckoning motion from where he leaned against the doorframe.
“Don’t call me that,” I said evenly and started for the door that would lead me to the stairs. “And I know where my room is, so the two of you can fuck off.”
Ryker stepped in front of me. In the dimly lit room, his normally light blue eyes were darker, as was his silver hair. “You have a new room.”
“Do I?” I let a little growl slip into my words.
“You’re next to me now, Princess.” He grinned, and the next thing I knew, the world lurched as he tossed me over his shoulder.
“Damn it, Ryker!” I screamed. “Put me down!”
“Not a chance.” He let out a raspy laugh and clamped his arm across the back of my thighs. I tried to get free, but there was zero give to his hold. He started jogging up the stairs, and I grunted when his shoulder jutted into my stomach. I shoved against his back with my hands so I could at least take some of the pressure off, which meant I was looking directly at Bastian, who was following after us with a purely feline smirk on his face.
“Your new room is on the third floor. We’ll help you get settled.”
I rolled my eyes. “Concerned Warrick is going to slit my throat while I sleep? He’s welcome to try it.” I was a light sleeper, but I suspected if Warrick truly wanted to kill me, there wouldn’t have been much I could do about it. The only thing keeping me alive was that Cade didn’t want me dead, and I was mostly certain Warrick wouldn’t disobey Cade that directly.
The room I’d been staying in previously, before I’d run away, had been on the second floor, and I’d had the entire wing to myself. It’d been nice being able to pretend the other Alphas weren’t around.
“We’re going to do things a little differently going forward,” Bastian said evenly, as if he were reading my mind. He couldn’t actually do that, but all ailuranthropes had a knack for intuition, and Bastian was particularly gifted. Lying around him would be difficult.
“How so?” I adjusted my position on Ryker as much as I could as he slowed down at the top of the third floor stairs and started down the hallway. His fingers dug into my leg when I continued to squirm, hard enough to hurt a little, and I squeezed my thighs together as heat flushed through me.
It’s just an involuntary reaction because you enjoy a little bit of rough handling and haven’t gotten laid in almost two years, I told myself.
Unfortunately, Ryker chose that moment to take a deep breath, and I felt his entire body stiffen even as he continued down the hallway. Bastian’s smile widened. “Perhaps you’d like to make some changes too now that you’re back. Or are you sticking with your, ‘Not even if you were the last Velesians in all of Lunaria’ declaration?”
A few days before I’d run off, I might have had a little too much honey ale that might have led to me yelling at the top of my lungs that I would never fuck any of them. I didn’t remember exactly what I’d said, but Bastian probably had it memorized.
I glared at him. “Nothing has changed.”
Bastian shrugged like it didn’t bother him one way or the other. I imagined slamming his too perfect face into the wall several times and smiled brightly back at him.
Ryker turned a corner, and we passed two doors before stopping at the end of the hallway. The air was thick with the scents of both Ryker and Bastian, so I assumed the first two doors had been their rooms. That meant every single day, I’d have to deal with walking through a cloud of their rich scents.
Fantastic.
“This one is yours.” Ryker set me on my feet and leaned forward so his chest almost brushed mine as he opened the door.
I immediately stepped away from him into the room, but before I could shut the door, he and Bastian followed me in. Because of course they did.
A familiar cloak hung on a hook next to the door. They’d moved my things from my old room. Couldn’t decide if I was annoyed they’d touched my stuff or happy I didn’t have to do it myself. I settled on both because I was good at multitasking.
