Levi looks up sharply and assesses Ryker, reading his emotions. “What’s eating you?”
Ryker lets out a sigh before he spills what’s been going on. “I went to see my father. I’ve been having…performance issues for over a week now,” he admits, and I can’t help but cringe. “Not from lack of opportunity. Every time I turn around I’m being propositioned. But no one…does it for me. They’ve all become disgusting to me. They’ve either smelled weird, they’re annoying to the point they make my skin crawl, or there’s nothing sexy about any of them. Now, I can still get the residual hit off of them if they’re in lust, but I don’t want to be a creeper and start camping outside of people’s rooms. I’m starving right now.”
I can’t help the smirk that crosses my face. “Is this why you got pissed when I mentioned you needed to get laid?”
“YES,” he grinds out between his clenched teeth. “Did you know Lilith wasn’t created as a human but the first demon, and she has mates in a harem?”
That’s an abrupt change of subject. The silence is deafening as he plays with his lip ring, but that isn’t all he has to say, apparently.
“It turns out I don’t have just any old demon genes…Lilith is my biological mother, even though she can’t have kids. I don’t know how that works, Dad just said magical science. But apparently her trait of needing a fuckingmatewas passed on to me through her ‘magical essence.’
What the hell?
We sit in silence as we let this new development soak in.
“Lil—” I stutter. Finding out about Lilith is a can of worms I don’t know if I can handle right now, so I go back to the subject at hand. “A mate?” My voice skips an octave before clearing my throat to continue. “How?”
Ryker runs his hand through his hair, bringing it up to spikes, and exhales sharply before turning towards us and throwing his hands out.
“Look, first of all, I don’t believe Dad about the mate thing. I swear something has knocked his head loose,” he admits, shaking his own. “He wasn’t himself, and I don’t agree with him and his diagnosis.” He scoffs before getting up and starting to pace. “Obviously, I can’t refute his claim about Lilith. It’s not like I was there, which brings me to another shitshow.”
Ryker stops his pacing and faces us before making eye contact with me and Levi.
“If you think that’s bad, apparently we have more in common than we originally thought.” Outstretching his hands as if keeping us back, he continues. “Before you chew my head off, I was rushed out of the room for a patient of his and he told me it was a story for another time, so I couldn’t ask for more information.”
God, I’m going to strangle Ryker if he doesn’t just drop the bomb he’s leading up to.
His agitated state is really pushing my anxiety to the edge. A howl sounds in my head, and I have to agree with my wolf. This is fucked up. Instead of jumping up and joining in the pacing back and forth, my leg starts bouncing up and down, needing to expel some of this excess energy.
“Dad said that each of you carry Lilith’s essence in some form or another. All four of us do.”
Well, I wasn’t expecting that type of bomb. Damn.
There’s a lot of things that I’ve seen and heard before, but this is the first time my jaw has hit the floor.I’m speechless.
It doesn’t surprise me how Levi just sits there with a detached look on his face. I think if Zeke was still lounging around he might just deck him again. What does surprise me is how he just carries on like Ryker didn’t just detonate our entire past with that tidbit.
“Then what do you believe? About the mate thing, obviously,” Levi inquires as he sits back with interlocked hands resting on his stomach. He looks like an over-pompous twat if you ask me. Shaking off the thought, I find Ryker blinking owlishly at Levi before shaking his head and continuing his pacing across the four foot area in front of us as he plays with his lip ring some more.
Okay, so we’re just going to bypass the fact that we all have some kind ofessencefrom Lilith in us? How the fuck did we get it? I know for a fact, Lilith isn’t my mother.I have my mother’s picture on my dresser. She’s in a pale yellow maternity dress with a visible bump sitting with my dad on a porch swing, laughing. I’m going to have to shelve this until later or at least until I can ask my dad about it when he’s in a good mood.
“There’s no way I have a mate. Maybe it’s just hormones, or stress. Hell, maybe I’m tired of getting the same old hits off of the same people I’ve grown up with, you know?”
I suppress the urge to let out a scoff and contemplate breaking the news to him. That’s how it works with shifters—we find our mate and everyone else disappears to us sexually. And Dr. Steinbeck doesn’t play around. If he told Ry that his dick doesn’t work because he has a mate…then the ass in front of me has a damn mate. Do I really want to burst his bubble? It’s pretty obvious to me, he’s in denial.
He pauses and looks up, making eye contact with both of us. Pulling his shoulders back and squaring up, a slight smirk graces his lips. “I will tell you this—there is one girl my dick has no problem wanting to say hi to.”
Ryker has always been the showboater in our group, the one that likes to draw out the suspense, one thing after another. But it's a very dangerous game given how I’m feeling right now. I wish he would just get to the damn point already. I need to go running or something to ease the tension running through my body.
“Who?” The word is barely audible through my clenched jaw.
“Rez.”
The only response from Levi is how his body slightly stiffens at the announcement, and I don’t miss the widening of his eyes as he freezes in the chair.What’s that about?Why would Levi even care? Yes, they fucked. She made that obvious at the beach, but she made it sound like it was just his way of spying on her. Sliding his hands into his pockets, Ryker gives us his familiar smirk.
“So you’re only interested in her because of your cock?” I scoff, doubtful that Ryker has good intentions for Rez. He gives me a are-you-kidding-me look, and I return it. “Hasn’t she been through enough between us, Emer, and her peeps? She doesn’t deserve to be made a game of,” I say, giving him an accusatory look.
“What? No!” He throws his hands up in the air before running one of them through his hair once again. “I decided it before Dad dropped his bomb. You haven’t been around Knox, so you don’t understand.” Bristling at his statement, I let out a growl and Ryker backtracks. “Oh stop your growling. I didn’t mean anything by it. I was just saying that you’ve missed our interactions. She’s probably my favorite person at this school next to you guys. Having people fall at my feet to get into my bed was convenient for a lot of reasons, but she’s not like that. She’s a sexually charged challenge, and even before my issues, I was intrigued enough to consider putting some effort in for her. There’s more of a connection than just physical,” he states, and his expression takes on a dreamy state. “I don’t care how many dicks come knocking, but I’m going to make sure mine is part of the sausage fest.”
