Chapter 5
Chapter Five
Bastian
Rynn would be in a bad mood. I contemplated how to proceed as I quickly walked down the hallway towards the opposite side of the stronghold.
Ryker had tracked her down, which had certainly only enraged her further, not only because he’d invaded her space, but because he’d acted the same way he always did around her.
Possessive and demanding.
I chuckled to myself. It wasn’t that Ryker was bad at detecting the emotions of others. He was actually phenomenal at it. The problem was how he responded to those emotions.
When he’d found Rynn, I was fairly confident the first words out of his mouth had been, “You’re mad at me. Why?”
To which Rynn probably would have responded, “Get fucked.”
That would have resulted in the two of them trying to kill each other, or maybe more accurately, severely injure the other into submission.
Rynn had been denied her space, which meant she would desperately be seeking it now. She’d head straight to her room and lock Ryker out. I needed to get there first.
If Ryker truly wanted to, he could break down the door, but we’d put some rules in place when he’d come to live with us, and one of them was not breaking through doors unless it was an absolute emergency.
We’d enacted that after we’d gotten tired of waking up to a teenage Ryker breaking into our rooms to make sure we were okay. Seeing your entire pack get slaughtered could leave you a little paranoid.
That was over ten years ago, and he was less concerned about us randomly dying now, but that rule was still etched in his mind.
I crossed the main landing and glanced down the stairs.
No sign of Rynn or Ryker, but I could hear claws clicking against the stone floor.
Wolves were a lot less silent indoors. I broke into a jog and made it to Rynn’s room.
She’d no doubt smell me, but with Ryker chasing after her, I was confident she’d still come in.
Then she’d lock and barricade the door, trapping me with her. Technically, I could climb down from the balcony, but I wasn’t going to volunteer that information. I took a seat on the foot of her bed and waited.
“Eat shit and die!” Rynn screamed less than a minute later.
Guess she’d shifted back then.
A second later, she burst through the door. Chest heaving . . . and completely naked.
For a long moment, all I did was stare as every thought seemed to freeze in my head. I was used to people being naked. I was a shifter after all. I’d even seen Rynn naked before, but that had been months ago before I’d really known her.
Now I was acutely aware of her lean, toned body. Those pert breasts that would fit nicely in my mouth, and her neck was just begging for me to wrap a hand around it while I—
“What the fuck are you doing here, Bastian?” Rynn growled as she stalked over to the armoire and shoved it in front of her door.
I thought about telling her the lock she’d flipped was more than sufficient, but I was being treated to an excellent view right now, so I kept my mouth shut while I filtered through possible responses.
Cade was confident I wouldn’t win this bet. I knew him well enough to realize he thought his victory was a sure thing, but Rynn would hardly be the first person who hated me that I’d charmed into my bed. I honestly enjoyed the challenge.
I just had to be careful, because unlike the others, Rynn would still be here when I was done. This meant I had to keep things from getting too serious. Steer her towards a mutually beneficial arrangement.
Not too difficult. Thanks to being friends with all the nosy bartenders in the local outposts, I knew nobody had reciprocated her advances.
I smirked. Rynn was no doubt desperate for a good fuck.
I just needed to keep her out of hate-fuck territory so she’d stay afterwards and snuggle and I could win the bet.
And honestly, having a bed buddy around here was appealing.
It would also really annoy Warrick. Double win.
Wood screeched against stone as Rynn heaved one last time. Then she straightened and stepped away from the armoire.
“Well?” She planted both hands on her hips, not the least bit shy about giving me a full view of her body. “Why the fuck are you in my room, Bastian?”
This time, I was ready.
“Today was a lot . . . and unexpected. I wanted to check on you.” I leaned back on her bed, my palms resting against her silky comforter, and gave her a concerned look.
“Oh fuck off, Bastian,” she growled before stomping towards her washroom. The sound of running water kicked on a second later. “You think I’m a spy. I think you’re an asshole. Nothing else to say.”
I frowned. I’d expected her to demand I leave immediately.
Instead, she’d just . . . dismissed my presence. She hadn’t even tried to cover herself up as she’d paraded naked in front of me. Like me, she was probably used to nudity, but still. Normally, when people found me in their rooms—their beds no less—they had a very different reaction.
And I’d definitely caught Rynn’s heart racing when she’d been trapped between me and Cade. Exactly how pissed was she?
I thought about following her into the washroom but nixed that idea.
Clearly she was still mad at me—us in general—and was likely trying to build an emotional defense.
Rynn was good at that, putting up a cold exterior wall.
It’d been breaking down the last few months, but after today, I wasn’t surprised she was rapidly throwing it up again.
This would require playing the long game. Excitement coursed through me. I loved a good, long hunt. It made the end all that more satisfying.
Rising to my feet, I walked over to the dresser near the window and pulled open the second drawer. Choices, choices.
“Get out of my underwear drawer,” Rynn growled as she padded across the room towards me.
“That’s your top drawer.” I grabbed a sleeveless long shirt and tossed it to her when she reached my side. “You are a spy, and I am an asshole, but that doesn’t mean we can’t get along.” I grinned. “How do you feel about Selene coming to live with us?”
Those mismatched eyes stared at me for a long moment. She was still completely naked, but now she had damp hair plastered to her body, covering her chest. I didn’t let my gaze drop below her waist.
Finally, she huffed and shook her head. “I think you honestly mean that.” She pulled on the loose-fitting shirt and walked over to some chairs with comfy cushions set up in front of the balcony.
I preferred to sleep naked, but I knew Rynn liked to sleep in soft shirts, thanks to checking on her periodically.
Mostly to make sure Warrick hadn’t slit her throat in the middle of the night.
I wouldn’t put it past him. Warrick had a single-minded obsession about eliminating threats, and he very much viewed Rynn as one.
Lucky for her, he had another obsession that he deemed more important than everything else.
Anyone else.
“Will you go away after we discuss this?” she asked tiredly.
“Yes.” I moved to sit in the chair opposite her and sank into the cushions. “These chairs are ridiculously nice.”
“They’re my favorite part of my room. Them and the view.” Rynn smiled for a moment before it slid off her face, replaced by bitterness as she picked at a loose thread from a cushion. “I suppose I’m lucky you all chose a room that had them.”
“The room came with the view, but Cade actually moved the chairs in here.” I shrugged. “They were in his study, but he thought you’d like them for reading.”
“Oh.” Rynn chewed on her bottom lip. “To answer your question, I’m fine with Selene coming here. Remy and I spoke about it when we were getting food.”
“You’re close with him and his mate, yes?
” I already knew the answer. Remy and Rynn were the same age and had grown up in similar positions in their packs.
The only difference was that Remy got to stay with his, whereas Rynn’s pack decided she was a bartering tool.
Aside from her family, the only people Rynn regularly sent messages to were Remy and Marie.
Although she hadn’t been sending much lately.
Much to my annoyance, she only spoke with Samara during their visits. I assumed Cali occasionally joined them, but I didn’t know for sure.
“I’ve known Remy since I was eight or so, and Marie for almost as long.” She folded her legs up onto the oversized chair and snuggled further into the cushions, seeming to think over her next words carefully. “Remy thinks this is the best place for Selene to be. The safest place.”
That gave me pause. “Is she in danger with her current pack?”
While I knew a lot of Velesians, it was impossible for me to know all of them.
We greatly outnumbered the Moroi and Furies, our population was somewhere around ten thousand.
I traveled around the Velesian realm the most out of the Alphas, but I tended to focus on the highest-ranking packs and the lowest. The former to maintain relations with them and the latter to check in on how the most vulnerable of us were fairing.
It was my understanding that Selene had been traded to several middle-ranking packs.
I knew of the packs she’d belonged to but hadn’t visited any of them in well over a decade.
She was back with her birth pack now, and they were third in hierarchy across all the Fervis Order.
They were a pack I was quite familiar with, but Selene hadn’t returned to them the last time I’d visited.
Selene’s father was the Alpha of that pack. Nicholae Rivera. He reminded me a lot of Alexis. Cruel and prone to aggression. Although there had never been any reports of abuse in his pack.
Then again, I hadn’t heard of anything between Alexis and Rynn either, but there was definitely something there.
I hadn’t liked the way he’d been fixated on her.
I’d seen Rynn face down Warrick without a lick of fear—something nobody outside of us did—but there had definitely been fear in her eyes for a second when she’d looked at Alexis.
There was rage as well and actual hatred, but I knew what I saw.
The Fervis pack enforcer had done something to Rynn.
Enough that it had left a mark. There was no point asking her about it, she wouldn’t tell me, but I’d find out.
Partly because I felt an obligation to her since she lived with us, even if she wasn’t pack, but mostly because if Alexis had hurt her, then he’d likely hurt others, and his Alpha had no doubt covered it up.
One of the few times we directly intervened in pack politics was if they hurt their own. A phantom pain coiled around my right leg and squeezed. Alexis was a dead wolf if I learned he’d hurt Rynn.
“I don’t know the specifics around her situation,” Rynn said slowly, drawing my attention away from my thoughts. “But she’s been traded to five packs in the last decade.”
“Five?” My brows rose. “Gavril left out that little detail.”
“I realize you will view her the same as you do me—someone not to be trusted—but if we can at least make her feel safe here, perhaps that will be enough. She deserves to have a home.” Rynn looked out the balcony doors to the night sky.
Her voice was even, but I could see the sorrow etched in her features.
A small part of me felt a little bad about that. Weird. I didn’t normally give a shit about people outside my pack.
Maybe because part of me knew Cade was right. We could have been more honest with her. Besides, I needed a way to get her to hate me slightly less if I was going to win this bet.
“The same applies to you, Rynn,” I said casually. “Just because you’re not one of us doesn’t mean you can’t be happy here.”
Until the day Warrick finally snapped and killed her.
“We both know that isn’t true.” She turned back to face me, and a small smile stretched across her mouth. “Don’t you worry your pretty little head about it, Bas. My future is my own.”
I smiled back at her using my nickname. “Glad to know you think I’m pretty.”
She shrugged. “It’s the one thing you have going for you.”
“How you wound me.” I gave her a mock look of hurt as I placed my hand over my heart. “I’ll have you know I’m also an excellent cook.”
“You set the kitchen on fire two weeks ago,” she said dryly.
“That was Ryker’s fault.” I waved her off.
At the mention of the lycan, Rynn’s amusement died. “When are we leaving for Narchis territory?” she asked flatly.
I had been wondering when she would bring that up.
She was probably trying to figure out a way to not go, but that wasn’t an option.
Narchis wouldn’t be happy about our agreement with the Fervis Order and I needed Rynn by my side, showing that we were still honoring our agreement with them despite having made a similar one with Fervis.
“Next week had been my pla—”
“Tomorrow,” she cut me off, her gaze snapping to me. “We discuss the Selene situation with Cade in the morning. Then you and I leave.”
I held back my surprise as I studied her. There was something . . . off in her expression. “Did something happen between you and Ryker?”
“We’ve talked about Selene.” She looked away from me. “It’s time for you to leave.”
Oh yes, there was definitely something there. Ryker must have done something to really anger her this time. Enough that she’d rather spend time with me. I was curious what it was but Rynn clearly wasn’t in the mood to tell me.
“A deal’s a deal.” I rose to my feet. Getting the truth from Ryker would be easy. He never lied to us.
Rynn tracked me as I sauntered over to the balcony and leapt up onto the railing. I twisted around to face her once more. “Dream of me, Princess.”
“That’s called a nightmare.” She bared her teeth at me.
I laughed and took a step back, falling into the darkness.