Chapter 24
Chapter Twenty-Four
Bastian
I watched Rynn slip out onto my balcony in the pale morning light, no doubt to climb back down to her room. The storm had broken a few hours ago, and for a lycan, she was an adept climber so I knew she’d make it just fine.
That didn’t stop the fear from resurfacing when I thought about last night. My heart had almost stopped when she’d slipped. If I’d reacted even a second slower . . .
Letting out a long breath, I rolled onto my back and stared up at the ceiling. The only thing more reckless than Rynn climbing a castle wall during a storm was me letting her stay the night afterwards.
“What the fuck were you thinking?” I rubbed my eyes, trying to chase the sleepiness away.
Not about the bet, that was for damn sure.
Because I hadn’t even thought about that until this morning when I’d woken before Rynn and just admired how beautiful and peaceful she’d looked.
At some point in the night, she’d turned around and had buried her face into my chest like she’d needed to be as close as possible.
Our legs had been tangled together, and my hand had rested on her waist.
Moonsdamn it all, that had been the best sleep I’d had since I’d been home. I liked having Rynn in my bed.
I let out a raspy chuckle. I’d seen Rynn in the throes of passion. I’d shared a bed with her numerous times at this point. And she occupied my thoughts quite often. But I hadn’t even kissed her. It’d been a long time since I’d felt this way about anyone.
And of course, I’d once again chosen someone there was no future with. Since returning home, I’d been so sure that if I just put a bit of distance between us, it would be fine. But all it’d taken was her quietly asking that question for my walls to crumble again.
Can we pretend we live in that other world?
That was why I hadn’t stopped her from walking out onto that balcony this morning. Why I hadn’t insisted she leave through the door and walk down the hallways to her room, leaving a scent trail to support my claim that I’d won the bet.
Instead, I’d let her go.
Cade would believe me if I told him. He knew how seriously I took our bets.
Lying would have undermined all the fun.
And as far as Cade was concerned, the bet was still on because I hadn’t told him about Ryker and Rynn yet.
He wouldn’t be happy, but I’d made the executive decision to withhold that information from him because he was dealing with a lot right now.
The monsters coming down from the mountains had been increasing their attacks.
Given the one Rynn, Ryker, and I had squared off against on our way home, I understood his concerns.
We’d gotten lucky. No, not lucky. Rynn had saved our asses with her quick thinking.
But there wouldn’t always be a partially frozen river around.
We’d taken the brunt of the monster attacks in the Avala Order because our territory stretched coast to coast across Lunaria and bordered the mountains the whole way. We had the most skilled hunters out of not just the Velesians but the Moroi and Furies too.
In the last two weeks, five hunting parties had gone missing, which, in Lunaria, meant they were dead.
Cade was working on getting support from the Moroi and various Velesian packs, but that meant a lot of tedious negotiating. I could use my visit to the Fervis territory to help him with this while also giving Rynn the cover she needed.
I was toying a dangerous line by not telling Cade everything. He gave me a lot of leeway in my plotting, trusting me to handle things on my own before coming to him with them. But if this blew up in my face, I knew he’d be pissed about it.
For all his bluster about not trusting Rynn, Cade liked having her around.
The perks of knowing someone for over fifty years was that you became very good at reading their tells.
He liked her even though he’d never admit that to anyone.
Just like me, if the situation were different, I had no doubt Cade would have made his feelings known to Rynn.
Unlike me though, he was doing a much better job of keeping his desires in check.
Because Rynn couldn’t be our mate. Our loyalty was to the Alpha pack first, and she would never be a part of that.
Ryker might feel differently, but he hadn’t been here in the early years when we’d fought tooth and claw for our position.
Him joining our pack had been an exception only because he’d had nowhere else to go and we’d known we had his complete loyalty.
There was also the problem that if Warrick found out about any of this, he would kill her.
My hand fell to my chest, rubbing at the dull ache.
I needed to get rid of any trace of Rynn being in my room. Warrick had an annoying habit of showing up when I least expected it, and even though I’d never invite him into my room, I knew he’d let himself in.
My mate had little respect for personal boundaries.
Would-be mate, that is. I let my hand fall away from my chest. It wasn’t like our mating bond would ever finish forming. It required both of us to accept it, which we would never do. I mean, neither of us had even acknowledged that we felt the mate bond in three decades now.
We would out-stubborn each other until the end of our days.
Cade knew about it, or rather suspected.
I’d never told him, and I doubted Warrick had.
But just like I knew all his tells, Cade knew mine.
Rynn spending the night here might have further complicated my feelings about her, but on the plus side, since I’d won the bet, Cade was out of luck about me telling Warrick how I felt.
Still, that was a small silver lining. I was supposed to be fixing the Rynn problem. Not making it worse. Letting her sleep here had been a mistake, one I didn’t regret but couldn’t afford to make again.
For everyone’s sake, including her own, Rynn had to go.
Which meant I needed to get Cade to agree to let me take her to Fervis territory.
I didn’t know what Rynn was plotting, but I was confident it would work.
She was incredibly clever and resourceful.
In a different world, she could have been a member of our pack in truth.
But we’d suffered too many betrayals. From people we’d known a lot better than Rynn. Maybe when we stabilized the Velesian realm, we could consider adding new members or pursuing mates. But that was not today, and it wouldn’t be right to ask Rynn to wait for a day that might never come.
Reluctantly, I got out of the bed that still smelled of her. I’d change the bedding tomorrow. Maybe her lingering scent would allow me to get one more night of sleep with no nightmares to plague me. For now, I needed to go for a run to clear my head and then speak with Cade.
It was time for the Princess to leave our castle.
“Have you spoken to Selene about this?” Cade tapped his fingers rhythmically on his desk.
“Yes.” I nodded. “We had lunch today, and she agrees with me. The Dragomir clan can’t be trusted, but politically, it will be good for us to visit Fervis now and further cement our alliance. If the opportunity arises, I can also start laying the groundwork for Remy to take over.”
Cade’s fingers froze. “We need to think that through carefully. There is a good chance Rynn’s brother will be the Narchis Alpha someday. If Remy takes over Fervis, that means we’ll have two Alphas with strong connections to Rynn—not us.”
“All the more reason to consider letting her be a member of our pack,” Ryker said from where he leaned against the bookcase. There was an edge to his words that had Cade giving him a careful, appraising look.
That tone usually meant Ryker was pissed off about something but didn’t want to talk about it or didn’t know how to articulate it.
Cade glanced at me, and I grimaced. We both knew that something in this case was Rynn. It was impressive how well she’d managed to dodge Ryker over the past couple of weeks. Currently, she and Selene were in the kitchen, making bread.
Well, Selene was. Rynn was perched on one of the counters chatting with her. It turned out Selene actually had a lot in common with Warrick. They were both excellent at cooking and baking . . . and they were both incredibly territorial over the kitchen.
Rynn and Cade were only allowed in there to talk.
Selene had expressively forbidden them from doing anything other than boiling water, and even that, she suggested they ask for assistance on.
She had graciously given me permission to use the kitchen because I was capable of making basic meals without setting anything on fire.
Ryker was the only one she hadn’t addressed, and that was because, despite her calm demeanor, Selene was afraid of him.
Or maybe wary was the better word. Despite that, she was adjusting quickly, and I was confident she would fit in here nicely.
Assuming we got Warrick to not kill her over having to share his kitchen.
But he was rarely here, so he’d just have to deal with it.
I didn’t entirely understand Selene’s reasons for wanting to be here. She was the opposite of Rynn in that she was quite good at word games. We often had lunch together, and I could converse with her for hours and still learn nothing substantial about her.
It made Cade paranoid, but my gut told me Selene wasn’t a threat to us. Outside of Remy and Marie, there seemed to be no one else she cared about. Her family, including her parents, were still alive. But she never spoke of them and they hadn’t written to her.
I was more interested in why Selene had been the one offered to us for this alliance. This had been an opportunity for the Dragomir clan to get a spy in our pack. Why waste it?
“Why are you pushing this?” Cade studied Ryker.
“The only one more hostile to Rynn than you when she first got here was Warrick. Now you’re following her around like a sad puppy.
Bastian’s right. She’s never going to fuck you, not even if you convince us to let her into the pack. Which we never will.”
The lazy grin stayed on my face, even as I swore internally.
I hadn’t had a chance to speak to Cade privately yet about the potential mating bond between Ryker and Rynn.
Or that we’d both been incredibly wrong about Ryker having no chance with her.
My plan had been to tell him all that this afternoon and then figure out the trip to Fervis, but Ryker had already been in Cade’s study when I’d arrived.
“And if she did?” Ryker pushed off the bookcase, a yellow sheen rolling over his eyes. “If she did fuck me? Would that change anything?”
“Ryk,” I warned. “Drop it.”
“No,” he growled. “Rynn is mine.”
Anger raced through me at the possessiveness of his words. I’d accepted that I couldn’t have Rynn, but he couldn’t have her either.
My grin morphed into a cruel smile that I so rarely directly at my own. “Really? For someone who is yours, she sure has gone to great lengths to avoid you lately.”
“Not helping, Bas.” Cade gave me a warning look before shrugging at Ryker. “He’s right though. You need to get over this crush. It’s not going to end well.”
“And the stupid bet you two have going?” The wolf peeked out through Ryker’s eyes as his glare bounced between the two of us before settling on me. “You’re just pissed because she’s not falling for your bullshit like everyone else.”
The tenuous hold I had on my temper snapped.
“Or maybe you lost your head over the first girl willing to fuck you.” I laughed. “Poor little lost pup. Convinced nobody would ever choose you, so you overcompensated with a mating bond.”
“Mating bond?” Cade’s brows shot up, but before he could say anything, Ryker was in my face, his fist gripping the front of my shirt.
“She did choose me,” he snarled. “Not you.”
“Funny.” My smile widened enough to show off my fangs. “Because it was my bed she was warming all last night until the sun rose this morning. Looks like I won that bet after all.”
Ryker went completely still. For a second, I thought he might go for my throat. Adrenaline coursed through my blood, and part of me was curious to find out if I was faster.
But then he dropped his hold on my shirt and stepped back, his expression closed off. The anger I’d been feeling a second ago went ice cold. “Ryk,” I started but stopped at the look in his eyes.
“Maybe Rynn didn’t choose me,” he said quietly, “but neither did you. Guess that bet was more important than me.”
Fuck. Panic gripped me. For once, I didn’t know what to say or how to fix this. I’d fucked up. Like seriously fucked up.
Ryker moved past me, his shoulder slamming into mine. I grabbed his arm to stop him. To explain what’d really happened between Rynn and me. But I was too preoccupied with finding the right words, which meant I missed the fist flying towards my face.
Pain erupted as my head snapped to the side and I staggered back several feet. By the time I glanced back towards Ryker, he was gone.
Cade filled my vision a second later, looking more pissed off than I’d seen him in a long time. “What the fuck did you just do?”