Chapter 26
Chapter Twenty-Six
Warrick
You stab someone one time and everyone makes a big deal about it. Not a single, “Thanks for being so careful and not puncturing any major organs, Warrick.”
Ryker had tried to bite me before passing out for fuck’s sake. I’d had to carry him back to the stronghold because Rynn was too busy being dramatic about holding her guts in.
The wound had been precise. I’d barely nicked a lung. And it wasn’t like she didn’t have two of them. There was no threat of intestines spilling out and decorating the forest floor, as much as I would have enjoyed that.
I could admit in hindsight that perhaps I’d misread the situation, but I had arrived back at the Alpha stronghold only to find everyone gone.
I’d tracked down Bastian and Cade first, the latter of whom had started to explain what was going on, but then I’d heard Ryker’s howl and I’d taken off after it.
I’d gotten to the clearing just in time to see Rynn marching towards Ryker with two bloody axes in her hands and his broken body on the ground.
I wouldn’t apologize for protecting my pack, and Rynn was not a part of it. Things had gotten a little confusing when Ryker had practically dragged himself towards us, his eyes locked on me like he wanted to rip out my throat.
In that moment, I’d debated killing her. Clearly while I’d been away, she’d figured out how to sink her teeth into our most vulnerable pack member. Ryker might’ve been a lethal fighter, but his world experience was quite limited, and Rynn had taken advantage of that.
I’d also had a very strong urge to backtrack to where Bas was dealing with the kùsu and punch him in the face.
Before I’d left last time, I had drilled into him that he needed to keep an eye on Rynn.
Because Cade had a track record of falling for pretty faces and even prettier lies.
But Bas didn’t fall for bullshit like that.
There was no one in the world I trusted more than my would-be mate.
Also no one who pissed me off so much. Although Rynn was clearly angling for that title.
“Warrick.” Cade’s loud voice bounced off the walls of his study, the command clear in his tone.
I sighed and raised my gaze from the spot on the floor I’d been staring at, as if I could see down to Rynn’s room where Ryker was on her balcony, still in his wolf form.
Rynn had wrapped her body around his, and they had both passed out in a healing slumber.
I hated leaving them alone together, but Cade had made it abundantly clear that he wanted to chat.
The full moon would help Ryker heal faster. It was the reason we’d left him on the balcony bathed in moonlight and not in a bed where he’d be more comfortable.
Rynn had been left with him because Bas had pointed out that they’d heal faster together on account of the mating bond.
A fucking mating bond.
“What the fuck were you thinking?” Cade growled. “You fucking stabbed her!”
“What the fuck was I thinking?” I arched a brow at Cade, who took up the space of two people on the settee. “What the fuck were you thinking letting a potential mating bond form between them? How the fuck did the two of you let this happen? I’ve only been gone for a couple of months.”
“Four months, actually, but who’s counting?” Bas drawled while pouring himself and Cade a drink.
You. You’re counting, I wanted to say. Instead, I acted like he hadn’t spoken because that would piss him off more.
“They can’t accept that bond,” I said firmly. Bas’ jaw hardened at being ignored, and a sharp pain shot through my chest. I smiled.
“Bastian and I already told Ryker that.” Cade shot Bas an annoyed look. “Although it could have been handled better.”
“I know, I know.” Bas strolled over to Cade and handed him a glass before perching on the arm of the settee. “I’ll apologize to him when I’m back.”
For the first time that night, I saw the signs of strain on his face. The faint creases at the corners of his eyes and the way he held himself just a little too rigidly.
The way I wanted to close the distance between us and demand he tell me how I could fix it had nothing to do with the unrealized mating bond between us and everything to do with the fact that I loved this man beyond measure.
All I could really offer was killing someone or fixing up his favorite dessert, baked apples in a flakey crust, two things he used to always appreciate.
But if I did that now, he would just laugh in my face and make some cruel remark that would have both our souls screaming while the bond between them wailed in agony.
Cade’s experience with mating bonds had almost resulted in his death—twice.
Mine and Bas’ only brought us pain. And now Ryker was trying to form one with someone who was very likely trying to take down our pack from the inside.
Even if she wasn’t, Rynn would never be a member of this pack; therefore, there could be no mating bond.
Because I’d slit Rynn’s throat before I let Ryker leave us for her.
Clearly, mating bonds were not something the Alpha pack was meant to have.
“Told you the bet was a stupid fucking idea.” Cade grimaced. “I need to speak with Rynn before the two of you leave tomorrow, assuming that’s still the plan?”
“It is.” Bas took a long drink. “She’ll be fine by morning, and I suspect she’ll be feeling even more motivated to get this done.”
A dull ache rolled through me, and I gritted my teeth against the sorrow that remained after it passed.
This was part of the reason I stayed away.
Even though we hadn’t accepted the bond, whenever we were together, I’d get flashes of whatever Bas was feeling.
I assumed he did as well, but considering we’d never acknowledged the bond existed, I couldn’t exactly ask him about it.
Why try to have a healthy relationship when you could just be toxic to each other for decades?
I pushed off the bookshelf I’d been leaning against and set about fixing myself a drink. “Someone care to fill me in on whatever this bet is and where Bas and the traitor are going tomorrow?”
“Do you think you’ll die if you say her name?” Bas asked curiously.
“I don’t know.” I gave him a flat look. “Do you think you’ll die if you stop being a smartass for five minutes and just answer the fucking question?”
“Yeah, I’ve really missed this.” Cade sighed and finished off the rest of his drink. “The bet . . .”
He trailed off, and all three of us looked to the door as light footsteps sounded. Rynn was likely still with Ryker, and even if she wasn’t, she tended to move a lot quieter. This must be Selene, the new addition to our household who Cade had agreed to take in while I’d been away.
As if having one traitor living amongst us wasn’t bad enough, now we had a Fervis one too.
Seconds later, quite possibly the most beautiful woman I’d ever laid eyes on stopped in the doorway. Her golden hair spilt down over her shoulder in waves. I felt Bas burning a hole in the side of my face.
I had a thing for blondes.
If we’d been at a tavern, I would have given the newcomer a stunning smile and whispered something clever in her ear.
While I had a reputation for being dangerous, unlike Ryker, nobody thought I was insane.
Which meant I had no shortage of bedmates wherever I went.
People who wanted the thrill of saying they’d been fucked by the hunter of the Alpha pack.
But we weren’t in a tavern. We were in our home. And the Fervis Order had found a way to plant one of their people in it.
Selene met my stare and went completely still for a few seconds. The polite smile plastered on her lips trembled a little but didn’t completely slide off her pretty face.
“Is there something you need, Selene?” Cade finally asked.
“Nobody showed up for dinner.” Her gaze lingered on me for another moment before moving to Cade. “I went to Rynn’s room and smelled blood. Both hers and Ryker’s. Would you be so kind as to offer me an explanation?”
I blinked. Her tone was perfectly polite, and even though she phrased it as a question, it felt more like a command. I was instantly transported back to being a little kid and my mother using that same tactic when she’d found me somewhere I shouldn’t be.
Cade smiled faintly, and I wondered if he was thinking something similar.
“They’re both okay,” he told her. “Ryker was out after dark and ran into some wraiths. Rynn saved him but . . .” Cade glanced at me. “She was injured in the process.”
“I see.” Selene pondered all of us before raising her chin and stepping into the room, going straight to the bar.
“I would also like to hear about this bet you were just referencing.” She helped herself to some of Cade’s honey ale, pouring two glasses, and moved to the settee, where she passed one to Cade before taking a seat in a chair by herself. “Now, if you would.”
Bastian arched a brow at her. “Well, you’re certainly settling in. It took Rynn months to get this bossy.”
“That’s because, for the first few months, she was too busy growling at us every time we so much as looked in her direction,” Cade said wryly before sipping his ale.
He wasn’t wrong. Even though Rynn was more than a little wary of me, she never backed down.
If the situation had been different, I might have liked her.
But as it was, I’d been keeping this pack safe for over fifty years and I didn’t know how to deal with Rynn and now Selene.
Outside threats, I could just kill. But it had been made quite clear that I couldn’t do that here without good reason.
I needed proof they were sending vital information back to their Orders or I needed to catch them in the act of trying to harm one of us.
Both of those things were challenging for me to do if I wasn’t here.
It was why I’d stuck around so long after Rynn had first come here.
But being around Bas was painful, and I was still determined to find what the wraiths were looking for in the mountains.
I’d sacrificed so much for this hunt; if I gave up now it would have all been for nothing.
And part of me believed that if I was finally successful, Bas would understand why I’d made the decisions I had. Why I’d chosen the hunt over him.
“Mistakes were made in how we handled Rynn early on,” Cade finally said. “She wasn’t pleased to learn that she would never truly be a member of this pack. In the aftermath of her finding out the truth, Bastian had some ideas about how he could help her . . . be more comfortable here.”
My head snapped towards Bas, who just gave me a lazy grin in response.
“What ideas?” I ground out.
“Ones that involved a lot of sweating and testing of Rynn’s flexibility.” His grin widened.
“That wasn’t the bet,” Cade cut in before I could respond. I broke my stare-off with Bas and caught the way Selene studied us both, clearly trying to figure out our dynamic.
Good fucking luck.
“The bet was just that Bastian couldn’t convince Rynn to stay in his bed until sunrise. Sex was never part of it,” Cade said firmly.
Maybe not officially, but I knew Bas. There was no way he’d have someone in his bed all night and keep it platonic.
“And what did each of you get if you won?” Selene’s expression was unreadable, but there was a hardness to her tone. I didn’t know her well enough to guess if she was upset on Rynn’s behalf or if she was concerned they had made a similar bet for her.
“If I lost, I’d join Bas for a night of debauchery.” Cade grimaced, and my eyebrows rose slightly. Not at Bas suggesting such a thing, but that Cade had agreed to it; he must have been confident in Bas losing.
“And if you won?” I asked in a quiet, even tone.
Cade hesitated, glancing between the two of us.
I scoffed. “You just can’t leave it alone, can you?”
He didn’t have to say it out loud. Cade had been watching things play out between Bas and me from the beginning. At first, he’d stayed out of it, but the last decade, he’d been meddling more.
“The truth can’t be denied forever,” Cade said calmly. “I merely wanted it to be said out loud.”
“It doesn’t matter. I won,” Bas said flippantly. “Rynn was in my bed all last night.”
My glare dropped to the floor, to where that traitorous bitch was passed out on a balcony. Ryker wasn’t enough for her? She’d had to go after my fucking mate too?
I should have stabbed her a few inches higher. Even on a full moon, I could have scrambled her heart enough that it wouldn’t have healed.
“He didn’t fuck her,” Cade said sharply, cutting through my murderous thoughts.
Slowly, I lifted my gaze and looked at him.
“They slept together, nothing more.” He shot Bas an irritated look.
“Ryker got pissed off earlier because Bas phrased things in a way that implied otherwise—just like he did now.”
I jerked my head in a nod before turning away and staring at the large map on the wall instead.
Bas didn’t say anything, but I felt a flicker of his anger through our bond.
As if he had a right to be angry right now.
Silence stretched across the room before finally being interrupted by a deep, raspy chuckle.
“You all are such assholes,” Selene breathed through her laughs, drawing my attention to her. She rose from her seat and gave all of us a pointed look. “I’m going to check on Rynn. I suggest you all think about the apology you want to give her tomorrow morning.”
She finished off the rest of her ale, somehow making it look elegant, before gliding towards the door.
“I didn’t have anything to do with the bet,” I said flatly. “And I sure as fuck won’t be apologizing.”
Selene paused and half turned, giving me a profile view of her face.
“You didn’t make the bet, but you were still a motivation for it.
Your drama played a role in my friend being hurt.
” I stiffened, but Selene kept going. “Also, you stabbed her in the fucking chest, Warrick. Apologize or I’ll lock you out of my kitchen. ”
With her piece said, she left, leaving all three of us staring after her.
A crease formed between my brows. “Did she just claim my kitchen as hers?”