Chapter 16 Ryker
Talon wrapped his body around her like a guard dog, and when he saw me open the door, he tried to shoo me away.
“She needs sleep. Do not wake her up yet,” he whispered.
“Maybe she wouldn’t be so exhausted if you hadn’t kept her up all night, Tally,” I teased, stepping farther into the room instead of leaving.
“Go away, Ryker.”
“Move over. Make some room,” I said, already pulling off my fatigues but leaving on my boxers and T-shirt.
If we weren’t heading to the Fitness Center yet, I was damn well going to catch a few more hours of sleep too.
And if that meant tucking in beside Kitten while she was all warm, soft, and perfect to cuddle, I was not missing that opportunity.
My star player loved when she got cozy, pressing her round ass against him.
Talon shot me a pissed look, but I pressed a finger to my lips in an exaggerated shhh motion and pointed at Rowan.
“Tally, she needs sleep. Do not wake her up,” I whispered back in a perfect mockery of his tone.
His eye twitched. Hard.
He begrudgingly scooted over, pulling Rowan with him, and I slid in on her other side, creating a delicious omega sandwich.
Rowan murmured something in her sleep and shifted positions, giving me an opening to steal her from Talon, pulling her ass against me instead. Her deep breaths and little snores lulled me under again, and about an hour later a small, sleepy voice pulled me out of a delightful dream.
"Ryker?"
I cracked my eyes open to see Kitten blinking up at me in confusion and Talon glaring like he had been awake the whole time.
“You were talking in your sleep,” Talon said, irritation sharp in his voice.
“Oh? Nothing juicy, I hope?” I said, shooting Rowan a lazy wink.
“You… um…” Rowan stammered, face bright red. “You were dreaming about…” She tripped over her words, cheeks burning, like she couldn’t bring herself to say what she’d heard me mumbling.
Talon had no problem cutting her off with… "You were dreaming about fucking us. Both of us."
"Ooh, sounds yummy. Who was top? Me or you?"
Talon said nothing, just shot me a scowl before rolling off the bed with a huff.
I tightened my arm around Rowan’s waist when she tried to slip away, kissing her neck. “It's okay, Kitten. I don’t mind you knowing what I dream about. Especially now that I know about your wet dreams.”
She froze.
Then slowly turned her head toward Talon with murderous precision.
“You told him!?”
Talon shrugged, completely unbothered.
“You said you wouldn’t!”
“We don't keep secrets in this unit. You should know that by now.”
“Ugh! What the hell, Talon!” she yelled, twisting out of my hold in a sneaky move I did not see coming.
She stormed toward the door, threw it open, and slammed it behind her with enough force to rattle the frame.
I listened to her mutter insults at us all the way down the hall until she was out of reach.
I flopped back against Talon’s pillows. "Think she still wants to watch us fuck?"
"You can smell her arousal, Ryker. What do you think, asshole?" he said, chucking my pants at me, as he followed her out of the room.
Before he closed the door, he stuck his head back into the room. "And for the record… I would top."
I shot him a wink, and he rolled his eyes, closing the door firmly.
Kitten was pretty pathetic at self-defense. She had spent most of the hour we had been at the fitness center pinned to the mat under either Tally or me.
“Are you even trying?” Talon asked, holding out a hand to help her up.
“Of course I am! Some teacher you are! I would not call this positive reinforcement,” she muttered, swatting his hand away as she stood.
“Get back into position. Let’s try again.”
She groaned, trudged to the other side of the mat, but didn’t argue.
Talon squared up again, all calm and focused, while Kitten bounced on her toes like she was about to try out for a middle school volleyball team. How cute.
“Hands up,” he instructed.
“They are up,” she argued, raising them higher.
“Not enough,” Talon said, nudging her elbow. “Again.”
I leaned against the wall, drinking from my water bottle. Talon said we couldn't leave until Rowan managed to pin one of us.
“At this rate, we're going to be here until dinner. Possibly until next fucking week.”
“Shut up, Ryker,” she snapped without looking at me.
Talon moved first. A quick step forward, a shift of weight, and then he swept his leg under her with surgical precision. Rowan hit the mat with a soft thud and a very dramatic groan.
Pinned. Again.
Talon looked down at her. “You keep your stance too wide. It’s easy to take you off balance.”
“Thank you for the public humiliation,” she deadpanned.
“You're welcome.”
She glared at him and got up.
“Again,” Talon said.
Rowan groaned like she was being sentenced to death, but took her place across from him anyway.
They circled. Talon watched her closely. Rowan shifted her weight from foot to foot like she couldn't decide which direction to move in.
Then she did something unexpected.
She faked left, stepped right, ducked under his reach, grabbed his wrist with both hands, and used her entire body weight to yank him forward. Off balance.
For a split second, Talon actually stumbled.
Then Rowan hooked her foot behind his ankle and pulled.
Talon went down.
Talon.
Went.
Fucking.
Down.
I choked on my water, spitting it across the room.
Rowan landed on top of him, breathless and triumphant. “Ha! Did you see that, Ryker?”
She glowed with pride, a huge grin plastered across her face, straddling Talon.
For approximately two glorious seconds, she had him pinned.
Then Talon blinked, shifted his hips, rolled, and flipped her neatly onto her back like she weighed nothing.
He hovered over her, hair a little mussed and breathing heavier than before.
“Good,” he said, then added, “Sloppy, but good.”
Rowan scowled. “You could have just left it at ‘good.’”
“I could have,” he said, “but it wouldn't have been an accurate statement.”
I whistled. “Look at you, Kitten. Getting the smallest, tiniest scrap of praise from the emotionally stunted murder wolf. Proud of you.”
She flipped me off from the mat.
Talon helped her up, and she accepted his hand this time. A smirk tugged at his mouth.
“You have instincts,” he said. “You just need the skills to match them.”
She stared at him in shock. “That was… almost a compliment. Almost.”
He shrugged. “Don't get used to it.”
He looked around first, making sure no one was within earshot. Then, his voice dipped low.
“We'll see how well you do tonight in the woods. After that display, I'm expecting you to have more control and precision.”
“You both flipped me like a pancake at least fifty times,” Rowan snapped. “I got lucky and flipped you once. Once out of fifty is not good odds. And now you expect me to suddenly control,” her voice dropped to a whisper, “my shift?”
“Not entirely,” Talon said, “But, that one time was not luck. I watched you move. You tapped into your wolf’s instincts and senses.
I've seen you do it before. You need to let her get closer to the surface.
Connect with the wolf. Especially if you don't want to spend every training session pinned face down on the mat.”
“Entertaining for me, bad for training,” I said with a tut. “As much as I enjoy seeing you pinned face down, ass up…”
“Ryker, please shut up,” she groaned, exasperated.
For a second she pressed her thumbs to her temples and rubbed in small circles, just like Cade. She really was turning into a miniature control freak from spending so much time with us, soaking up all of our bad habits like a sponge.
“So let me get this straight,” she continued. “First you tell me I need to do everything in my power not to shift so no one finds out, and now you are telling me to call my wolf in the middle of the fitness center. Which is it, Talon?”
“Both,” he said with a firm nod.
She stared at him as if he had grown a second head. “That’s not helpful!”
“It's completely helpful,” Talon said, tone flat. “You need to control your wolf without letting her take over. That's the entire point. You can let her closer to the surface, tap into her instincts and heightened senses, without actually shifting.”
Rowan blinked. “You want me to crack the door open but not let her out?”
Talon nodded once. “Exactly. That's where control comes in. How much you let the wolf bleed out. How much leash you give her. How much you hold back.”
Rowan took a breath, visibly trying to process Talon’s instructions. “So I am supposed to… feel my wolf but not actually let her shift.”
“Correct,” Talon said.
“While sparring.”
“Correct.”
“In public.”
“Yes.”
She stared at him. “Great. Fantastic. I love that for me. Why didn't you just say that in the first place? Easy peasy."
The sarcasm in her voice elicited a stern look from Tally.
I laughed, and she shot me a glare, clearly not in the mood for my teasing.
"And why exactly have you tagged along, Ryker? What am I supposed to be learning from you?"
"I'm here to offer emotional support!"
"If you call emotional support laughing hysterically and staring at my ass every time I collide with the mat. I suppose you are great in that department."
“I'm fucking hurt that you don't see my value, Kitten. I'm being a supportive unit mate.”
“If you want to support me, you could stop with the commentary.”
“Alright, enough, both of you,” Talon cut in.
“Rowan, back to start. Ryker, on the mat.
I want to watch her move. This time, Rowan, let the wolf rise.
You won't shift if you maintain control. I know you're capable. Plus, think of how nice it will be to watch Ryker’s smug face hit the floor. Make it happen.”
“If I shift, you are going to be the one to explain it to Cade,” she said, pointing at Talon.
Then she turned toward me. Her breathing slowed, and instead of staring at me and bouncing back and forth like usual, she closed her eyes and went still.
Talon counted down. “Three, two, one.”
On one, her eyes snapped open. The look on her face was hungry and focused. I moved forward, ready for her to charge, but she ducked under my reach, sliding along the mat and dropping into a crouch.
At that moment, she reminded me so much of Talon.
I had seen him move like that. Low, balanced, stealthy, and instinctive.
We had sparred enough times that I could anticipate what came next when he took that posture. Usually he would go for the ankles or legs, forcing his opponent down from below. I expected Rowan to do the same.
But she didn't move. She waited. When I didn't move either, she circled me slowly. Not like prey trying to avoid a strike, but like a predator sizing up its target.
“Okay, Kitten, I see you are getting serious about this. Let's see what you—”
I didn't get to finish.
She exploded forward without warning, leaping into the air. Her legs wrapped around my torso, and she swung herself around my back in one smooth motion. The force of it, and the sheer fucking audacity of it, caught me completely off guard.
The world flipped, and I hit the mat hard.
"Now that's what I'm talking about!" Talon said with something that resembled actual praise.
Rowan landed on top of me, straddling my hips and pinning both of my wrists to the mat like she had been waiting her whole life for this exact moment.
Her chest was rising and falling fast, eyes bright, cheeks flushed with victory.
She was glowing with pride, like a fiery little goddess who had decided to smite me personally.
She was powerful, confident, and definitely not helpless.
That's my girl.
I let out a breathy laugh. “Look at you, Kitten. Climbing me like a damn tree and dropping me on my ass. I'm fucking impressed.”
She beamed at me, smug as hell, and it did something warm in my chest that I would absolutely deny if anyone asked.
“Well done,” Talon said behind her, sounding equal parts proud and irritated. “Again.”
Seeing her like this, strong and triumphant, made something fierce coil inside me. I had never been so attracted to her. Also, I wanted to brag endlessly to Cade that his fragile little omega was turning into a tiny badass.
Instead, I stayed flat on the mat with her sitting proudly on top of me and said, “You should see yourself right now, Rowan. I am not even mad. I'm fucking proud.”
Her smile widened, bright and wicked.
Then Talon ruined it. “Get off him. Again. Reset.”
Rowan sighed dramatically, but her grin stayed. My heart did something stupid as she climbed off me, returning to her starting position.
And I had never been so excited to get my ass kicked again.