Chapter Thirteen – Ryder
Thirteen
RYDER
Marissa is propping Dad up and lifting a cup of water to his mouth when I enter. His greeting is a faded smile and deep exhale, but it’s more than I’ve gotten in an entire day, so I accept it by not revealing how his new frailness has me wanting to rip the cabin apart.
Amos stands against the far wall and Xander closest to the door, which I close, trying to figure out exactly where to start and feeling a million years older as I consider it.
“Where’s Carina? I’d like to thank her for what she did.” Despite the water, Dad’s voice scrapes from lack of use.
Amos grunts his displeasure, and my irritation flickers at his attitude.
“You’re looking a bit better.” His skin isn’t as pale. His eyes, while still sunken and exhausted, are a fraction closer to familiarity.
“I feel better. Hopefully you’re treating her well. She didn’t have to help.” He scans the room to imprint those words on each one of us, but spends the longest on Amos. Even exhausted, Dad’s natural peace-keeping abilities from decades as Alpha emerges.
“We’re getting along,” I manage, trying to not recall the sight of her in my space, nor everything Marissa told me last night. Marissa, who’s watching carefully.
“Has she mentioned anything useful?” Amos looks up, an edge to his tone.
“She claims the witches are likely from a coven called Twilight Grove, and that the kind of magick they used is called black magick. Apparently, they’re after a few specific witches and used us to get to her.
” I recount everything Carina said about the impending Celestial war, the covens, Darkness, the witch-vampire named Harlow, and her desire to return home to inform Morgan.
“She’s lying to save her own skin,” Amos immediately counters, barely waiting until the final syllable has dropped from my mouth before he’s imposing power he only dreams of claiming for himself.
Marissa frowns. “I think we should listen to her. That’s too many details to make up.”
“I don’t disagree,” Xander muses, shoving off the wall. “The witches from the other night had something off about them. Hearing Carina’s explanation, it was probably Darkness. If she visits her mother, it’s possible Morgan could help.” He directs the last part to Dad. “I vote it’s worth the shot.”
Amos’ scoff barely allows Xander to finish. “Or Morgan will be vengeful because we stole her daughter.”
I hate his assumption, but he’s also not wrong. Carina thinks of her mother as being loving and caring. I, for the well-being of everyone here, need to consider reality: That Morgan hates us.
Dad shuts him down with a scathing look. “Morgan isn’t like that. She’ll be reasonable. Son, you’re the only one here who spoke to Carina. Do you think she’s telling the truth?”
She never mentioned escaping, only inventing ways to resolve whatever war she believes we’ll be in. Her stress seemed genuine, and her arguments centred on Dad’s health. Deep down, I feel her honesty.
“I do. It’s not in her best interest to lie.”
Dad’s lips crack into a faint smile. “It’s ultimately your decision, but I vote on letting her go home. Looping Morgan in will be wise.”
Then again, it’s his health on the line.
If Carina goes home, impending war or not, he’s still sick.
Unless Morgan or anyone else can help, Carina must go with Twilight Grove.
Her being home means having to bring her back, which could be a fight we’ll lose.
Inside the town, it’d be the entire coven against whoever’s with me.
Amos’s abrupt approach sends my wolf into defensive mode. “I say we tie her up and wait out the week and not align with the same disgusting creatures who made this problem. They’d hand us to the Celestials before helping.”
Threat.
Protect.
Silver and red meld in my eyes, and for once, I don’t argue with instincts. Amos not only undermines my role, but he’s putting her in the centre of it. And that will not happen on my fucking watch.
Mate.
Protect.
My chest rumbles with the kind of growl that warns prey to run. My claws pierce human skin and without another thought, I leap towards him, fully intending to deal with the threat.
Kill.
Protect.
No one, not even Xander, stops me. They recognize what’s happening, though only Marissa understands, but it’s no one’s right to intercept an Alpha’s authority—or the punishment he deems fit.
My hands link around the old man’s throat as my teeth break through my gums, so he understands I’m really fucking serious when it comes to my next words.
“If you want to be Alpha, you know how to do it. Otherwise, challenge my authority one more fucking time and I’ll gut you.
While you’re at it, leave Carina’s name out of your mouth.
She my problem, not yours.” Ours. In more way than one.
” You say one thing against her, and you’ll be dealing with me. ”
I release him with a jerk as my teeth begin rescinding, the claws which left red marks on his neck slowly sliding back beneath my skin, and I stand to survey the room. To ensure everyone else knows not to go the fuck near my n?kak?stis.
Marissa and Xander both lower their eyes in submission, but it’s Dad’s unfailing gaze that penetrates the crucial fact: he knows. Amos eventually gets to his feet and wanders to the far wall to make himself invisible, huffing beneath his breath.
Standing in the centre of the room, I glance at every single one of them, speaking with finality.
“I’ll return Carina to Morgan and see what she knows, but the plan hasn’t changed.
We will get you well. We will deal with the other coven.
We’ll play this how Carina wants for now.
If something’s coming, we need to prepare. Xander, gather a few to join us.”
He tips his head in acknowledgement and slips out the door. Amos trails him without another word. Marissa stands from the edge of Dad’s bed, rests the water on his side table, and exits the cabin.
Alone, I shuffle to the available chair.
My ass is barely on the wood before he starts, his tone thoughtful.
“Today’s the first time I’ve ever seen or spoken with Carina.
I don’t recall her at any previous meetings.
She reminds me a bit of her mother, but kinder.
You understand, one day, she’ll be High Priestess and thus standing across from you? ”
The thought guts my wolf, especially so soon after defending her.
If she survives Twilight Grove, she’ll return home.
The n?kak?stis bond will go unfinished—which is what I want—but I’ll be forced to see her every year.
I’ll constantly pick up her scent, which I already know will linger for the rest of the year until the next meeting.
My wolf won’t settle with the fact his one true mate is only a matter of feet away—but more unavailable than ever.
“N?kak?stis,” I all but gasp, realizing it wasn’t a question in any shape nor form. A choked yell in response to his comment about the future but demanding an explanation more than my lungs require air or my wolf craves meat.
Dad blinks. “You’re not saying…?”
“Why didn’t you tell me?” I whisper harshly, staring at the place beside him which used to be Mom’s. Right against the wall, where he could keep her safest.
“If I mentioned the force that’d choose your mate, you’d search for her.
It’s unavoidable; I’ve seen it in the past. The wolf would demand you hunt for the one best suited to walk life beside you; the woman who’ll match you in strength, determination, and personality.
I didn’t want you looking if you had the chance to find happiness on your own terms.”
Instead, fate made her the witch an enemy coven wants for their own deadly and selfish needs and tossed her in my path by making her the answer to everything.
“If the n?kak?stis mate is chosen by fate, sounds like we’d find them no matter what we do. Has anyone in our family ever not found theirs?”
Dad hums, thinking. “Not that I know of. Your grandfather believed nature will always bring us together, but when it happens depends.”
A snarl of disgust rips from my throat. No matter what, Carina and I would have been brought together. Perhaps that’s why she was at the pond that day. An unnamed force urged her down there, the fucked-up timeline of our lives deeming now to be the best time to meet.
“What would have happened if I did take a mate before finding her? How’s that fair to either of them? Nature would compel me to the n?kak?stis, but my feelings would be with the other.” My stomach tugs at the idea of both emotionally harming a chosen mate and forcing myself away from the fated one.
“I don’t know. I suppose the force wouldn’t have allowed you to pick another before finding her.”
Then why not tell me? His reasonings go in irritating circles.
“Why our family?”
“I wish I knew. I’ve often wondered if it’s tied into the origins of our species, except …”
“We don’t know,” I finish. Nowhere in our history, of any pack in North America or those around the world have any recorded history of how shifters came to be. One day, we simply populated Earth. Maybe Freya can cough up a history lesson.
“If you’ve claimed to have met your n?kak?stis, but for the last twenty-four hours, your only new interaction has been the coven—one witch in specific…” He jerks. “Her?”
My mouth attempts to hide the grimace.
“My, how…unique. Very intriguing.”
Intriguing? Having my life decided by fate-linking me to our enemy is what he calls intriguing?
“How’d you figure it out?”
I pin him with a stare because his lack of concern, or even surprise, is astonishing. He isn’t feeling a modicum of panic—like what I’m filled with—that his son, his heir, the Alpha, is compelled to mate with another species?
I recount our run-in yesterday, and the effect she had on me during the meeting.
The sick joke I still didn’t understand that fate did so well pushing Carina into my life that it made her another’s target.
And that ever since returning home, there hasn’t been a way to get her gone that my wolf deems appropriate enough.
“When Marissa explained, she said that we don’t have to complete the bond.”
“That’s true,” Dad replies slowly—thoughtfully, digesting everything I’ve told him—rubbing a weathered hand along his chin. “I’d never heard of anyone who didn’t accept their n?kak?stis. Why wouldn’t you want to complete the bond? This is a good thing, Ryder.”
Black magick has officially sucked out his brain.
“She’s a witch, for one, and wanted by others in exchange for your life.
Are you so sick you don’t understand what you’re saying?
” Energy bursts out of me, pushing me to my feet.
Both my wolf and I need a fucking run after this.
“Again, she’s a witch. For what possible fuckin’ purposes did nature or whatever bring us together? What in Carina says, ‘ideal mate’?”
He frowns, his eyes tracking me back and forth across the room. “Nature has Her reasons, son. You have to figure out what those are.”
Or I don’t and Carina gets out of my life.
“I’m tired,” he announces suddenly. Presumably, it’s a lie because he knows I won’t let the topic drop until he takes my side. “Carina’s magick is strong, but not infallible, and I need more rest.”
He’s trying to get me out of his hair, but for once, I don’t care. I need to go. Need to get her back to Banff, then figure out every possible path forward.
“I’ll send Marissa back in,” I say tonelessly and head for the door.
“If you deny your very nature, do it kindly to both yourself and her.”
“Of course.” I force my mouth into a smile, but it’s probably more of a scowl, and then leave his cabin.
Marissa’s hovering nearby, chatting with others, but she breaks away when spotting me. “Get your answers?”
“Something like that.” Talking more about this isn’t really good for my sanity, which feels so frayed, so I glance towards the fire pit where I left Carina earlier, praying she hasn’t tried anything stupid in my absence.
For the first time since entering Dad’s cabin, I breathe.
She and Leah are sitting much closer than I left them, talking.
Whatever Carina says has Leah straightening and her mouth slipping open.
But that’s not what draws my attention. Their ease around one another does.
Besides her daughter, Leah’s only really comfortable around Xander.
Even around me, she can be a bit stiff. She isn’t looking at Carina with even a fraction of the hostility everyone else is.
“Would you look at that,” Marissa murmurs.
It’d be impossible to not.
She’s sitting with the one person others feel too uncertain to linger around. Leah’s been dealt a shit hand in life, but she’s still one of my closest friends. Few others see her the same way, though.
This is the moment I understand why fate gave Carina to me.
And I fucking hate it.