Chapter 16

Sleep did not come easily for Ruby that night. She laid awake, tossing from left to right as she tried to get into a comfortable position to where sleep would claim her. The only thing she could think of doing to get some sleep was shifting into Scarlett so her mind would be forced to relax since she would not be in charge anymore. Scarlett seconded the idea hastily, so Ruby allowed Scarlett to take over.

It worked. Ruby was able to relax without her body being the one in charge, and her mind was able to rest. Within a few moments after the shift, Ruby slowly slipped into unconsciousness. The problem was when she woke up.

Scarlett was on Ryker’s bed.

Ruby was unable to see it since Scarlett was still asleep, but she could feel and smell what Scarlett did through their connection. The bed definitely felt softer than hers did, the comforter was plusher than hers, and the amber and berry scent was so strong that there was no chance she was anywhere else than in his bedroom. Ruby had no idea when Scarlett decided to come in here, or why, but she planned to find out the moment Scarlett was conscious.

It took a few moments for Ruby to remember how to navigate the bonds that she was connected to, but she managed it. Inside of her mind, it was so dark it reminded Ruby of hearing about a shade of black that was described as “without light”. If Ruby did not know that she was exploring her own bonds, she would think she was in a coma, but the vibrant, pulsing chords were the giveaway that she was projecting her soul instead.

One cord was blood red and thicker than the other. Ruby’s small hands could barely wrap around it, making it at least more than two inches in diameter. The power rolling off it felt primal and wild, making her realize it was the one she shared with Scarlett. A mere touch sent ripples of power through her hand and up her arm, confirming that it was, in fact, the bond with Scarlett, and she almost yanked on it to wake her wolf up.

But then the other bond cord caught her attention.

The chord itself was not thick like the one for Scarlett and was not nearly as bright. There was an ample amount of power rolling off it, though, even more than the one that she shared with Scarlett. Its coloring was not how she heard other bonds being described. It was always a solid color, like the blood red of Scarlett’s. This one was like someone had put metallic glitter and purple food dye inside a bottle of water and shook it. The swirls of silver and a deep purple complimented one another. With a closer look, she noticed that the silver was the exact shade of silver that she saw Ryker’s eyes shift to when he argued with his wolf…

Oh, my Goddess! Is that our mate bond? That’s the only explanation. The one I would have had with the West Coast pack and Red Cove is not here because I left them both. Ryker is my mate…

Before she could do anything else, Scarlett began to stir. Ruby felt her wolf making small movements of her limbs on the bed and then stretched them out as far as she could. Ruby opened her mouth to yell at Scarlett, but then felt weight shift on the bed that was not theirs. Scarlett opened her eyes and snapped her attention toward the movement.

Ryker was still on the bed…and he just woke up.

Why would you come in here and sleep on his bed?! Ruby screamed at her wolf.

I missed him. I have yet to actually meet him, so I thought this would be a great way to do that!

You are insufferable.

Ryker must have realized that a two-hundred-pound wolf that he never met was on his bed because he leapt off and began shouting. “WHAT THE FUCK!? WHO THE HELL ARE YOU? WHY ARE YOU ON MY BED?”

Scarlett let out a woofand wagged her tail.

Nice, genius. Because that tells him who we are!

He should know us!

He has not met YOU yet!

And now I’ve fixed that problem…

Ryker had nothing but a pair of boxer briefs on which clung to him in all the right ways. Scarlett did not take her eyes off him for a second. Ruby tried to take her own eyes off him but found it hard to do so. Ryker’s broad shoulders, hard sculpted muscles, and a clear outline of a rather large piece of equipment under the boxers made paying attention to his screaming difficult, too.

Ruby noticed that Ryker’s nostrils flared, and he sucked in a breath. His eyes flashed silver for a second but returned to normal.

“Ruby?” His tone was the gentle one that he seemed to only reserve for her. “Well I guess I should say your wolf’s name instead, but I don’t know it.”

Scarlett yipped at him. Then realized that he said he did not know her name.

You told him my name… he doesn’t remember?

A lot happened last night. He may have forgotten.

“No offense to you, but I would have preferred waking up to Ruby the first time you two slept in my bed.”

Scarlett sneezed at him.

“Well, I’m not saying I would not enjoy waking up to you at some point. I’m saying the first time would have been nice to wake up to your human side.”

Scarlett bared her teeth at him.

Ryker chuckled, “how about you shift back, and you can explain why your wolf came in here while I was sleeping?”

Scarlett growled a little and then jumped off the bed. She took a look back at Ryker with sad eyes and then continued to their room. Scarlett reluctantly allowed Ruby to take over and shift back.

Why doesn’t he want to spend time with me?

I’m sure he does, but not until a couple is bonded are they able to talk to the wolves through that bond.

Humph.

Scarlett went silent while Ruby pulled some clothes on. Ruby’s fingers shook a little as she buttoned her pants and wondered if Ryker would be angry with them. They had not talked about what their actual relationship was going to be before he walked out the room last night. Instead of fighting herself for too long, Ruby opened her door and walked to Ryker’s room which was conveniently next to hers. The door was open, so Ruby glanced inside. Ryker was not in the room.

Uh… okay.

Ruby followed the hallway further into the apartment. The shared space was on the right and decorated in the same deep earth tones as the rest of the apartment which mimicked the forest that surrounded them. Then, on the left, there was a doorway that led to the kitchen. The kitchen was more of a natural wood and then stainless steel for the appliances. Ryker was not in either of them.

Where the hell did he go?

A smack on her ass made her jump, turn her body, and then swing a right hook. Ryker ducked to evade her punch while laughing.

“You scare easy, but nice defense. That’ll serve you well in today’s training.”

Ruby narrowed her eyes at him. “What makes you think it is okay to try to scare me?”

“What made you think you could get in bed with me without permission?” he shot back at her.

“I didn’t. Scarlett did.”

“How did I forget her name was Scarlett? Fitting though. Her coat is the reddest I have ever seen in my life.”

Scarlett practically danced inside of Ruby’s mind. He likes my coat color!

Stop acting like the cutest boy just asked you to prom.

What’s prom?

A dance to basically celebrate graduating from high school…

Well, technically, the hottest guy did compliment me…

Ruby ignored her. “Where are we training?”

Ryker smiled and just walked out of the room.

Oh yippee. Someone who likes to not answer questions.

* * *

Ryker’s trainingspot of choice was the beach. Ruby followed him out of the town’s perimeter and felt the magic wash over her as they stepped through the barrier. Whoever Rozalind was had to be a powerful witch. If Ryker had not been with her, she would have felt compelled to stay within the border. With Ryker being tied to the barrier, he was able to guide her through it without the magic making her want to turn around.

The path that Ryker had them walk down appeared to be very narrow between the trees. Ruby wondered if Rozalind had anything to do with this as well, or if nature just created this path to keep people from entering the town. Ruby thought back to the day that she ran from Tyson and his pack but did not remember this at all.

“Is this the only way to the town?” she asked Ryker.

“No. There are three different paths that could lead you to town. This one is the least known. Leads to a pretty awesome place that will give us privacy.”

“Why do we need privacy? It’s just training.”

Ryker did not answer.

The beach was secluded with cliffs surrounding it. Waves crashed into the sand, and a small breeze carried the scent of the salty ocean toward them. A pang of sadness hit her deep within her heart when Ruby took a look around. It looked almost identical to the cove that she grew up in.

I wonder if I will ever get to see my family again.

Ryker watched her as Ruby gazed at the cliffs. “What’s going on inside of that pretty little head of yours?”

Ruby quickly turned away from the cliffs and faced him. “Nothing.”

Ryker was several feet away from her due to her stopping and taking in the sight. He closed the gap just enough that he could put his hand on her shoulder. Heat permeated through her skin where his hand touched her.

“Doesn’t seem like nothing.”

“Nothing that I want to talk about. How about that?” Ruby deadpanned.

As much as she didn’t want to be rude, she felt as if she had to be. Ryker was sending all sorts of mixed signals, and she was confused even more than when Tyson had rejected her. One minute, he was cold and distant. The next he was caring and warm. Ruby knew that there was a mate bond between them now, but she also knew that it was not as strong as it probably should be. They had known each other for a month, and True Mate bonds were created at first sight. The bond must have formed, but never grew into what it should be from neither of them nurturing it in any way.

Not to mention I didn’t even know it was there!

Ryker nodded his head slightly. “Fair enough.” He stripped down into his boxer briefs and then squared his feet and shoulders. “You ready?”

“To do what exactly?”

Ryker wasted no time at all. He shifted into his wolf and leapt onto Ruby. When she hit the sand, she let out an oomph. Her ass landed first, so she had enough sense to tuck her neck in so her head would not collide with the ground. Ruby closed her eyes on instinct, so she opened them to a very large, pure white wolf with silver eyes on top of her and panting happily.

“That was uncalled for,” Ruby scolded the wolf.

The white wolf bent his head down and ran his tongue across her face.

“I take that back. That was uncalled for.”

The white wolf yipped and took a few steps back so Ruby could get up. When she was on her feet, she pulled the hem of her shirt up to wipe her face off.

“Okay. Wolf training. Could have told me what was expected before you started, but I guess that was too much to ask.”

Ruby allowed Scarlett to take over after she took her own clothes off and put them into a pile. Within seconds, Scarlett’s four paws sunk into the sand. Scarlett flexed her front paws and felt the sand in between her toes. The last time she was on a beach, she ended up running for her life and was not able to enjoy it.

Explore sand later, watch out!

The white wolf nearly plowed into her with another surprise attack. Since Ruby was not bonded to Ryker, nor aligned with him through a pack bond, she was unable to talk to him. This would make the training much more real. With no instructions, Ruby would go through the same exact situation as if another wolf was attacking her. Ruby appreciated the perfect implementation of what this would be like if she fought another wolf but did not appreciate it at the same time. It would have been nice to know in advance so she could have at least been prepared for him to run the training this way.

Scarlett at least understood to evade the attacks so she would not be easily taken down. Ryker’s wolf was very experienced with fighting and attempted maneuvers she had never seen anyone do before. He faked a chomp on her leg to then twist his head to get her throat, he ran past her to make her stop moving to then throw himself sideways into her, and he even allowed her to chase him to the cliff for him to jump onto the rocks to change his course and propel himself into her. It felt like hours had passed, and she did not manage to make his wolf grow tired enough to pant. Scarlett, however, was laying down in the sand where the waves gently rolled into her as she panted heavily.

Ryker was next to her in his shorts and laughing at her.

“I know you don’t have experience, but that was not at all what I was expecting since you killed two wolves without any training.”

Scarlett lifted her lip and growled at him. That only made him laugh harder.

“Rainer thinks this should be something we do multiple days during the week to catch you up.”

Scarlett stood up, shook her body so Ryker would get splashed with the water coming off her body, trotted over to the clothes, and then allowed the shift to take over. Ruby slowly pulled the clothes onto her body, due to her muscles aching so strongly she could feel her pulse throbbing throughout her entire body, and then sat down again. Ryker was standing over her with a smile on his face.

Before Ruby could say anything to him in regards to how she felt about his tactics, the sound of something being stepped on and snapping came from behind her. Ruby leapt onto her feet and was at attention while facing the forest. A black-haired woman stepped out of the tree line. Ruby’s jaw dropped when she recognized the person she was staring at was her best friend from the West Coast Pack.

“Mack?”

Mack looked as if she had seen a ghost as her face paled with recognition. “Ruby?” Then she looked over at Ryker, and somehow, her face became even more white. “Ryker?”

Shit.