Chapter 27

Ryker stared into Ruby’s eyes as he laid next to her. He wore a smile on his face that she was not used to seeing. Ryker looked genuinely happy, or maybe content, instead of wearing the usual blank expression he wore. Through their bond, she could feel his overall positive mood, and she hoped it was not just because they had sex.

Ruby smiled back at Ryker as she replayed something she felt while they were being intimate. Ryker had a moment where he kissed her as if it was going to be the last time he would ever be able to. She could feel it through their bond that this was all going to end. At the time, it was hard to concentrate on why he would feel that way. For a moment, she thought that maybe he was close to his own climax, and he did not want it to end just yet. But now, while he was looking at her as if things were too good to be true, and it would end with a blink, she was having doubts that was why he seemed to feel that way.

“Why are you looking at me like that?”

“Like what?”

“Like I am a dream that you don’t want to wake up from or something.”

Ryker rolled her on top of him, “kind of does feel like I am going to wake up and this all be a dream.”

“Is that why you asked me to do that?”

“Well, yeah. It’s something I’ve wanted to do from the moment I laid eyes on you. When you find your True Mate, you know it is someone you can have this incredibly close, intimate bond with. Bondage is a way to build that bond. You trusted me enough to be tied up and blindfolded not knowing what I could do to you during that moment.”

Something felt off. There was a flicker of something inside of their bond. Ruby could not put her finger on it. He continued on talking about trust and how that could only strengthen the mate bond. It was weird that trust seemed to be the one thing he was focused on.

He is lying or keeping something from me. Mates have a hard time lying to one another because the bond makes it so you can feel what the other is feeling! Ryker feels guilty…that is what I felt!

“Ry, don’t lie to me. What is going on?”

Ryker looked away from her for a few seconds. Ruby felt Ryker struggling with his emotions through the bond as he refused to look at her. A feeling of fear spiked through her as her heart began to race. Before her mind could start running out of control with thoughts of doubt, Ryker looked at her once more.

“I plan to challenge Tyson tomorrow.”

“What?”

The shock of his words rattled Ruby. She knew Ryker planned to challenge Tyson. He made that clear when talking to her family. Ryker never said when he planned to do it. Ruby thought Ryker would come up with a plan before just walking into West Coast and challenging Tyson.

“I need to catch him off guard. Otherwise, he will plan for every nearby pack to come down on me the second I step out of here.”

Ruby bolted upright and looked down at her mate. Ryker’s face was contorted with guilt. She could feel through the bond that Ryker was struggling as he confessed his plan.

“How do you even plan for that to happen? How do you know that won’t happen even tomorrow!” Ruby escalated into shouting by the time she was finished.

Ryker took a deep breath before answering her. “Your father offered to get Tyson to the beach so I can challenge him. He plans to bring your brother along and I will meet them there with Deacon so I am not alone.”

“My father…? When the hell did that happen? You weren’t alone with them!”

Ryker’s guilt through the bond felt like oil. He could not meet her eyes from the shame he felt for what he had been keeping from her. Ruby growled in frustration and attempted to roll off Ryker. Instead, he wrapped his hands around her thighs and kept her in place.

“Please, don’t go. It is killing me that I kept anything from you. But if you walk away, I won’t be able to handle it.”

“What have you been keeping from me, Ryker?” Ruby knew an Alpha Command would do nothing since Ryker was her mate, and they shared dominance level. That did not stop her from putting that kind of emphasis on her words. She wanted answers regardless of how Ryker felt.

He is my mate, damnit! He should not be able to hide shit from me.

“Before you stepped out of the barrier, your father pledged his alliance to me. Since I brought you inside and kept you safe from Tyson, he thought it would be a way to repay me. To have an alliance with a pack would give me strength and allies if I ever needed it.”

Ruby’s blood boiled when Ryker finished his sentence. It was one thing to keep a plan from her because he wanted to share a moment with her without anger getting in the way. It was an entirely different thing to hide the fact that her family was now an ally to him and shared a damn pack bond.

I DON’T EVEN HAVE A PACK BOND WITH HIM!

The growl that came out of her was the loudest and most vicious one she ever created. Before Ryker could stop her, Ruby leapt off him and onto the floor. Ryker sat up on the bed and opened his mouth to say something. Ruby cut him off.

“What the fuck, Ryker! How could you keep something like that from me? You haven’t even tried to initiate me into the small pack you created now that I am your mate, but you allow my father to become your ally? Are you kidding me? How long did you plan to keep something like this from me?”

“I don’t actually know when I was going to tell you, but I wanted to at least have time with you before I walk out there tomorrow.”

Ryker’s words sounded so sincere, but it did not douse the rage Ruby felt. Ruby then tried to take a few deep breaths, but it did not help her either. All she kept thinking was that Ryker allowed himself to not talk to her about any of this until the night before.

“I’m trying to calm myself, but it isn’t working. Please explain why you would drop this on me the night before you planned to do this.”

“Because the last thing I ever want to do is to hurt you. I didn’t mean for this to happen. I have been so lost in you and the mate bond that I didn’t want that to end. There is a chance that Tyson can get the best of me during the challenge. I wanted the last two days to be about us and nothing else.”

Ruby stared at him, unable to produce words. On one hand, him keeping something like this from her was maddening. On the other hand, he was right. Tyson could very well get the best of him, and he could lose the fight.

“I, Ruby Gardner, daughter of Alpha Davis Gardner of the Red Cove Pack, pledge my alliance to you, Alpha Ryker Simmons of the Wolf Den pack.”

There was a searing rush of power that ran through Ruby’s body as a pack bond formed inside of her soul connecting herself with Ryker and the people he was bonded to. Both she and Ryker collapsed as the bonds formed, but it did not make sense. Ryker should have already gone through this when he formed the little pack with his crew. However, it seemed as though it was forging a brand-new pack bond instead. After the bonds formed and settled into place, Ryker looked up at her as if she had just cast magic.

“What the hell just happened? That was a brand-new pack bond that just formed,” Ruby asked in confusion.

“I never named the pack. It was just a few people so we could use a mindlink. You just named it, making it official.”

“I officially created a pack?”

“Yeah. Which only Alphas can do. You are the Alpha of Wolf Den’s pack.”

“Well how about that… Oh my Goddess!”

Ryker’s eyes furrowed in confusion. “Yeah?”

“I am an Alpha of a pack before my brother! I won the bet! Ha!”

Ryker chuckled, grabbed her hand, and pulled her into him. It was awkward since he was kneeling on the bed, but he continued to grasp her tightly in his arms. Once he loosened his grip, Ruby shoved him, and he fell backwards onto the bed.

“Don’t ever keep anything from me again, Ryker. I am your mate. There is no room in our relationship for stupid shit like this. I am here to be at your side, not left in the dark.”

Ryker was leaned up onto his elbows so he could look at her. He frowned at her words, closed his eyes, and nodded. “You’re right. I shouldn’t have kept you in the dark. Now can we spend the evening and night in the way we should? Or are you going to continue being mad at me?”

“I did not hear an apology in those words. I want actual apologies when we fuck up.”

Ryker lifted one of his eyebrows and smirked at her. The smirk made her heart flutter, but she kept her ground.

“You said ‘we’.”

Ruby looked at him with a face of “really?”

“I can make mistakes, too. I will apologize when I do and not like that half apology you just spewed.”

Ryker chortled, but quickly gained his composure back. “I did not think I would hear any woman say that, and I am quite honored to know that my mate of all people said it. But… I am sorry for not telling you everything sooner. It won’t happen again. Unless it is a surprise for you.”

Ruby could not help but smile at that. “Thank you for your apology. I forgive you.”

“Good,” Ryker said before moving as fast as lightning and yanking her onto him. Before she knew it, his lips were on hers possessively, and one of his hands on her hip. With a fast roll, she was under him, and his hard cock pressed against her entrance.

Ruby caused Ryker to growl when she broke the kiss, “how the hell are you hard already?”

“I’ll always be this hard for you. This is what you do to me. Your scent is so intoxicating, and just being near you causes me to want to pin you to anything I can so I can have my way with you.” Ryker’s teeth scraped his mark sending a shiver all along her body. “Now stop running your mouth so I can worship you.”

Well now that is something a girl should never turn down.

* * *

Ryker kepthis word and did not stop worshiping her body until he physically could not anymore. He collapsed next to her hours later and fell into a deep sleep while holding her tightly against him. Ruby felt sore and thoroughly loved when she fell asleep in his arms. When the sun shined through the window, Ruby’s eyes reluctantly opened. Ryker was still asleep and breathing so deeply that she knew she could get out of his grip without him waking.

Ruby’s legs did not want to work, but she managed to make her way to the bathroom. As exhausted as her body felt, her eyes were wide open. Ruby groaned and stepped into the shower to get washed up. While in there, Ruby reflected on what had happened the night before. They didn’t talk about it further, but Ruby felt as though she needed to go along with everyone to the challenge. No matter how much Ryker might argue, she could not allow him to do a Position Challenge without her there to witness it. She would go crazy if she remained here and had to wait to feel her bond with Ryker disintegrate if he lost.

Nope. I need to see this for myself.

Ryker was still fast asleep when she walked into the room. She refused to wake him, making sure he had enough rest before leaving to challenge Tyson. As quietly as she could, she got dressed and walked out into the town. There were a few people walking around, and all of them bowed their heads in respect to her. The people here were still Rogues, but every Shifter could feel the animal counterpart’s dominance. They always felt her Alpha aura, but now it had to be more prominent with being mated to Ryker and forming the pack last night.

Ruby mindlessly walked around the town with no set goal in mind. She went walking so she wouldn’t wake Ryker and knew that Tasha was still asleep since it was early in the morning. Ruby found herself at the main entrance to the barrier and felt the crackle of the magic.

That is when she could feel something different within herself. She knew what a pack bond felt like and had grown used to the mate bond with Ryker, but what she felt now was not that kind of magic. Instead, it felt like a constant bubbling inside of her that had not been there before. Ruby looked up at the barrier, and the bubbling inside her intensified. The bubbling turned into something more, like a crackling of electricity.

Wait, that has to be the barrier magic.

We must have been connected to it after we formed the pack bond.

Before Ruby could study the feeling further, she felt something collide with the barrier. The magic that the barrier held inside of her began to feel like a coiled snake. Something was fighting the magic, but Ruby could not see what was happening on the other side. Just before she could turn around and run back into town, the barrier shattered. The magic inside of her felt like an explosion, and she fought the weakness in her legs so she could remain standing. On the other side of the barrier was her worst nightmare.

Tyson Barons and at least twenty other wolves.