44. Mai

Ryan's car was back at the cabin. He carried Jase, who was none too pleased about it. Jase was still in a lot of pain, though he was trying hard not to show it.

"Hey, you're gonna be okay," I assured him.

He grimaced as Ryan jumped, as carefully as possible, over a fallen log.

By the time we got back to the car, Jase's face was a mask of fatigue. Two Shifts in such a short amount of time, plus all the healing his body was trying to do, was really taking it out of him.

Together, Ryan and I gently laid Jase on the back seat of the car.

"Damn it," Jase hissed as he lowered himself down, the muscles in his face taut with pain.

I shot Ryan a worried look. He placed a hand on Jase's shoulder, and a ripple of energy seemed to pass between them. Jase's face softened as the pain visibly drained away.

"You're easing his pain."

The Alpha power cascading off of Ryan left me almost lightheaded.

"How did you do that?" I looked up at Ryan.

Ryan shrugged, his eyes meeting mine. "I don't know, to be honest. My wolf knew; it was instinctual to him. He saw a member of his Pack in pain and wanted to take some of it away for him."

"It sounds similar to something I did in the cabin before. I think I forced him to Shift."

Ryan looked at me thoughtfully. "I don't think that would have worked if Jase hadn't acknowledged us as his Alphas."

"I thought the same thing." I nodded. "Proper Alphas, huh? Aren't we full of surprises?"

Ryan's lips curled into a quick, flirtatious smirk before he got back into the driver's seat. "You have no idea what surprises I have in store for you."

"Oh really?" I raised an eyebrow. "Care to give me a hint?"

"Hell no! I"m going to have a fuckload of fun showing you all the surprises I"ve got planned."

"I"m not exactly known for my patience, Ryan."

Ryan grinned wickedly at me. "And that just makes it more fun for me."

"Can you two not flirt while I'm bleeding out here?" Jase said from the back seat.

Ryan winked at me. Jase was going to be okay.

"Hang tight, Jase," Ryan declared, and we sped off into the night.

As Ryan navigated the winding roads, I filled him in on what Carl had told me about Brock"s plans. "He said Brock and Hayley were taking Sofia to the Meet. They're going to execute her in front of everyone as a warning to the rest of the Pack."

"We know. Derek and Mason have got this. If anyone can get Sofia free, it's those two. We need to get ready. As soon as the Meet is over at midnight, we can't challenge Brock or Hayley for a year. Derek said he'll stall as much as he can, but it's gonna be tight."

Ryan maneuvered the car around a bend at full speed.

"I hate this. I hate being stuck here when our family is out there fighting. We should be there, fighting with them."

"I know." Ryan reached over and twined his fingers in mine. "We'll make it. We'll stop Brock and Hayley, and we'll spend the next fifty years making the Three Rivers Pack a place where everyone is supported and protected."

"You promise?"

"Absolutely."

Jase snorted from the back seat. "Fifty years of marital bliss leading a Pack? You two planning on the white picket fence and two point five pups too?"

"The half pup is a bit concerning," I said, glancing at Ryan with a teasing smile.

Ryan shot me a playful look, his eyes twinkling. "Well, the point five is just there to keep us on our toes, you know? Never a dull moment in an Alpha household."

"Sounds chaotic. I like it," I replied, my eyes meeting his. For a brief moment, the car dropped away, and it was just Ryan and me and the promise of hours and hours of fun making pups.

Ryan glanced over at me, his eyes softening. "Do you want to talk about what happened back at the compound?"

"Do I want to? Not particularly. Do I need to? Probably," I answered, chewing on my lower lip.

He sighed, his grip tightening around the wheel. "Mai, I was scared out of my mind when I found out you walked right into their lair. Don't ever do something like that again, or I swear, I'll put you over my knee."

I grinned at the image, my eyes twinkling with mischief. "Promises, promises."

Jase groaned theatrically from the back. "Ugh, get a room, you two."

"Oh, we will, after this is all done," Ryan promised, his voice dark and seductive.

Jase was right, though. We had to focus right now; it was just that I thought I wouldn't ever see Ryan again. I'd been so scared, and now he was here. I wanted to lighten the mood, to take a moment, breathe in the scent of him, and steady myself for what was to come. It sucked, but we didn't have time.

"I think Hayley's on ripple."

Ryan's eyebrows shot up. "What? How do you figure?"

"After Seth kidnapped me, there was a witch at the house he kept me in. He was working with this witch to try to break my bond with the Three Rivers Pack. Seth said my bond was ‘impure' and that the witch had helped him see it."

The car veered sharply to the left before Ryan corrected it. "What the fuck, Mai? Why didn't you tell me?"

"We've been bouncing around from one disaster to the next. It didn't seem important. Seth was dead. I figured we wouldn't see the witch ever again. But then Arabella said that when she was on ripple, she felt ‘pure.' I didn't think anything of it at the time, but Hayley came to see me in the compound. She wanted me to go to the Meet and give up my claim and bond to our Pack. She said, and I quote, ‘Your bond with the Three Rivers is impure.'"

"It could be a coincidence," Jase said from the back seat.

I shook my head. "Hayley all but admitted that she was taking ripple. She implied that Brock had been giving it to her."

Ryan tilted his head to one side. It was his thinking pose. "It might explain her personality change. Why she killed Jem. If Brock's been keeping Hayley on ripple for a while now, there is no telling what effects it's having on her."

Jase chimed in with a sarcastic tone, "Ah, the circle of life. Witches, drugs, and impure bonds. What's next? Zombies?"

Ignoring Jase's comment, Ryan looked serious, his eyes searching mine. "Once this is over, we're digging into this, Mai. Ripple, witches, the whole nine yards."

The sincerity in his voice melted away some of the tension I'd been carrying. "I have a feeling this is important. Something bigger is going on here, and if it involves the witches and this drug, then it's bad news for all werewolves."

Ryan swung the car round a corner. He was pushing it, taking it to the limits of what the car could do, and I was so grateful. He would get us there in time, I had to believe that.

"You killed Brock"s father."

Ryan glanced at me. "Yes, I did. And I loved every fucking second of it."

Okay then.

"You know, I think he"s been planning this ever since then."

Ryan"s jaw clenched. "The thought had occurred to me."

"You could apologize," I suggested.

Ryan looked at me for a moment, then we both started laughing.

"I"ve got a much better idea," Ryan said, as his face turned serious and he let a bit of the rage he was feeling escape along our bond. "Let"s go and rip his fucking head off."