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I Don’t Like You
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2024-09-28 00:00:42Ryan
“You’re sure there’s no way out of this?” Jacob asks Andrew two hours later. We’re sitting around a campfire roughly a half mile outside of the village.
Andrew nods, glancing at me before hugging his knees. “These tribes are steeped in tradition, guys. I don’t know what else to say. If Alpha Ryan refused the girl, he would have been offered another, and another, and if he’d refused to marry outright, she would have been given as a… concubine, perhaps.”
I close my eyes for a moment and sigh around the rim of my water jug. The sweet, heavy wine and mead I’d been served over and over again, my cup never empty, has my head pounding already.
But the second I close my eyes, I see her. Aviva. What a name. It dances over my tongue like a song, and it seems fitting for her.
She’s a very strange woman, and I mean that in the nicest way. She has a gla
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AvivaRain patters across the wooden roof covering one corner of the old temple. I roll off the makeshift bed of hay and wool blankets I keep here. I stretch, rolling my neck. My hands are still bloody from the rogue I encountered last night as I gather my weapons and head down to the creek. I sleep out here sometimes, especially when the weather is nice. The old temple is just far enough from the village where I don’t have to worry about running into anyone during my nightly hunts but also close enough to keep me out of harm's way from the beasts that linger in the thick forest beyond the village.I’m washing my hands when I catch Alpha Ryan’s lingering scent. I forgot he’d come here last night, encountering me by accident, I believe. I try not to think about it as I walk back to the village, but it’s hard not to imagine every facial expression, especially the wry twist of his lips whenever I spoke.
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Ryan“I feel like we’re in college again,” Jacob murmurs as we lean against the side of one of the earthen buildings on the outer ring of the village. He rolls his shoulders before crossing his arms over his chest, purposefully flexing. Andrew leans forward to peer at him, snorting, “Yeah, and just like in college, the chances of you getting’ any tail tonight is slim to nonexistent.”“I’ve put on like thirty pounds of muscle since then,” Jacob hisses, flexing his biceps in emphasis. I’m standing between them with my arms crossed as we watch the group of hunters–two dozen or so, by my estimation–prepare for the hunt. One group is entirely female and has my group's full, unwavering attention.“Do you remember the night,” Andrew laughs, pointing an accusatory finger at Jacob, “when you brought Gretchen Crosby to the fall formal afterparty?”“I don’t want to talk about that–”“And her boyfriend showed up, and instead of kicking his ass and taking her back to our dorm room, you ended up
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AvivaAlpha Ryan is the largest wolf I’ve ever seen by a longshot. While his overall mass is incredibly shocking, if not a little intimidating, he’s much slower than me.I can hear him lumbering through the woods behind me as I dart around trees and fly over creek beds, sprinting deeper and deeper into the outer ring of the ever dark, ever untamed forest that sits on the outskirts of Endovian territory.The spring hunt is technically taking place in the sacred hunting grounds our tribe guards year round, but I’ve had my fill of deer. Plus, Alpha Ryan already snagged a golden elk, which up until two nights ago, had been my ultimate prize. Now that pelt is hanging in the meeting hall–a trophy–and a constant reminder of how my bride price was paid.I shake the thought out of my head and pick my way down a sharp decline into a shadowed valley where the trees rather suddenly drop off, revealing noth
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AvivaAlpha Ryan shifts back to his human form, cloaked in shadows. He’s breathing heavily as he lumbers through the camp, crouching to rip into a clothing cache.I watch his shadow in silence, my heart beating out of rhythm. I only look away when the wind parts the treetops and allows moonlight to spread over the clearing again, illuminating the hellhound lying broken and in pieces at the very edge of the tree line.It takes two shallow breaths before it starts to fall in on itself, turning to ash that’s carried away by the wind.I slowly turn my gaze back to Alpha Ryan who is standing now, wearing a pair of pants that don’t fit him at all, the button holding them in place undone. Moonlight ghosts over his frame. Instead of tight, wiry muscles, he’s just… huge. There’s nothing lean about him. I can see the outline of his abdominals as he turns slightly to face me. The muscles in his che
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