Ryker - 31

31 - Ryker

Why would he be worried about her? Why was she alone if they couldn't reach her? And why the hell can’t they reach her? He said he hates it when she disappears like that. Does she disappear often? My mind is going crazy. My chest is clenching in panic at the thought of her being lost and she’s right in front of me. I really want to go to her, to hold her. That would calm me and my wolf down, but we can’t, not yet. My mate is safe in my pack, but she was alone and no one knew where she was, no protection with her.

Oh, f*ck! I take a deep breath in and out. We need to stay calm, otherwise I might shift uncontrollably. I haven’t done that since my first shift. I keep reminding my wolf that no one knows she is our mate and this is not how she is going to find out, if I decided to tell her at all.

I follow everyone in and try to calm my mind and my wolf’s mind as we go. I need to listen to the conversation. There has to be a reason why.

Thank the Goddess for Greta. She is at least on the same train of thought as I am, I can see it in her face.

“Why aren’t you inducted into the pack?” WHAT?! What the hell did I miss?

Greta walks off with her and even with my supreme hearing, there is too much talking for me to pinpoint them from across the field.

She’s not inducted into the pack? That’s what I heard. She’s a human in a wolf pack, visiting another wolf pack and has no solid ties to either? So if they were attacked or ambushed and she was taken, we would never find her. That can’t be right.

Now I don’t give a shit who knows, well that’s not entirely true, but I am letting my emotions take the wheel here.

“Jeremiah?”

He turns to look at me. “What’s up?”

“Did I hear right? Kennedy isn’t inducted into your pack and she goes missing regularly?”

“Something like that.” His look is dark, but he tries to hide it. So, at least I know he’s not okay with her disappearing. “It’s a long story and she doesn’t go missing, she is just good at hiding from everyone.”

“Warm up with me, I’ve got time. I don’t have any humans in my pack, but one I took over, does, so I would be interested in your input. She’s been with you for a while now. Why hold off if she’s important to you? It’s very clear she’s important to you and as long as my sister is okay with it, I won’t interfere. She clearly has a place in your ranks and can fight, what’s the deal there?” I embellish the truth. I have no idea if my new pack has humans, but I do want to know his experience with having one. And I need to know about their relationship. It’s easy to blame the reason on my sister.

“It’s not really that complicated. Kennedy and I are close, about as close as you can be without being biological siblings, maybe more with our situation.” Now he has my full attention and I’m not even pretending to warm up anymore.

“What does that mean exactly? Is my sister safe with you?” I give him my best big brother look, but I hate to admit that I thought of my own feelings before hers.

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“What?! Oh, yeah. I forget that not everyone knows our history, sorry. It’s just common knowledge in our pack. Kennedy and I are basically twins.”

“What do you mean basically?” I’m annoyed at the run around I’m getting. Getting solid answers from a non-enemy shouldn’t be this hard.

“Our moms were best friends and hers was visiting mine when they went into labor at the same time in my pack. We were born on the same day within minutes of each other. We have been best friends since day one. Our connection is similar to that of twins. We’ve been treated like twins our whole lives.”

Well, that explains a few things, including my sister’s behavior. I’m still not okay with the disappearing thing. But my chest eases a bit, knowing they aren’t connected romantically.

Josh calls us over, interrupting our conversation. We all start pairing off to spar. This is the best part about this training. We are all on the same level and none of us have to worry about hurting each other. We can go full out and really use our strength. I naturally grab Jeremiah, I am not done with our conversation and it’s rare that I have another Alpha in my age bracket to work with. So it doesn’t look completely weird.

“So how does that work with your pack? She’s fully human, that I can smell. How is she with you now, and a warrior?”

He doesn’t even blink, he knows I’m still talking about Kennedy, but if he’s suspicious about my intentions, he doesn’t show it. Maybe this is common for them, she is kind of special.

“She was made special for us.”

“You are such a sap.”

“When it comes to our mate, there is no other way to be.”

“Stop. I’m going to throw up.”

“No, you won’t. You about threw him into a wall cause he didn’t have her exact location.”

“Her parents died when she was fifteen. It’s not my story to share, but my mom took her in immediately and we have been attached at the hip ever since.”

“Still doesn’t explain why she’s not a full pack member and why she disappears.”

“She can’t be without getting hurt or dying. One of our elders found some information that said it would kill a human to bring them into the pack with our rituals. The magic that makes us shifters is too strong for their weak bodies. After what happened to her parents, my mom wouldn’t even hear of trying to research more, let alone testing the theory.” He just shrugs.

That’s the end of his story? One person said no so they just stopped looking, even though she puts her life in danger daily just by associating with us. Not to mention training as a warrior isn’t easy for a wolf, for a human it has to borderline on masacistic torture. His mom is an idiot.

“You never looked after that?”

“Ken and I did for a little while, but my mom found out and now we have an Alpha command from my dad that forbids all of us. I think she is afraid to lose Ken more than anyone else. It’s her last link to her best friend and it makes her a little crazy.”

“More crazy than the idea that just a scratch for a wolf could be fatal to her during training or she was lost for hours in my pack because no one can mindlink her?” I ask more harshly than I intended. “If I knew that I would have assigned a warrior to her.”

“And she would have beat your ass for even suggesting it.” He laughs darkly.

“Not likely.” I mutter, but my wolf and I both know that if she wanted to fight we’d let her.

“There’s a fine line when telling Kennedy to do anything. If she thinks it patronizing, she will fight back and then probably do whatever she can to spite you. Don’t shoot the messenger, we physically can’t go against the order until I take over as the Alpha. We are all kind of biding our time until then. And Ken makes sure that my mom doesn’t know about us not being able to find her. It’s her one bit of freedom and I can’t take that from her, she’s already lost too much. My parents are way over protective of her. I’m lucky she’s here now, but part of that is my parents got stuck at the summit since I found Rayna. We kind of lucked out. My mom has been trying to think of a way to keep her from going away to college next fall. Kennedy doesn’t know that and it would piss her off. If you haven’t noticed, she’s as much an ‘Alpha’ as you and I.”