To my surprise, he lowered his gaze. Had Alvin truly broken my old friend, or was there more to this that I wasn’t seeing?
“Thank you.”
His expression flickered with confusion. I wasn’t done, though.
“Thank you for helping me, but I can take it from here.”
He blinked. “Ness,” he said softly. “I don’t think you understand.”
Vi yelled. Cerri said something, but her words were drowned out by Vi’s shout. I held up my hand to silence them both. They quieted to let me speak because they were my friends. They knew when to let me handle my own problems.
“Just because you took my punishment for me once does not mean you understand everything that I’ve endured since I was thirteen, since you abandoned me to save your own ass. Yes, I know that you’ve been trying to help this whole time. Let me tell you something, Connor.” Hot lightning crackled in my chest. My voice remained low, but it rumbled like thunder. “You will never have me. Does that change how you feel? Do you still want to help me?”
I expected his interest to wane once he learned that he would never have me. Instead, Connor stood firm. He wrapped his arms around me and pulled me into his chest. The smell of pack and cut wood overwhelmed my senses.
I couldn’t remember the last time that someone in the pack had hugged me—aside from Cerri. It wasn’t the same with someone who didn’t have an animal. The warmth of another body and the smell of the wild seeped into me and eased some of the knots that had been cinched tight for years. Tears burned my eyes and threatened to be my undoing. Before I cried into Connor’s shirt, I pushed away from him.
“My offer still stands,” Connor said quietly.
Vi half-vaulted over the counter and bopped him atop the head with a rolled magazine. “Stop it. Bad wolf!”
Connor cringed. “I’m just trying to help!”
Vi glared at him. Cerri shook her head and gave a customer a friendly smile. The presence of a human meant that we all had to keep quiet. While we waited for the person to get their coffee and leave, I eyed Connor.
Could I get him to help me unseat Alvin? Connor had made his feelings for me clear now. I could use those feelings to get his help, but that seemed wrong. Besides, if Connor was caught helping me again, Alvin wouldn’t hesitate to kill him.
The only reason Ryder had survived this long was the fact that he was a dragon shifter. Alvin did not stand a chance against Ryder. If only Ryder would actually challenge Alvin. The fight would be over in a heartbeat.
Instead, I had to play games. I had to find out what Alvin had done that made him so afraid of this prophecy. After that, my fate would be in the hands of my pack. My hope that they would band together was quickly waning.
I stepped away to call Ryder, but the number he gave me was dead. I stared at the screen as the world fell out from under my feet.
Had he given up and left? We’d spoken earlier this morning. He hadn’t mentioned wanting to leave. My heart frantically pattered. The last bastion of true safety that I’d had was gone.
When I lifted my gaze to look at Connor, I must have been pale. He reached for me. The bell chimed behind him, and Ryder stepped into view. The world snapped back into place. I dodged Connor’s outstretched hand, so I could rush to Ryder.
I stopped myself at the last second. Swaying from my momentum, I looked up at Ryder. He lifted a questioning brow. I had to clench my jaw as a million things rushed to the tip of my tongue at once.
After I swallowed the words back down, I rolled my shoulders back. “I thought you’d left.”
He cocked his head in confusion. His smoky eyes hopped from me to the others in the café. I wanted to take ahold of his chin and make him look at me. The urge was odd, considering that Ryder wasn’t my mate.
Mate bonds between shifters were rare. The magic that brought pairs together seemed to have faded from the world. I tried to not think about it, but the hope that I would magically find my destined mate someday never really left me. I’d always wanted to know what it would be like to be loved wholly, to have someone protect me with their body and soul.
I wanted to give that back, too. I wanted to be so head over heels that the rest of the world no longer mattered.
What a foolish thought. This damned prophecy had cursed me. There was already too much magic in my life from that prophecy. I wouldn’t be granted a destined mate on top of that, too.
It seemed like a shitty hand of cards, to me.
Ryder didn’t really care about me. He wanted my favor. That was it.
We would never form a mate bond. He likely had a dragon woman who would wish him a good night every evening.
The jealousy that unfurled from that single thought nearly drowned out my beast. The hound whined and pawed at me. She wanted to get out and rub up against Ryder to mark him as ours. I denied her foolish request.
We can’t keep him.