I sighed. “I’m not going to attack you.”
“That’s not what I was worried about. You’re on edge. Did something happen while I was gone?” He came over and set the bags down on the counter before reaching for me.
I covered his hand with my own. The thunderous rampage inside my ribcage steadily calmed.
“Nothing happened.” I inhaled, savoring the smell of bacon and butter coming from the paper bags. “You can’t blame me for being vigilant right now.”
“I can’t blame you, but I can take that burden from you. Let me keep an eye out today. You should eat something right now.” Ryder held up a finger then ran back outside.
When he returned, he had a coffee in each hand. The familiar aroma of chocolate and espresso reached my nose, making my stomach pinch. Before I knew what I was doing, I reached out for the iced coffee and plucked it from his hand. Ryder quickly snatched a straw from his pocket, tapped it against his thigh to break the wrapper, and handed me the open end, so I could pull it out of the paper.
That first sip of cold coffee made me groan happily. The nervous energy still prickling at my stomach slowly faded. I leaned back against the counter behind me and blinked up at Ryder as if I were a happy cat.
He chuckled under his breath and shook his head before emptying the paper bags. A stack of foil-wrapped breakfast sandwiches quickly appeared on the counter. My mouth watered at the sight of them. Small stickers labelled them as sausage or bacon. There was one that said Pancake.
I snatched the pancake one before Ryder could stop me and ran back to the bedroom where I jumped onto the bed.
“Get back here with that!” Ryder shouted. “I got that just for myself. Don’t you dare steal that from me now that I’m starting to taste food again.”
After placing my iced coffee on the nightstand, I quickly unwrapped the pancake breakfast sandwich and stole a big bite. The taste of maple syrup and savory peppered bacon spread across my tongue, nearly making me groan.
Ryder snatched his sandwich back and gave me a look of reproach. Before I could complain, he shoved another sandwich into my hands. This one was a croissant with a thick layer of peppered bacon that crunched with each bite.
I hadn’t realized just how hungry I’d been. I’d become numb to it and forgotten to eat altogether, which in turn had put me on edge. My panic upon waking up made more sense now.
“You can taste food again?” I asked around a mouthful.
The enchanted fae food that Queen Beryl had been shoving in his face had stolen Ryder’s ability to taste human food. He hadn’t been certain his taste would ever come back. If the spell was breaking, then things were looking good.
“Are you ready for today?” Ryder asked.
We’d been spending more time together. Even now, he sat on the edge of the bed, his back pressed against my legs as if he couldn’t bear to be so close without touching me. I wished I could read into this, but he had a mate.
Perhaps this was proof that Ryder was becoming pack. He’d sworn up and down that he wanted nothing to do with my pack, but my hound saw him as one of us now. Of course, my hound would want to be close to him. And, if he saw me as pack, his dragon would want to be as close to me as possible.
I wished I could change fate and bind us together. No one else in my life had ever done as much for me as Ryder had. I knew now that my parents had tried to help me, and I probably owed them my life. Yet, Ryder barely knew me. He wasn’t a relative or an old friend, but a near-stranger who’d dropped everything to protect me.
I wished I could be happy for him and Bri. If I were a better person, I would have tried to help them reconnect. The jealous part of me that wanted to keep Ryder all to myself was perfectly content leaving their problems alone so that he would spend more time with me.
I shook myself out of my greedy thoughts. “What are we doing today?”
Oh, right. The witch.
We had to pay her a visit to figure out how to undo what Alvin had done to me. The ritual that she’d sold to Alvin bound me to him. I doubted Alvin had full control over me, or else he would have used that against Ryder by now. The ritual must have been interrupted when I kicked over that candle.
I’d escaped not long after, too. Though the ritual seemed to have taken root, it hadn’t yet eclipsed my free will completely. I was thankful for that small fact, even if thoughts of the previous night filled me with guilt.
Ryder patiently waited for me to finish two sandwiches before I got up to shower. I couldn’t recall the last time I’d showered. I must have smelled awful. The past few days had been nothing but stress.
Harvey, the Alpha’s son, was dead. I’d killed him with a lightning strike that I’d pulled from the sky. The smell of burnt hair seared my nose all over again. I opened the bodywash and held it up to my nose with the hopes that it might drown out the scent of death still haunting me.
Up until recently, I’d had no arcana of my own. The only magic at my disposal had been my ability to take the form of a hound. Though a thunderstorm had followed in my wake whenever I shifted, I’d had no control over it until now.
I squeezed bodywash into my open palm and wondered if I would ever get these hands clean. How could I when the power to kill was still inside me?
I’d been through trial after trial, each one awakening something new and terrifying in me. The first awakening had been the vocal arcana. I still didn’t have very good control over it. The arcana intertwined with my voice and allowed me to issue undeniable commands. My feeble attempts at using it had nearly gotten me killed.
In a panic, I’d told Ryder to stop hurting Harvey. After that, Ryder had been incapable of touching Harvey even to stop Harvey from attacking me. I needed to use the command wisely or else someone would get hurt. I didn’t like having this kind of burden on my shoulders. There was already too much that I had to worry about.