Chapter 44: Chapter Forty-Four

Ryder leafed through the pages of the file on his desk using his thumb and forefinger, his eyes scanning through the words quickly, his mind absorbing and retaining the information just as quickly too.

He was beyond tired and was in need of a shower, sleep, food, and not in that particular order.

He has been stuck in the archive building, searching through the shelves for any information about Saffron’s identity.

The only information he found on her was the contract her father had signed, handing her over to Blood Moon Pack, in exchange for the clearance of his debts to the gang.

Ryder had seen dozens of situations similar to this that made him feel disgusted by the acts of men, but this one right here, Saffron’s situation, made him abhor her father and the lack of ethics in which his father ran their pack and business.

Contracts that bound humans as slaves to supernaturals should not have been in existence, and were the decision left to him, the humans would have been compensated for their work and given the choice to either leave or stay on the island.

Humans were not items to be gifted or sold to others for slavery. They were an entity of their own and should be allowed the freedom to choose the direction of their lives and to live it on their own terms.

Ryder would have chosen to lead the pack towards a different path. A path that would not be agreeable to his father’s or his merry band of psychotic followers.

He agreed that humans were the most despicable of species because they leaned more into their selfishness than supernatural species did, sabotaging their lives and the lives of those closest to them.

A growl escaped his lips as he read the contract once again, trying to see if he could find something that he had missed in his earlier perusal, any link she might have to the gang.

It was all for naught, though. There was nothing amiss in the contract, nor was there anything nefarious hidden within the typed words.

He blew out a breath as he scrubbed a hand over his face, pulling back from the desk to rest his head over the backrest of the chair he was sitting on.

“You’re still here?” Shivani questioned, her brows pinching into a frown when she rounded the corner and found Ryder sitting in the same spot she had left him in hours ago.

“Yeah,” Ryder replied, not bothering to open his eyes or take a glance at her. “I still am.”

Shivani hummed under her breath, unperturbed by his lack of interest, as she strolled towards the desk and began to peruse the contract he had been reading.

“Oh,” she gasped softly, when she saw the line that bound Saffron in slavery to the pack, pity flashing through her eyes before she schooled her expression into its normal cool indifference.

Throughout her years of being a part of Blood Moon Pack, she had seen and heard stories that made her feel disgusted by her pack's antics and the leadership of the pack.

But after years of seeing humans subjected to the cruelty of supernaturals, it would take a lot more than seeing a human being sold by her father to pay his debt to phase her.

Seeing one of her oldest friends lose his head over said human, however, was a different story altogether.

“I take it you have feelings for her? This human?” Shivani questioned, perching over the end of the desk, her gaze focused solely on Ryder.

She knew that Ryder had feelings for the human girl, but she would still like to hear the confirmation come from his own mouth.

The confession would change everything they had worked for, and she wasn’t sure if she was ready to hear it just yet.

It took a moment before Ryder answered her, but when he opened his lips and uttered the words she had feared to hear, Shivani knew that there was no coming back from it.

“Yes, I do.”

Shivani let out a sigh as she watched Ryder put his head between the palms of his hands, his shoulders hunching in defeat.

“This changes everything, you know,” she muttered, her words an echo of her earlier thoughts. “Are you sure about what you just said? Could it just be some sort of infatuation or…”

“Do you think I don’t know that?” Ryder growled out, cutting her off mid-sentence, as he snapped his head up to glare at her. “You think I haven’t questioned myself about that? About everything? You think I haven’t thought about what is at stake?”

“I didn’t mean it like that, Ryder,” she uttered softly, trying to placate him before he went off on her, which was the last thing she wanted. “It’s just…” she paused, unsure of how to phrase her next words without offending the wolf in front of her. “We have worked so long and so hard for our cause to let something as fickle as feelings to ruin it for us.

“This human is a threat to what we have worked so hard for, and the future we sought to build for our people. It would be a shame for our plans to go down the drain because you let your emotions cloud your judgement. We both know the truth that the bodies you had left in your wake were not for the sake of the pack but because she had been attacked by an unknown wolf.”

Ryder’s lips pinched with distaste at her words, but he knew she spoke from a place of love and loyalty to their cause, a loyalty he hadn’t felt the past ten days.

Shame filled him then, rendering him incapable of speech.

He blew out a breath, tension filling him as he thought about what was ahead, what he risked losing, if he strayed from the path he had been set upon before he had met Saffron, before he had let his emotions cloud his judgement.

Shivani was right. Saffron posed a threat to their cause, but he had no idea how he was going to be able to detangle from the web he has now found himself in.

He couldn’t think of a possible scenario where he could detach from Saffron and still keep a level head.

There was only one thing left to do to ensure that both the future of the pack and the woman he loved were safe and unharmed.

“I will challenge my father for his position of Alpha Supreme the next full moon.”

“Are you nuts?” Shivani exploded, rising to her feet swiftly and glaring daggers at him. “We did not work so hard all these years for you to throw it out the window just because of a silly infatuation, with a human no less.”

“It is no silly infatuation Shivani!” he growled, his voice deepening, as his wolf took over. “Do not seek to belittle what I…”

“Can you even hear yourself?” she growled back, her wolf peeking through her eyes as her lips peeled back into a snarl.

“Please, Shivani,” he pleaded softly, closing his eyes as he tried to wrestle back control from his wolf.

It wasn’t often that he lost control of his wolf and never had he done it where Shivani was concerned. But today, there was no talking down his wolf, not when Shivani was hell-bent on belittling what they felt.

“I cannot do this without you, old friend,” he uttered, blinking his eyes open and fixing his gaze on her, his brown orbs clear and glistening with unsaid emotions. “You have stood by me all these years, and I am truly grateful for that. I ask you again this time to stand by me and support my decision.”

“I need you, Shivani,” he pleaded when she showed no signs of backing down. “This is bigger than me, or you, or Saffron. It is about the pack. It has always been about the pack, and it will remain that way just with slight changes to the plan.”

“You call this slight?” she rasped, swiping a hand over her face. “Challenging your father was never the plan.”

“It is now.”

“I hope you know what you are doing,” she responded before she strode away from the desk and disappeared behind the shelves, never once looking back at him.

Yeah, Ryder also hoped he knew what he was doing. Otherwise, everything would be lost.