Chapter 163
RYDEN
I was about to knock on the door when Amelia opened it. Behind her was Lucius.
It always pissed me off how it was easy for him to come between us and felt no guilt, while I was grateful at the same time that he didn’t choose violence to get Amelia away from me, considering his nature.
“Alpha, you gotta change your shirt. Here.” She has Lucius’ shirt with her. “Mine is so big.”
“I’m good thanks.”
“Come on. Take it. I wanna go down and check on Ren.” She pushed it to my chest and walked away. “You have the same size.”
“We’re not the same size,” we said in unison, making her chuckle.
Lucius and I looked at each other. Then he said, “Put that on. She chose that for you.”
“You can’t just stay away from her, can you, asshole?” I pulled off my shirt and put on his gray shirt.
“I won’t until she’s safe.”
I stared at him before I spoke. “When this is over, will you stay away from her and leave us in peace?”
“Are you threatened by me, Ryden?” When I didn’t answer, he added, “You should, but it won’t satisfy me if Amelia isn’t happy. I can take her anytime to hurt you, to make you suffer the way I did for two decades, but I won’t do that. To answer your question, it’s not me. It depends on her if she wants me to stay away. But don’t worry, I’m the least of your worries. Consider yourself lucky. You just got a reliable ally for life.” He walked past me downstairs.
Still shaking with anger, I followed him. “Deal with the vampires, I’m taking Ren back to the pack so that Amelia’s mom can check him up and he will get his full recovery there. You’re welcome to join us.”
“I can’t right now. I have matters to attend to. Let me know if you need my help.”
“Thanks, but we’re good.” I barely made a few steps, he called my name, “We’re doing this for everyone’s sake, and for her. It’s nothing personal.”
Pissed off, I turned around and faced him. “Oh, really? Do tell, because from what’s going on right now, it’s always personal when my mate is involved.”
“I didn’t do anything wrong. I want to keep my pack safe like you do. It just happened this chaos became personal to me when I was targeted by the same people who wanted Amelia dead. Between us, I’m merely helping everyone to stay safe. It’s you who made it personal.”
“I do. It’s personal to me when you can’t stay away from my mate!”
“She’s my mate, too!” His eyes flashed with anger, while my outrage had already kicked in since he followed Amelia into the room. I’d only waited for a reason to punch his face, and I did.
“She’s not your mate.” I grounded my jaw in anger. My wolf stirred the moment my fist hit his face. “You’re a delusional asshole! She bares my mark, and you don’t. I’m her first, and you’re not. She doesn’t even remember you, so stay the fuck away from Amelia!”
He rubbed the spot where I punched him. “I let that one go because I promised her not to hurt you, and that includes punching your face.”
“Boys!” Zarah rushed in. “This is not the right time to brawl.”
“Wait. Wait.” Chance came in between us. “You both have—”
“Not now, Chance.” Zarah shooed him away. “Or I will bury you ten feet under.”
Zarah exhaled loudly as she looked at us. “For grown men, you both disappoint me. I have high respect for both of you until now.” She shook her head as she walked back to the guest room. “If you keep doing that, you’ll only give her a reason to leave both of you.”
“What do you mean by that?” I followed Zarah to the guest room. Amelia might have not heard what happened back there. She was still sitting next to Ren who was still sleeping.
When Zarah ignored my question, I went to Amelia, gripping her shoulder. “How’s Ren?”
“I heard everything, Ryden.”
I stiffened. “I’m sorry.”
She looked up at me, eyes narrowing. “Why do you keep doing what you’re doing?”
“What do you mean?”
“Never mind.” She held Ren’s back. “He’s not cold anymore.”
“We’ll wake him up when you’re ready to go back.”
“We’re staying until he recovers.”
“Amelia—”
“What?” She snapped and stood up. “Do you think I enjoy what’s going on? Do you think I like seeing you getting hurt? We still need him, Ryden. He has at least a hundred warriors ready to march with us so we can end this atrocity. Think again before you act.”
“I’m sorry. Watching you with him earlier made me really jealous.”
“We did not do anything inside. He helped me clean up and find shirts, that’s all. And what did you expect—” She huffed out. “Never mind. We’re all under-stressed, and I’m stressing you more. I know you have a lot on your plate right now, and the last thing I should be doing is make you angry. I’m sorry. If we only have other choices.”
“We do. We have other allies. I’m calling the meeting as soon as we get back home.”
“Do you realize Lucius knows the director more than anyone? He knows how the director moves and acts, and yet he couldn’t even get close to him. What chances do we have for someone who can change faces? The last time I saw him, he had my father’s, right now, maybe he looks different, and we have no way of finding that out. If he could only die by silver bullets, I already took my chance that day, but he wouldn’t.”
“Fine. We’ll have it your way. For the sake of everyone, right.” I looked at Ren one more time before I left the room.
“Ryden.”
I exhaled as I stopped.
She held my hand, squeezing it. “Let’s go home.”
“We’ll stay until Ren wakes up.”
“No. There’s a lot of hostility going on, and I can’t think clearly with all the tension between you and Lucius. You know there’s always a fine line between hate and love. Maybe we got it all wrong.”
“What do you mean?” I looked right into her eyes.
“Maybe you two are supposed to be mates.”
“What the fuck, Amelia?” I knew she was joking. She even tried hard to hide her smile. “I’m straight and you know that, but maybe he isn’t.”
She laughed out loud. “You should tell him that.”
“You’re crazy, you know.” I broke into a smile as I pulled her into my arms. “I love you, Amelia.”
“I love you, too. Always remember that.”
“I know, ladybug.”
“Now, let’s go home.”