I’m so sorry…
I don’t know if she can hear me, but I apologize to her anyway. I can’t imagine how trapped she must feel, and now the wall caging her refuses to completely break.
“Pruitt?” A voice answers back, one I’ve become very fond of.
“Ryker?” I think back tentatively.
“I can hear you through the pack link!” His voice sounds ecstatic, and when I open my eyes to look at him. His face looks the same, a big smile sits there, a smile full of hope.
“She’s still stuck,” I reveal to him, tears running down my face. “She’s sort of out, I can feel her, but there’s a piece of the wall still up or something.” I wipe my face with a shaky hand and see my claws are still out. “I don’t know… I tried. I really did try, but she’s still stuck.” A sob escapes my mouth before I can stop it. I can’t help but notice how weird my mouth feels when I talk with fangs.
Holy shit, I have fangs.
“I know you tried.” Ryker gets to his feet and steps over the stones. It’s clear to both of us the ritual is over. The pain has already dispersed from my body and the power we both felt left with it. Ryker kneels in front of me and wraps me up in his arms. “I know you tried, and you were so brave.” He kisses the top of my head. “I’m considering this a win.”
“Why? I didn’t shift,” I sniff.
“No, but your fangs and claws appeared, and even though she’s still tucked away, I can sense your wolf’s presence. That’s something I haven’t been able to do until now,” he explains, “and this means we’re that much closer to getting her out. We won’t stop trying. I promise we won’t give up on her. I won’t give up.” There’s a double meaning to his words when he says, “I promise I won’t ever leave your side.”
“Do you mean that?” I push back so I can look into his eyes.
“I mean it. I’ll hold on as long as I can.” He pushes away strands of hair stuck to my sweaty face. “Your wolf eyes are so beautiful,” he murmurs. “You’re beautiful.”
“Even when I’m a sweaty mess with fangs,” I counter with a grin. Even though I feel devastated this didn’t work, Ryker is still able to make me smile.
“Even then.” He presses his lips to my temple. “But you really do need a shower,” he whispers against my face.
“Can you still hear me?” I ask Ryker through the mind link. Again.
“I told you I could two minutes ago,” he snickers back.
“I’m just checking.”
It’s weird to be walking right next to him and be having this conversation with him, in our heads. If anyone else were to walk past us right now, they would think we are walking in total silence. I’m not going to lie, though. I’m a fan of having Ryker’s voice in my head. I’ve already been dreaming about him for ten months, might as well have his thoughts in my head too. Right?
“You don’t have to keep checking,” Ryker says, speaking out loud this time. “Now that this part of your wolf is unlocked, you should be able to do it with anyone else in the pack, not just me.”
“So, I can talk shit about people with Remi, and no one will hear us?” This special little skill just unlocked so many possibilities.
“It’s usually so pack members can communicate while in wolf form, but sure you can use it to gossip with my sister.” Ryker shakes his head at this. “The two of you together have always been trouble.”
“Were we bad as kids too?”
“Worse.” Ryker chuckles. “You guys were always getting into things you weren’t supposed to.”
“I can picture that.” I grin.
I lied to Esme when I said I didn’t care about getting my memories back. I’ve mourned their loss for as long as I can remember, and there was always a smidge of hope that one day I would wake up and they would be back. So, now that I know for a fact there’s no hope of them ever returning, I can’t help but be a little sad.
I wish I could know what Christmases were like before the accident or what it was like to see my parents shift into wolves. I wonder what they were like as alphas? Considering how quickly the pack was willing to submit to me earlier, they must have been well-loved and respected. I can only hope that when the time comes, I’ll be able to live up to them.
As we walk closer to the house, I pause in my steps when I hear something. “Is that a heartbeat? Why is it so fast?” I ask, “and why can I hear it?”
“There’s a deer in the trees right over there.” Ryker points to the dark line of trees to our right. “He’s spooked because he can sense that we’re predators. Your wolf senses must have been released during the ritual also.”
“Oh, that’s great. I can do everything wolf shifters can except shift.” I throw my hands up in frustration.
“I told you. We’re aren’t giving up on that,” he says before glancing back at the house. Warm light shines out of the big windows that cover the rear, “Okay, let’s practice. Close your eyes and try to figure out who’s in the house.”
“What? Why?” I raise a brow in question.
“Humor me. I want to see how awesome my mate is at this wolf stuff.” My heart skips a beat every time he refers to me as his mate.
“Okay, fine,” I relent
