The playful conversation starts / Counter all your quick remarks / Like passing notes in secrecy

There was a moment of pure silence with nobody moving or saying anything, then the next second, Ryker cursed out loud as he tried to cover my body with his. His hand quickly yanked the blanket to cover my exposed skin. "What the hell, Dimka?!" he yelled at his Beta and gave Dmitry a murdering glare. From what I'd read, male wolves were known to be incredibly possessive when it came to their mates, but this was the first time I witnessed Ryker being possessive of me. I was uncertain if I appreciated it. Possessive meant showing possession, and frankly, I wasn't a thing to be owned by him or anyone else.

Dmitry, being the usual Dmitry, with his expression remaining flat and emotionless, simply shrugged his shoulders and said, "You leave the door wide open. If you want some privacy, you should consider closing it."

Ryker narrowed his eyes, still every bit annoyed, and didn't appreciate his Beta pointing out the opened door. "Well, if you get the gist of it at one glance, you should have the decency of closing the door and walking away instead of interrupting."

"You should say that to Trish as she was the first to witness this and did not close the door," answered Dmitry smoothly, then he shook his head as if it didn't matter and that we were wasting time with this unnecessary debate. "Anyway, that is not why I came here. I want you to take a look at the new security perimeter that I and the guys have come up with during the meeting this morning."

Ryker made sure that my body was completely covered from the neck down before he eased his way off the bed and grabbed his black pants off the floor. "I'll have a look after I get my coffee."

Averting my gaze from Ryker's toned physique, I concentrated on Dmitry's sentence. "This morning? Wait, what time is it?" I ducked my head into the blanket and started searching for my phone. I was certain that it was somewhere in this bed. All I had to do was spot it. Instead, I found my discarded t-shirt and quickly put it on. "And Trish is back?"

"It is almost two in the afternoon now and yes, my dear cousin has returned from her wild escapades to London. I believe she is currently in the dining room, or at least she was when I made my way here."

I located my jeans and quickly slipped them on too. It was a tad challenging considering I was under the duvet and a blanket. But somehow I managed to do it and quickly got out of Ryker's bed. When I'd gotten out, some part of the bed was exposed and I was able to retrieve my phone.

"I'm gonna look for Trish downstairs, then." I headed towards the door and walked past Dmitry without looking at him. Being caught in bed with Ryker was embarrassing.

As I made my way down the hall, I could hear Ryker groaning as he said to Dmitry in a hushed voice, "Seriously, mate, you have the worst timing ever."

I made a brief trip to my bedroom to clean up, brush my teeth, and comb my hair, so by the time I'd arrived in the kitchen downstairs, I was somewhat presentable. "Trish!"

Trish was sitting on the barstool, nursing a glass of what I assumed was brandy. It was too early for a drink, but I swallowed my comment. It brought me joy that she was finally back. There were so many things that I wanted to talk to her about, things that I couldn't tell Davina because she was human and would probably think I was crazy if I started sputtering that werewolves existed.

Placing her glass on the table, Trish hopped off the barstool. We met halfway, and she pulled me into a hug. "Gosh! You won't believe what was up in London. I got to this really cool downtown club and—" she pulled back and fixed her gaze on me. "Did you color your hair? I swear it was light brown and not this reddish-brown when I left."

Hearing her mention of my hair caused my hand to touch it. I didn't realize that the color had changed and made a mental note to check it when I went for a shower later. "I didn't dye my hair."

"But the color is distinct. It wasn't this much red." Trish frowned but then quickly dismissed it in a way that Dmitry had dismissed Ryker's annoyance earlier as she gasped and squeezed my arms. What she said next had nothing to do with the color of my hair, but had everything to do with the semi-naked man upstairs. "So tell me, did you guys finally hit it off while I was away?"

"W-what?"

"You and the sexy wild Alpha, of course. I saw you both having some sexy time upstairs." Trish wiggled her eyebrows. "Tell me, is he good? I heard the stories, but I'd rather hear it directly from you."

"Oh, gosh." I wiped my face and moved towards the refrigerator, suddenly feeling desperate for a breeze of cool air. "Nothing happened. I actually caught him kissing Alana yesterday, actually."

"Ew. That bitch should learn to leave him alone. Anyway, so," Trish drawled, still eyeing me as I took a cart of milk out and placed it on the kitchen island, "you guys got into a fight and had makeup sex?"

"No. When I told you nothing happened, I mean it." I made a face. "Gosh, I'm so sleepy. I can't function without coffee." Then, as soon as the last word was out on my lips, I cursed out loud. "Shit! I forgot to tell Lukas and Miles!"

"Um, who the hell is Lukas?" asked Trish, then she shook her head as she watched me dialing Lukas' number. "And Miles, as in Alana's kid brother? Wow, girl, way to go! Fuck double standard!"

When Lukas didn't pick up my call, which was bad because that meant the cafe was hella hectic, I quickly dialed Miles's number. He picked up after the third dialing tone. "Hey, what's up, babe? How's your headache?"

"Babe?" My eyebrows lifted in surprise. "Miles, are you drunk?"

"Sure, babe, I don't see that as a problem, but can I talk to you later? 'My friend' is sick, so I gotta substitute for 'her' and I have to say, I like being a barista more than a waiter. These older ladies keep touching my arms and I find them to be on the creepy side." I could faintly hear Lukas's voice in the background and I finally got what Miles was doing. He was pretending as if I was his girlfriend so that Lukas wouldn't know that it was me. He actually covered my shift for me and made excuses to Lukas on my behalf, telling him that I was sick so I wouldn't lose my job.

"Gosh, I love you, Miles! I owe you big time. Thank you," then just to play along with him I added, "babe."

I heard him snort as he tried to keep himself from laughing. I bit my cheek, refraining from rolling on the floor too. This whole thing was just too funny. "Okay, see you later, um, baby."

As soon as the call ended, I burst out laughing. If a month ago, someone had told me that Alana's little brother would be the best buddy that I needed, I would've been in stitches and rolling in the aisles.

"So how's it with Miles and did you just call him 'babe'?" Trish's eyes widened. "Gee, what did I miss? I feel like I've been gone for more than just two weeks!" She shook her head as she watched me grin. Her eyes sparkled mischievously. "But for real, are you hooking up with Miles, too?"

Trish said that at the same time as Ryker walked into the kitchen. Upon hearing this, he raised his eyebrows and briefly looked at me before heading to the drawers to get an empty cup. Past his shoulder, I could see Trish grimacing and mouthing 'sorry'. I gave her a wave, telling her that it was fine.

Ryker and I had made out, that was a fact. But we hadn't established any relationship, which was why he kept his mouth shut and didn't ask me anything. He approached me while I was pouring myself a cup of coffee. I handed him the pot, and he leaned forward as if he was reaching for a jar of sugar behind me, but instead, his lips softly brushed against my ear, sending shivers down my body and straight into my core. "It seems that I need to work harder," he whispered before straightening up and giving me a teasing smirk. He poured the coffee into his cup and then placed it back before walking out of the kitchen through the back door.

Trish whispered to me, "Sorry. Is he mad at you?"

After adding milk to my cup, I stirred it and took a sip. "Nope," I answered her truthfully. "He seems to be in a good mood."

"Well, that's good." Trish stole a glance at Ryker. "What did he say to you?"

I claimed the empty barstool beside her. "Just that he has to work harder." I shook my head, smiling.

"Wow, Ryker does not need to work to get girls." She took a glance one last time at Ryker before focusing her gaze on me. "Seems like he likes you, girl."

"He said he does but you know how boys are." I shrugged off one shoulder. "I thought Brett liked me, but the wedding thing happened and he chose Alana's side, believing her words over mine." I grabbed my drink and made my way to half of the cup.

"We have already established that Brett is a jerk," said Trish.

"True." I placed the cup down on the island. "But I'm not about to let a guy fool me again, Trish. One is more than enough."

"Yeah, I know." She looked a bit sad for a moment and I felt bad for causing her to feel down.

"So how was London?" I decided to switch the topic as I made my way to grab Tati's fresh scones. She always made delicious pastries. I was going to grab only two, but I ended up taking four as I went back to sit beside Trish. "It must be pretty cool if you decided to ignore all my texts," I teased.

"Oh, you are going to love London! It is so diverse and so diverting!" Trish proceeded to tell me about the cool clubs in London, the people she'd met, and other activities like bar crawling and other stuff. She seemed to have some fun in London. I let myself enjoy her story, listening to her every word while trying to picture what it was like, even though deep down I knew that I had to face reality and an angry sorceress in a matter of hours.

It was around four when Ryker and I finally headed East. We went to Adelina's cabin hand in hand. Both of us didn't know what could be waiting for us there. However, it seemed like, unlike last time, we didn't have to knock on the door because Adelina was sitting on a rocking chair made of oak wood on her front porch. She had her eyes closed, but it seemed that she could sense us because as we approached her, she said, "Ah, I was wondering how long it would take for you to come here and find answers, Alpha Ryker."

Ryker's hold on me tightened but his voice was light when he said, "If you know that I'd come, then you know what I'm going to ask, so why don't you just tell me what I need to know."

"You want to know about the dream I gave you, is that correct?" Her eyes opened, and they were bloodshot red. "You want to know if you'll end up killing your mate one day? I can assure you that it's going to happen. Maybe not in the way that the dream told you, but it will happen anyway and there's nothing you can do to prevent that from happening." One corner of her mouth stretched up into a cunning smile and I had a feeling that the Adelina, who was only a few feet away from us, might not be the same Adelina we'd previously met.

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Dear Readers, what do you think of Xy and Ry relationship now? Also, curious cat 🐈 question, anyone has hots for our Russian warlord? I'm thinking of revisiting his story...