"I've never been drunk at all and now you expect me to get intoxicated before lunch." I grumbled, childishly turning away from the bottles Ryan had set on the table. They hadn't been touched in so long that Ryan's hands were covered in dust.

"Then this is the perfect time to get drunk." He insisted. He slapped his hands together to get the dust of then moved back to the kitchen to grab some glasses, "Besides, I'm not forcing you to take seven shots before noon. Just have a drink, we'll play a board game and pass the time until the evening comes and we can go to sleep. I'm not sure if you've noticed but we are basically under house arrest because we don't want our scent to get carried by the wind and draw hundreds of guards to this place. We might as well try to have fun."

I laughed a little despite the anxiety that was pooling in my stomach, "Right, this isn't just a hoax to get me drunk so you can actually beat me at a board game?" I teased. I gave him a fake glare and reached for one of the cheap, scratched glasses. "Fine, I'll have one drink to keep you quiet, but no more." I didn't know it at the time, but that was going to be my last lie for the day.

Ryan never tried to force drinks on me while we played a very intense game of Monopoly, he continually changed out his drinks but he never even asked me if I wanted a refill. In fact, when I eventually got up and poured myself a cup of wine he appeared a little shocked for a split second, then shot me a half smile that shown with triumph.

"Hey, another drink in my system does not mean that you are going to win." I warned.

He just grinned and shrugged his shoulders.

Apparently I was wrong. After the two drinks I was starting to feel a little light headed and my focus was suddenly terrible. I found myself staring at Ryan's intricate tattoo more than I was looking at the board that Ryan was slowly dominating. I had never been drunk before- I mean my parents would absolutely not let me drink as it wasn't a regal pass time- but I could tell I wasn't actually drunk yet. Maybe a little tipsy with slightly impaired thought processing, but not drunk. And now, I wanted to get drunk.

"I win." Ryan announced two hours later.

"You do not!" I protested, staring at the board in shock. But he was right. He had won. He had completely and utterly obliterated me in this game. "Shit."

"Oh the princess swears, or is that just the hundred glasses of wine talking?" Ryan taunted. He was beaming down at the board when he started to pick up the pieces and disassemble the board.

"I have not had a hundred." I argued. But my cheeks flamed with embarrassment at his comment anyway. Once I had started drinking I had begun to feel nice and I hadn't wanted the feeling to go away, but now I had taken it too far and I had already downed two glasses of wine, one beer, and some sweet drink Ryan made me. It didn't seem like a lot at the time, but it was too much for my body to handle considering I had never built up an alcohol tolerance. I hadn't wanted to get to the point that I was at, it was an accident.

"I know, I was exaggerating." Ryan said, softening a little. He slid the monopoly box off the table and patted the couch cushion next to him, "Come sit with me."

I gave out a little sigh while I stood, slightly sore for our long trek yesterday, then I dawdled over and flopped on the couch next to him.

"Such grace." He mocked.

"You're smiling an awful lot right now."

"You have no idea how happy I am to be here with you and not have you constantly shouting that you need to go home, that your parents are going to kill me, or some other threat. Or, you know, your dad lurking around, just waiting to kill me or my beta." He explained. I noticed the way his hand moved, almost like he wanted to reach up and touch me, but then thought better of it.

"But you're a rogue, you shouldn't even have a beta." I blurted. Ryan just sighed in response which immediately made me feel awful. "I shouldn't have said that, I'm sorry, it's just confusing for me is all. I wanted to learn about it, but my dad won't tell me anything. He says I'm not ready. Maybe I'm not, but that doesn't change the fact that I'm mated to you and I should know." I shook my head, feeling defeated and burdened.

"Oh come on." Ryan whispered. His lips were incredibly close to my ear which caused excited goose bumps to form on my skin, which then intensified when he slipped a single arm around my shoulders so he could pull me against his side.

I felt my eyes close on their own accord and the corners of my mouth turned up in a tiny grin.

"I can't explain everything to you in one sitting and, at this point, I'm wondering if you'll even remember this tomorrow, so I won't go through the whole thing with you. Just try not to think of my pack as rogues. That's technically what we are, but it has such a negative connotation. Did any of the werewolves you saw look crazy and deranged?" I shook my head, "That's right; all of them are mostly normal wolves. Just think of them as odds and ends from other packs."

"Okay." I whispered.

In my mostly drunken state I was brave enough to lift my hand and gently trace his tattooed arm with a single finger, deeply entranced by the patterns and pictures. The tattoo was bright, quite colourful, laced with reds, blues, and a little bit of purple. Though I couldn't make out the symbols or even what culture they were from I could tell there was a message. There was even a bright yellow apple.

"What does all of this mean? Or did you just get it to look cool?"

Ryan laughed loudly, as if I had told him the most ridiculous joke he had ever heard and he gave my shoulders a tight squeeze. "Definitely not to look cool. The other alphas judge me enough, having something on my skin that separated me even more from them would not help my case. I got it when my brother passed away, a reminder."

"Oh." I felt like I had touched territory I wasn't supposed to so I shut my mouth and averted my eyes. I wanted to get to know Ryan better, but I was doing was jabbing at sensitive subjects like his dead brother and the hatred of his pack.

Ryan didn't say anything for a while and I was too afraid to open my mouth again so we just sat in silence for a few minutes, his fingers tracing their way up and down my arm while I rested my head against his shoulder.

"Is it time for a movie or a nap?" he murmured eventually.

I just shrugged as if I didn't care, yet my chest tightened. Ryan and I didn't have a picture perfect relationship, we had both done a lot wrong already, but this moment was a good one. It was the first time we had been physically affectionate and it didn't feel completely awkward and forced. But that could've been because we had a fair amount of alcohol coursing in our blood stream. Still, this moment was nice and I didn't want it to end just yet.

"How about I grab us some more drinks and you pick a movie that you like? I picked the movie last time." he proposed.

I nodded and he got off the couch in search of more booze while I slowly slugged over to the shelves lined with old movies. I almost scoffed at my parent's selection. There were a lot of old Disney movies like Beauty and the Beast which was my mom's favorite and The Jungle Book which my dad loved. There were also intense war documentaries that would wash away all the delightful feelings in me, cop comedies, and even a couple chick flicks. I decided that a police based comedy from the eighties would be our best bet.

Once the movie had started to play and we had settled ourselves back on the couch Ryan made me drink a glass of water and eat some bread. I almost refused under the premise that he was drinking more than I was and he wasn't drinking any water. Then he started to run his hands over my back and every protest died on my lips.

"I've never had a back rub." I confessed.

"No? Well, I imagine it's kind of a couple's thing. I don't think a lot of my friends would be particularly excited about rubbing my back and I can understand that."

"I've never had a massage either."

"Now that's a little surprising. I thought the royals got all this glamorous treatment every day and drive around in fancy cars to see all their adoring fans."

I snorted, "No, no, it's not like that, are you kidding me? I drive a Subaru, and not even a nice one." I argued, "I'm probably more pampered than most, but it's not like my life is all roses and love. I have hard times too. My hard times are just different than others."

"Okay, so tell me about your hardships." Ryan encouraged.

"Please, compared to your life my hardships are nothing."

"It's not a contest, I wouldn't judge you based on what you thought were the low points of your life. Still, if you don't want to talk about it I won't make you." He assured.

"I misjudged you." I mumbled, "I thought you would be an asshole because you're a rogue and because everyone hates you, but you're not. You're actually pretty sweet."

"You're not the only one who has assumed I was a bad person. Don't beat yourself up over it." Ryan sighed.

We fell into a heavy silence after that, both of us pretending to watch the movie and sip our drinks.

nN

*****What do you guys think of Ryan now? Do you like him more or less than you did before?****