Ryder had run all the way to his house to pick up his car so I wouldn't have to walk back home—not that I minded. Hours later, the sun had set and Ryder and I were sitting in his Porsche on the side of the road before my house, laughing with each other. I noticed that the baby blue Mustang sat in the driveway as if it hadn't moved from its spot, but yet we were still sitting and talking in the front seat of his car. I knew there was an attraction between me and Ryder (obviously), but there was an increased romantic chemistry at the fact that we could be friends and laugh together. Here, it felt blissful.

I put my head on his shoulder, feeling fatigued for absolutely no reason. I even sighed. Then my phone started ringing.

"Hello?" I greeted Cassandra.

"Hey, Ash, I'm sorry I'm running a bit late at the office; a girl came in with some really bad scratches on her but—"

"It's fine," I interrupted with a yawn.

"I'm on my way, though! If you could start dinner, that'd be great, and I'll be there soon," she said with positivity leaking through her voice.

"Okay, bye."

"Buh-bye," she concluded before hanging up. I looked over at Ryder and he stared at the steering wheel with a frown.

"What?" I asked him.

"Nothing, don't worry about it," he sighed before abruptly climbing out of the car. I moved my hand over to the door handle as he started to walk towards the sidewalk.

Don't you dare touch that handle, he warned me through my mind and as his eyes locked to mine. He appeared at the passenger door and opened it for me like the gentleman he was. But something was wrong. Even as we walked towards my door and I pulled out my key—that had previously been pocketed with the other Obsidian key that I didn't even know what lock matched—something was strange.

The next few seconds happened extremely slow in my comprehension. I saw Ryder behind me from the corner of my eye as he reached his arm behind his back. Then, when I opened the door, and stepped inside the house, it was right as Andrew was standing shirtless and emerging from the living room. My first wonder was what Ryder would think of a half naked boy standing in my house, not what Andrew would think of Ryder, but not even a full moment later, Andrew was charging at Ryder in rage. They collided into the nearest wall, but Ryder had maneuvered effortlessly around Andrew in order to seize him with a forearm while his right hand held up the Obsidian blade to his heart. I grabbed Ryder's shoulder, feeling it relax. In that quick second, Andrew laid a left hook on Ryder that caused him to stumble back into me. I sensed Ryder would fight back and that's why I both slid the dagger out of his hand and stood between them, pointing it at Andrew.

"You don't know what you're doing," he told me, his eyes narrowing for a fraction of a second. I knew he was mad at me for defending Ryder. Or maybe Ryder was the angry one for not knowing why I wasn't living up to my "mate duties" by not immediately killing someone who tried to attack him.

"I think I do," I sighed before angling the blade at myself. Immediately, Andrew's solid exterior softened as he took a step toward me, but not before Ryder stepped to me, thought 'Stop,' and then repositioned the dagger away from anyone's direction. We both sighed when our eyes met and then he slowly lowered the weapon. I took it back away from him, only to feel Andrew rush behind me, slide it out of my hand and charge Ryder. He drew it back and planned to impale Ryder, but Ryder used his momentum and grabbed the outside of Andrew's arm to control the movement of the appendage and wrap it behind Andrew's back. Andrew fought back with apparently more strength, but with one step, Ryder was sliding upwards with the knife, causing both boys to stumble away from each other. I went to Andrew, noticing that the previous wound was entirely sealed up by healthy skin. I reached out to touch it and make sure my eyes weren't seeing things, but Andrew put me behind him.

"Drew, stop," I pleaded and grabbed his arm. I looked over at Ryder whose eyes were fiery red. Andrew's shoulders turned and he looked down at me with his blue eyes melting away into brown.

"You stop," he ordered. "What the hell are you doing running around with him?!"

"You don't even know me," Ryder reminded.

"I don't need to," Andrew said, facing Ryder once more. He took steps near him and Ryder, as arrogant as he was, didn't back down. It was a challenge in itself. "You have no right to even touch this dagger or be toying with her when you're the one—"

Ryder pushed him into the wall with a forearm at his throat, seizing the blade and holding it way behind him with his free hand.

"I don't need your stupid knife, but what I do need you to know that I'll beat the shit out of anyone who even thinks I'm playing Ashlynn," he said before pressing into Andrew once more and then leaving him altogether. He looked back at me with an unreadable expression, but Andrew looked between us both.

"I don't give a shit about whatever pride you have, but no one's going to tell me about what they think they have with my sister," Andrew commanded. That's when the blade dropped out of Ryder's hand and he let go of Andrew. Andrew, however, took advantage of this, swiped up the dagger and pinned Ryder to the wall. Ryder didn't fight back though. He held his hands up, defensively and his eyes were no longer red. Andrew still glared at him with aggression, but something had changed within Ryder and changed within me too. Especially when Andrew drew back the blade.

"Kill me then," Ryder dared and I shut down. But the wolf inside of me didn't. She leapt outwards and seized the knife and wedged between the boys, only for Ryder to pick me up as light as a doll to have nothing between him and Andrew. When he did that, he looked over to me and his eyes fell even more.

I'm sorry, he thought to me immediately. I'm sorry, but I can't do this.

Andrew charged at him once more, this time coming in contact with the open front door while a punch was thrown. Ryder refused to put any effort in defending himself and when he was halfway out of the door—taking my anxiety with him—Cassandra was steadying him from behind. Andrew stopped shoving after noticing Cassandra's arrival. She started to question what the hell was going on, but Ryder just shot me one quick look before he escaped.

Then, Andrew approached me with haste and shoved me backwards. The weakness in my knees as Ryder drove off caused me to hit the ground.

"What the hell did you just do!?" he screamed at me. Cassandra shoved past him and offered me a hand up. I glared up at my brother in hatred on behalf of Ryder.

"Me!? You almost just killed someone! And for what!?"

"I had a hell-of-a good reason!"

"Did she just say you almost killed Ryder?" Cassandra questioned. I nodded.

"Wait, you know the asshole?" Andrew asked her or maybe me because he glanced at me briefly. Neither of us answered as Cassandra shared a look with me of worry or maybe concern. I didn't really know. "Whatever," Andrew scoffed, walking into the house. We followed him after shutting the door, and he was pissed. "That idiot is the whole reason Dad is dead. I know that scent on him from anywhere."

No. That wasn't true. That couldn't be true. I pleaded to Ryder through my mind that it wasn't true. I received no answer.

"That's impossible." Even though I thought and felt it, Cassandra was the one saying it.

"No it isn't," Andrew denied. "You saw him. He's arrogant all because he thinks he can hold something over us..." Andrew began to preach, but when he gestured to me, it was a new realization. His plain eyes met mine. "Especially you."

It made me angry that he assumed Ryder would play me after presumably killing our dad. It was ridiculous. I couldn't fathom Ryder lying about imprinting because I felt the same connection he did. If I was correct in understanding his explanation, then he couldn't hurt me. Whether he met me or not, something in the universe must have reasoned to him that killing my dad or taking away my brother for so long would hurt me. And it was impossible for him to hurt me.

"Ryder didn't kill your father," Cassandra sighed while Andrew breathed assurance.

"Did you not see—"

"I've seen a lot of terrible things from Ryder, but he couldn't kill Albert," Cassandra interrupted. "It isn't in his nature."

"We're werewolves, if you hadn't noticed," Andrew raised his voice. "It's in our animalistic nature to kill things—people...Anything threatening us or our pack."

"Right now, you're threatening him and his pack," Cassandra reasoned and Andrew fell quiet. "And he didn't seem to kill you."

Andrew looked over at me and just like how he thought to me, I was seeing his memories of how I was with Ryder. How, Ryder never let me get too close to the dagger or even fight anywhere near a potential area of danger adjacent to me. How, I was putting myself between the two boys because I knew neither would hurt me, and he'd still pull me away from the potential to get hurt. Seeing me and Ryder together, we rotated as if there was not only a gravitational pull, but a protective radius between and around the two of us.

"I don't care," he managed to say when he really wanted to say something else. "He killed Dad and I don't care what—"

"Why do you think his eyes are red?" Cassandra cut-in with a slight sigh. I don't know? To make him look scarier? "He's a True Alpha. He can't kill." Great. So my brother and my mate/non-boyfriend (or whatever we were) were opposing Alphas in this small town.

"Well I can smell the same scent all over him, so if it isn't him, he knows who it was," Andrew hissed before looking at me. "What the hell are you doing running around with werewolves? Did you even know he was one?"

"Y-yeah, he told me today," I answered. He pressed on for the answer to the first question. I didn't even know how to answer it. Oh this is my soul mate, I swear it, because he imprinted on me. Yeah no. I began to just try to leave and drop the whole situation, but of course it wasn't so easy.

"Ashlynn—"

"We've been hanging out, that's all," I said, speaking lesser of the truth. I rounded the corner of the dining room to reach the stairwell.

"Hanging out?" he asked, following me. I didn't know if Cassandra did or not. "I saw how you defended him. You raised silver at me. Granted, you probably didn't know it can't injure an Everton, you still did it. And for what? So he could attempt to use it against me? You turning against me isn't something that comes from just hanging out with some stupid—"

"He isn't stupid," I interrupted. We were finally upstairs, where I stood on the top step and he was a few levels down, but was nearly my height. I noticed Cassandra at the foot of the stairs. But I didn't care. He offended Ryder, so he offended me. "And maybe I raised that dagger against you because you were being a dick to someone who didn't do anything to you."

"I thought he was the one who killed Dad, okay? You knew what would happen if I was in the same vicinity as—"

"Well he didn't kill Dad, so leave him alone!" I yelled and then went into my room. I even shut the door. My heart was tightening and beating swiftly, like the feeling of when I first met Ryder, but this time it was in fear like I was about to lose him. I called to him without any answer, and eventually started to cry for some odd reason. For the first time in a long while, I had found another reason to cry other than for my dad or Andrew.

***

Going down for dinner was awkward. Even though Cassandra was being patient with me, now that Andrew wanted to be my rival, Andrew was still there—probably thinking of more and more ways to pester me.

It was late, now, considering I had cried myself into a brief nap. I heard the living room TV on, but still moved as slowly as possible to maneuver through the kitchen. I quietly pulled out a plate, but then heard the couch move.

"He's not here," Cassandra's voice informed. I sighed of relief, but other than that, there was no reply. I continued throughout my meal—which ended up to be pizza rolls—and ate them at the counter. Cassandra turned off the TV and entered the kitchen to put her glass away. She leaned across the counter from me and casually took one of my pizza rolls. "He imprinted on you, didn't he?"

"Uh, I—I mean, I wouldn't say—"

"So that's a yes then?"

"Yes."

"Good to know just how much of an extent I'll have to have," she decided, tapping the counter before easing off of it.

"What does that even mean?" I asked her.

"It means, I have to go the extra mile to establish the authority over the fact that just because you two are together doesn't mean you literally have to be attached at the hip," she clarified. I thought it was unreasonable. See, the knowledge that we were mates just meant that now I knew we were meant to be together. That along with the fact that we couldn't hurt each other, I sort of figured that we could allow more distance between us because we had a natural trust in each other. I even told her that and she dismissed it with a shrug. "Then I guess you won't have a problem with my rules then."

"What rules?"

"He's not allowed over here—"

"WHAT!?"

"—at night."

"Okay..." That was reasonable.

"Well not without my permission, anyways," she added with a wink. I assumed she thought Ryder and I had discussed that part of this bond thing. She was nothing more than wrong.

"Ew," was all I said.

"And, no matter what happens, just remember that even though you two are together, you're still two completely separate people," she said. I knew that. "Don't do anything you think he would want just because he does it."

"Ha, no objections there," I laughed. Like I said before, I had heard the stories of the Ryder everyone knew: the bad boy, the delinquent, the menace. I wouldn't follow in his previous footsteps. I hoped he wouldn't resort back to them. She laughed briefly with me and I heard the back door start to click.

"Oh, and tell your brother."

"No, then he'll want to kill Ryder for a completely new reason," I whispered as he walked through the door, dropping the keys to Cassandra's car on the counter.

"Tell me what?" he asked, looking between us both.

"Good night," Cassandra wished as her escape and she rolled out of the kitchen with haste. Bitch.

Andrew still looked at me, now with more calmness in his eyes than before. He actually looked tired. But tired from what, was the question.

"Ryder imprinted on me; he told me today," I sighed.

"You're such an idiot, Ashlynn," Andrew scoffed at me and just headed up the stairs. I followed him, bewildered and incredulous. He began collecting the pillows and bedding that he had been using to sleep on the couch upstairs, since Cassandra hadn't unlocked the other room for him. I guess he was going to sleep downstairs in an open room. I was fine with that. He had his sheets and pillow in his arms and looked down at me. "You're stupid if you honestly think that kid is your mate."

"And what does that kid and I have to do to prove it to you that we are?"

"I don't know, but considering I just went past the lake where he and his friends are getting high, I wouldn't say he's off to a good start," he dissed before bumping shoulders with mine in order to go downstairs.

I winced into a frown and thought: Ryder? before I even retreated to my room. Without even a minute passing, my phone was buzzing and Ryder's name flashed up on my screen with a text saying: "stop calling me" even though I hadn't actually called him through the phone and me questioning his name was the first time since I had gone to sleep. The only reason I wasn't offended was because I was still confused as to why he left so abruptly without a word after refusing to fight or defend himself to Andrew on short notice. It made me want to spit his own words of "talk to me" back at him, regardless if he'd say things he didn't mean.

And then he was calling my phone.