The next morning, I woke up blissfully and was off to a laughing start when I exited my room and saw Ryder's long body asleep on the couch in the loft's main room. I still continued to go down the stairs for breakfast without waking him though.

"Next time he wants to stay over, he can use the front door to get in," Andrew grumbled from the couch.

"Where's the fun in that?" I joked as Ryder would if he wasn't still asleep.

"Well me beating his ass for him trying to sleep with you is fun to me," Andrew said.

"He didn't even sleep in the same bed as me because he didn't want to disrespect you or Cassandra," I notified to try and gain him some points.

"Not to mention, I'm not scared of you," Ryder said, emerging from the staircase with heavy steps. He pulled his shirt over his messy short hair and made his way over to me.

"Good morning," he said smoothly after quickly kissing my head and easily taking my cereal away from me.

"Uh, I was eating that," I told him still with some food in my mouth. I was seeing Andrew get up and start walking to the opposite side of the kitchen with a glare to Ryder.

"You don't need it," Ryder shrugged, taking bites from my spoon. I reached out for the bowl, but he put it above his head and I couldn't reach it. I narrowed my eyes at him and he only smiled. After a second, he rolled his eyes, lowered the bowl, and spoon fed me just a bite.

"Thank you," I smiled and reached out for the bowl again, but he put it out of my reach once more.

Therefore, I glared. But he was arrogant enough to take a seat next to me at the counter and continue to eat and finish out my breakfast. When he was done, I took the bowl away from him before he was able to lift it to his lips to drink the milk and turned to get the box of cereal. Only, he grabbed it first. As soon as he did it, Andrew snatched it from him. Ryder hopped up and looked at him.

"She doesn't need it," Ryder repeated and then looked over at me as if he had offended me and needed to defend himself. "I wanted to take you out to eat."

"Then why are you eating?"

"Because I was hungry?" he answered as if I wasn't allowed to be hungry too. I gave him a look.

"I'm hungry too!"

"I know; that's why I want to take you out to eat," he said, trying to come out on top without addressing that he was being a flirtatious brat. He took a step near me and looked down at me. Go get dressed so we can get this meeting over with and I can take you on a date.

"You're such a..." Andrew said.

"A what?" Ryder challenged and then Andrew eventually backed off. His glare softened and Ryder smirked a touch.

"I'm going to get ready..." I said, awkwardly before leaving and taking the box of cereal from Andrew so I can snack in the process. I laughed as I scurried off, but lingered near the foot of the staircase around the corner.

"A douche bag; that's what you are," Andrew finally finished.

"For asking her out on a date?"

"For making her feel like shit in the process," Andrew corrected and I frowned. I didn't feel anything but intrigued with the idea of a date, though. "'You don't need that'. 'She doesn't need that'," Andrew mocked. "You're gonna make her think she's fat or something and then—"

Ryder interrupted with a laugh and Andrew stopped talking.

"Look, I know that you think she's your fragile little sister, but she isn't," Ryder began. "That girl is my mate and that's how I know she's not that sensitive if she's truly meant for me." Andrew remained quiet. "I don't even know why I'm explaining this to you because as long as she understands that I can treat her right without making her think she's selling herself short, I don't need to explain myself to you."

"Hey, she's my sister," Andrew growled.

"And she's my mate," Ryder growled right back. I knew, without looking, that they were toe-to-toe and if I dared to lower the curtains between both of their minds, I would have a screaming match against each other just through telepathy.

"You haven't been around for the last seventeen years, so I don't know who you think you are—"

"It isn't who I think I am. I know who I am," Ryder interjected without a yell. "Whether you like me or not, I imprinted on Ashlynn and I actually like her, okay? Stop trying to hate me for whatever other shit any other guy has done to her or whatever you think I'm capable of doing to her. She'll be perfectly fine with me."

I appreciated Ryder containing his true rage against Andrew. I knew it would've been easy to just fight with him while he thought I was upstairs, but he didn't. He was giving an honest attempt at trying to cajole Andrew into accepting him...accepting us. But I was even more grateful that Ryder was willing to put himself out there in case of any other boy I had encountered. He didn't even know that I hadn't had anyone in my life like him before to make Andrew this protective.

"Just think about what you say to her," Andrew warned with a surrendering sigh. "I know she acts strong, but—"

"She is strong," Ryder defended and my heart swelled. Andrew didn't say anything else right after the interruption. "That's probably why she's so stubborn and is still downstairs instead of getting ready."

Crap.

"I know you don't want to date me and all, but I want to date you and more importantly fate wants me to date you, so I'm urging you to just go upstairs and get ready," Ryder said, suddenly appearing around the corner, inches away from me. He had a jovial look on his face with the look in his eye that assured me that he knew I was listening the whole time. That's why I turned in my insubordination and finally went upstairs with him telling me mentally that I was incredibly amazing as much as I was stubborn.

***

"Stop being nervous," Ryder told me while he drove the mustang. After I had eaten the smuggled box of cereal, I told Ryder I was no longer hungry and he decided that maybe we wouldn't go out for breakfast, but we'd go out for dinner. So we hung out at home for a couple of hours while he notified his pack of an impromptu but entirely expected meeting. Now we were on the way.

"I'm not nervous," I lied in a hiss.

"Right," he laughed and his right hand slid into mine. The clasp rested on my thigh until we parked, ten minutes later at the high school in a parking lot with cars scattered amongst the parking spots.

Immediately, I heard boyish yells and yawps. At first, I thought maybe they were up to some werewolf tendencies, but thought it odd considering it was the afternoon with no cover of the night to shield the world from their transformations.

Ryder got out of the car and meant to open the door for me, but I had grabbed the handle at the same time. He still pulled the door open and looked down at me as if he was trying to study my expression. I was just hoping he wasn't reading my mind because I didn't want to offend him by being afraid of his pack.

"You're still nervous," Ryder began to sing in a tease while I passed him and he wrapped his arms around my waist from behind. His lips played at my neck, covered by my hair.

"I'm not nervous!" I lied more urgently and he kept laughing.

"Babe, I can hear your heart beating faster and faster," he taunted. That wasn't because of the pack. It was because he was so close to me. He suddenly stopped and pulled me with him. I prayed he didn't hear that thought. "Unless...I'm the one making you nervous...?"

I broke free of his hold and faced him.

"You aren't that great, so I guess it is the pack," I joked with my arms crossed over my chest. He had that same look on his face that he usually did when he was accepting a challenge or preparing to flirt with my playing-hard-to-get attitude no matter how well he actually had me already. He stepped near me, closing the little space we had and my arms touched his chest.

"Then I guess I need to start making you nervous then," he said, dipping his head down, probably meaning to kiss me, but I suddenly pushed off his chest and ran away from him towards the football field with the other boys. Even though I knew he could catch me, I still ran and it ended up catching the attention of the boys on the field. By then, they stopped in their makeshift football game and stared at me. I felt Ryder grab me from behind by wrapping his arms around my torso. I was halted by the initial exposure to the pack, but it wouldn't have mattered anyway because Ryder had picked me up and carried me over his shoulder to the middle of the field. He set me down on my feet and I glared at him while I fixed my hair.

"Ryder, dude, if you have to kidnap her, it isn't imprinting," a boy with short dark hair immediately said. He wore a grey muscle shirt with navy shorts and he was just an inch shorter than six feet tall. He had a set jaw-line and a sly smile.

"I can see why he would kidnap her, though; she's beautiful," a boy with short, curly black hair and full lips smiled. I began to blush.

"I didn't kidnap her," Ryder said seriously.

"I'd like to hear that from her then," a boy with long blonde hair insisted.

"He didn't kidnap me," I laughed.

"Hmm, sounds scripted," the first boy decided.

"Oh stop," a new boy with a heavy southern accent commanded easily. "Let them be in love." I froze at the word and I felt Ryder stiffen. The southern boy with an adorable smile and dirty blonde hair smiled at me. "I'm Dakota. Nice to meet you."

"Ashlynn," I greeted, shaking his hand that he held out.

"He's pretty much the only one nice enough for you to be around," I heard Ryder whisper so softly I could interpret it as a thought. But then a very tall boy stepped up in front of me, blocking the sun, and looked down at Ryder and me.

"You say that like we're gonna hurt her," he said, offended before looking down at me.

"Speak for yourself," Preston smirked and hopefully joked after arriving behind me and Ryder.

"Yeah, I mean, Ryder's done some work on girls to hurt them so—" the first boy began to laugh before Dakota hit his shoulder. I narrowed my eyes at him and his accusation, but otherwise dismissed it. Ryder, however, stepped up and glared at him. The boy lifted his hands for surrender and took a step back. It made me almost smile. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Shouldn't have brought it up." He looked at me. "My apologies."

"No worries," I assured, stepping around Ryder. "Anything that'll rile him up is fine with me."

"Well in that case, we might as well be mates since we already have so much in common," he laughed. Ryder actually growled as the boy held out his hand. "Colin."

"Nice to meet you," I laughed while Ryder just shook his head and rolled his eyes. After that, one by one, I met the other members of the pack. The boy with the curly black hair, resembling Carlo, was named Kelvan and seemed rather nice and free-spirited in contrast to Preston or Colin. The tall boy's name was Troy and he failed to make another attempt at conversation even though he watched me closely. The only other boy—Vince—had a medium build with blonde hair and clear eyes. He didn't say or do much or that scowl and ridicule. Dakota had to take the liberty in introducing him.

"I know Tank left for college already, but where are the runts?" Ryder asked after a while. After all the introductions, he had calmed down from his rampant possessive issue over me.

"They..." Preston began, muttering to Ryder. "...actually want to talk to you later..."

"Well if only there was, I don't know, a convenient meeting they could've talked to me at," Ryder scoffed and shook his head, slightly to dismiss the issue.

"They were right not to come, though," Dakota said before connecting his eyes with mine. "Not that meeting you isn't worth it."

I smiled at the charm I felt from him, but Ryder let out a small breath.

"Isn't this about the senior camp?" Troy questioned.

"Yeah."

"What! Then why the hell am I wasting my time here?!" Colin exclaimed.

"Not my fault you're taking another senior year," Troy said.

"Actually, it is your fault because you're the one that refused to—"

"Stop blaming people for your mistakes," Preston interrupted.

"I'm not blaming him for my mistakes," Colin denied. "I just needed some passing grades. I'm blaming him for not covering for me like you so often do for Ry."

"It's different," Kel said.

"How so?"

"Who cares?" Vince asked before looking back to Ryder. "What did you want to tell us that we don't already know?"

"Hey, I'm a junior and I can pretty much sum up this meeting," Kel said in a laugh. Ryder rolled his eyes.

"Well then as a junior who's going to sneak onto the trip anyways, you can listen..." Ryder altered with a sigh and looked over his peers. "I need all of you to just...lay low this year."

"Lay low?" Colin questioned as if offended or maybe confused. Ryder nodded. "I don't know what that means."

"Well, learn it," Ryder instructed. "I don't want any problems this year with anyone. You can pull your pranks and whatever, but this pack isn't going to participate in any serious altercations."

"You say that like there's someone to fight with," Kel laughed and I noticed that the boys looked at me as if expecting a reaction from hearing the word pack, as if I hadn't ever learned of the pack or the secret.

"Is there ...?" Troy began to ask.

"Well, Ashlynn..." Ryder gestured. "She's an Everton."

"And?"

"And you know that this is Everton land...and considering five of us are graduating this year—"

"She doesn't seem to have a problem sharing," Vince grumbled. I connected a gaze with him, not sure if I should be offended or not. But I took a tiny, unnoticeable step away from Ryder.

"Well she isn't her brother, so..."

"She has a brother?" they all seemed to question loudly. That's when I started getting nervous again. Andrew and I knew Evertons owned the land, and apparently so did they. Regardless of my relationship with Ryder, I didn't want to burden them with another thing about me that I couldn't control.

"You're shitting me," Colin scoffed, throwing up a hand.

"Colin—"

"Don't Colin me," he snapped at Preston and then looked back at Ryder. "I'm not going through this bullshit again. I had to deal with it once already and you saw how that turned out—"

I was completely confused in what he meant, but it clearly meant something.

"Well I had no control over that, so—"

"Bullshit," Colin named and then he looked at me with his beautiful eyes. "No offense, but your family sucks."

"Colin..." Dakota named, putting his hand on Colin's shoulder. I looked behind me at Ryder, and he was looking down at the ground. This is exactly what he meant by having to deal with his pack because of Andrew's existence. I just...didn't know what that meant and I didn't want to mess more things up so I just turned to leave.

"Ashlynn," Ryder attempted to call after me, but I silenced him by thinking: Deal with your pack, as nicely as I could think it. Although I knew he was refusing to give in to my kindness, he reluctantly handed me the car keys.