"What the hell, man?"

"Get him off me!"

"Ry! Hey! Ryder—"

The pack members had tried to rip apart their alpha and beta, but Ryder clung to Preston as if his life depended on it with a knee in his stomach to press out any extra air. Instantly, a chill passed through even me when Ryder had commanded them to leave them alone. Preston had put his hands up in an innocent distance as if claiming not to know what was going on. Ryder pulled him up by his shirt and still held on to his collar, even though Preston had inches on him in height.

"Dude, I don't know what's going on, but—"

"Shut up," Ryder interrupted. "I know what you did. You think you're some genius, but you're the biggest idiot if you thought you'd get away with it."

"Away with what?" one boy who I didn't recognize asked. There was a silence over everything, but if you listened close enough, you could hear Preston's heart rate increase.

"What did you do?" Colin, of all people, asked of Preston. It was in pure innocence, as if a switch went off in Colin's mind to become skeptical of his partner-in-crime.

"He thinks I killed his dad!" Preston finally yelled as if Ryder persecuted him through a mental channel.

"What?"

"Marc's...dead?"

"Why would he think that?"

"Because he did it," Ryder said, tightening his grip.

"Because he's going to believe his shady ass mate over his own goddamn best friend because he's paranoid and too whipped to believe anything that doesn't come from Ashlynn's mouth," Preston insulted. Ryder let him go.

"No one said Ashlynn had told me anything or that she was even there," he made the point. The light bulb went off instantly for Preston and he knew he had basically told on himself. But Ryder sent a massive uppercut to him to put out that light. "That's for insulting Ashlynn, not for last night—because I know very well that she has more of a punishment for you after you nearly killed her and all. You should be grateful for that because honestly I wanted to kill you last night and she told me not to. As for my dad, well, that punch will be the least of your worries."

Suddenly, Preston stopped rubbing his jaw and stood up with blood running down his chin. He presented Ryder with my family's silver dagger that glimmered dangerous moonlight on its dark gemstone. He pointed it right at Ryder's face.

"All this time you've been too busy worrying about Ashlynn, that you've forgotten what power really is," Preston told him, now holding the sword in a more threatening fashion. He glanced around at the other boys. "We've all been saying it, you know. Yeah, you fell into Zander's lifestyle, but you never took the responsibility you needed to. Not like I will."

"Okay, what, you think you can kill me? Then you're just stuck with half a dozen other people governing themselves while you're human," Ryder insulted. From here, I could see Preston gulp as Ryder took a threatening step forward, careless to the blade aimed at him. "My dad phased because of a Loyalty Bond, not because the Escape didn't work. Remember that."

He was challenging him. He was in a checkmate situation because Preston could not, in any way, kill him because the Escape had actually worked on Marc and possibly another blow was hit because Preston didn't have enough loyalty to anyone to break any Escape he could be granted.

"I don't need to be the one to kill you," Preston retorted. I couldn't see Ryder's face from here, but I could imagine him smirking in doubt. "Like you said, there are half a dozen wolves in this pack other than me."

"And like you said, they all think I'm not a good Alpha, right?" Ryder reminded before stepping back and outstretching his arms. He looked around. "So if any of you want to take the opportunity to kill me so Preston can live with the satisfaction of knowing he was right, then go ahead."

No one moved a muscle. Except for Preston. He made a B-Line for Colin and put the blade in his hand that was easily accepting. But then his dark eyes flashed up to Preston's.

"Ever since Zander left, you've been saying how much you hated Ryder being in charge. It's been years," Preston reminded. "So do what's right."

Ryder crossed his arms and faced them, ten feet away in the center of an unconsciously made circle the pack had made. Abruptly, Colin grasped the dagger in the way I had when I first found it—sure not to touch any shimmer of the silver. He quickly strode over to Ryder and I had become more than anxious to see which side of Colin would come out or rather which side of Ryder would kick in. But when Colin got to a dangerous radius to Ryder, he stopped and held the blade out to him in surrender and looked back to Preston.

"What's right for you isn't what's right for the pack," he told him and gave Ryder the dagger. I let go of the breath I was holding. Ryder held up the knife.

"Any other takers? No?" he offered. And then he approached Preston. He immediately held the blade up to his heart just to make Preston nervous. "You wanted to be just like Zander, well congratulations. You're exactly the way he is now. You are alone."

"And who are you trying to be like?" Preston said, throwing Ryder's threat away by an arm movement. "Like your father? Well he's dead. And the longer you realize that no matter what you do or who you want to be, you'll end up the same as him...and the same as Albert Everton. Dead."

I low growl rumbled from Ryder and Preston had dropped to his knees. My eyes blurred for a second before sharpening and I was able to see a red light emit from Ryder, enter Preston's body and suck out a silver light while Preston had grabbed his own face and cried out in pain. I was watching Ryder strip him of a title.

The next moment, as Ryder looked down at his former beta, Preston stood up, rubbing his eyes which lost their authoritative allure.

"It doesn't matter that I'm no longer part of this pack," Preston spat. "I may have been your beta, but you were never an alpha. As long as the Everton family lives, you will never be in charge. I don't care if some force made you a True Alpha. You will always be under an Everton...and not just in bed."

Ryder punched him once more, this one with more force since I had physically seen Preston fly back and drop to the ground in the event that he had lost any extra strength or tolerance that his previous title gave him. I could hear the broken bones on impact and already smell more blood. The pack members near his pathetic body backed away and stood behind Ryder, not saying anything while Preston denounced his loyalty and claimed he didn't need the pack in the first place.

"Meeting dismissed," Ryder calmly said and the pack had begun to leave without a single look of pity to Preston.

"Yeah, dismiss the meeting so you can return to poor little Ashlynn," Preston called after Ryder while spitting out blood. "How is she, by the way? Is she even alive right now? I knew I beat her up pretty bad without even trying." Ryder kept walking (and I was glad for that), but I noticed that Colin had slowed down and then stopped altogether. "Just because I can't kill you doesn't mean I can't do anything to your precious little mate—"

Then, there was a giant grey wolf pouncing right above Preston, making him crab crawl right out of that position in fear.

THAT IS ENOUGH! Colin's wolf had yelled, making my head hurt, but it came out as barks at Preston, who no longer shared the pack's communication. And as soon as Colin realized that, he phased back down, grabbed Preston's collar after kicking him in the face and pinned him against the nearest tree, naked and all. He delivered several blows to Preston, who was no match beneath Colin's immediate rage.

"If you think about even looking in Ashlynn's direction, you better be watching your own back," Colin hissed. "She's my alpha's mate. If you do any harm to her, you'll be quick to find out just how long lone wolves last after being kicked out."

"Colin," Ryder named. Colin, still grasping Preston, looked back at Ryder's call. "He isn't worth it."

"For now," Colin said before bringing up his knee to Preston's groin, making him clutch his crotch and fall over while Colin walked away with Ryder, telling everyone to go home. Two of the younger guys had followed Ryder with Colin near the car and by now, although I was impressed with the pack, I just wanted to be with Ryder. Because, by now, the medication had surely wore off and I was about to be in more pain than Preston's face. And I wanted to sleep to forget about it.

Other pack members left with their cars, but Ryder had opened the trunk, surrounded by the three boys. From the mirror, I had seen him begin handing Colin a shirt and some shorts which I guess he'd be thankful for now that I thought about how Colin would explain coming home so late, naked. When he lightly closed the trunk and said bye to Colin in a disguised statement of gratitude for maybe not killing him or maybe defending me, the other two boys asked for a ride home.

"As long as you two be quiet because I think Ash is asleep and I need to get her home first, actually," Ryder replied.

"That's fine with me," the first one said.

"I've never met her before," the other said, but I just closed my eyes and figured this wasn't a good time.

"You'll meet her soon," Ryder said as the boys climbed into the back seats through Ryder's bent over driver's seat. "Then you'll love her as much as I do...just in a different way of course—I mean..."

I tried hard not to laugh at how adorable he was when he stammered about how he felt about me.

"We get it," the second boy's voice said with a chuckle.

"We have mates too, remember?" the first boy said, which puzzled me because through all of this, Ryder never mentioned anyone else in the pack having a mate. And the two boys I had seen at a distance looked young, so maybe Ryder just didn't consider their expertise due to their age which was victim to thinking any ole girl was the love of their life. But who knows?

I had fallen asleep in the car in the silence that the boys promised Ryder and he really did take me home first because when I woke (without opening my eyes) to a door closing, I was hearing one of the boys whisper "Tell her goodnight for me."

Ryder said okay just before lifting me out of the car. He rang the doorbell and waited for an answer that didn't take very long. I felt him step through the threshold and heard him assure Cassandra that I was fine, just tired. I even heard him make a joke about how he didn't know how I could sleep so much when that's all I had done today, and then he suggested for Cassandra to put more numbing ointment on my back along with more medicine so I wouldn't feel any pain, but she told him that it'd be too much considering the last time she applied some. Ryder responded saying he knew that, but he just didn't want me to feel any pain. Cassandra assured that I should heal away the soreness overnight given the werewolf abilities, but that still wasn't soon enough for Ryder.

But still, he had placed me in my bed, taken off my shoes and socks, and tucked me in like he was some gentle, angelic caregiver he could only be with me. I sensed him continuing to sit on the side of my bed while his hand rested on my hip and then all of a sudden, any pain was gone away. The instant I felt fine, he jerked back his touch quickly, making the bed quake, as if he felt the electric-like surge of health. But whatever it was, he dismissed quickly because he probably heard the boys in the car like I had since the window was cracked, asking how long he'd be up here (which the other boy responded: "If it was Maya, I'd be up there all night if I needed to. Give him time.")

"I got it from here," Andrew's presence muttered as he was probably leaning against the doorway. "She'll be fine." Ryder leaned over to kiss the side of my head before getting up. But I could tell that even though he walked away from the bed, something kept him in the room. Probably Andrew. "You okay?"

"Of course not," Ryder actually admitted.

"Well, even if you don't like it, we're basically family now, so you might as well just talk to me," Andrew surprised me by saying. Ryder let out a single breathy laugh.

"Maybe I will," he chuckled. And even Andrew shared the brief laugh. "I gotta take two guys home, but I'll talk to you later, man."

"Sure thing," Andrew responded. "If you need anything, I'll be here."

"All I need you to do is leave the front door open for me."

"You'd have to ask Cassandra, but I'll see what I can do," Andrew promised and then the two of them left. It made me feel better that they were on better terms for the sake of, well, me. But the smile that had worked itself on my face had relaxed moments after the boys went back downstairs and I fell into a deep sleep.