It was midafternoon when Ryker headed to the community center to check on his pack members. Mary had left after breakfast to go home to change into her clothes. Ryker said nothing to her because his mind was back to what happened last night.

Abraham met him at his house shortly after Mary left and left together to the community center. The building was formerly used for educating the little pups, but when the new high school building was built, they moved everyone into that one building. It had enough separate sections to teach everyone.

Now, the building was used to host events and to hold meetings. However, they have cleared the space for everyone.

Abraham and Ryker entered through the double glass doors. Inside the main lobby, there were two hallways—the left one had the small meeting rooms, formerly known as classrooms, and the one on the right had the big gym space. The relief team had set up many cots for those who have lost their home.

A few pack members loitered around the main lobby chit-chatting quietly amongst themselves, but loud talkative noises were coming from the gym. They followed the right hallway to the open big double gym doors.

Inside, many pack members sat around conversing on their cots. The medical staff was making their rounds on everyone. Gary was in the middle of interviewing a few pack members with a small notepad, but when he saw Ryker and Abraham. He excused himself from them and walked over to report.

"Got anything new for us, Gary?" Abraham asked first.

"Well, many of them were having dinner or just doing their daily routine. They reported nothing out of the ordinary except for one individual who stated that they saw Mary standing in the back of the packhouse where the fire originally started."

Ryker scowled at Gary. They didn't think it was her, did they? Mary would never do this or was Ryker so bad at judging character that he didn't see it coming. It wouldn't be the first time, too. He thought he knew a female in the past and she turned and backstabbed him.

But Mary?

Could it be?

Loud laughter coming from the lunch line pulled all three males' attention in that direction. It was Mary. She was working the lunch line, ladling soup into bowls and handing them to the pack members. Right away, Ryker pushed his previous thought aside. Mary wouldn't have hurt his pack members. She had shown kindness repeatedly.

"It's not her," Ryker said.

Abraham and Gary agreed right away with Ryker's analysis because both of them nodded their head in agreement. All three males have been around Mary enough to know it wasn't her who started the fire. However, she was there at the crime scene. In fact, they saw her running out of the packhouse with a pack member wrapped in her arms.

The packhouse was far from her cabin. A few hours of walk time if she was walking at a leisurely pace. Ryker couldn't figure out why she was heading towards the packhouse. Was she going to meet someone there?

"She might have been there by coincidence. Everybody knows Easton has expressed an interest in her," Abraham said it so casually that Ryker knew he didn't say it to jab at him purposely, but more so as a point.

Ryker hated that idea even more.

"Speak of the Devil," Gary chuckled.

Easton was standing right next to Mary. Together, the two looked like the perfect couple—with bright smiles on their face and working to feed the pack members. They even wore matching colored shirts.

Ryker headed in their direction with Abraham and Gary scrambling to follow. Slowly, the sizeable crowd of pack members widened enough for Ryker and them to walk through. Mary finished handing over one soup bowl over to a pack member before she noticed everyone was looking behind them. She also looked in that direction to find Ryker standing in the middle of the crowd.

"Alpha Ryker, I-um-what a surprise to see you here." Mary split the eerie silence of exchanged looks between everyone.

"It shouldn't be a surprise at all. He is the Alpha," Abraham smirked. Pack members who were nosey enough to listen to the conversation nodded their heads in agreement.

Mary cleared her throat before trying to busy herself with picking up another soup bowl, "Of course."

"Are you hungry, Alpha?" Easton inquired while doing the most audacious thing. He reached over and took hold of Mary's hand that was holding onto the ladle. Together, they scooped the soup into the bowl in her hand.

Everyone's attention fell on their connected hands. Ryker could hear the pack members whispering and gossiping—Easton courting Mary?

Ryker didn't realize what he was doing. He growled possessively low. No one should have heard it, but every werewolf within the building turned their heads toward their Alpha because everyone had supernatural hearing.

Mary is involved with the Alpha? Was the Alpha marking his territory?

Ryker heard every single question that came out of his pack member's mouths. Ryker shoved his fingers through his hair angrily.

Curse it all. Now everyone was really going to gossip, Ryker thought.

Ryker turned to Gary.

"You go replace Mary," he ordered.

"What? Me?" Gary looked surprised. Then he turned to look at Easton and Mary before looking back at Ryker again. "Me?"

He repeated the question, just in case he heard it incorrectly, but one dark look from Ryker was enough to send him dropping his notepad in Abraham's hands and running toward Mary.

Immediately, Gary squeezed himself between Easton and Mary with an apologetic smile. "Here, let me help you."

Gary put his hand over Easton's. Immediately, Mary pulled her hand away and stepped out of her spot that Gary had forcibly taken over.

"Um," Mary began.

"Mary," Ryker called out.

She looked at Ryker before turning to look at a scowling Easton. Gary still held onto Easton's hand before Easton also yanked it away. Gary chuckled before turning to assist the pack members.

Mary sauntered around the table to Ryker. When she was in close enough range, he took hold of her elbow and pulled her closer to him. Abraham shrugged his shoulders when Mary looked at him quizzically before turning to look at Ryker again.

"Why are you angry?" She leaned forward to whisper in his ear so that no one heard them.

Ryker felt a terrible ache in his chest and a twist in his guts at the sight of Easton and Mary together. It was ugly and a horrid feeling. Yet he couldn't stop it from crawling all over his skin and causing his wolf to get antsy.

With one hand still wrapped around her arm, he grabbed the back of her neck and pulled her forward. She landed with a 'thunk' onto his chest before his lips crushed her lips a second later. Mary stiffened completely in Ryker's arms. He shouldn't kiss her like this. Not in front of everybody. What would everybody think?

Ryker didn't give a fuck what everyone thought. He only knew that he needed to make a point, and that point was that Mary was his. Nobody else's but his only.

The gym erupted with pack members talking all at once. This was unseen before. Ryker's pack has always wondered when he would settle down. When would he finally possess a female and choose her as his? Now, he had marked his territory with a possessive growl and kissed her in front of everyone. Pronouncing it official that she was his.

Mary's hands clutched at his cotton t-shirt hard before pushing him away from her. Her swollen lips and eyes were wide with all kinds of mixed emotions.

"You—"

"How could you?" Easton growled.

"She's mine," Ryker snarled. Ryker challenged Easton to say otherwise.

In seconds, Easton was standing in front of Ryker. The two males glaring at each other. Mary had to squeeze herself between the two males. This was not the time and place for them to do this. Everyone was staring with wide-open mouths—gasping for air. It was ridiculous. Although Mary was embarrassed to be the center of attention, she felt another emotion. One that also stated she didn't mind very much that Ryker kissed her openly. She liked it, in fact.

Mary placed two hands onto Easton's chest to push him away while her back was against Ryker's chest. Ryker noticed her hands were touching Easton and immediately grabbed her wrist to pull her away. Easton grabbed the other wrist to stop her.

"Mary, you have a say in this," Easton argued. "You don't have to do anything that you don't want to."

Ryker yanked Mary behind him and grabbed onto Easton's wrist to remove his hand off of Mary. Easton looked about ready to challenge Ryker, but Mary immediately let out a shriek and pushed Ryker away.

"Stop! I mean it," she screamed before turning to look at Easton, "please."

Easton's jaw worked back and forth. Mary could see that he was angry and debating if he should push further.

"I'm fine. It's okay."

After a minute of contemplating, Easton nodded his head in reluctance before turning his back to them. Ryker didn't waste a second. He pulled Mary out of the gym and building, leaving behind his brother.

Mary skipped to follow him. She could see how angry Ryker was. His shoulders were taut through the thin cotton material of his t-shirt. The muscles were straining as if he was going to shift. Neither one of them exchanged words until they were miles away. She waited until he was no longer angry. The grip on her wrist lessened and the stiffness in shoulders disappeared, but at that point, they were well immersed in the woods of the mountain and away from the town.

His footsteps slowed to allow her to walk next to him.

"Why did you do it?" She was the first one to ask.

But he ignored her question. Instead, he asked her another question of his own.

"What were you doing at the packhouse last night?"

He wasn't ready to answer her question, which was fine for now. She turned to look at the desired path in front of them with a sigh.

"I called Marcus. I missed my family. I just wanted some fresh air and ended up walking too far," she admitted.

Ryker forgot about Marcus, her brother. It's been crazy since arriving back home. He stopped his footsteps and turned her to face him with hands on both her shoulders.

"I'm sorry. I've been so busy. I haven't thought about how you were feeling since leaving your family."

Mary didn't want to cry in front of Ryker. So she sighed shakily and shrugged her shoulders. "I'm alright, but that was the reason I was at the packhouse."

Then another image of the three dark figures appeared in Mary's mind. She gasped loudly, which startled Ryker for a second.

"What's wrong?"

"Last night, when I noticed I was at the packhouse, I was about to turn around and go back home, but I noticed movement behind the packhouse. I turned to look, and I saw three black figures pouring gas onto the building. I shouted after them, but it was too late. They lit a match and threw it onto the building. The fire grew so quickly. I should have told you this, but I was so lost in everything. I totally forgot!"

It made sense. Ryker didn't care if she did or didn't. She saw the figures. That means someone did this on purpose. It was someone that could get close enough to the packhouse. It was someone inside the pack. Not just someone, but several people.

"Fuck," Ryker growled and shoved his hands through his hair. He walked away for a second before whipping around to look at Mary.

"Could you make out their face?" Ryker questioned.

Mary thought hard. Digging into her memories to see if she could find anything significant that she could tell Ryker. It was so dark, but if she looked at someone's back—she may be able to identify the individual that threw the match that night.

"I couldn't see their face, but I saw the back of the person who threw the lit match onto the packhouse. I shouted, and it scared him. He jumped and turned to look in my direction. I couldn't make out his face because I got distracted by the fire."

This was good enough for Ryker, but it also means that the person who Mary had seen, had also seen her too.