12/28/2017

Even though she didn't want to admit it, Kristin was glad to be going back to the house— their house.

She hadn't seen Ryder since this morning and although he had completely ignored her while leaving, she wanted to see him.

She blamed the mate bond for making her want to see him, but she told herself she would still act angry with him.

Because she was angry with him, she firmly told herself. She had to keep telling herself she was still angry with him, which in turn made her even more frustrated.

The bond was trying to persuade her to make up with her mate but she would fight it as long as she could. What Ryder did and said to her she knew she wouldn't forget easily.

Opening the door, she quietly made her way into the big entry way. She glanced into the kitchen and living room on her way to the stairs but they were both empty.

She hated how quiet it was when Ryder and her weren't speaking. She almost forgot about being mad at him just so she could hear his voice again. She wished he'd go back to being the care-free, playful, smirking jerk she had first met. Now, that side of him would often disappear and the dominant, controlling, annoying Alpha would take over.

Kristin walked up and down the hallways upstairs, but found she was alone in the house.

She frustratingly got ready for bed and grudgingly hopped in the huge empty bed that had no smell of Ryder.

Sighing, she knew this would be a long, lonely night.

The next morning Kristin woke up pretty easily, despite sleeping horribly. The only reason was to go look for Ryder, however, he still wasn't there.

She decided to go to training and try to forget about Ryder, although trying to forget about your mate turned out harder than she thought it'd be.

"Something's distracting you," Adam knowingly said when Kristin zoned out for the third time.

"Sorry," she shook her head, as if that would clear her mind.

Adam raised a brow, silently asking her what was up.

She just sighed, taking a seat.

"You don't have to talk about it," he said, watching her, "But it would probably be best if we called it a day."

"No, it's okay, I'm fine," Kristin shook her head, getting back up.

"It's too dangerous to keep training if you're getting distracted," he objected. "Why don't we continue where we left off tomorrow?"

"Sure," she agreed, not too confident tomorrow would be better.

When she returned to the house she felt her body relax as she stepped through the door.

She entered the kitchen to see Ryder standing at the counter, looking down at his phone.

She stopped herself from walking any closer to his intoxicating scent.

"Where were you?" she tried sounding nonchalant but her voice was scolding.

He looked up at her, his face void of expression.

Ugh, how could he hide things so well?

"Pack stuff," he vaguely replied.

He was being distant and it caused another pain to start in her chest.

She remained silent, beyond angry with him, yet she couldn't bring herself to leave.

"Where were you?" he flipped the accusation.

"I know you know."

"I can smell him on you," he growled.

"Who?" she asked, distracted.

"Adam."

"He's my trainer," she said with an obvious tone.

"He doesn't need to touch you," he shot darkly.

"Actually it's necessary for training," she chided.

"It's not," he grumbled, leaving the room.

"It is," she muttered, although he was already out the door.

"Thanks a lot," she mumbled sarcastically as her chest started aching again.

Kristin decided to keep busy and ignore her problems with Ryder, so she went to visit Ethan.

Once she was in his office at the pack building she couldn't help but start ranting. She knew complaining about the Alpha to his third in command wasn't the best idea, but she had no one else.

Evelyn had disappeared after the night Ryder kicked her out and Kristin couldn't get a hold of her.

"I can't do this anymore," she muttered, walking back and forth in front of Ethan's desk.

"What?" he asked, concerned.

"I'm going to murder that idiot," she grumbled, blaming her lovely mate for not being able to think straight.

"Can I assume you're talking about the Alpha?" Ethan asked in a quiet voice.

Kristin would have laughed if she wasn't so pissed.

"Ryder is unbelievable. He's acting angry at me when he's the one who kicked Evelyn out of the fighters!"

Ethan opened his mouth, trying to figure out what to say to calm her down.

"Yeah we had a big fight, but then he tried making it better by apologizing and showing me the new house," she continued, waving her hands, "But I didn't accept his apology because he wasn't sorry for what he did to Evelyn and he still thinks he can control me."

She stopped pacing and turned back to Ethan, "And now he decided to act angry and ignore me!"

That was just great. Despite what Iris had said yesterday, Kristin felt like Ryder didn't even feel the bond. She was the only one in pain, which was like a punishment for arguing with him!

"Maybe you should sit down," Ethan gulped, cautiously pointing to a seat.

Kristin snapped out of her thoughts, looking at Ethan's startled expression.

She probably looked crazy right now, her hair was in a messy bun and she still had her training clothes on. She was too angry to shower, plus she knew it would keep annoying Ryder when he 'smelled Adam on her'.

Once again she became distracted with her thoughts and realized Ethan was looking quite alarmed.

"Sorry," she tried composing herself and sat down.

He slightly relaxed at her sitting down.

"For a moment there, I thought you were going to shift," he chuckled nervously.

"Don't worry," she took a breath to calm herself, "I don't have a wolf."

He nodded at her but gave her a weird look.

"I know I'm not supposed to pick sides between my Alphas," he looked at the door behind her and lowered his voice even more, "But the Alpha's been acting a little off lately."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"I think it's from stress and you two fighting, but he's angrier and it's harder to work with him."

"No, I mean who's side are you on?"

Ethan looked at her for a couple of seconds before subtly pointing at her.

"Me?" she asked, surprised. "You're on my side?"

Ethan put a hand up, motioning for her to keep her voice down.

"Thanks," she lowered her voice, giving him a smile.

"I wish you two would make up though," he replied sheepishly.

"Me too, Ethan," she realized she wanted that as much as him, "Me too."

She sighed, "Even if I wanted to try to talk things out with him, he ignores me. Somehow he always seems to know where I am and avoids me," she realized.

"He keeps an eye on you with guards," Ethan let slip before stopping himself.

"He has guards on me?" she demanded, "Like right now?"

"Random wolves from the pack update him on your location so he knows you're safe," he reluctantly explained.

"You mean so he knows where to avoid me," she corrected bitterly.

"I wouldn't say that," Ethan disagreed, "I think—"

He suddenly stopped talking and looked at the door.

"Why are you blocking the link?" Ryder stormed in through the door.

"I..." Ethan trailed off, becoming alert.

"Everyone has just been contacted about the rogue attack but you," Ryder looked down at Ethan.

"I'm sorry Alpha, I—"

"Rogue attack?" Kristin interrupted.

Ryder's dark eyes moved to her, "Rogues are attacking the pack but apparently you two had more important things going on?" he hissed.

"Excuse me?" Kristin stood up so he wouldn't be towering over her so much.

Out of the corner of her eye she saw Ethan take a step back, giving them as much space as possible.

"You were distracting him from doing his job," Ryder took a step towards her.

Kristin took a step towards him, refusing to show weakness.

"Is the pack okay?" she asked angrily, although she was really concerned about everyone's safety.

Ryder gave her a weird look, "The rogues are being taken care of."

She sighed in relief, thinking something bad had happened since Ryder was so angry.

"It would have happened faster if Ethan wouldn't have had his mind closed off to the rest of the pack," he glared at Ethan.

Before Ethan could apologize for the third time Kristin interrupted, "You don't have to apologize Ethan. The rogues are taken care of and everyone is okay."

"Get out," Ryder grumbled and she realized he was talking to her.

"No."

He looked back at her, "Kristin, leave."

"No," she crossed her arms, refusing to step down. She knew he wanted her to leave so he could yell at Ethan, and she was done letting this happen.

He growled at her, probably frustrated that his Alpha had no affect on her.

They stared at each other angrily for a full minute before Ryder spoke again.

"Ethan, leave."

Ethan wasted no time in slipping out the door. He gave one last look at Kristin, worried about leaving her and Ryder alone right now.

"Go," Kristin nodded, giving him a small smile so he'd know she'd be okay.

"Since when does he ask you for permission?" Ryder fumed.

Kristin couldn't help but flinch at his outburst, but she remained quiet and glared at him.

"What were you two doing?"

"What do you think we were doing?" she asked, just to spite him.

He grabbed her shoulders and backed her up to the wall. She tried not to wince as her back hit the hard surface.

It wouldn't have hurt if it wasn't for her soreness from training the last couple of days.

She was momentarily distracted as he pressed his body against hers, narrowing his eyes at her.

Of course even though they were arguing, warmth and tingling sensations spread through her body from the contact.

He lowered his face closer to hers and she could feel his hot breath against her cheek, her body slowly loosing control to his touch.

She felt herself biting her lip when he pressed his body harder into her.

"You cannot argue with my orders when other pack wolves are present," his voice was full of growls.

"I'll do what I want," she muttered and he pressed her against the wall even more.

"No you won't. You need to do as I say."

"I'm an Alpha too," she tried getting out of his hold but knew it as impossible.

He closed his eyes and grunted, "I am your Alpha."

"And I am your Alpha," she repeated, breathing heavily against him.

Ryder suddenly backed up, releasing his hold on her.

She tried to catch her breath but then ran in front of the door to stop him from leaving.

"Move."

"No, you aren't going to leave and ignore everything."

He scoffed, "And you want me to stay?"

She blocked the doorway.

"I'm this close to shifting so I advise you to move," his voice was dangerous.

"No," she internally swallowed.

"Move," he repeated, his eyes telling her he'd move her if she didn't move herself.

"I'm not done with you yet," Kristin shook her head, wanting to think of something else to say. It was hard because her brain was still foggy from their proximity.

Ryder growled loudly at her and she actually started to see his wolf surfacing.

"Why do you have guards spying on me?" she wanted to know, "I stayed in the pack like you wanted."

He scoffed, "Yeah and you started training too, didn't you?"

"Why are so against me training?"

"With a guy?" he corrected, "This is what you do Kristin. It's just like Alex."

"What the hell are you talking about?"

"You're getting close to other guys to anger me."

He thought that's what she did? He had no respect for her!

"You as*hole!"

He took a step forward, looking like he was going to force her to move.

"Is that what you thought was going on in here? Huh? You though I was hooking up with Ethan to make you jealous?"

Ryder stopped and stepped back, starting to shake.

"Stop talking."

"No. Is that what you think?" Kristin was fuming, "Maybe Adam and I aren't just training?—"

The loudest growl she had heard from him erupted in his chest and in less than a second she heard clothes shredding, Ryder's huge black wolf snarling down at her.

She quickly backed up until she was pressed against the door. She wanted to give him space in case he lashed out, but also still wanted to block him from leaving.

Every breath he took was a growl and his eyes were almost completely black.

"I can't believe you think that," she snapped.

He in turn, snapped his teeth at her, wanting to make her move from the door and let him out.

She tried not to look intimidated as she stared up at his wolf that was double her size. She had to keep reminding herself this was her mate so he wouldn't hurt her. Well, intentionally hurt her.

Actually, he had already hurt her.

"I wish I wasn't your mate," she heard herself say frustratingly. She was extremely confused, the mate bond clouding her thoughts of anger, but also causing immense pain.

She turned and ran out the door before locking herself inside a room and breaking down.

•. •. •. •. •.

Chapter Fifty Seven.

Thanks for reading!

Ps. Almost forgot it was Monday today... I've been watching The Crown on Netflix all day ;)

Chica_2016