“Now she’s snarling at my mate,” the female alpha muttered.
“Willow,” Ryder said. “I’ll explain everything if you follow me.”
Yes, please. I turned away from Silas and his… I stopped, glancing at him. Wait, did she just say you’re her mate?
“Willow,” Ryder repeated, a hint of command in his tone.
Right. Follow him for answers. Okay. One step after another, I made my way to the bottom of the stairs, then looked up with a huff. I could barely operate my four legs on a flat surface. How the hell was I going to maneuver upward?
Ryder didn’t seem to notice, his feet already carrying him up the steps.
I tried to follow and stumbled, yelping in annoyance.
He paused then to look at me, his eyebrow arched haughtily. Then he narrowed his gaze and returned to the first floor to really study me. “Where’s my little warrior? Did she perish during the transition to hybrid? Because I could swear she knew how to crawl quite well on four limbs back in San José.”
I growled, annoyed. Yeah, she did. In human form!
“You’re really going to let a few steps defeat you?” He yawned as though bored. “And I thought you were here to intrigue me. Maybe I will go see if the other female wolf knows how to go up stairs.”
That caused my hackles to rise. He did not just bring that other bitch into this.
“This behavior is tedious,” he continued. “Stop feeling sorry for yourself and figure it out.”
Figure what out?! I wanted to rage. What the hell is a hybrid? Why do I have four legs? Who are all those people? What are we doing here?
“Your growl is an improvement, I guess,” he said flatly.
Oh, I’d show him an improvement. I lunged for him, my instinct to bite taking over.
He rapped me on the nose with two fingers in response, tsking. “No. Biting.”
“Two words I will never say to a woman,” Damien put in as he started up the stairs with the others trailing behind him.
“You would if her bite nearly killed you,” Ryder tossed back.
“I wouldn’t say ‘nearly,’ ” Damien replied.
Ryder grunted. “You did say ‘nearly.’ ”
“Did I?” Damien was at the top of the stairs now. “Hmm, maybe I overexaggerated.”
“I’m shooting you five times now.”
Damien sighed loudly. “Fine.”
I glanced between them both, confused as to what the hell they were talking about. Then a hand smacked my rump, one that didn’t belong to Ryder. I spun on my heels to face the alpha male with dark eyes and hair. “Ryder’s right. Stop feeling sorry for yourself. Being a lycan is a gift. Now stop spoiling it and move.”
Silas came to stand beside him. “I forgot how much I loathed you in the beginning of my transition.”
“You took your transformation like a proper alpha. She’s over here pouting.”
“She’s not an alpha,” the female said conversationally. “More like a beta.”
“Still strong for a human turned lycan,” the male alpha replied. “And she’s a hybrid on top of it. Time she acts like the powerful product she is and stops moping around.”
Maybe if someone told me what the hell is going on, I wouldn’t be moping, I thought at him, a growl coming from my throat.
He growled back, the sound powerful and domineering, sending me several steps back into Ryder’s legs. “Some advice, little one,” the male said, that rumble still evident in his tone. “Never challenge an alpha. You’ll lose every time.” He stared me down, his dark irises whirling with power, demanding I yield.
Some part of me knew to look away, an inner voice that was new to me, telling me naturally that to submit was part of life. Yet another part of me demanded I remain standing, questioning this wolf’s right to dominate me.
I felt split in two, divided between a hierarchal world and a predatory existence.
“Well, that’s impressive,” the alpha mused. “How about you lean on that stronger side and shift back, then we can test that challenge.” He squared off with me, his strength an intoxicating presence that threatened to swallow me and force me to my knees.
Yet that other half of me glared back, incapable of bending.
I don’t answer to you. Energy hummed through me at the conviction in my internal tone, my vision blurring with a shimmering haze that reminded me of that moment between sleep and reality, right before a dream ended.
Yes, yes. I closed my eyes, welcoming the sensation and allowing it to swallow me whole as my universe turned right-side up again.