Page 51 of Reckless: Collision

I can let them keep me safe.

But I can never let myself love them.

Chapter 12

Ryker

I wakebefore dawn with the taste of lemon in my mouth and violence in my blood.

Fuck.

Rolling out of bed, I try to shake off the lingering dream—Cayenne spread across my sheets, that sharp tongue finally silenced, those defiant eyes finally yielding. But the fantasy clings like her citrus scent, cutting through the expensive air filtration system that’s supposed to keep my head clear. Just another way she’s breaching my defenses.

The clock reads 4:47 AM. Too early to be thinking about betas who don’t know their place. Too late to go back to sleep and pretend I’m not already hard from the memory of her wrapped around Jinx, all fire and submission and challenge.

She’s going to run again.

The certainty settles into my bones as I pull on workout clothes, muscle memory from years of chasing things that don’t want to be caught. I’ve read enough psych profiles, tracked enough marks to recognize the signs—the constant twitch of her fingers seeking keyboards, the way her eyes map exits while her mouth spits defiance, the thrumming tension that makes her vibrate like a live wire seeking ground.

The question isn’t whether she’ll try to escape.

The question is whether I can stop her without breaking something essential in the process. Without breaking myself.

The security monitors cast blue shadows across my spartan quarters, showing the basement door still locked, no movement for six hours. But this is Cayenne Sterling—the woman who walked into Sterling Labs’ servers and walked out with enough secrets to earn a death mark. For all I know, she’s already in our systems, just waiting for the right moment to prove how useless all my carefully constructed boundaries are.

My phone buzzes with Quinn’s nightly report. More beta hospitalizations in the financial district. Moretreatment centersappearing overnight like mushrooms after rain. The pieces are there, a puzzle I can’t solve because the key is locked in that drive and in the mind of a woman who’d rather jump between buildings than trust anyone with her secrets.

I press my forehead against the cool window, watching dawn paint the mountains in shades of grey that remind me of her eyes when she challenges my authority. Which is constantly. Eternally. Like she was created specifically to test every wall I’ve built.

“You’re up early.”

Finn’s voice carries from my doorway, knowing and far too amused. The beta always could read me better than I can read myself.

“Don’t.” The word comes out rougher than intended, but Finn’s presence has always made it harder to maintain the walls I build for everyone else.

“I didn’t say anything.” He pushes his glasses up, but I catch his smirk in the reflection. “Though if you’re worried about our guest, she’s been in the training room for the past hour.”

“What?” I turn from the window, scanning the monitors that show an undisturbed basement door. “How?—”

“Did you really think that lock would hold her?” Now he’s not even trying to hide his amusement. “She picked it twenty minutes after we went to bed. Been running laps ever since.”

Pride and fury war in my chest, familiar enemies that always surface when it comes to her. Goddamn impossible woman.

“She needs boundaries.” I grab a shirt, trying to ignore how my alpha stirs at the thought of her scent in my training room. Our space. “Structure.”

“Like the basement door?” Finn settles into my reading chair, making himself comfortable. Typical. “She’s been locked up her whole life, Ryker. Just in different ways.”

“Explain.” The word comes out sharper than intended, but Finn doesn’t flinch. He never does.

“Think about it.” He takes off his glasses, cleaning them with methodical precision that belies the weight of his words. “She’s spent years hiding behind screens, fighting battles through proxies, living in a cage of her own making. Now she’s faced with real connection, real pack dynamics, real feelings?—”

“We are not her pack.”

“No?” Those keen eyes study me over his frames. “Then why did you spend an hour last night researching beta integration into alpha packs?”

Caught. I turn back to the window, watching dawn creep across our grounds like my excuses—slow, inevitable, transparent. “Know your enemy.”

“Is that what she is? The enemy?”

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