Page 33 of Wolf Bound

“Nicolai Volkov is very much still a threat,” Addison pipes up, her tone stern. “Make no mistake, if Nicolai learns Pru is here and alive, hewillcome looking for her.”

“He’ll have to go through me.” A voice comes from the side door leading to the kitchen.

Ryker stands there coffee cup in hand, his hair still wet from the shower and slightly tousled. He has on a plain white T-shirt and a pair of well-loved jeans. Margot and Addison both wish him good morning, and he nods in their direction as he comes to stand beside me. He leans down and kisses my forehead as he passes.

“Good morning,” he mumbles before pulling away and settling in next to me on the love seat.

“Good morning,” I whisper back at him. I feel the flush on my cheeks with Addison and Margot watching us interact.

“Addison, if you think Nicolai is a threat, we need to make a plan on how to keep her safe,” Ryker tells my aunt.

Wait…do I still call her Aunt Addison? Even though she isn’t really my aunt?

“Well, as long as we’re able to keep her existence concealed, he’ll never know where she is.”

“Sure. Please, talk about me like I’m not sitting right here. It’s cool.” I roll my eyes at them, annoyed they’re acting like I’m not actually part of this discussion.

“Sorry,” Ryker mumbles before turning his attention back to Addison. “You mentioned last night you faked her death. Clearly, that was to trick our pack into thinking she was dead so we wouldn’t go looking for her.”

While he talks, he notices the coffee cup in my hand is empty, and he replaces it with his own full mug. He never stops talking as he does this. He just casually leans closer and puts his arm around the back of my seat. These little actions make my heart swell.

“But how were you able to hide her all this time from Nicolai,” Ryker continues. “He obviously knew she wasn’t in the car that night.”

“Noah, he—” She pauses when both Margot and Ryker stiffen at his name. They’re not over his betrayal, it would seem. “He had heard of this forger who’s based out of Seattle. After I visited Esme, I drove straight there. He was able to create new identities for both of us. Grey became Pruitt, and I changed our last names to Bailey. It became impossible to track us after that.”

“Didn’t people know you were friends with Genevieve? Wouldn’t they make the connection that you had Grey with you?” Margot asks.

There’s that name again…

Addison shakes her head. “Gen’s parents and pack hated humans, so she kept our friendship a secret. And even though I knew no one knew we were friends, I would only visit when business brought me out this way after Gen moved here with Archer.”

“I’m still upset she was taken away from me for so long, but thank you for protecting her the way you did.” Ryker nods his head at Addison.

I can’t image how hard it was on Addison to give up her entire life and take on raising her best friend’s child, which prods me to ask, “Addison, I do have a question that’s been eating at me. Why now? Why did you bring me back here now?”

A sad smile appears on her face before she stands up from her seat. “Let’s go for a walk.”

15

Ryker

Istand on the back patio waiting for Pru and Addison to come back from their walk. I know my mate is going to need me when they’re done talking. A wolf shifter’s sense of smell is so strong we’re able to pick up the scent of a deer up to three miles away. We can also smell when someone is sick, and based on the small amount of time I’ve been around Addison, I know she’s very ill.

Addison is the only family Grey—Pruitt—has ever known, and now she might very well lose her. I don’t know how my poor mate is going to cope with all this. She’s learned so much in the past twenty-four hours. Learning Addison is dying might be the thing that makes her fall apart.

“Is she telling Grey?” a male voice asks from behind me.

“It’s Pruitt now, and they’re out on a walk,” I reply with a nod, but don’t turn to face Noah. I can’t look at his face without wanting to punch it in. He knew this whole time that my mate was alive, and he never said anything. He was the officer that used to drive me home when I would get caught drinking and vandalizing shit when I was a teenager. He knew and understood why I was acting out, but he never said a word.

“She isn’t going to handle this well.” He comes to a stop next to me. From the corner of my eye, I see he is still dressed in his police chief uniform.

Noah isn’t short by any means, but I still have a couple inches on the pack beta. I stand even taller when I turn to look at him. “Pru will be fine.” I scowl at him.

“I’m not talking about your mate. I’m talking about Addison. She’s sacrificed her life to protect Grey—I mean Pruitt. And Addison feels like she’s failing her by getting sick.” Noah reaches up and scratches the side of his face. His auburn beard is starting to gray, just like his hair. “She doesn’t want to leave her.”

“No one is ever really ready to die,” I snap at him. “People talk a big game about being at peace with death, but it’s bullshit. If they had a choice, they would choose life over death every time. People just say that so the ones they leave behind feel better about losing a loved one. It sucks when things out of your control make choices for you, doesn’t it?”

“You want to do this before the girls get back, or would you like to wait for an audience?” Noah calmly asks as he removes his aviator sunglasses and places them on a coffee table.

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