Page 42 of Betrayed Mate

“Yes, but she’s not here,” Gage reassured me.

My brows furrowed. “What do you mean?”

“This is her primary residence, but she has several other houses where she spends time.” He lowered his voice. “All of them are near the Blue Ridge Mountain range because she wants to be where the majority of the shifters and about half the witches live. She also has houses in several of the cities in the area, including here, Asheville, and Charlottesville, Virginia, plus a location that no one outside her closest circle knowsthe whereabouts of. Raven told Kendric earlier that Queen Ambrosia left two days ago, heading to Asheville for some sort of celebration.”

A weight lifted from my shoulders, and my lungs worked freely once more. But I didn’t want to get my hopes up. We were surrounded by vampires and at their mercy. “Still, they—”

“Raven was the one who asked us to go.” Gage squeezed my leg. “They know we aren’t the ones who attacked the vampires. They just want an update.”

I swallowed and inhaled. There was no stench of a lie. He truly believed it, which did help, but what if he was wrong? Either way, it didn’t matter now. I was already here and surrounded. It wasn’t as if I could leave. Ryker and the others wouldn’t let me, even if the vampires wouldn’t stop me.

Gage’s eyes glowed, and there was another round of pounding on the door. I leaned forward as Ryker shoved Xander out of the way, his eyes a bright yellow from how hard his wolf was surging forward. He yanked open the door and snarled, “Get the fuck out of the car.”

“What the—” Gage exclaimed, but when his head snapped in Ryker’s direction, his voice cut off. “Damn, okay. I was just talking to her for a moment. She was freaked out!” He climbed out of the car, and Ryker jumped into the seat, taking his place.

His gaze met mine, and my wolf responded.

A deep growl came from his chest, and I lifted my chin in defiance.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Ihad no clue what I’d done to piss him off this time, but I wouldn’t jump out of the car like Gage just because Ryker glared at me. I straightened my shoulders, ready for the inevitable argument about what I’d done wrong.

When he opened his mouth, I cringed, preparing for an insult or snide comment.

“I’m sor—” His eyes flicked down toward the floorboard.

The last bit was so muffled that even my shifter ears couldn’t pick it up, but if I didn’t know any better, I would’ve thought that he just apologized to me. “What?”

He closed his eyes and groaned like I’d punched him in the balls. “You’re not going to make this easy for me, are you?” He looked at me, the color of his irises vivid to the point that I could see each speck of gold hidden within the brown.

My wolf stirred even more inside me, but I ignored her, focusing on the man in front of me. “I’m honestly not sure what you said.” I must have misunderstood him.

He cleared his throat and ran a hand through his hair. “I’m sorry,” he whispered, just loud enough for me to hear.

A lump formed in my throat, and my stomach fluttered. “For what?” I needed to get my head out of my ass because this would be where he cut me down with his words.

“For not waking you and informing you of what we planned.” He sighed, and his shoulders dropped. “If I were you, I’d be pissed if I woke up in vampire territory.”

All the anger that had been boiling inside me cooled, which wasn’t what I wanted. But how could I stay mad at someone who’d apologized and admitted they were wrong? I still wanted to tell him where to go, but instead, something different left my mouth. “You probably didn’t even think about it since you all clearly trust them.”

My eyes widened at my words. But it was true—with everything else going on, he probably hadn’t considered how I’d feel.

“I—er—wedidn’t.” He licked his lips and dropped his hand back into his lap. “But I should’ve. After we provide Queen Ambrosia with an update, if you aren’t comfortable staying here, we can leave. We did gather our supplies from the last place we stayed—where we located you in the woods—since Simon could track us down, but we can rent another location if needed.”

How long had I been out? I glanced up at the descending moon. It had to be close to two in the morning. I’d been out for at least five hours…and I still felt tired. “Did you all really stay here after…” I trailed off, unable to speak the words. I didn’t have to because, from the way his eyes darkened, he understood.

He sighed. “Yes, for about two weeks while we acclimated to our new reality and what the other shifter packs thought of us. Queen Ambrosia arrived at our lands while we were burying the d-dead.” His voice broke on the last word. “She offered us a place of safety until we could get back on our feet. We couldn’t stay there, and the wolf shifters who stopped by scorned us, so weaccepted the offer, and I’m glad we did. They’ve been the only support we’ve had.”

I had no argument for that. I’d rather stay with a coven of witches I knew nothing about than with vampires. At least witches had natural magic like us, magic from the earth. Vampires’ magic came from draining life instead of fostering it. Our two magics were completely at odds. Vampires were fast but not nearly as strong as wolves. We could see them with our wolf vision; even when they moved so fast they blurred, and we had the strength they lacked. “Couldn’t you have provided an update over the phone, especially after what happened with Simon?” I didn’t doubt that the news about Simon would make the queen and the other vampires angry at us. They’d be loyal to their own species over wolves.

“If I was worried about that, then we wouldn’t be here.” He winked.

My stupid heart skipped a beat.

What thehellwas wrong with me? The nice, sexy shifter who’d flirted with me didn’t faze me at all, but one second of kindness from Ryker and my heart was doing all the crazy things. Was it because my wolf knew that Ryker and I were nothing to each other and my future with my fated mate wouldn’t be impacted by him?

I needed to make myself feel something for someone I could have a future with and get over this fated-mate bond crap. Reid had betrayed me and my entire pack and might be holding my sister hostage.

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