Page 35 of Ryder

“Go away.”I didn’t look back, but I could feel him standing in the doorway.

“I’m not going anywhere, baby,” he said.

My stomach roiled, and I heaved up nothing.

“No.”I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand.I didn’t feel right still, but he was there, gathering me up, lifting me.He sat me on the broad counter in front of a full-length mirror and brushed the hair back from my face.

“Are you done, baby?”

I nodded.There was nothing there, anyway.

He pulled a toothbrush out of the cupboard, squeezed some toothpaste on it, and passed it to me.Then he filled a nearby glass with water and gave me that to swill.

“Whose toothbrush is this?”I asked suspiciously.

He shrugged, and his lips tugged up.

“It’s mine.I’ve had my tongue down your throat.I figured a toothbrush isn’t too much of a leap.”

“I don’t want you to mark them,” I said.I could feel my lips trembling.

“I won’t,” he said honestly.“Not again.”

I shoved the toothbrush in my mouth and scrubbed until I felt better, then I rinsed my mouth out and spat it into the sink.He cleaned the toothbrush off under the tap and put it on the side before passing me a towel.

“I can’t ask you to do that,” I said, unable to meet his eyes anymore.

Using his fingers, he tipped my chin up, forcing me to look at him.

“I’m choosing not to,” he said.

“You’re an alpha.You should be with an omega.”

“I should be with whomever I want, and despite your level of crazy, I want very much to be with you.Now,” he said, “you’re going to be disciplined in a way that makes sure you never do something that stupid again.If they’d gotten hold of you… I can’t even think about that.It would fucking destroy me.Take better care of yourself, for me.”

I didn’t understand what was happening, but I felt unsettled in my belly and in the center of my chest.There were wounds, raw and open, about what had happened with Sloane and our parents’ death.I was a little broken on the inside.All of it would take time.Even then, some things never settled back the same.

“I’m ready,” I said.“Punish me.I accept it.”

“Good girl,” he said.

He picked me up and carried me back into the bedroom.

ChapterTwelve

Ryder

Lifting Emma up, I carried her into the bedroom, my body and mind in a state of riot.She felt just right nestled in my arms.My beast was clamoring, wanting her in every way, wanting to put his mark on her.

He also needed to make sure she never put herself in danger like that again.Whatever the fuck was happening between us, whether the instincts writhing inside me were accurate—that with a small push, Emma might reveal as an omega in the same way her sister had—remained to be seen.I doubted she’d considered it, stressed as she was after what had gone down with her sister.

I understood how much she cared.In everything she’d done and said, right from the very first moment we met, her sister had been at the fore.There had been no mention of parents, so they weren’t in the picture for whatever reason.

But now, I needed her complete submission, or I was never going to calm down.

As I sat on the bed, she clung to me, and that shit went straight to my weak spot.The beast in me fell hard for a needy omega, whether emotional or physical.Emma, and whether she remained the beta or revealed as an omega, had already claimed a piece of me.

It also hadn’t escaped my notice that what had triggered her sudden race to the bathroom to empty her stomach had been the thought of me with anyone else, especially an omega.She didn’t want my hands on them and definitely didn’t want me to mark them.

---