Page 6 of Ryder

Ryder

“Are you an alpha?”

I looked down at myself, looked back at the little beta, and raised a questioning brow.

She giggled, teetering on her sky-high heels.Glossy dark hair was adorned by a set of sparkling cat ears that managed to ride the line somewhere between ridiculous and cute.They were slightly off center, and I had to fight my OCD urge to straighten them up.

Rubbing absently at the stubble on my jaw, I sized her up.She looked like trouble, from the jut of her little pixie chin all the way down to her toes.I’d been trying to ignore her, mostly because she was stunning, but also because anyone who could shake their ass while drinking a cocktail and not spill a drop took my mind straight to the gutter… Like, what else could she do without spilling a drop?

Also, I could tell from fifty paces that she wasn’t a good girl, and I liked my girls good.

Yeah, I lied to myself frequently.

“Aren’t you going to offer to buy me a drink?”she asked.

“Nope.”

Her impish smile disappeared.“What?Why not?”

“Because all the drinks are free and you look like you’ve had enough.”

“They’re free?”she asked, her brows drawing together.

I nodded slowly.

The party girl act dropped in a flash, and she tapped one little pointed toe, brows pinching together like she was getting ready to maim someone.“I thought everyone was super generous.”

I shrugged.Someone was super generous.That someone was me, courtesy of my business partner Jace and his desire to bang some corporate banker chick, aka the beta who’d stumbled into our midst.

“And I was faking having had too much to drink.I’ve found it’s the absolute best way for weeding out the assholes.”

I laughed.Her bullshit was cute.Then my smile dropped as I wondered what kind of assholes she’d met to resort to such a tactic.

“You passed,” she said, her little smirk back in play.“It’s my birthday, by the way.”

“Yeah?I kind of figured that part out.”Those damn off-center cat ears made my fingers itch.

“My sister hates my dress,” she said.“Do you like my dress?”

Was this another fucking test?“Baby, I love your dress.I just wish there were a lot more of it, or we were somewhere private and I was the only man looking at it.”

Yeah, that popped right out, except that wasn’t me.I couldn’t give a fuck what a woman wore or who saw it and enjoyed a pretty view as much as the next man.I didn’t do possessive or territorial, but this sassy pixie was poking through my usually stolid façade.

“Hmm.I better get one in every color.”

“Brat,” I said, smirking as I tested out the word.I didn’t mean for that to slip out either, but every man had a type.Tall, short, brunette, blonde, slim, or curvy, it didn’t matter because I didn’t have a type, other than a weakness for brats.I just wanted to temper them because tempering them was hot as fuck.

“Oh, I definitely am, as my sister will attest.”

“Baby, what it brings out in me is nothing like what it brings out in your sister.”

ChapterThree

Emma

My well-scripted plans were thwarted by the arrival of another alpha.

“Ryder, I need a word,” he said, barely sparing a glance at me.

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