Page 48 of Ryder

Turning the cold shower off, I eased out of her hot cunt.I hated the way she winced, hated that it reminded me I’d been like an animal with her.

I lowered her feet to the shower floor.When I brought her in here, she hadn’t been too steady on her feet.She was worse now.My beast wanted her and was determined she could take us, even though she clearly couldn’t.

I felt like I was being ripped in fucking two.

Her screams should be of pleasure, not because I’d womb fucked her, but my beast didn’t care about her status or the nuances of her caste.Putting a mark on her and claiming her was his one and only aim.

I’d already marked her.Welts littered her body, where I had sucked against her delicate flesh and nipped her with my teeth, and her poor beat pussy was well claimed after I just hammered her into the shower wall.Something was fucking wrong with me, because I wanted to fuck her all over again and keep doing it until she said she was mine and meant it.

Even as I berated myself, my beast fucking preened, thinking about how she’d feel where I’d fucked her for days.

Sitting on the side of the bed, I stood her in front of me and carefully dried her off.She let me, all the while looking small and lost.

I should be fucking shot.

Afterward, I helped her into some clothes I’d had picked up for her…not that she’d spent a second in them since I first brought her to my room.

She sat on the side of the bed, unmoving, while I wiped the last of the dampness from my body and dressed.

Something was happening, but I had no clue what.I needed to stop thinking about her as an omega, because it was all terribly clear that really, she was not.

Now, I had to decide what that meant, because I knew I couldn’t let her out of my life.

Personal desires aside, this wasn’t a place for a beta, especially not a sweet, bratty one.Emma deserved nice things and to feel safe.We could keep her safe, my beast whispered, but it wasn’t the same kind of safety.Her sister was an omega and there were no other options for her now, which made her situation completely different.

Emma had friends out there and a life she’d told me all about.She’d just finished college and was trained in design, ready to step out into the world.She would graduate in a few days and mentioned a job offer was waiting for her reply.I couldn’t go there, and while she could visit me here, it wasn’t the same.

We were like two planets circling, passing briefly and drifting away again.

I was dressed, but I stood there, drinking her in, taking a moment before I took her hand in mine.

She was so fucking tiny and precious, and for the first time, all the sass had left her.“Are you ready to go see your sister, baby?”She smiled, but it was weak, and a sick feeling settled in my gut.I tipped her chin.“Was I too rough?”

Her eyes went wide, and she shook her head vigorously.“No, never.”

I thought I might have been, but for reasons that eluded me, she wasn’t prepared to admit it.

“I can be gentle,” I said.“I’ll learn to be fucking gentle.”

She shook her head again.“Please don’t ever try to be something that you’re not.I loved everything about what happened between us, and I wouldn’t change a thing.”

Her words hit me right in the gut…and in the chest.They were earnest and held sincerity.I also sensed that something was underlying them, but now wasn’t the time.

My cell began to beep where it rested on the nightstand.I snatched it up, hit accept, and lifted it to my ear.“Yeah, we’re leaving now.”

I tucked it into my back pocket.“Come on, Em.Your sister’s waiting for you.”

ChapterSixteen

Emma

Iwas weirdly nervous as Ryder guided me along the corridor to the elusive apartment where Sloane was waiting for me.I had a terrible feeling that when I saw my sister again, she would be different somehow and that I might not know her.The memory of her lying in bed, writhing in agony as her heat ripped through her, would haunt me for the rest of my life.That hadn’t been my sister.My sister was the strong one, who looked after me.The one time she’d needed me, I’d failed.

I tried telling myself I hadn’t known better.Why would I assume those rumors circulating on the internet about the Dawn Agency were true?Yet I still felt guilt over the fact that my call became the catalyst for life-changing events.The circus that had followed was the stuff of nightmares—Sloane screaming and begging, them injecting her, then the horrible silence as they carried her away.

Ryder had assured me that now her heat had passed, she would be fine again, would be herself, the Sloane that I knew.I worried, though, that the version of her I knew was gone forever, both the nurturing, mother version and the big sister who I’d fought with and yet loved as deeply as siblings could.

I guessed it was part of life that we changed as circumstances moved us forward and events and experiences remade us into something else.

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