He’s gotta be back there. I know it. If Ryker wasn’t so damn stubborn when it comes to protecting me, he’d admit that he knows it, too. Just like how we both know that the note Barrow left behind, the note signed with twelve crisscrossing lines creating three bold Ws, is as close to a challenge from one Alpha to the next without Walker approaching Ryker and demanding to fight.
It’s an Alpha challenge which means that only Ryker can answer it. For now, he’s refusing to acknowledge what Walker did.
And I get it. I do. After Shane’s betrayal, the Mountainside Pack was left in a weaker position, and if there’s one thing that a shifter will never admit to, it’s weakness. Shane was Ryker’s Beta, his second-in-command. When he joined the Western Pack instead, Ryker was forced to reinstate the Beta who served when Ryker’s dad was Alpha. But Warren was already retired, and he made it clear he was filling the spot in name only.
Without a strong Beta, Ryker’s almost as big a target as I am. Bigger, really. If anything happens to me, Ryker will lose it. But if anything happens to Ryker… well, that’s the end of the Mountainside Pack as we know it.
Plus, I would burn down the world to get to the bastard who went after my mate.
So, yeah. I understand why we have to make a show of staying on our territory like nothing’s wrong. Even Kendall, the River Run Alpha, has no clue why Ryker is suddenly so obsessed with knowing what the Wicked Wolf of the West is up to. Ryker’s purposely closed ranks, trying to make sure that my bio-dad can’t get to another packmate.
I just can’t get past the fact that he already did.