You Would Never Know

Lyle’s eyebrows rose so high that they might have met her hairline. She stopped and blinked rapidly before staring at him openly. In a disbelieving voice she said, “You are an antique piece. I have never heard of werewolves living so long.” 

He grunted. “The werewolves of Silver Moon pack live longer!” He turned his head over his shoulder and said, “Now keep moving.” 

The werewolves of the Silver Moon pack were the only ones who could live longer amongst all of their species. One of the main reasons why they stayed hidden in the deep jungles was to prevent others from conducting research on them and see what it was that made them immortals. Several of his pack’s werewolves went missing only to be found later with mutilated bodies deep in the jungles. 

Ryder had tried his best to find out those who abducted his people, but he hadn’t been able to. And that was one of the main reasons why he was ferociously protective about his pack. 

Lyle continued to watch him with interest without realizing that the narrow pathway ended. Ryder halted as he scanned the crater and Lyle stopped herself from crashing into him. 

The pathway opened into a large volcano bed, the area being equal to several football stadiums put together. The rocks that lined the crater were ruched like a ball gown only that they were harder, as if weathered over thousands of years. Small bushes grew over the uneven ash ground. When Lyle looked up at the bright blue sky, she felt like an… ant. The black and slate craggy peaks of the volcano were so high that they seemed to kiss the clouds, which drifted lazily in the sky. She turned her gaze to the ground. Detecting Nyter flowers in this place would take a crazy amount of time. 

“This is like finding a needle in a haystack!” she remarked, annoyed. “We have such little time to find it and this place is vast!” She looked around to see other competitors but there was no one else. That was surprising. “What do you think you will do?” she asked as she started going in the opposite direction. When he didn’t answer, she turned to look at him and found him… tense. He was staring ahead. Lyle followed his gaze and she too tensed. Some hundred meters ahead, towards the center, there was a massive boulder on which grew the golden Nyter flowers. Beautiful… gorgeous...

Her eyes were drawn to the only bunch of Nyter, which resembled narcissus flowers to the extent that it looked as if Hades had come from the underworld to plant these himself. They were… stunning. Golden stars amidst the green thorny bushes and like a garland of vibrant gold blooms. How they grew on a gray boulder was akin to magic. The beautiful petals with cup-shaped corona in the middle, swayed lightly in the warm breeze. Nothing trumpeted the glory of Nyter. The rich gold color reminded Lyle of the spring she spent with her parents in their garden. She inhaled the air and her mood lifted when the intoxicating fragrance of Nyter reached her. “Gods!” she said in a breathy voice.

All of a sudden she became aware that Ryder was watching her. 

She raced towards it, jumping over the boulders and thorny bushes. From the corner of her eye, she saw him racing for it. The man was crazily fast. With all the energy she had in her, Lyle raced as fast as possible and when she was about to reach the flowers, she leapt almost five feet in the air and landed right before the bush to pluck it. However, just before she could pluck them out, Ryder had sliced their stems with the claws of his left hand in one go and grabbed the bunch in his right hand. As soon as he had it in his hands, the man jumped from the three-meter high boulder and landed perfectly on the ground. A grin came on his face when he looked back at Lyle. 

“You have to learn a lot, pup!” he said condescendingly with a half chuckle. “You are too slow. And no one beats me in speed!” He flashed the flowers in front of her to tease her and then started to walk back towards the pathway they had come from with a bounce in his steps. Suddenly he was on the ground. She lunged at him and grabbed his legs. With a growl he got up. “This is against the rules,” he said in a low, dangerous voice as he dusted off the dry leaves and soil. “Once a participant has got the booty, you can’t attack him or her.” If I complain, you will be banished from all the packs. 

He frowned and extended his hand to pull her up. As soon as she was standing, he grabbed her upper arms and said, “You do that again and I am going to take a drastic step!” He positioned one leg between hers and brought his hands to her waist. “So don’t play those games with me.” His eyes darted between her eyes and lips. Inadvertently, the hand that was holding the flowers went to her hips. “I am much better than you.” 

Her body shivered when he placed his hand on her hip and one leg between her thighs. He was so close that if she wanted she could have taken Nyter and run away, but her mind was all scattered. The leg between her thighs was doing strange things in her belly. His hand on her hip was like a brand. “I need those flowers,” she said in a fluttery voice. Her hands pushed him against his chest and she closed her fist the moment electricity zapped in them. 

He didn’t reply for a long time, and when he did, he said, “Ever since I have got a lover, she hasn’t allowed me to touch her.” He brushed his other hand to her other hip. “She has left me and gone back to her folks and that was some ten years back. The last time I met her, she said that she would come back to me only if I found a way to make her immortal like me. So Lyle, don’t test my patience. Around you I feel as if I am going to die if I don’t kiss you.” He moved away a little from her without leaving her. “And I presume that is because I am starved of my lover.” 

Lyle’s thoughts evaporated. The man was without the woman he loved for a decade? And he wanted to kiss her. She bit her bottom lip to stop them from quivering. “If she hasn’t met you for ten years, then she doesn’t love you,” she replied with a shaky breath. “I told you, there is nothing known as lovers. It’s an illusion.” 

The man’s gaze was so intense that she felt as if she was spellbound. Her skin was tingling in anticipation. Her eyes traveled to his firm lips that were perfectly bow-shaped with outlines so prominent that she could spend a long time tracing them. Were they soft? 

‘They are soft,’ said Grisha. ‘He is beautiful.’ 

At times when Lyle wanted most self-control, Grisha did just the opposite. Grisha was pushing her to kiss him, to hold him and she was willing Grisha back inside. 

Ryder picked her up and instinctively she wrapped her legs around him. Her braid came falling down. With one hand he held her tightly on the waist and started walking towards the narrow pathway while removing the tie from her hair with the other hand.

On the inside, logic knocked her— ‘Get out of this situation, Lyle,’ but her body developed its own mind when his woodsy and spicy scent surrounded her. 

“Are you going to test your theory, Alpha Ryder?” she asked. 

There was so much conflict going on in his mind that he sucked in a sharp breath. He struggled to find the right words and finally said something they both knew, “Do you know these flowers grow once in a hundred years?” 

The rumble that came from his throat was… sexy. She nodded as muscles of her core clenched. 

“Do you realize why I am in this competition?” his voice hummed from his throat. “I want to make my lover immortal so that she comes back to me. So stay away from me. I don’t want any complications in my life. I will go and present these flowers to her.”

“I know, Alpha… Ryder…” She blinked her jealousy away even as her chest burned with it. Grisha was swearing on the inside to murder his lover. The way her wolf was reacting to his scent and his chiseled body, it was affecting her to the point that Lyle felt aroused as hell. “You shouldn’t do anything to me,” she said, not meaning the words at all. She couldn’t believe that after what Blake did to her, she would be wanting this man—this prime specimen, this raw, sensuous, handsome as Adonis, lethal as Hades. His warm hazel eyes seemed to draw her in intensely. Her claws dug in his shoulders. She wanted to feel the firm line of those lips and the realization shocked her. In fact she was dying to feel their firmness, their softness… 

He grabbed her hair and yanked her head back. “Ah!” she said as she watched his eyes flash obsidian. He stopped as his breath became shallow. “If you don’t kiss me Alpha Ryder, you would never know!” she rasped. If he didn’t kiss her, she would never know. 

And Ryder—