5 - MATE

RYDER'S POV

Evan stood in the middle of the hallway and waited for an answer. I did not want to have this conversation out in the open where anyone from the staff or my family could hear us. I reached out and grabbed him by the arm so I could pull him down the corridor. He stumbled a bit, but he followed me without protesting. We reached my private office at the end of the hall. I shoved him inside the room and locked the heavy wooden door behind us.

I started pacing back and forth across the thick carpet. My chest heaved as I fought to keep my breathing steady. The air in the room felt too hot, and my skin still burned from the brief moment I touched Jaslyn on the stairs.

"Are you going to answer me, Ryder?" Evan asked. He crossed his arms over his chest and watched me pace. "I know what I smelled out there. You cannot hide things from me, because I am your best friend and your Beta. Tell me what happened."

I stopped walking and ran a trembling hand through my hair. I looked at Evan and knew I could not lie to him. The secret was too big to keep to myself.

"It is the girl," I said. My voice sounded raw and strange in the quiet office. "Vanessa's daughter. Jaslyn."

Evan frowned and shook his head. "What about her? Did she provoke you in the driveway?"

"She is my mate, Evan, and I do not know how to handle it."

Evan dropped his arms. He stared at me for a long time, and the silence in the room grew heavy. He walked over to one of the leather chairs in front of my desk and sat down heavily. He leaned forward and dragged his hands over his face in disbelief.

"Please tell me you are joking," Evan pleaded.

"Do I look like I am joking?" I asked him. I crossed the room and poured myself a glass of water from a crystal pitcher. My hands shook so much that the glass rattled against the table.

Evan let out a harsh breath. "She is a human, Ryder. You are the future Alpha King. Pack law demands a strong Luna to lead beside you, and a human girl does not meet those requirements. Our ancestors wrote those laws to protect the pack from weakness."

"I know the laws," I replied. I resumed pacing across the room.

"The elders will not accept her," Evan warned me. "They will revolt the moment they find out you are bonded to a human. They will start a civil war within the pack to strip your title and protect the bloodline. We already have rival packs waiting for us to show a sign of instability."

"They can try to challenge me," I countered. "I am strong enough to hold them off."

"It is not just the elders you have to worry about," Evan continued. "Think about Sienna. She has spent years preparing to rule beside you. Her father is the current Beta, and they hold a lot of political power in this territory. Sienna will not just pack her bags and walk away from the throne because you found a human mate."

I stopped pacing again. "Sienna will do what I tell her to do, because I am the Alpha heir."

"Sienna will kill Jaslyn if she finds out about this bond," Evan stated flatly. "You know how she operates, and you know she does not share what she believes is hers."

The mere mention of someone killing my mate triggered a violent reaction inside my mind. My wolf roared, demanding blood. I lost my temper in a fraction of a second.

I stepped up to my large mahogany desk and gripped the edge of the wood. I held onto the desk so hard that the bones in my hands ached. I tried to hold my shift back, but the instinct to protect my mate overpowered my rational thoughts. Sharp claws pushed through my fingertips. They dug deep into the polished wood and tore long gashes across the expensive surface.

"I will murder anyone who touches her," I snarled. "I do not care if it is Sienna or an elder. I will rip their throats out before I let them harm her."

Evan stood up from the leather chair and raised his hands to calm me down. "You cannot kill your own pack members over a human girl, Ryder. That is madness. You will lose everything your father built, and you will tear this family apart."

"She belongs to me," I argued. "I am supposed to protect her."

"Then you need to stay away from her," Evan urged. "We need to figure out a plan. We have to find a way to break the bond before anyone else figures out what is going on. You cannot let your instincts destroy this pack."

I opened my mouth to argue with him, but the words never came out. The air in the room shifted. A very specific scent drifted under the gap of the locked office door, and it filled my nose.

Vanilla and fresh rain.

My posture changed. The defensive anger drained out of my body, and a pure, starving need replaced it. Dinner must be over. Jaslyn was wandering the dark hallways right outside my door, and she was unguarded. My wolf took the reins, pushing my human consciousness to the back of my mind. The rational fears about Sienna and the elders faded away. I only cared about finding the source of that scent.

I turned away from the ruined desk and walked toward the exit.

Evan noticed the change in my expression. He moved in front of the locked door and held his hand up to block my path.

"Do not do this," Evan warned me. "You need to stay in this room, Ryder. Give yourself time to calm down."

I ignored his advice. The pull was too strong to fight, and I needed to see her face again. I stared down at my best friend.

"Unlock the door, Evan. She is out there."