Alpha Ryker’s POVI reviewed the agreement one more time before digitally signing them then I sent an email to my secretary to let her know. Closing my eyes, I leaned back against the leather chair and took a deep, calming breath. It was crazy to think that I actually had a successful company without my family’s money.About four years ago — a year after my brother’s death, my dad had announced Draven Summers, my nephew, as the sole heir of old Cromwell’s fortune, I’d been pissed. I wasn’t pissed at Draven in particular, I knew there was some tough love back in the States and that he’d been ostracized by his own grandfather. All my anger and frustration were for my father. He’d simply kicked me out just because I wanted to make Alana Luna. He’d gone on and on about how our pack, The Ethereal, had become one of the strongest packs in the world because we’d never rejected our Fated Mate. That the mates were chosen for us by the Moon Goddess for a good reason — although we didn’t know wha

“That doesn’t make any sense,” I argued even though I’d been telling myself to leave. “Why would you need to scare her away? You could just ask her, and tell her about your plan of using me—” “I didn’t use you,” he cut me, his eyes were burning with anger and something else that I couldn’t quite comprehend. “I am not using you. I don’t know how else I’m supposed to convince you about this.” He let out a rough huff. “I’ve told Alana to leave after the wedding but she came up with a million excuses and the bottom line was that she didn’t want to leave. But I wanted to try talking to you and hopefully convince you to come here so when Dmitry offered to help kick Alana out, I let him do that. And before you accuse me of taking you here so I could use you, think again. Why would I want to use you? For what? You’re my mate.” “Are you seriously wanting me to believe that you really want me to come here simply because I’m your mate?” I couldn’t hide the tone of incredulity in my voice. He w

After a while, I ended up falling asleep and when I woke up, my whole body was aching. I stretched my body before I slowly rose to my feet. I pulled my phone out of my pocket and realized that it was four in the morning. My throat was on fire and I was feeling a little bit hungry so I decided to go downstairs to the kitchen. Yet when I unlocked my door and swung it open, I was surprised by the sight of Ryker sitting on the floor, his head resting on his bent knees and his back was on me. He was asleep. Using a flick of my hand, I used my power to grab the blanket off my bed then I placed it carefully around him. It must be chilly here and even though I was annoyed at him, I still didn’t want him to get sick. Carefully, I walked around him and quietly made my way downstairs. I found some frozen bagels and popped them into the microwave. Once I was done eating, I made my way upstairs again but by the time I walked past Ryker’s figure for the second time, his hand caught my calf and I

There was a moment of pure silence with nobody moving or saying anything then the next second, Ryker cursed out loud as he tried to cover my body with his. His hand quickly yanked the blanket to cover my exposed skin. “What the hell, Dimka?!” he yelled at his Beta and gave Dmitry a murdering glare. From what I’d read, male wolves were known to be incredibly possessive when it came to their mates but this was the first time I witnessed Ryker being possessive of me. I wasn’t sure I appreciated it. Possessive meant showing possession and I wasn’t a thing to be owned by him. Dmitry being the usual Dmitry, with his expression remaining flat and emotionless, simply shrugged his shoulders and said, “You leave the door wide open. If you want some privacy, you should close it.” Ryker narrowed his eyes, still every bit annoyed, and didn’t appreciate his Beta pointing out about the opened door. “Well, if you get the gist of it at one glance, you should have the decency of closing the door and

“Don’t make me ask you again, Adelina.” The temptation was getting bigger and harder to resist. I could almost taste the sweet, vigorous power. “He’s very important to me and if you don’t tell me what you did and how to undo them, I’ve no problem erasing your memory.” I leaned forward and added, “Even better, I’ll make you forget that you’re a witch so you have no power of retrieving your memory.” The smug look on her face was entirely gone the moment I mentioned erasing her memory. That was what she had left. Her identity. With her involvement in Alana’s ploy and killing Walker’s baby — possibly an heir, she was done for and she knew it. Logic prevailed as she swallowed convulsively before finally giving me the answer, “I did use some magic to mask his human identity and tweaked his wolf. But since I was not using dark magic, in order to do that, I have to preserve balance in this universe.” “What does that even mean?” I was getting impatient. The closer I was to Adelina, the lo