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“I’m fine, really. We don’t need to go to the castle or your cabin, Ryker,” I try to tell him, but my words fall on deaf ears, or mostly deaf ears.

Pike seems to hear me, his lip pushing out in a pout about not getting to eat any of Ryker’s food.

Blair stalks toward me, hooking a finger under my chin, forcing my head back until our eyes meet. For a moment, all he does is look at me, but whatever he sees, he clearly doesn’t like it, as a frown pulls at his lips. “Castle or cabin, you choose, but neither isn’t an option.”

I make a face at him, but as usual, it doesn’t even faze him.

Cheater.

It’s on the tip of my tongue to argue with him, but honestly, that will just waste more time, and that’s the whole reason I don’t want to go in the first place.

“Fine—”

“Let’s go back to the castle,” Garrett says, cutting me off and, not surprisingly, saying the opposite of what I was going to say.

“The castle will take too long. Let’s just go to Ryker’s cabin so that we can still fit some training in. Besides, if I have to eat, I’d much rather it be his cooking.”

Pike is nodding his agreement so aggressively I’m not sure how he’s standing upright; honestly, he looks like he’s head-banging—it’s kind of ridiculous.

I meet Ryker’s gaze where he still stands a handful of feet away, watching me, and I swear his cheeks have a slight hint of pink, but I’m too far away to know for sure.

“For once in your life, just listen to me, Rena. We can stop at the cabin if you absolutely need his cooking, but I think we need to go back to the castle…”

Nobody talks as we wait for him to explain. The whole point was for me to eat, so if I get food from Ryker’s, I wouldn’t need to go to the castle.

Right?

Or am I missing something?

Looking around, I’m happy to find the guys look almost just as confused as I feel. Except Pike, he looks happy as fuck, but I think that has more to do with the food than this conversation.

Believe it or not, I’m not trying to fight with Garrett, but I swear he makes it so easy.

What is so hard about words, communication?

“What are you talking about?” I ask, trying and probably failing to keep my sass to a minimum.

Garrett stares at me for a long moment, and I’m not sure what’s going on in his head, but I see the battle in his eyes. He looks away, carding a hand through his bright red hair, eyes fixed on the ground where he toes at the dirt with his shoe.

With a sigh, he finally looks back up and meets my gaze again.

“I think it’s time we took Ryker to the castle,” he says in a bit of a rush, almost like he was worried he’d bitch out if he didn’t say it right now.

“What?”

I’d thought Garrett was joking; turns out he wasn’t. We did go to the cabin first, mostly because I’m pretty sure Pike would have cried if we didn’t, but I’m so glad we did. His soup was amazing, enough, so that Storm asked him about the recipe. Turns out a lot of his research on the forest has led to him finding a lot of herbs and spices. Ryker said Storm could borrow his book if he wanted, but he declined for now, telling him after everything settled down he’d come and steal it.

Ryker seemed confused for a moment, and I had to explain it was just a phrase; he didn’t actually intend to steal it.

By the time we make it back to the castle, dawn is just around the corner. Ever since the guys started accompanying me, I’ve been taking turns who I travel with to stop their arguing. Today I’d rode back on Sol’s beast, and while I loved how soft his fur was under my fingers and being so close to him, I couldn’t stop myself from looking back at Ryker every few minutes to ensure he was still there.

You should have flown with him, Rena.Sol says in my head, not sounding even a little upset by the idea.

I swear he’s so sweet; I’m not sure where that darker side came from, the one that had him telling me he was going to tie me to the bed…

Crap, I need to think of something else.

Sol vibrates between my legs, a low growl that tells me it’s already too late.