Page 22 of Alphas Never Hide (Willow Lake Supernaturals #5)

Chapter Twenty-Two

RYLEY

Hayden was quiet when he came out of the bathroom. He remained quiet the whole way down to the pub. I wasn’t sure what’d happened between him going into the bathroom and now, but I doubted it involved any masturbatory fun. No . He looked queasy. And whenever I caught his eye on me, he looked away.

Shit . I’d come on too strong.

Oh well. If he wasn’t interested, I could take a hint. I hadn’t surrendered the key to the other room to Jake yet, just in case, so I’d still have a place to sleep tonight. It was a letdown, though. I thought he was as keen to kiss, and possibly do more, as I was.

My brain scrambled for some other explanation. Like , what if he was hungry? That could make him queasy, right? Wolves had enormous appetites and all he’d eaten today was that breakfast bagel.

So , before I got worried that I’d be sleeping alone tonight, I’d get him to eat a big supper to get his blood sugar up and his magic replenished. I hadn’t lived with supes for a long time, and I didn’t use my magic often, but I knew the supe equivalent of being hangry was not something to mess with.

When we stepped into the pub, the amount of magic in the place overwhelmed me. My skin tingled, and the hairs on the back of my neck quivered. I grabbed Hayden’s hand.

“ Holy fuckeroo.”

“ What ?” Hayden cast his gaze around the room, as if looking for a threat. “ What’s the matter?”

“ There are a lot of supes in here,” I whispered into his ear. “ Is it safe? Should I order and take it back to my room?”

I should have expected this, especially when I’d met so many supes in Willow Lake already. But somehow none of that had prepared me for seeing all these beings gathered in one place.

Was that a troll in the corner? And over by the pool table, the minotaur we’d seen at the café that morning was leaning over to take a shot. Plus there was the incubus and the merman and the bear shifter… The list kept going on and on.

Hayden’s forehead furrowed. “ We can eat upstairs if you want, but why?”

I’d told him this already. Had he forgotten? I leaned in close until my lips brushed his ear. He shivered as my breath washed over his skin. “ I’m only half-supe, remember? My dad was mundane. Most supes don’t like my kind. ”

“ That’s bullshit,” Hayden said, way louder than I was comfortable with.

People all around the bar swung their gazes in our direction. I cringed and tried to hide behind Hayden . If I had to butt heads with someone, I would, but I’d prefer not to. Not that it usually got that far when I shifted. Most people thought twice about banging heads with someone who had horns, even when said horns were on the diminutive end of the horn spectrum.

“ Shut up,” I whisper-shouted to him out of the side of my mouth. The last thing I needed was for Hayden to draw more attention to us.

He dragged me back through the doors leading to the inn. Damn it. I guessed we wouldn’t be eating. Maybe they had room service. But Hayden didn’t pull me all the way back to our rooms. He stopped in the hallway and spun me to look at him.

“ I swear on the Eternal Magic that not a single person in Willow Lake will care about your lineage. And they’d never know you had a human for a father anyway. Not if you didn’t tell anyone. No one can tell something like that, because it doesn’t matter. Magic wins, remember? The supernatural side of your genes trumps everything else. But if you don’t feel comfortable, we won’t go in there.”

“ I’m pretty sure they can tell,” I said, pushing my glasses up my nose. It was a nervous habit that gave me something to do with my hands other than wringing them like a dishrag. “ I’ve been roughed up enough to know that hybrids aren’t welcome in supe towns.”

“ Has anyone made you feel uncomfortable while you’ve been here?” A deep growl punctuated his question. His eyes flashed with the gold of his wolf.

“ Hey , your wolf…” I pointed at him. “ I saw it in your eyes. That’s a good sign, right? Is it back?”

“ Ryley ,” he said, in a tone that suggested I was being difficult. “ Answer my question. You’ve met a lot of supes since I found you in the woods last night. Have any of them been less than welcoming?”

He was right. None of them had called me anything nasty or made me feel uncomfortable. Well , except for the dragon. But I thought his behavior was because he wanted to protect Hayden , not because of who or what I was.

“ We were talking about other things then. I was useful to them. But I’m not useful to all those other people in there.” I glanced toward the door. “ A dozen supes are in there. Maybe more.”

Hayden cleared his throat, as if trying to tamp down on his growling. “ So I don’t have to kick anyone’s ass?”

“ You said ‘so,’” I said, forcing a grin. I said it to distract him from whatever hell he was thinking about unleashing on his friends and neighbors. He didn’t need to burn any bridges because of me. I was used to being the odd guy out, but I’d prefer to skip the part where people were assholes to me. It was easier to avoid them. “ I should go to the room.”

“ Is that a ‘ No ’?” Hayden pressed.

“ Fine . No . Everyone so far has been nice. But I don’t want to tempt fate.”

“ Good . That’s good.” He nodded. His gaze caught on mine and held. “ I swear, Ryley , we would have gone somewhere else if I didn’t think it would be safe here. I’ve known most of these people for years. They are good people.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “ I didn’t want to talk about this, but it might help.” He met my eyes again. He sighed, and I didn’t like the dejected way it sounded. Hayden should never sound defeated or sad. “ About twelve years ago, my parents died.”

I opened my mouth to say something, but sorry didn’t seem like enough.

“ Don’t ,” he said. “ Don’t say anything yet. Let me finish saying this.”

I nodded.

“ My brother seized the opportunity to splinter the pack. The ones who left, they were assholes who might have believed in all that hybrid shit. They only wanted wolves in Willow Lake . They didn’t want any other supes here. Just wolves. They were assholes, the whole lot of them.” He shook his head like he couldn’t make sense of their bigotry. “ But the ones who stayed? They are the ones who are in that pub right now or the ones who moved here since that happened and have been welcomed.”

I glanced toward the pub doors. It was strange to see so many types of supes in one place. Was there something different about Willow Lake ?

“ Think about it,” Hayden continued. “ Think about all the supes you’ve already met here. We don’t tolerate bigots. Jerks who think they are better than everyone else because of their narrow-minded opinions, or their cultish ideas about the Eternal Magic , or their incorrect views about supernatural hierarchy aren’t welcome here.” Emotion laced Hayden’s passionate words.

I was starting to see why people called him Alpha . His love for this place and these people was as much a part of him as his wolf or the color of his hair.

“ That’s what makes Willow Lake so special,” he said softly. “ It’s become everything my parents dreamed about. They believed in inclusivity and helping others and the joy in discovering all the things that bring us together rather than the things that pull people apart. Hateful rhetoric like what you’re talking about, that shit doesn’t fly here. I swear. Those people in that pub, they won’t judge you based on the type of supe you are or that your father was human. People like that aren’t welcome in Willow Lake . In fact, I sometimes wonder if the Eternal Magic herself encourages them to leave. The ones who stay save their judgments for things that matter, like how you treat people.”

I swallowed hard. I wiped my eyes because they were burning and blurring a bit.

“ I think the Eternal Magic brought you here, Ryley .” Hayden bit his lip, but it wasn’t a sexy move. He looked nervous. “ I think she wanted you here because you fit here, with me… I mean, with us.”

I couldn’t deny that I’d felt like she had been steering me in this direction ever since I’d set out on the road, but what Hayden was saying? That sounded too good to be true.

“ I thought you changed your mind about me.”

“ Why do you say that?”

“ You’ve been acting weird since you had your shower.”

Hayden frowned. “ That’s on me. Not you.” He rubbed his neck. “ I have some shit I need to figure out. Van says I overthink things and get stuck in my thoughts, but I don’t know how to stop doing that. I didn’t mean to make you think I’d changed my mind about you.”

I didn’t think he was lying to me. “ Do you really think they won’t know my dad was mundane?”

“ They might judge you for your T -shirts,” Hayden said, “but they won’t care about your parentage.”

I glanced down at what I was wearing. It featured a cup of coffee with squiggly lines coming up from it like steam and the word Energize .

“ Hey , my T -shirt is amazing.” I swatted at him. And after being joyously reunited with coffee this morning, I thought it was appropriate.

He grinned.

Some of my anxiety eased while I was talking with him, but it spiked again when I glanced toward the pub. There were a lot of supes on the other side of that door. “ Are you really sure? I don’t want to cause problems.”

“ I’m sure. But if you feel uncomfortable, we can leave.”

“ I wouldn’t want to drag you away from your friends,” I blurted. “ I’ll go if it gets weird.”

“ Ryley ,” he said, shaking his head.

“ What ?”

“ We’ll do this together.” His gaze held mine, as if he was willing me to see his sincerity.

And I did. It was like a warm hug. He trusted his friends, but if things went sideways, he would have my back. He wouldn’t abandon me. I sucked in a shaky breath. Had anyone else in my life done that for me? I couldn’t remember a time when that’d happened. Not one instance where someone said they’d stand with me. The burning sensation in my eyes grew more intense, so I looked away and blinked rapidly. Regular people didn’t get emotional going to a pub and I shouldn’t either.

“ If you want to leave, let me know,” Hayden said quietly. “ I’ll go with you.”

Any other protests or worries faded. They didn’t go away completely, but I straightened my shoulders and nodded. “ Okay . Let’s try this again.”

Hayden slipped his hand in mine and gave it a gentle squeeze. “ I’m going to be right beside you.”

And that made it easier to step through those doors again.