Page 42 of As The Shifter World Turns

42

BLOCKED

Ryder

I knew Ivor had been pissed about Kellan. Of course I did. How could he not? As soon as our relationship was humming along nicely, the jerk would show up again.

And in fairness, I’d allowed it. That was on me as much as it was on Kellan.

But I didn’t realize that he thought I cheated on him, that Kellan was pregnant and the baby was mine. Daire had to be the one to tell me when I’d texted him asking what the fuck was going on with Ivor.

But of course Kellan pulled that bullshit. For someone who hadn’t wanted me, he sure went out of his way to make my life miserable.

Or maybe he was just trying to hurt Ivor. I wasn’t sure. And I didn’t care. He was my past and Ivor was my present and future.

Only Ivor shut me out.

It’s not my baby. Please believe me. I haven’t so much as held hands with him since I first wanted to kiss you. I promise. Can we talk about this? Please?

I hit send and then spent the next hour watching and waiting for it to say delivered. It never did. He was home now or probably home. It was dinner time and Thursday. He would be sitting on the couch with Daire eating pizza. It was a thing they started doing when he moved in and Ivor loved it. He mentioned it more than once, not only to me but during our roof top gatherings.

“Maybe he has his phone shut off.” That sounded good. A nice reasonable explanation for why he was not looking at my text. A far better one than he hated my sorry ass and never wanted to see me again.

I needed air and decided to go for a walk. If I went on the roof, others might show up and they’d want to talk. I got a sense that most of the people here were on his side. Not that this should be a his side my side kind of thing. We were all friends and should remain that way.

But if they thought I was with Ivor and still banging Kellan, of course they’d be on his side. I would too. That would be beyond a dick thing to do. That would fall squarely in alphahole territory.

I grabbed my keys and checked the phone once more. The message still wasn’t delivered. And then I decided, fuck it, and call. Maybe if I phoned, he’d answer me, listen to what I had to say.

It made a funny noise and then went to a generic voice mail, not Ivor’s. No, this was one hundred percent computerized.

He’d blocked me. Ivor had blocked my sorry ass. And really? Given he thought I knocked up my ex, I could hardly blame him. But also it hurt, hurt that he thought I could do that to him. Sure the evidence wasn’t in my favor, but I thought that we had been strong enough as a couple to at least have him hearing me out.

How wrong I was.

I shoved the phone in my pocket and ran towards the front door nearly colliding with Daire holding pizzas.

“Watch where you're going,” he barked at me. Great. Now even Daire was pissed at me.

“Sorry. Let me help you with those.” I held out my hands.

“No. Just go wherever you were headed. Ivor’s home and you know it. You can’t use me to get to him. Shit, I shouldn’t even let you near me.” He started to walk and I stepped in front of him. It was a dick move, but I wasn’t sure what else to do. I was desperate.

“Let me see him. I sent him a message and I called him.”

“He blocked your ass and before you think to ask me to have him unblock you, just know it was my idea. He doesn’t need your toxic bullshit in his life. For whatever reason you prioritize the fuck out of Kellan—always have and Ivor deserves better than that.” He stepped around me.

“I need him and it’s not what he—what anyone thinks. I just need to explain,” I was at the point I was willing to beg.

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me. Is this about work?” How the heck did he get there?

“No. Of course that’s not it.” I did need him there. The office was a fucking disaster, but that was far from the reason I wanted him. I could replace Ivor at work. The same could not be said for my heart.

“Hire someone else. Fuck it, hire Kellan. He could use the money with the new baby coming.” He stomped off and I wanted to run after him, beg him to let me in, tell him he got it all wrong, but my body was frozen there, the reality of just how horrific things were setting into me.

The entire building believed that I was the father of Kellan's baby… that I ha d cheated on Ivor after promising him Kellan was in my past. That I was the evil one.

Fuckity fuck fuck fuck. I turned on my heel and went back to my apartment, not wanting to see anyone.

The next day was a blur and after getting nothing done in the office, I drove home and decided to take the walk I’d postponed yesterday.

I walked into the cool evening air. Not that I had a destination in mind. I just needed to get away. I tried to push everything out of my mind to buy myself a moment’s reprieve and failed miserably. Forty-five minutes later, I took out my phone and tried Ivor’s number again. Same response.

I needed to do something—needed to fix this.

“Kellan, please answer.” I pulled up his name and hit send. I had to convince him to fix it or to give me the tools to fix it.

It sucked that he was pregnant and alone. Of course it did. But that didn’t change the fact that I wasn’t that poor baby’s father. It was impossible. I hadn't been with him at all since we broke up for good. He’d be far past the point of overdue if our last time together resulted in a pregnancy.

No, he was lying or maybe purposefully misleading Ivor. I still didn’t know which and in the end it didn’t matter as far as the end result went.

The phone rang and rang and rang and rang, not even going to voicemail. Not that I had a message to leave. One couldn’t call up and say, “Hey, this is the person everyone thinks is your baby daddy so call me, maybe?” I’d driven to his apartment the day before but he’d moved out.

I turned around and headed back to Sunshine Manor. It was later than I liked for the neighborhood I’d wandered into and based on the weather report, the skies would eventually be opening up. The whole walking aimlessly had been a shitty plan to begin with. Plan wasn’t the best word. Planning meant I had put thought into it and at the time the only thought was to walk. Hardly a plan.

My feet hurt and my heart was still broken as I reached Sunshine Manor. I needed to just go to my place, take a long shower and climb in bed and possibly cry. But I was starving and needing greasy fast food, so I got in the car and ten minutes later pulled up in front of Sunshine Manor.

The last person I expected to see as I stepped into the front entrance was Kellan with the new guy, Seb, I thought his name was. Daire had mentioned it a while back.

“You!”

Kellan recoiled.

“You lying piece of shit,” I seethed. “Why the fuck are you such a fucking asshole?”

Kellan’s hands went straight to his midsection. Like I could ever hit him, much less hit him in his pregnant belly. It wasn’t that poor babe’s fault he was growing inside a huge dishonest turd .

“I didn’t.” His voice cracked and had I not known him as well as I did, I might have believed his performance. But I did and it was grade A bullcrap.

“Fuck you. You are fucking Pinocchio. I can’t believe I ever liked you much less loved you. You are trash, Kellan. Pure fucking?—”

I barely caught the movement out of my left eye and even as I did, I didn't decipher what the motion was in time. No, I had no idea what was happening until Seb’s fist collided with my face.

I wanted to fight back, shout some more, but that would get none of us anywhere. If Seb got that hot tempered by me calling his friend out on his lying bullshit—assuming he knew Kellan had lied to Ivor—staying at the front entrance of Sunshine Manor was only going to escalate things.

I walked back to my car. I needed to let my stag out, to stretch my legs. It’s what I should’ve done instead of taking a walk. I always felt better when I let my beast out.

Climbing into the driver’s seat I saw it for the first time. Seb hit me good, my eye was already swelling and blackening. Just another reason to go shift.

I drove to Daire’s parents’ land. They might be shitty people, but they had figured something out with Daire or he wouldn’t still own Sunshine Manor and as much as they were snobby jerks, they’d never taken away the sanctuary that allowed us to be in our fur.

Didn’t make me like them, but I did respect that about them.

I parked the car and tore off my clothes, needing to get out of my skin. Of course my urgency made it take twice as long as it should’ve.

I called my stag forward and bolted through the clearing. I ran until I found myself face to face with a wolf.

Not just any wolf.

It was Ivor.