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Chapter twenty-one

Ryann

“Uncle Patrick.”

Having him stand here in front of me, looking well and real, words fail me.

He pushes into the room and glances out at the hallway before slamming the door shut. He keeps one hand on the door and breathes heavily before he whirls around with narrowed eyes and a red face.

“What the actual fuck, Rhee? He’s going to find you. Why did you come back here?”

His aggression is easy to ignore. I stare at him, perplexed and distraught by the changes. He’s aged. He looks tired. I heard after everything went south that his beta, my aunt Henrietta, left him. He threw everything into hockey. I’m not the only person who lost my entire family that day.

“God fucking damn it, Rhee!” he shouts.

My uncle pulls me into his arms. He still smells the same, like menthol and cheap cologne. But he feels familiar.

Tears burn in my eyes, and I hug him back as tight as he’s hugging me.

“Why are you back, you stupid girl? Why didn’t you go and make a life for yourself?”

He pulls free and wipes the tears from my face.

“Rhee,” he stops and shakes his head, glaring at me. “Why would you come back? Why? I don’t understand?”

I open my mouth, but the door opens.

“Honey, we’re home-” Raider’s happy tone drops, and an awkward silence falls between us .

“Coach?” Wren says warily.

I close my eyes and slump a little because I can almost feel my uncle’s indignation welling up. He withdraws from me, and I feel a moment of regret.

“You knew she was here?” he thunders.

Kit and Callan choose that moment to join us.

I sit on the bed and drop my chin to my chest. Could this night get any worse?

“Rhee? You want to tell me what’s going on?” My uncle slams his hands on his hips and glares at me.

I sigh and open my eyes. “I’ve been staying with the pack since I got back.”

“How long?”

My uncle’s voice reminds me vividly of my dad’s in that moment. He’s got the deadly vibes down to a tee.

“A couple of weeks.”

“I knew I saw you at the game!” my uncle hisses. “And the press conference. How could you be so stupid? After all the things we went through to keep you safe. You were meant to leave and start a whole new life!”

“Uncle-”

“I gave up everything to keep you safe. Why would you come back? Why would you risk it-”

“Uncle!”

“I just don’t understand, after everything that happened-”

“He followed me!” I shout so loud it silences him.

My uncle freezes. Several expressions chase themselves across his face. “What?”

I refuse to look at my alphas. I don’t want to see their sympathy or pity.

“He followed me. I haven’t been able to escape. Not for a single day,” I admit helplessly. “I don’t know how he does it, but he’s found me everywhere I’ve travelled.”

I’m hyper aware of the pack watching me. Of all the questions they want to ask, but I keep my focus on the devastation on my uncle’s face. He stumbles back and back until he hits the wall.

“No, that would mean, but, no. You were alone, Rhee. Why didn’t you come home?”

I force a weak smile. “I didn’t want to be a burden.”

My uncle stands up, pushing up from the wall, trembling with anger. I guess I would be too. I can understand where he’s coming from, and I totally get it. Still, if I could repeat all of those horrible years just so he can have peace of mind, I would.

“What do you mean, he?” Callan snarls into the silence, sounding so much like the alpha he is.

I snap my head around to look at the pack. Kit’s face is expressionless. Wren looks like he might attack the room and turn it into splinters, but it’s Raider who makes me realise just how much I’ve fucked up. He looks so hurt, and I remember all the people who lied to him, who abandoned him, and, fuck, why didn’t I just tell them when I had the chance?

“Raider, I-”

“You got involved with my boys?”

I look between Raider and my coach and let out a frustration sound.

“When I was fifteen, I discovered I had a stalker.”

“Don’t you dare get them involved!” Uncle Patrick shouts at me.

Wren takes my wrist, ignoring my uncle. “What happened?”

“We didn’t take it seriously. I mean, well, I did, and my parents did, but everyone else brushed it off. It was just some guy with a crush. An act of vandalism, a coincidence. He would break into the house, take my things, and leave notes. On and on. Day after day. I started getting anxious and withdrawn, and then,” I stop and have to take a breath. “And then my parents died, but he was still there except more possessive. And just more. I tried to stay with Uncle Pat for a while, but Henrietta freaked out, she couldn’t handle the constant threats from the stalker, so I left.”

Uncle hisses and mutters something. “These are my boys, Rhee. You should have stayed away from hockey players! Far, far away.”

“Why?” Raider growls.

I study his expression. “Because we think, we’re not a hundred percent sure, but we think that my stalker is a guy who played on my dad’s mixed hockey team when I was a kid.”

Raider stands up straight and turns away, walking to the door and pausing before ripping it open and storming off.

“I’ll go,” Kit says and rushes after him.

“So you left home-” Callan asks slowly.

“We sent her away so that she can survive. So that she has a chance,” Uncle snarls. “It was a calculated gamble. We did everything we could to protect her movements. We cut contact, all her friends from school, everyone she’d ever known. You were meant to be going by your other name.”

I shrug. “The name wasn’t working. He knew it.”

Callan sits down beside me and reaches for my hand. “Is that person still here? Has he found you?”

I turn so I can stare into Callan’s eyes. “I don’t think I ever escaped him. He’s known where I am the whole time.”

“So…” he swallows hard. “How? ”

“Well, there’s the sense of being following. His scent of rotten potatoes. The feel that something is off, things are moved. My camera disappeared.”

Wren jolts. “He’s been in our house? And you didn’t say anything?”

I ignore him. “He was here. A few minutes before Uncle rocked up, singing that song outside the hotel door.”

Uncle and Wren surge up at the same time.

“Get me security now!” Wren snarls into his phone, while Uncle Pat rushes out of the room, looking up and down the hallway like he’ll be able to see him.

“Someone’s hunting you,” Callan whispers.

“I’m tired of running, Callan. I don’t want to run anymore, and I think, this time, I’m going to fight.”

Uncle turns around. He must have heard me. His expression turns soft and sad. “Break the ice?”

I smile despite the situation because I haven’t heard that saying in forever. “I forgot Dad used to say that.”

“What is it?”

“Every time dad wanted us to fight on or off the ice, he’d say ‘it’s time to fight, it’s time to break the ice.’”

“Break the ice,” Callan says with a small smile. “I like it.”

“Shit, your dad would have kicked my ass for the poor job I’ve done looking after you.” My uncle runs a stressed hand through his thinning hair.

“Dad would have known you’d done your best, Uncle. Don’t take this on yourself. None of us could have predicted what would have happened.”

Security rocks up, and Wren speaks with them tersely. Raider and Kit arrive in a rush, pale and panicked.

“What’s going on?”

“He was here!” Wren hisses.

The three of them crowd around security, who appear to be getting really cowed by three pissed off alphas.

I refocus on my uncle, who is pacing back and forth in the small space.

He glances with suspicion at security and shakes his head to stop any conversation.

“Right, I’m going to go with Raider and see who was messing with your door. You lot stay right here until we get back.”

I watch him leave and find myself alone in the room with Kit, Wren, and Callan.

I can see they are still absorbing the blows that my words have thrown at them. I sit in silence, trying to push the memories that keep surging against my mind.

Kit crouches in front of me and reaches out to touch my knee .

I smile at him. “I’m okay.”

“I know you are. I just want you to know that we are here for you.”

The words hit deep. All those people in my neighborhood that knew about the stalker. That knew what we were going through and turned their backs on me. My aunt who had whispered arguments and then screaming fits over the danger I brought to her house.

And here is this alpha, this amazing, talented alpha that I have very strong feelings for offering me all the things my lonely heart needed to hear.

I reach out slowly, sliding my fingers over his. He tangles our hands together, stands up, and pulls me into his arms, wrapping me in a hug that smells of him, fabric, and fruit gum.

“We’re not going to leave you, and you’re not going anywhere. We’re going to get through this together now. You’re not alone anymore.”

I shudder in his hold, melting as his words rip apart walls and scars I didn’t know I still had.

“I was scared I wasn’t going to get to say goodbye,” I murmur. My voice cracks embarrassingly at the end, but Kit just squeezes harder, and then another body joins us, covering me from the other side.

Callan’s parchment and tea scent blends perfectly with Kit’s scent, reminding me of home and things that I haven’t had in a long time.

They are safe.

Pomegranates wafts towards us, taking over, stronger and more aggressive with his anger.

Wren grabs my hair and pulls lightly. “Damn it, Ryann, I’m not okay with any of this.”

I blink at him from where my cheek is laying on Kit’s chest. “I’m sorry, Wren.”

“Don’t be sorry. Fuck, no one could blame you for anything or any choices you made. You did what you had to do to survive. That’s all anyone can ask.”

Kit lets go, and Wren takes his place.

“You should always call for help. If you can’t reach us, call the police, call Kelly, call anyone. But you don’t do this alone anymore, you hear me?”

I nod, but he doesn’t wait. He claims my lips in a kiss that makes my toes curl.

Raider stalks in and slams the door open, blasting the room with peppermint. “We’re leaving.”

“What?”

“We’re leaving. This hotel has the shittiest security,” Raider snarls. “Pack now.”

“But- ”

“Kit,” Raider says in a voice I’ve never heard him use before. “I’m not asking. They let that person in here. Then he bribed one of the security guys into deleting information. Hotel management is dealing with it, but we,” he levels a glare at his alphas, “are leaving.”

My mind spins, but I spring into action, grabbing my bag, and turning to Kit and Callan.

“My stuff.”

“We’ll get it. We’ll meet you at the entrance.”

I watch them rush off, my hands are clammy. The door opens, and my uncle storms in. He grabs me out of Wren’s arms, ignoring my snarling alpha.

“You go home with the pack. I’ll be there to see you as soon as I can get the team back to Greene. Don’t take any chances. Don’t take risks. Be safe, and stay ahead of this man.”

I hug him back. “I’ve missed you, Uncle.”

“Yeah, kid, I’ve missed you, too. Now, get home where it’s safe, and we can plan when I get there.”

He leaves quickly, but my uncle was never one for ceremony. His emotions are not something he understood or accepted easily.

Raider throws the few things he unpacked back in his pack, issuing orders and reminders. He pulls out his phone and gets on a call.

I pause in the act of putting Wren’s shirts in his duffel. Raider’s eyes meet mine, and, in them, I think I see a desperate fear. It was the same look my father and mother looked at me with. One that shows just how deeply they cared.

I’m frozen. I’m stone.

Raider’s intensity throws me into a chaos ocean and leaves me struggle for solid ground.

But then he’s there, holding me up with a soft smile and the whispered words, “I’ll protect you.”

The phone picks up, and I hear a male voice in the background.

“Kelly, Mum, Dads, Bethany. Are you all there?”

I hear the sound of assent from multiple voices.

“If you want my forgiveness, I need something from you. Help me.”