Page 30

Chapter thirty

Ryann

Everything should have been going to plan, but at the last minute, Wren slipped out of his spot, went into the kitchen, and answered a phone call.

I really wanted not to show any interest. I wanted not to care, but that’s far from the truth. I don’t think he knew I was standing in the dining room. The pack had instructed me to stay upstairs in the bedroom, but I'm not that kind of beta.

“What do you want?”

He doesn’t sound annoyed, he sounds sad.

“You’ve called me for days, what do you even want from me anymore, Tiff?”

My heart stutters and stops. Wren had told me all about her in our late night whispered conversations. The omega he liked enough to date who was trying to get close to his father.

There had been a part of me that wondered if he didn’t want her still.

Why is he taking her call? Now, of all the times he could take it, why now?

I glance to where I know Raider is hiding, in the closest near the back door. He’s going to lose it.

Wren paces in the kitchen, listening intently.

“Yeah, look. All right, we can catch up and talk.”

My chest constricts, and I turn my head away. I can’t look at him right now. This feels like a massive betrayal, even though my head is trying to tell me it’s not.

I lean against the wall and try to ignore the conversation. It goes on for a long time. Soft, low words that I block out in a desperate bid to protect myself.

And then, to my horror, he does something that’s almost unforgivable.

He turns on a light .

“What the fuck?” I hear Callan growl.

He comes stomping into the dining room, spots me immediately, and then finds Wren. Callan’s mouth drops open. Wren’s eyes go to Callan, then find me standing there. I see his face pale.

“Turn the light off!” Callan hisses.

Wren slaps his palm to the light.

I slip out of the dining room and head to the closet where Raider is waiting.

“It’s over,” I say when I pull it open.

“What happened?”

I shake my head, unwilling to discuss it.

“It doesn’t matter, what does matter is he won’t come tonight.”

Raider looks past me to where Callan and Wren are starting to yell at each other.

“What happened?”

I ignore him, walk back, and throw myself on the couch. Wanting nothing more than to be anywhere else but here.

Raider, who has followed me, veers off, listening intently to the conversation going in the kitchen.

“You answered that bitch?” he snarls.

“Don’t call her a bitch.”

“The shoe fits, Wren! But you did it now? While we were preparing-”

Kit has come out from his spot and sits beside me on the couch, taking my hand.

“What do you want to do?”

I look at him. “I don’t want anything from you guys.”

Kit gets this horribly bruised expression, he reaches for my hand, but I flinch away. It's not that I’m afraid of his touch, it's more that I think if I get a single moment of kindness, I will shatter into a million pieces and fall apart.

“Wren, what the fuck are you doing?” Raider howls.

Wren pauses, I can see him out of the corner of my eye staring at me.

“I have to go.”

It’s like an axe to my heart. Of all the things that could go wrong, losing Wren was the last on the list.

He takes a step, and Raider flies at him, throwing him into a wall. Wren bounces off it, but before he can defend himself, Raider has him pinned.

“No! You don’t get to walk out on us like this. We needed you.”

“Tiff needs me.”

“Bullshit.”

“Raider, let me sort this out, and then I’ll come back. ”

“If you leave, you won’t be welcome back!” Raider says in an icy voice. “If you abandon us now, if you go to that whore, you don’t get to come back.”

I stiffen, horrified by Raider’s ultimatum, but unable to speak.

Wren sags. “I have to go, Raider, this is really important.”

“If you leave-”

“Raider!” Callan cuts in. “No, we can’t say that. We need to hear what he has to say.”

“I don’t care what he has to say, he put all of us at risk, he put Ryann at risk. Now he wants to go to the bitch who was using him to get to his dad and break up their family? Fuck no!”

Wren stares for a long minute.

Don’t leave. Don’t leave.

He turns and walks out the door.

Raider swears, picks up a vase, and hurls it at the wall. His chest is heaving in violent, almost desperate pants.

I abruptly remember Raider’s history and how people always leave him. I get up and glide on shaky legs towards him, taking his hand in mine.

“He will come back. I know he will.”

Raider’s distraught gaze finally drops to mine. “I, uh-” He clears his throat and backs away from me.

I can see what he’s doing and that it’s fear-based, but I can’t stop the hurt that goes through me at his rejection.

“Raider, stop!”

Kit slams into Raider from behind, holding on so tight he’s going to leave bruises.

Callan glances at me, but I can’t stay for this. He takes a step towards me, but I shake my head.

He stops. I head up the stairs, and instead of going into Kit and Callan’s big room that we’ve all moved into, I turn and go into the spare room.

This isn’t going to work.

I’ll stay for the hockey game tomorrow, but then to keep them safe, I’m going to have to leave.

I go to the window and stare down at the dark street. A man walks on the moonlit footpath and stops under the street light.

We stare at each other, and then he lifts his hand and waves.

I get chills.

He must have known. The light in the kitchen wasn’t visible on the street. How the hell did he know ?

I stare at him, trying to uncover his identity, trying to burn away the fear while he fans the flames of my terror.

It’s a seesaw that ends up in his favour. I concede defeat and back away from the window, but that trapped, hunted feeling doesn’t go away.

The night passes slowly, Wren doesn’t come back.