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Chapter Four

Ryder

W hat the fuck was I doing?

I had no fucking idea how I’d ended up in the elevator with a pixie at my side. I swore to myself when I walked away that I wouldn’t go there. Then I’d come back, just to look things over, and found some asshole panting over her. Things had gone downhill from there.

“Oh, wait!” She held up one hand and started rummaging in her bag with the other.

“For what?” I asked. “In case you’re confused, we’re in an elevator, baby. Waiting isn’t an option.”

The little brat rolled her eyes at me, and that fast, my palm was itchy.

“May I have your ID, please?” she asked, tapping on her cell. “I want to put your details into the Play Safe app.”

“Are you shitting me? They have blockers on that app in ninety percent of establishments on this side of the fence, and that’s assuming the assholes living here have genuine IDs.”

“Do you block them here too?” She looked up at me with those big doe eyes. “Do you have a fake ID?”

The elevator dinged as it came to a stop on my floor.

I hit the hold button, wondering if I was going to be heading straight back down.

I hadn’t wanted a hookup when I entered the club tonight.

A truckload of liquor was stolen earlier today, and I’d been more inclined toward beating the shit out of the fucker we’d caught trying to make off with it.

Jace had called me in because, for once, he was getting laid.

Given I owed Jace and Dane my life, I could suffer an interruption to the much anticipated fun of pummeling the thieving prick.

But when I’d seen another alpha sniffing around the little pixie the beast inside me coveted, everything had changed.

I wanted her, plain and simple. I ought to lie to her.

It wasn’t like we would ever see each other again.

Most betas who came into Desparion were here to tick us alphas off their bucket list and never returned again.

We were both just scratching an itch. I should’ve just handed over my ID and let her convince herself the happy green tick meant it had been registered and the beta police would come screaming in here to rescue her should she disappear.

The truth was, they didn’t give a shit what we did, so long as it didn’t spill over into safe beta turf.

Any beta foolish enough to enter did so at their own risk.

The visa was granted on a mile-long disclaimer.

Most of the fools skimmed past because other people did it, right? Therefore, it must be legit and fine.

Na?ve, all of them.

I’d been na?ve once.

“I don’t have a real ID anymore. Most people they toss in here get a black market one asap.” Especially snotty-nosed rich bastards whose fathers had fucked over half the neighborhoods where the deadbeats living here came from.

I watched her lower lip tremble.

“Is your name Ryder?”

“It is now.”

“Is my sister safe?”

“What the fuck?” I scowled at her in disbelief.

I was holding the fucking elevator door, so I could take her back down if she wished.

Surely such an act registered me on the not a complete asshole side of the line, and by association, Jace.

“She’s with Jace—the guy has a fucking hero complex.

He doesn’t tolerate bullshit of that kind in our club, and there’s plenty of the regular kind going on.

We don’t rape women or force them. Jace would fucking castrate a man he caught taking a woman against her will, and I’d help him by holding the fucker down. ”

Her body softened. “I love my sister.”

I fucking hated mine. I still remembered the nasty sneer on her face in that news clip after the journalists had sneaked past her security and questioned her while she was dining in Angelo’s with a friend.

It might have been a show for the media, but I knew my sister—that haughty disdain went all the way to the core. “I can tell you do, baby.”

The elevator dinged, unhappy with me holding the door so long. No sooner did I take my finger off the button when she stabbed it again.

“No,” she said. “I’m okay with this, more okay than I thought I would be, and even without the stupid Play Safe app. Please, I want to, but only with you.”

Those fucking endless eyes and unguarded words hit me straight in my weak spot.

The elevator dinged again…repeatedly.

She grinned and stepped out of the elevator. Yeah, I was always going to fucking follow.

* * *

Emma

His apartment was nicer than I’d been expecting. I didn’t know why. I guessed my impression of men’s living situations was they were generally a hot mess. To be fair, Jewel’s apartment was affectionately referred to as a chaos by Sloane, so I didn’t think women were much better.

Maybe it was because he was older? The place was fastidiously neat and tidy, with an open plan living room, kitchen to one side, and a couple of doors leading off. A massive flat screen TV and couch dominated the center of the room, while a big expensive window offered views of the strip.

As the door clicked shut behind him, I felt…trapped, only it wasn’t an unpleasant kind of trapped. It comforted me. I threw a look over my shoulder. Yep, he was huge and intimidating, yet I still felt safe with him. Maybe I was delusional. He might be a psycho, for all I knew.

The damn app Sloane had insisted we install was useless.

I felt both foolish and na?ve. They had no laws here.

It would be reasonable to assume that underhand activity took place commonly.

Therefore, by association, the alphas would be unlikely to yield a happy green tick, even supposing they shared their real IDs.

It rattled me, though. I wondered why he’d changed his ID.

Did everybody have a new ID? Was it to escape the clutches of our government?

To disassociate themselves from the beta population that existed on the other side of the fence?

To better throw off the chains of the civilized parts of the world?

I didn’t have the answers, and although now wasn’t the right time to ponder them, I thought afterward, when I was safely back in my apartment, that his words would haunt me and I would find myself going over them many times.

I turned back around and walked over to the window to gaze out. I’d seen the pictures on the internet and knew what it looked like. They had interactive street maps that you could walk along, witnessing a snapshot in time.

Desparion was a mixture of old and new, where rough, shady buildings butting up against the comparatively glamorous clubs like this one.

I’d known this was one of the best from the numerous positive reviews.

It was hard to fake that many, and I figured at least a few of them had to be true.

From here, I could see how far it extended.

A great curving arc, a fence, and the break in the buildings signified the separation from the beta world.

I couldn’t see the river from here, so it must be on the opposite side.

It was similarly patrolled to ensure no one slipped across undetected.

How terrible it must feel to be ostracized like this.

I glanced back to find Ryder standing right behind me. I hadn’t heard him move. “I didn’t notice any omegas,” I said. “I thought they would be in the club?”

“They probably are,” he said, “but you won’t find them out on their own. An alpha protects his ward or mate.”

“It must be strange.”

“What must, baby?”

“Being ripped apart from everything you’ve ever known.”

He huffed out a breath, and I felt a very faint tickle on the back of my neck.

His fingers were gentle as they wove through my hair before his hand settled against my nape.

A shiver skittered down my spine. That big, comforting, calloused hand felt like a brand searing into my flesh, making my breath hitch and my stomach dip.

“There is no easy way to come here,” he said. “It’s worse for some than others.” As he leaned in, his warm breath tickling my ear brought a full body shudder. “But we didn’t come here to talk about that, did we?”

I shook my head. My heartbeat pulsed heavily in my throat. His arresting scent flooded my nose and lungs, bringing a tingle deep in my pussy. I’d wondered how it would feel to have an alpha put his hands on me, and now I knew it felt freaking intense.

Was it possible to climax from this alone? I’d admit, I was close.

“Just breathe normally, baby,” he said. “I’m not going to hurt you. You know that, right?”

I nodded.

“Give me the words, baby. When you’re with me, I always want to hear the words.”

“I know you won’t hurt me,” I said.

“Good,” he said. Leaning up, he stepped a little closer until I could feel his body heat. Taking the purse from my hand, he put it on the windowsill. “I know you don’t have my ID, but is there anybody you want to call to tell them where you are?”

I shook my head. “No, I told one of my friends that you were the owner. She saw me leave with you.”

“Why don’t you give her my number. Just in case.”

“Okay,” I said. Although I was actually more interested in getting his number for me, like it would connect us somehow.

He gave me his number, and I sent him a message under the pretext of checking that it worked because I wanted him to have my number too.

“We good?” he asked.

“Yes,” I said.

“Then I think it’s time we got your punishment out of the way.”

“P-punishment?” I stammered the word out as I turned to stare at his reflection in the window. It showcased our size difference. When I stood at his side, it wasn’t so apparent, but now I realized how my head came up to his chest, with his broad shoulders higher still.

“Are you joking?”

He shook his head slowly. “Baby, I never joke about discipline, and you are in sore need of some.”

Nerves exploded, but not the bad kind. No, these were the hot, delicious kind. His hand squeezed lightly over the back of my neck, drawing my attention to the place we were connected.

My vulnerability hit me out of nowhere. Ryder could snap my neck with terrifying ease, should he choose to, yet I still liked his hand there. “I’m not due any punishment. Is this…like a pretend punishment?”

His lips tugged up in a smirk. “Baby, it’s really not.”