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Ryker was amazed by the warm welcome. Perhaps staying away from Valerie for a few days did the magic.

"I never thought I held such an important place in your heart. You should marry me so you’ll be with me forever," he whispered in her ear. Valerie felt strange and quickly pulled away, a small frown lining her face.

"You are so silly. I missed your presence, but that doesn’t mean I’m in love with you."

Ryker looked hurt, his hopes crushed. It was not in their nature to woo a woman, so he was running out of patience with all the threats lingering around. With the mate bond, as long as they felt it and both accepted it, they were fated to love each other, and no one had to pursue the other.

They could even mate and mark each other at that very moment. If Alpha Denzel had known that something like this would happen to her wolf, he would have handled things differently.

He messed up the first time, as the mate bond would have made everything easy for him. "How do you know if you are or not in love with me?" He glared at her seductively. Valerie quickly avoided his gaze while standing at the doorway.

"I’ve been paired twice, don’t forget." Her voice and gaze took a sorrowful turn at her words. She didn’t want to add the rejection part, but Ryker did not want to slow down anymore.

There was a great war ahead, and he needed his strong Luna by his side. It would be hard to both protect her and defend the pack as well.

"Well, I don’t expect you to still rely on the mate bond when we are sure you wouldn’t be mated again. Try other means. Search your heart and tell me how you feel about me."

A yawn escaped Valerie. Matters of love were not her forte at the moment. Her heart burned with revenge and also the desire to see Ashley. "Sorry, please come inside. I had no idea that you’d be here, and I barely had enough rest throughout the day."

When Ryker realized she changed the topic of discussion, his heart sunk. Maybe he would need his human friends to teach him how to woo a woman. He did not immediately accept her offer but rather informed her,

"I will be away for a few days, but as soon as I return, I will make sure to inform you about the times I will be here. But always have a good rest, just in case. I wanted to teach you how to create weapons since you are reluctant to show me your wolf."

He couldn’t let her know that he already knew she didn’t have one and put it that way. He had been thinking about her more than anything else or anyone else these days, developing ways to help her.

Valerie was very much interested in this conversation, her eyes brightening as she regretted not having enough rest during the day.

"If you don’t want to fight with your wolf, I can teach you how to use weapons atop the tree," he narrowly explained.

"That would be a great experiment. I can’t wait. Come in and see what I’ve painted. It still needs a lot of work, but these are rough sketches," Valerie said excitedly, stretching her hand and dragging him inside with her.

Ryker froze at the sight of the painting she had done on the board. His reaction caused Valerie to frown. "Are they so terrible? You look as if you’ve seen a ghost."

His expression softened as he smiled, trying his best to wipe the memories of his late mother from his mind. "No. I just thought you could do better."

Valerie was shocked by his remark, about to ask if he knew how to paint, but she got her answer when he began making his analysis.

"That bird looks like a duck in the air, and the trees could be a little more real. The flowers, though, are very pretty."

It was confirmed that Ryker knew how to paint, so Valerie said to him, "Why don’t we paint together? You can use the back, and I’ll use the front of the painting board."

She handed a painting brush to him, but didn’t realize how his hand shivered as he dropped it. The bond between him and his mother was so great, the remembrance got him moody.

"Maybe some other time. You look so tired, I’m afraid you might die from exhaustion."

Valerie was indeed tired but didn’t want him to leave. "If I sleep, will you go? Can’t you stay longer?"

"I can, but from how tired you look, you might wake up in the afternoon. Why don’t you give me your number? I will call you when I’m coming next time so you can have a good rest."

Somehow, Valerie did not refuse this time. As soon as he touched his phone, it began to ring, and Valerie thought his ringtone sounded so familiar.

"Your ringtone. I’ve heard it somewhere before," Valerie thought aloud, Ryker stiffened a little but quickly came up with an explanation.

"Yes, you are right. I have the same ringtone as the Alpha. Does he come here often? Does he hurt you?"

Valerie didn’t know how to explain it, choosing silence in the end. Ryker was slightly disappointed, wishing he could discern her thoughts.

"I guess you don’t want to talk about it, but if it’s so bad, we can elope together." He was testing her to see if she wished to run away sometimes.

"I’m sorry, but I don’t love you enough to elope with you, and neither do I have the intention to do so. I just want to be stronger to face the problems ahead. I have to get back my pack."

"But you are already a member of this pack. Should you get your pack back, would you remain there? Would I not see you again?" Ryker asked in a worried tone. Valerie thought for a while before shaking her head, saying, "I’m sorry, but I haven’t thought in that direction."

"So tell me, what can I do to win your heart?" His phone rang and stopped but began ringing again as Valerie said, "why don’t you answer the phone first?"

Ryker thought it might be urgent and excused himself. "I will be right back, but please don’t sleep yet."

He went out to receive the call, but it wasn’t Godic. It was Alpha Tristan.