07/10/2017

"I'm not wearing this," Kristin said, pushing the beautiful ring away.

Ryder rolled his eyes, "Don't be such a drama queen."

Kristin wasn't being a drama queen. One look at that beautiful diamond ring Ryder had handed her, and she was internally freaking out.

Okay, and externally freaking out too.

She sighed, looking back at the ring on the counter.

Why had he picked out such a beautiful expensive one?

Maybe he would reuse it when he actually got married?

But why on earth would he trust Kristin to wear it? She didn't even trust herself.

"Fine, don't wear it, but you have to when we go for dinner with our parents tonight."

"Right," she replied, still eyeing the ring like it was the most evil thing in the world.

The most beautiful evil thing in the world.

"I seriously am such a better driver," Ryder said as Kristin parked the car in front of Violet's Diner.

"If you say one more thing about my driving, I'm going to punch you."

"I'd like to see you try," Ryder grinned and hopped out of the car before she could react.

And before she could punch him.

She was surprised when her door opened and looked up at Ryder, scrunching her eyebrows.

"Now you decide to be chivalrous?"

"Only because your parents are watching us from inside," he said, smiling (fake) sweetly, and holding his hand out to her.

"What a gentlemen," she sighed, putting her hand in his, allowing him to escort her inside.

The feeling of them holding hands felt weird to Kristin. She admittedly liked the feeling of warmth from his hand, covering hers.

This was for her parent's sakeshe thought, as they walked through the front door.

Sitting around the table next to the windows sure enough, were her parents. And Alpha Rickard.

"Ryder, Kristin, nice to see you," her father and mother hugged her before sitting back down.

Alpha Rickard just nodded to Ryder, "Son."

Ryder took a seat on the other side of the table, directly in front of Kristin.

Kristin's hand went to her ring, and she noticed that she was wearing two today. Looking down, she realized she had the engagement ring on.

Almost forgot about that.

She looked across to Ryder who had noticed her movements.

He gave her a slight nod, as if to reassure her that everything would be okay.

"Kris, you look nice tonight," Amelia smiled at her daughter.

"Thanks mom," Kristin said, smoothing out her dress.

A waiter came to take their orders and soon the food arrived.

Kristin was just taking a sip of her drink when her mother gasped.

"Oh my gosh, how beautiful! Is that an engagement ring?"

She tried to not choke on her drink as she nodded to her mother.

"Yep," she cleared her throat.

"Let me see, oh my," her mother gushed as she grabbed Kristin's hand to inspect the ring.

"How'd he propose?"

Kristin's breath hitched in her throat.

Nope, nope, nope, nope, nope.

"Oh, it was so romantic." Kristin heard herself saying, her voice dripped with sarcasm but no one seemed to notice, except for Ryder who was smirking at her from across the table.

Thankfully she was saved from having to make up a cheesy ass story because their waiter came back to make sure the food was good, and by the time he left, the conversation had shifted.

But, alas, a few minutes later, Kristin's mother was back on the subject.

"Sweetie, you almost forgot to tell us how Ryder proposed!"

Think, think, think, think...

"It's not really that..." Kristin tried, but was interrupted.

"Oh just tell us!"

Kristin tried not to sigh, "Okay."

All eyes were now on her, including Ryder's humorous ones.

"Well first Ryder bought a ton of roses," Kristin began, the wheels turning in her head.

"Oooh!" her mother gushed.

She tried not to roll her eyes, "And then he took the time to individually cut each rose petal and formed a trail of roses throughout the house."

"Oh, that must have taken a long time."

Ryder grimaced at her mother, "Anything for my mate."

Kristin tried to hold back a smirk.

"And then the rose trail led outside to the trees. And the tress were all wrapped up in little tiny lights," Kristin noticed Ryder's warning look towards her but that wasn't stopping her.

She smiled sweetly at him, "And there was a candle lit dinner awaiting me with a dozen more roses."

"That's so sweet Ryder," Amelia gave him a smile.

He made a noise in his throat in response.

Good, she was making him uncomfortable. This was fun.

"And after that he got down on one knee, tears were streaming down his face," Kristin almost broke down laughing, "and he proposed."

The part about him crying took everyone by surprise. Probably because they didn't believe Kristin that Ryder had the ability to cry. In reality, he was too much of a d*ckhead to cry.

Alpha Rickard had an amused expression on his face, eyeing both his son and Kristin.

Alpha John was just happy that his daughter sounded happy, though he could sense some of her sarcasm, overall it sounded like Ryder treated her well.

He could tell by the way Kristin was looking at Ryder that she was feeling the bond.

"Oh how emotional for the both of you," Amelia nodded.

"Yeah, Kristin was balling her eyes out, she couldn't even form complete sentences. The only words I could make out were 'I'm so lucky,' over and over again." Ryder gave Kristin an evil smile.

"He's lucky I said yes," she interrupted, glaring at Ryder.

Everyone chuckled around her, thinking she was joking.

She wasn't. She hadn't said yes, and she wasn't going to say yes. Ever.

"I see Ryder hasn't marked you yet," Alpha Rickard spoke up, and Kristin almost spit out her drink.

Ryder didn't hide the glare towards his father.

"Oh yes, you'll have to do that soon," Alpha John nodded.

Kristin widened her eyes at Ryder, secretly wondering what they were going to do.

Ryder clenched his jaw, acting like he was paying attention to their parent's conversation.

Internally, he was panicking. How had he forgotten about this? Of course their parent's would want him to mark her. Hell, they wanted them to complete the mating process all together.

Kristin would never let that happen though.

He watched his father as he engaged in conversation with John and Amelia.

Why would he bring this up? He knew they weren't really mates, so why the hell had he brought up marking?

Ryder shifted his gaze to Kristin, sitting across from him.

She was fidgeting with her ring. It was a habit he had noticed she did whenever she was nervous.

She brought her hand up to tuck a strand of her long blonde hair behind her ear, looking up at Ryder.

As he stared into her innocent blue eyes, he wondered if he could keep doing this to her.

Or to himself.

•. •. •. •. •. •.

Chapter Eight down!

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