08/18/2017

Kristin followed Ryder to his office.

He shoved the papers he was given into his drawer, "So was that way more boring than you thought?" Ryder asked, grinning.

"It went better than I thought," she truthfully said.

"You must have had really low expectations then," Ryder smirked, pushing her out the door.

"I was expecting an entire room of Liams," Kristin laughed.

"Liam," Ryder chuckled, "He's my favorite."

"I still think Ethan's too young though," Kristin creased her forehead, thinking back to the sixteen year old in a room full older guys.

"He's just two years younger than you," Ryder shrugged.

"Still," Kristin shook her head.

"He's fine, he likes the title more than I do," Ryder waved her worry off.

"Maybe I should let him be the Alpha," he added, acting like he was thinking about the idea.

"As long as it's not Jake, then I'm good," Kristin smirked. Jake was too much. She couldn't tell how she felt about him yet, but judging at how he spoke to Ryder, she was starting to like him.

"Jake is..." Ryder trailed off, starting his car.

"He's funny," Kristin laughed.

"Not when you have to spend hours with him," Ryder groaned.

She didn't think Jake was that bad, Ryder was just exaggerating.

"Where are we going to eat?" She asked, changing the subject.

"You are about to eat the best pancake you've ever had in your life," he stated, looking excited.

"Only you would be that excited over food," Kristin shook her head.

"Who isn't excited about pancakes?" Ryder asked, giving her a serious look and sounding slightly offended.

"You're such a child," she mused.

"I'm only nineteen, I am a child," he argued.

Once they were inside the cafe he drove to, it took Ryder a couple of minutes to convince Kristin to admit that the pancakes were the best she's ever tasted, but she finally gave in.

"Told you," Ryder said, looking smug.

She rolled her eyes, taking another bite.

"I knew these pancakes would get you to eat," he looked pleased with himself as she took another bite of the delicious pancake.

"I am getting my appetite back," Kristin nodded. Yesterday all she could get down were the fries she had for dinner.

"You look better," he studied her face, reaching out to brush his finger under her eye.

"I still have dark circles," she tried not to focus on his touch.

"Yeah, but you have more color. Yesterday you were super pale," he brought his hand back and took another bite of pancakes.

"It's probably because I actually got decent sleep last night," thinking back to it, she realized she hadn't waken up at all though the night, which was rare.

"Did you drug me or something?" she narrowed her eyes playfully at him.

"With the bond," he nodded, smirking.

"What?"

"Please tell me you're not that oblivious, Kristin. You were feeling like sh*t because we were miles away from each other for too long," he shook his head, "I felt like sh*t," he muttered.

"Now that we're together, the bond isn't fighting us," he finished.

"I would have stayed with you sooner if you didn't try pushing me away," she accused.

"I get it, I was an idiot," his lips twitched, "Now do you see why we have to physically be together? I hope those last two days made you understand."

Kristin shrugged, wanting to annoy him. "I guess so. I hope you learned your lesson that I'm always right."

He raised a brow at her, "Is that so?"

"Yes. I knew I should have helped you sooner with the Alpha thing. I was literally prepared to move here with you before you started acting like a d*ck and saying we couldn't be together."

If she had a microphone, she would have dropped it.

He clenched his jaw, knowing she was right.

"I didn't say we couldn't be together."

"You said you 'didn't know.' If you wanted to be together I believe your response would have sounded something like 'yes'," she challenged.

He licked his lips, leaning back in his seat, "I was running on three hours of sleep for those two days, I had just gotten out of the worse five hour long meeting, and the bond was trying to kill me from the inside out-- or maybe that was my wolf."

"So it was okay for you to say I wasn't going to be the Luna, we couldn't be together, and hang up on me?" she frowned at the memory of her pain he had caused her.

"Kristin, I already explained this. I felt like complete sh*t for making you go through everything just because you were my mate. I thought I was protecting you by keeping you away."

"You said it yourself, we need to physically be together or else we feel horrible. You kept me away from you. It felt like someone was stabbing my chest repeatedly, and it wasn't fun," she snapped at him.

"It wasn't fun for me either, Kristin," he shot back.

He then sighed, lowering his voice, "Look, I said I was sorry okay? I wasn't thinking."

"You should apologize again," she said, leaning back in her seat.

"Why? I already did," Ryder gave her a flat look.

"Because I'm your mate and you shouldn't be an as*shole to me," she stated, knowing Allison would be proud of her for saying that.

Ryder closed his eyes and took a deep breath, "Fine I'm sorry, again," he growled.

"Why do you have to get so mad over apologizing? Just say sorry without getting angry."

"Well my wolf doesn't exactly like it when you call me an as*shole, so I can't help but get angry," his eyes were in fact slightly darker.

"You can help it. Tell your wolf to man up and apologize," she shot back.

He narrowed his eyes at her, but remained quiet.

"I'm waiting," she put down her fork and crossed her arms.

He looked up to the ceiling, probably asking the heaven's to give him patience with her.

Kristin actually found him hilarious. She already had forgiven him for what he had done, she wasn't worried about that. She just loved to challenge him, and if making him apologize again was it, then she'd do it. For some reason, he hated apologizing, and she was using that to her advantage.

"You think this is funny?" he grumbled, looking back down to see her fighting off a smile.

She shrugged, "A little."

She knew that would make him even angrier, but she didn't care.

"One of these days when you think it's funny to make me angry and I shift, I don't think you'll be laughing anymore," he threatened.

"Mhmm," she ignored his threat, standing up and fixing his shirt on her.

He glared at her as she winked at him and walked towards the door.

Before she knew it, he was sitting beside her in the car, pulling out of the lot.

"Slow down," Kristin told him as they raced down the road. Normally if this was a regular road she wouldn't care, but this was the main road running through the pack. People usually walked close by.

He didn't slow the car even in the slightest.

"Just because you're annoyed doesn't mean you can speed. People are out and about walking around, it's dangerous," she frowned at him.

"Just because you find humor in p*ssing me off doesn't mean you should," he shot back, keeping his eyes on the road.

"I just thought another apology would be nice," she shrugged, "You should get used to apologizing to me. I have a feeling you're going to be doing it a lot."

She stopped herself from breaking into a grin and kept a straight face.

"Are you serious, right now?" he asked suspiciously, turning to her, "You really want me to apologize again or are you just doing it to annoy me?"

"Ryder if I didn't want you to apologize again why would I ask you too?"

He stared at her through narrowed eyes before turning back to the road.

She relaxed when he slowed down a little.

At least he was listening to her. That meant he wasn't that mad.

However she rolled her eyes at his silence. He really didn't like apologizing? So be it.

Ryder parked in front of his house and scrunched his brows when Kristin hopped out and walked in, leaving him in the car.

"Now you're mad?" he asked, finding her sitting in front of the tv, clicking the remote.

She wasn't really watching it, she just wanted to have a distraction from Ryder.

He walked over to her and stood in front of the tv.

She looked up at him expectantly, raising her eyebrows at him.

"What's your problem?" he asked, crossing his arms.

She blinked back at him, giving him a simple shrug.

He let out a growl, "Kristin."

It was working.

She nodded at him, waiting for his apology.

"If I have to apologize one more time I'm going to lose my patience."

She smiled at him, not bothered by his tone.

He gave her a weird look, walking away, "Fine, way to be stereotypical and give me the silent treatment."

Kristin watched tv for almost an hour, while Ryder was somewhere upstairs, probably pouting.

When he walked back downstairs he was in a different set of clothes and his hair was wet.

Damn, he looked good. Kristin tried to keep her eyes glued to the tv, but she could hear him moving around in the kitchen.

She stole a glance his way and saw him staring back at her. He didn't look angry anymore, only slightly annoyed.

"I'm going to be in my office," he said, looking like he was waiting for her response.

She nodded, making herself look back at the tv screen.

"If you decide you want to talk to me again, that's where I'll be," he continued, giving her a pointed look.

This time she completely ignored him, waiting for him to leave.

A couple hours later, Kristin had made herself pizza, watched an entire movie, and was now bored out of her mind.

She thought of a plan and starting walking down the hall to Ryder's office.

The door was opened so she walked right in, causing Ryder to look up at her.

"You done?" he asked her flatly, trying not to show any emotion.

She shook her head at him and crossed her arms.

This was fun.

"Then get out," he waved her away, making her narrow her eyes. She took a step towards him. Then another.

"Wrong way," he leaned back, crossing his arms as well.

Her lips twitched upwards as she walked around his desk to stand next to him. She leaned against the desk and faced him, smirking.

He looked up at her, momentarily distracted.

Kristin usually didn't do these kinds of things, but he was her mate after all.

Regaining her confidence, she put her plan into action.

•. •. •. •. •.

Chapter Twenty Three!

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