10/01/2017

Kristin squinted her eyes open and stretched out her arms, hitting the person beside her.

Ryder groaned and mumbled something as he moved to his side.

Kristin snickered, covering her mouth as she watched Ryder open his eyes to glare at her.

"It's funny to punch me in the face, is it?" he said grumpily.

Kristin fought off her grin, "It was an accident," she shrugged.

She hadn't been expecting him to be there when she woke up. He usually got up before her.

She knew he was tired; they had spent the majority of the night/ morning talking.

"Sure it was," he rolled his eyes before closing them.

Kristin got up to go to the bathroom and on her way back she heard Ryder's phone ringing.

"Ryder, your phone," she sat back in bed, poking his arm.

"I can hear it," he said, without opening his eyes.

"You should answer it, it could be important," Kristin glanced over at his ringing phone on the nightstand.

"It's fine."

"Ryder."

"You answer it then."

Kristin scoffed as the ringing ended, "What if it's about the rogues?"

"It's not," he replied, his voice husky from lack of sleep.

Kristin watched him for a while until his phone started ringing again.

She watched as he made zero attempt to wake up and answer it.

"Seriously?" Kristin shook her head, knowing he'd hear her.

"I'm taking a break from being Alpha today," he mumbled into his pillow, "You can take over."

"That's not how it works," she continued when he remained quiet, "We're both Alphas."

He shook his head slightly, "Not today."

She saw his lips twitch into a smirk when she huffed in response.

When the phone started ringing for the third time, Kristin learned over him and reached for his phone.

His hand brought her arm away from grabbing the phone and he made her lay back, wrapping his arm around her waist.

"Ryder! Let me answer the phone," she tried turning to face him, as she was now pressed against him facing the opposite way.

"No, I'm shutting it off. Let's just stay here today."

"Stay in bed all day?" Kristin asked like he was crazy.

"Yes. I need more sleep and so do you."

"I'm fine—"

"No you aren't, Kristin. You haven't gotten decent sleep in forever. You're exhausted."

"How do you know that?" she shot back, trying to pry his arm off of her so she could turn to face him.

"It wasn't hard to guess," he muttered, "Now go back to sleep."

"But I'm not tired," she pouted.

"Yes you are."

"Let me go."

"No."

Kristin used both of her hands to pull his arm away, but it was no use.

She rolled onto her back, turning to her other side so she could face him. They were really close. Her face was only inches from his bare chest. When she looked up at his face, her eyes slowly traveled over his detailed features.

His lips looked soft and pink, closed together in almost a frown. It wasn't like an angry or sad expression, it was almost a pout. Like he just wanted to fall back asleep.

Her eyes briefly ran over his nose and up to his eyes. She would have paid more attention to his dark thick lashes framing them in, if she hadn't realized he had opened his eyes and was staring back at her.

Caught in the act, she decided to continue to stare. What did she have to lose anyway?

"Your eyes have to be closed to sleep."

"Really? I had no idea," she replied with sarcasm, still meeting his gaze.

She was becoming a lot better at matching his stare. She was pretty sure she could win a staring contest with him at this point. He no longer intimidated her like before.

"I know I'm amazing to look at, but you need to close your eyes and sleep babe," he smirked when she grimaced.

"If you call me babe, I'm not sleeping."

"So sorry, sweetheart."

Kristin gave him a flat look— much to the opposite of the butterflies in her stomach.

"I am not your babe, and I am definitely not your sweetheart," Kristin narrowed her eyes at his smile.

"Okay Princess, calm down."

"Do not call me that," she tried making her voice sound firm, but she couldn't help but remember how he had called her a princess when they had first met. Sure, it was in a mocking way, yet things were so different now. In just a month, she had found out that her and Ryder were— in fact— mates, became the Luna of Nightfall, moved packs, and was now in charge of hundreds of wolves.

He was a jerk to her when they first met. Now, he had stayed up through the night with her so she wouldn't have a panic attack. She couldn't believe she had developed a sense of appreciation for this guy.

Her eyes were closed but she peeked them open again only to find Ryder staring at her this time.

"I knew you were faking," he said, referring to her going back to 'sleep'.

"I can't sleep when you're staring at me. Your eyes have to be closed to sleep," she mocked.

"If you're eyes were closed you wouldn't know I was staring at you," he smirked.

"Maybe you shouldn't stare at me."

"Maybe I want to stare," he teased.

"Creep," Kristin muttered, staring straight ahead at his chest. She was trying not to blush.

Despite Kristin's argument of not needing more sleep, she had closed her eyes for a couple minutes— which lasted a couple hours.

She awoke to Ryder walking back into the room. His hair was wet and he had on new clothes.

"What time is it?" she lifted herself up, peering at the clock. It was now almost one in the afternoon, "Why didn't you wake me up?"

"Because you were sleeping," he answered, confused.

"Yeah but you woke up," she watched him sit back on the bed. She wished he would've woken her up so she wouldn't have slept so long.

"I took a shower, was I supposed to wake you up for that?" he scrunched his nose in a boyish way.

Kristin sighed, not wanting to keep explaining herself.

"Wait— did you want to join me?" he said with a smirk.

"Ryder— no," Kristin mumbled, flustered.

He laughed as she got up to leave.

Why couldn't she go five minutes without blushing around this guy?

•. •. •. •. •.

Chapter Forty Two

Guys I promise the plot will pick up— I've just written some filler chapters while sick.

Thanks for voting and supporting!

Ps. I'm so happy because it's October and this is literally the best time of year!

Anywhays... vote if ya'd like?

Chica_2016