12/23/2017

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The house looked to be three stories but also had a lot of square feet.

It was easily double the size of her old house, which she figured was her parents' Alpha house.

She raised her eyebrows as Ryder parked in front of the four door garage. He did like cars.

She leaned forward, glancing up at the third story which had a terrace.

Don't look excited, don't look excited, don't look excited--

"Do you like it?" Ryder asked, trying to read her thoughts.

She nodded, afraid that she'd sound too happy if she spoke.

"Good," he replied, getting out of the car.

She opened her door and followed him, eagerly waiting for him to unlock the door— which he did by punching in some numbers on a pad.

"Fancy," she commented, watching him unlock the door.

"Doesn't your parents' house have this?" he questioned her.

"Yeah, but it's still fancy," she shrugged, walking in through the now opened door he was holding for her.

A huge kitchen was on the right, shiny appliances on the white marble counters with dark cabinets lining the upper walls.

It was beautiful, looking straight out of a magazine.

"I had someone design it," Ryder mentioned, walking over to the living room and looking out the huge windows, "Looks like they're here with the rest of our stuff."

After about an hour, they had unpacked their things which were mostly just clothes since the house already had everything else in it.

Now it was Kristin and Ryder alone once again, but this time in a brand new three story house.

Their house.

The last couple of hours, Ryder had tried to make small talk with Kristin but she made sure not to carry on his one sided conversation so he'd know that this wasn't going to make things go back to normal between them.

She was in the master bedroom currently, standing out on the terrace and looking at the view of the river and forest. It reminded her of the arrangement house, except everything was on a much larger scale.

Closing the glass doors, she walked back inside, walking up to Ryder who was leaning in the doorway of their room, looking down at his phone.

With each step she took, the bond got stronger which felt like an invisible force was between them, pulling them together. That was the only way she could describe it.

She stopped a couple feet away, locking eyes with him.

"Thanks," she said, reaching out to lightly punch him in the arm.

She felt guilty that he had this all done for her— well both of them, but she wanted to at least thank him for it.

Tingles shot up her fist and she wished the bond would just chill for once.

"Saying thanks while punching me is kind of counterproductive," he said, almost smirking.

She missed his smirk. She wished they could go back to messing with each other. Then she could stay with him right now.

"Good night," she spoke before she didn't want to leave anymore.

Ryder reached out and grabbed her arm, tingles and warmth spreading up her skin.

"I know you don't want me in here so I'll go and you stay."

"I'm sleeping in a different room," she said, eyeing his hand on her.

The plus about a three story house was that there were a lot of guest bedrooms she could sleep in— away from Ryder.

"Kristin," he said, knowing what she was thinking, "Stay here and I'll go somewhere else."

"Fine," she said, slipping her arm out of his hold. The warmth left her and a small pain shot through her chest.

Instead of leaving, he stayed in the doorway.

"What?" Kristin asked tiredly, annoyed with the bond.

He shook his head, "I'm sorry about what I said last night."

"You aren't," Kristin replied, crossing her arms.

He furrowed his brows, "I just apologized and you're still angry?"

"Apologizing doesn't make it better. Isn't that what you said to Evelyn?"

"Enough Kristin," he raised his voice, his Alpha side coming out.

"That's not going to work on me."

"I'm not sorry for what happened with Evelyn. She deserved it," he snapped.

"I know you're not sorry. You've made that clear," she said calmly, knowing it would annoy him even more, "But if you ever want us to be good again, you'll start by letting her rejoin the fighters."

"I'm not taking orders from you. You don't understand how dangerous her actions were. The rogues could have hurt you."

"You don't like me giving you orders?" she asked sarcastically, "Now you know how it feels."

"If I let Evelyn back on the fighters she wouldn't learn her lesson. She'll put you in danger again."

"You need to learn to trust my judgement. You get angry because I don't trust you but apparently it's mutual," she sighed, trying her hardest to remain calm, "You already taught Evelyn a lesson by kicking her out. So now you're banning her from doing what she loves forever? I won't be surprised if she leaves the pack."

"If she does it's her decision."

"She is one of the best fighters we have in Nightfall. She's your cousin. You're just going to stop letting her fight to protect our pack?"

"She does a horrible job at protecting you," he growled.

"Did anything happen to me either time Evelyn was my guard?"

"No," she continued when he didn't reply, "I'm perfectly fine Ryder. I didn't get hurt," she pointed at herself.

"Just because you happened to not run into the rogues doesn't mean you were safe. If you had seen them they would have hurt you."

"That's not true," she snapped.

"Yes it is—"

"No it's not because I did see one of the rogues and he didn't do anything," she blurted out before she could stop herself.

"What?" Ryder took a step closer and growled.

Kristin sighed, wishing she hadn't brought that up.

"You saw a rogue? Did he do anything? What happened?" he asked angrily.

"Yes I saw a rogue," she shrugged, "Evelyn was right there with me and he ran away."

"You're lying."

"No," she took a step closer to him and narrowed her eyes, "I'm not."

"You're sure?" he asked, lowering his face to hers.

"Yes!"

He backed up, running a hand through his hair, "Why didn't you tell me this before?"

"You were too busy yelling at Evelyn and ordering me around I guess," she shot back.

"If one of the rogues saw you, they'd try to get you."

"Not this one."

"You're the Luna! If they had you they could control this whole pack."

"Well I'm still here, aren't I? Maybe he saw Evelyn was with me and decided to leave."

It didn't make sense the more she thought about it, but she wasn't going to admit it.

"He left for a different reason," Ryder started pacing, "Something happened where they decided they didn't need you."

"Maybe they didn't plan to take me."

"Even if they didn't, they easily could have. They had to have done something else."

"Like what?"

"I don't know," he snapped angrily.

Kristin didn't realize that the rogue running anyway meant something else. Maybe it meant nothing after all.

Seeing Ryder this upset made her think differently.

"I have to go," he said distractedly.

"Where?"

"I need to have the pack searched for anything suspicious."

"Let me come," she followed him.

"No," he groaned, turning around, "It's more dangerous than I thought."

"You don't know that. This all could just be absolutely nothing."

"I'm not taking a chance," he started walking away again.

Kristin ran to keep up with him, "I'm the Luna. I'm coming."

"Kristin you are a target. You need to stay here where it's safe."

"You're a target too. We're both Alphas you know."

"They're stronger than you," he blocked the door so she couldn't leave.

"I don't care," she snapped.

"I do."

"They could be stronger than you."

He shook his head, "They're rogues."

Kristin tried not to feel insulted.

"I'm not helping the pack by staying here and doing nothing."

"Yes you are. You're staying safe. The pack can't lose you."

"I'm not staying here," she said frustrated.

Kristin tried pushing past him, using her body to move him aside so she could go out the door.

He didn't move of course, and the bond made it so she wanted to stay pressed against him of course.

Ryder wrapped his hands around her wrists and started dragging her away from the door into the living room.

"No," Kristen struggled to escape his grasp.

"Kristin, come on," Ryder groaned, watching her sit down on the ground so he couldn't pull her.

Well he could, but instead he reached down and picked her up, putting his arm under her legs.

"Ryder you can't do this," she snapped as he dropped her down on the couch.

"I need to go to the prison and you don't want to go there."

"Yes I do. I'll go to the prison," she said so he'd let her go.

"Stop," he said, pinning her arms to the couch so she'd stay sitting.

She tried kneeing him but his other hand grabbed her thigh before she reached her target.

"There could be rogues in our territory right now," he tried making her understand, "If you go out there I'll need to have guard's on you and you'll just be a distraction."

She scoffed, "A distraction? Thanks for making me feel like an inconvenience once again."

It was hard to keep arguing with him since her thoughts were jumbled from his touch.

She felt his hand tighten around her wrists and thigh.

"You're not an inconvenience," he growled.

"Don't you dare growl at me," she leaned closer to him, "And don't lie to me."

"If you were an inconvenience don't you think I wouldn't try so hard to protect you?"

"This is overprotection Ryder. It's really hard to be a good Luna when you try to keep me locked up all the time."

Ryder let go of her, walking out of the living room.

She was about to go follow him when he turned back around.

"Do you realize what will happen if you get hurt? Or worse?"

"I'd rather get hurt than stay here and do nothing."

Ryder growled at her again, his eyes darkening.

"If something happens to you the pack will fall apart."

"That's not true. They'll still have you."

"Are you serious right now?" he asked, his voice deadly.

She almost flinched, actually feeling little scared of him.

"If I don't have you I will turn into my father," he said darkly, "I'll be just like him, a monster."

"Ryder, no you won't—"

"Yes I will, and I'll destroy this pack."

Before she could say anything else he walked out, slamming the door behind him.

She got up and ran to the door, opening it to reveal about twenty guards in the process of surrounding the house.

"Luna," one of them nodded, taking his post at the door.

"Hey," she said, waving and internally rolling her eyes.

"Don't worry, I'll stay inside," she told him, watching him visibly relax.

She shut the door to the house, wishing she had a wolf so she could mind link Ryder and yell into his head.

•. •. •. •. •.

Chapter Fifty Five.

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