Total pages in book: 109
Estimated words: 103681 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 518(@200wpm)___ 415(@250wpm)___ 346(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 103681 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 518(@200wpm)___ 415(@250wpm)___ 346(@300wpm)
Said guy then approached, glancing from her to Taryn. “Ready to go?”
“Yep.” Makenna gave Taryn a short nod. “See ya.”
When Ryan drove out of the lot with Makenna in the backseat and Zac riding shotgun, he asked her, “What was that about?”
Makenna smiled. “Are you always so nosy?”
His hands clenched around the steering wheel. “You’re answering a question with a question again.”
“Am I?”
Ryan ground his teeth so hard it was audible, which made Zac laugh. The teenager seemed to find genuine joy in watching Ryan and Makenna spar. Ryan had to admit that he sometimes found their sparring sort of invigorating.
As Ryan finally pulled up outside the shelter, Zac grinned. “I had an awesome time. Your territory is seriously cool.” A pause. “Dominic said I could go again tomorrow.”
“It’s your home, you can come whenever you want.” Was the kid not getting that?
Zac’s eyes clouded. “I could just bring trouble to your door.”
“We already talked about that.”
Makenna leaned forward and placed a hand on the juvenile’s shoulder. “Zac, if your old pack comes looking for you and causes any trouble, it won’t be your fault. No one would blame you. Every Phoenix wolf will do whatever they can to protect you whether you’re living at the shelter or not. Staying here won’t save them, if that’s what you’re trying to do.”
Ryan wanted to kick himself. Of course that was what Zac was doing. Ryan would have done the same. “Take tonight to think about it. I’ll be here at nine in the morning. If all you want is to spend the day there, I’ll return you here later.”
“I’ll think about it. See you in the morning.” Zac opened the car door. “Later, Makenna.”
Watching him run to the shelter’s entrance, Makenna said, “I think he’ll say yes.”
Ryan looked around. “Where’s your car?”
“Getting an oil change.”
“I’ll take you home.” She rattled off her address, but Ryan already knew it from conversations he’d had with Zac. “What were you and Taryn talking about?” he asked as he headed to her apartment.
“She wasn’t confronting me, if that’s what you’re worried about. She asked me, in the nicest possible way, not to hurt you. It’s a good thing that your pack’s protective of each other.”
“They’re good people.”
Makenna nodded. “From what I’ve seen, yes, they are.” She didn’t much like Greta, but she appreciated that the woman was protective of Ryan.
“They’re also smart. They’ll guess that we’re mates. We should just tell them.”
“Ryan—”
“You said yourself that Zac will probably agree to join tomorrow. We don’t have any other reason to keep quiet about it.”
“You mean apart from the fact that you could be wrong?”
“I’m not wrong.”
She twisted slightly in her seat to better look at him. “How can you be so positive? I mean, I agree that us being mates would explain a lot of things. But how can you be so sure when there’s no mating bond pulling at you?”
“I just am. But if you need to feel the bond to believe it, you need to clear the frequency.”
You need to share your secrets and fears, he didn’t say but she clearly heard. He was right, and that put her on the defensive. “I don’t ask you to share all your shit. Whenever the topic of your parents is brought up in even the most casual sense, you change the subject. I’ve never called you on it.”
She was right, Ryan realized. He did do that. But it was more out of habit than anything else.
“And have I asked about your scars, even though the sight of them makes me want to fucking kill somebody? No. I respect that you might not want to talk about painful things in your past.”
Given the soft heart beneath all that armor, he’d expected compassion or pity—both of which would have cut him deeper than any of the implements used on him. But no. She was absolutely enraged. It made him want to smile. “It was a long time ago.”
“That’s not the fucking point. No one had the right to hurt you like that. No one. Tell me the fuckers are dead.”
“Every single one of them,” he verified.
“Good.” Her wolf strongly agreed.
“You have a bloodthirsty streak, don’t you, Kenna?”
“My name is Makenna.”
“No, that’s the name you hide behind. You’ve created an alternate identity, so your past, your pain, and your secrets can’t touch you. But it doesn’t mean they’re not there.”
She shook her head. “You think you know me, but you don’t have a fucking clue.”
Parking outside her apartment building, he switched off the engine. “Don’t I?”
“No.”
“Then stop holding it all in.”
“You know all you need to know.”
Was it really so awful that he wanted to know who she really was and what happened to her? “Trust me, I will make sure that whoever is looking for you never finds you. I will keep you safe. Just tell me.”