Page 51 of Fated
Ryker spotted her first, his grin cutting through the tension. “Well, well, look who finally decided to grace us with her presence.” He swept into a mock bow. “Your Royal Highness, the future Luna Bloodstone herself.”
A genuine smile tugged at her lips. “Someone has to keep you in line. Goddess knows you can’t be trusted unsupervised.”
“Wounded!” Ryker clutched his chest dramatically. “After all I’ve accomplished this summit—”
“Like what?” Aiden’s eyebrow arched as he cut in. “Drinking all the champagne? Hitting on every female who made eye contact?”
“Hey, I made a genuine love connection!” Ryker shot back, earning a snort from Cian.
The easy rhythm of their banter loosened the tightness in Lena’s shoulders—until Ryker’s smile faltered, his usual bright eyes dimming as he glanced down at his boots.
“She told me about her mate.” His voice was thread-thin, shoulders curving inward. “Tessa. She lost her fated in a rogue attack. Said their bond was stronger than anything, even without completing the ceremony or claiming rite.” He scuffed a boot against the ground. “She’s asked for space. Says she likes me—reallylikes me—but doesn’t want to rob me of finding my fated.”
“How do you feel about that?” Lena asked softly, hand resting on his arm.
Ryker’s grin returned, though it was tinged with melancholy. “She’s…different, you know? Feels like there’s something real there.” He paused, voice dropping. “No offense, Lena, but I can’t imagine a fated bond feeling better than I’ve felt with Tessa these last few days.”
His raw honesty squeezed Lena’s chest, each breath requiring conscious effort. She knew that ache, that barbed-wire pull between desire and destiny.
“Maybe space isn’t a bad thing,” Aiden offered gently. “If she is the one for you, give it time. See what happens when you visit for the delegation.”
Ryker’s mood shifted. “Oh, I plan to make the most of that delegation visit,” he said, a wicked grin spreading across his face. “Speaking of, did I tell you Asher bought me a butt plug training kit? When I visit Redridge, Tessa and I are going to cement herstatus as my beta-female with a proper pegging, and I need to be ready for her.”
“Ryker!” Lena yelped, playfully swatting at his shoulder.
“It’s game-changing,” he continued, undeterred. “Cian, you’re missing out. Anal play is the difference between feeling your orgasm in your balls and through your entire body.”
Cian’s brow furrowed with genuine curiosity. “Wait...is it really that good?”
Ryker dove into his bag, emerging triumphantly with a bottle of lube. “Lesson one: prep, prep, and more prep.” He tossed the bottle into Cian’s hands. “If you think you’ve got enough, add more. Practice on yourself to find what feels good. Personally, I’m a ‘come hither’ guy.”
Lena buried her face in her hands, laughing despite herself. “Why am I friends with you?”
The laughter died in her throat as Kai’s frame cut through the morning bustle.
He moved like a marionette with damaged strings—shoulders hunched as if bearing an invisible weight, feet dragging against gravel with each step forward, gaze darting to her face then away as if the sight burned him. A chink formed in the armor she’d erected around her heart as his ravaged expression registered—eyes sunken, skin pallid, shadows beneath his lashes betraying a sleepless night.
He came.
Relief and terror crashed through her in alternating waves as she realized this moment would either be their beginning or their end.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
KAI
Kai sat slumped in the armchair by the window of his suite wearing last night’s clothes, the scent of sweat and regret clinging to him like a second skin. A violent tremor ran through his body, muscles twitching with exhaustion as cold sweat beaded on his skin. Staring at the floor, he pressed his palms flat against his thighs to still them as the events of the night before replayed in his mind on an endless loop.
“You ruined everything!”Orion’s roar had rattled through him before the wolf retreated completely.
Between Ava’s sobbing and Elias’s disgusted glare, Kai couldn’t take it. He’d fled like a coward, desperate to find Lena. But Darius had been waiting—cold, unrelenting. The alpha’sdisapproval pressed down like a physical force.“Just go.”His father’s suffocating aura had left no choice but retreat.
And now, hours later, he sat there—sleepless, unwashed, stomach roiling with persistent nausea—unmoved from the chair since his collapse. Thoughts crashed through his mind like storm waves, threatening to drown him in the wreckage he’d created.
“You’re better than this.”
Orion’s voice pierced through the haze like an ice-tipped arrow finding its mark. Kai winced as the wolf materialized in their shared consciousness—not the warm, comforting presence he knew, but a thorned entity that unfurled around his lungs. With each inhalation, spectral barbs drove deeper between his ribs, transforming breath into an act of self-mutilation. Each breath he drew in scraped his insides like pulverized glass.
“I know,”Kai thought miserably, hands shaking so badly he had to clench them into fists.“I’ve messed everything up. But how do I fix it?”
