Page 48 of Cursed Love
She told him about Caitlyn and her husband, but he did not blink.
“We’ll hire Peter to cock-block me. It’s okay,” he said and winked. Pulling her to her feet, Ryan’s arms encircled her, and he hugged her tightly before walking them to the door where he stopped. “Just for the record, I’m not going anywhere. Sure, I never wanted to be mated, but now that I have you, I’d rather die than be without you.”
He tugged her hand before she could reply. In the living room, they found Peter by himself playing Xbox.
“Where’s Ethan?”
“Said he had to go.” Peter hit pause on his game and looked at her. “We won’t let you die. Next time you leave out that kind of detail, I’ll kick your ass, babycakes.”
Brandy’s heart clenched at the worry in Peter’s eyes. Her affection for the were had been natural once she accepted that not all werewolves were bad. Now she counted him as one of her closest friends.
“Did you tell her?” Peter asked Ryan.
It was Brandy’s turn to be confused. “Tell me what?”
“Shit, you two need to work on your communication skills,” Peter said as he returned to his onscreen battle.
“We need to leave,” Ryan told her.
“Leave? And go where?”
“When I went for my run, I caught the scent I’d smelled in your apartment the night we met. The thing that followed you wasn’t a werewolf, babycakes. It was a lycan. They’re similar to werewolves but can control specific parts of their transformation. Lycans are soldiers to high-level demons. You’re pretty lucky to be alive.”
Her heart sped up at this new piece of information. “Why didn’t you tell me earlier?”
“I wasn’t entirely sure until I caught the scent just past the wards Ryan put up. We need to move before all hell descends on us. There’s another safehouse we can go to until the other cabin is ready.”
“Whoa! How am I supposed to go back to work with all this?” she asked, mentally calculating how much time she had off. Edward may have left her in charge of the café, but he would only look the other way so much, especially when he realized her absence was more about her safety than irresponsibility.
Ryan rubbed the back of his neck, and she saw the answer in his eyes.
“This is worse than we thought, isn’t it?”
“We need to keep you safe while we figure out why they want you so badly,” Ryan whispered.
“The curse and now this? Ugh,” she muttered and took a step toward her room.
Ryan tugged her hand, keeping a hold over their connection. “Where are you going?”
“I need to pack so we can go. The closer thesethingsget to me, the closer they get to you guys. I can’t have that. We need time to figure this out, and we can’t do that if we’re all dead.”
Chapter 19
Ryan watched her disappear into the room and rubbed his palm over his chest. He could feel Peter watching him, but he could not look at his friend.
“You all right?”
“I can’t—” Ryan released a shuddering breath and stepped outside. He sucked in fresh air, hoping it would ease the turmoil raging inside him. Letting the quiet soothe him, he processed everything he knew. He was still missing some element to the information tickling the far recesses of his mind.
He never wanted to be mated, and over time he figured she did not exist. With everything he knew, becoming a father was the last thing he’d wanted. Having powers was not all it was cracked up to be. As he’d told Brandy, he did not want to pass them down to an innocent child.
It was not that Ryan did not like children. He did not want to screw them over or for them to learn things really did go bump in the night. Humans walked around effortlessly, unaware of the supernatural beings who liked to stay under the radar.
When Brandy broke through his defenses, he had imagined a little girl with her eyes. He would never admit it to Brandy or to Peter. He would do anything to protect her, including becoming celibate.
It did not matter how long she had been in his life. Their connection ran deeper than any relationship he had witnessed of his friends or family. Even his parents had failed at keeping it together. He would bet all the money he had stored away that his parents were not mates.
The powerful feeling that had rooted deep inside him the moment they made love was indescribable. The act was monumental, it had fused them together. Brandy was an extension of himself. There was no turning back once he had tasted her. She belonged to him, and he refused to let anyone or anything take her from him.
