Page 45 of Tolerated By the Sigma (Mate Hunt 7)

So far, it had been worse.

A lot worse.

Vi made someone bring me food. A few minutes later, I was seated on a cold bench they dragged in and set in front of the doors into mine and Ryder’s cells with a giant bowl of oatmeal that smelled like hot milk. I was hungry enough to eat the shit, trying not to gag with almost every bite.

Ryder watched me eat all of it, and the growl of his voice echoing from his cell and into mine for the last two weeks practically haunted me.

Not entirely in a bad way, though.

He had said, a million times and in a million different ways,“I’m here, Charly. You’re not alone. I’ll take the fall for everything, and make sure you still have your life to go back to after this.”

He had been trying to comfort me, but honestly, the words gave me the chills a bit, and not in a good way.

He would make sureIstill had my life to go back to.

Not thatwestill had our life to go back to—thatIstill had mine.

He was planning on claiming he was the one that killed Lisa, but that was a lie, and it would end much worse than if we admitted that my wolf had done it.

My wolf had been defending her mate and acting like the possessive bitch she was expected to be; his would’ve been getting revenge on the girl who rejected him.

So no, I definitely wasn’t going to let him take the fall.

Even if the shitty situation cost me my job, I wouldn’t go to jail or anything.

Considering that Ryder’s pack had already tried to kill him once, I doubted he would end up with the same privileges.

And besides, my neighbors were the ones who called the cops, and they had definitely seen my wolf… do what she had done.

The main alpha finally strode down the hallway. He’d been the dad of one of the guys in one of my packs growing up, so I definitely knew who he was.

His eyes were narrowed on me.

“Charly Kelley.”

Violet was sitting beside me, and moved to stand at the tone of his voice. I looped an arm through hers and held her firmly in place beside me. Ryder’s wolf snarled from within his cage, but when I glanced over at the window, he was still in human form, peering out at me with those red eyes.

Honestly, I was so horny that they were starting to look sexy.

I turned my attention back to the newcomer, holding Vi firmly. I knew the main alpha a hell of a lot better than she did, and most people in town tended to judge the asshole even more harshly than he deserved.

“Alpha.” I dipped my head once.

The anger in his eyes faded, and a bit of tired fondness replaced it. The guy was a bastard, but once you got to know him a little, you’d realize that he was just trying to play papa for an entire town of werewolves. And that was far from easy; I’d always thought it was a good excuse for his harshness at times. Though every small pack had its own alpha, they were all different; some were friendly and playful, others were gruff and overprotective. The only thing they all really had in common was that they were always the first person to come to the assistance of whoever in the pack needed help.

He leaned up against the jail cell’s door, his head resting right next to the window Ryder was looking out of.

Honestly, it was the best place he could’ve stood. Ryder would know I was seeing him at the same time I was seeing the alpha, removing any sense of a threat the man might have been, and also moving him out of Ryder’s direct vision so his wolf didn’t get pissed off. “Have you heard what the kids at the high school are calling you?”

I wrinkled my nose. “Unfortunately.”

His lips curved upward, just the tiniest fraction. “I hope you’ll come back to Zack’s pack’s gatherings now that you have a mate of your own. The guys talk all the time about how much they miss their sister, the spitfire.”

I snorted. “I’m sure.”

His lips curved upward a bit further. “What’s your version of the story?”

The slight humor I’d been feeling vanished. My eyes closed. “I was out with Del, talking through shit.”

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