by Lola Gabriel
I must have imagined it, she thought. No way was he checking me out.
“Lola,” Ryder said, “it’s nice to meet you.”
“Um, thanks. I really appreciate your help,” Lola replied.
“It’s perfectly fine. Any friend of Piper’s is a friend of the pack’s.”
“I hate to ask for help,” Lola told him, “but I really don’t know where else to turn.”
Ryder sat down behind his large mahogany desk and leaned back. His gaze quickly slid up and down her body, as if he were taking her in. He motioned for her to have a seat.
“I’m familiar with Roger Myers,” Ryder began. “The guy is a pariah. He has made a name for himself with a lot of shady business tactics and basically just ripping good people off. He wasn’t lying when he said he would hurt you. As you already know, he pays off the police, and he might even have ties to the mafia. Legally, the guy is untouchable. If you had video footage of him killing someone in broad daylight, he would get off scot free.”
“How can this happen?” Lola questioned. “In this day and age, how can someone just be free to do whatever they want?” She was aware that her voice sounded a bit desperate, but she was terrified now. It seemed that no end was in sight to this horrible ordeal.
“That’s the nature of wealth and power,” Piper said, leaning back against one of the walls.
“But we lycanthropes don’t always have to play by the same rules as everyone else,” Ryder added.
Lola frowned slightly. “What do you mean, exactly?”
“Well, our pack, and most of our kind really, prefer to live as normal as we can,” he answered. “We want peace with the mortal world, and we’ve succeeded for thousands of years in keeping our kind a secret. Sure, there have been rumors throughout the ages, all of it chocked up to mythology and the paranoid ideations of primitive societies. But thanks to modern technology, where everyone has a camera and the ability to broadcast videos to the entire world in a matter of seconds, our secret has started to emerge.”
“But most people still doubt your existence,” Lola said. She wasn’t sure how long that would continue, but for now, it was an asset.
“True,” Ryder agreed. “People are much more skeptical now than they’ve ever been, despite having more irrefutable proof of the paranormal and supernatural than ever before. When you think about it, it’s kind of amusing.”
Ryder reached into his desk drawer and pulled out a glass tumbler and a small bottle of expensive-looking whiskey. He poured a small bit of it into the glass and then placed the bottle back in the drawer.
“This still affords us the gift of walking in the shadows,” he went on. “While we don’t condone using our supernatural gifts to harm the mortal world, occasionally an incident such as this warrants it. We’ll find Roger Myers and we’ll take care of him.”
Lola held her breath. Surely, he couldn’t mean…
“Are you… are you going to kill him?” she asked.
“We will try to get him to see reason and see if a scare tactic will work,” Ryder explained, “but a man like him has such a massive ego that it will just make him more determined to get what he wants. So, I doubt that will work.”
He turned to Piper, who nodded in agreement. “If you want my honest opinion, we should take him out right away. The man is a monster. Do you have any idea how many people have perished at his hands, at his orders? A lot more than you would ever suspect from a real estate developer.”
“If you know so much about him and what he’s done,” Lola wondered, “then why haven’t you done this before now?”
Ryder took a sip from his glass. “Because doing something like this is risks exposure of the pack, not to mention that we’d also be risking angering other packs who might then consider us a liability for their own secrecy and safety,” he said. “They might come after us. But you’re in trouble. You need our help and protection, so this is something we can’t ignore. We can’t just let an innocent woman die.”
Lola felt like burying her head in her hands and crying her eyes out, though she didn’t know if it was out of relief or guilt. She was causing way more trouble than she’d ever meant to cause anyone. Why did this have to happen? She’d just been in the wrong place at the wrong time. But Ryder was right; if they didn’t do this, then she would most likely die, and who knew how many others would suffer because of this man in the future.
“Okay, where do we start?” Lola asked.
5
“Well, it doesn’t appear like anything is missing,” Lola said as she took a careful step over a large area of shattered glass in front of the diner door.
She couldn’t believe this. It was two in the morning and she’d been sound asleep in her bed when her phone began to ring. She quickly answered it, though she was in such a hazy fog that she almost knocked over a glass of water in the process. It was her security company. Her alarm at the diner had been triggered. They quickly notified the police while she hurried to the establishment. She arrived a few moments after the police did to a shocking scene.
The front door had been broken. Glass was everywhere, and obscene words were spray painted all over the inside. All of their dishes had been smashed, the tables had been turned over and broken, the oven was busted, and the dishwasher had been kicked in.
Lola told the cops it was a message from Roger Myers. It had to be. They nodded and practically yawned in her face, not believing her, or just not caring at all. She pulled up the footage from the security camera on her phone’s app, hoping to see Roger or at least one of the men who’d almost attacked her the other night.
Instead, she only saw two figures wearing ski masks and sweat suits. They were short and kind of thin. They looked like they could have been teenagers.
Even though Lola knew Myers was behind this, she didn’t have any proof. Not that it would have mattered if she had.
“If we find out anything, miss, we’ll let you know,” the officer said before rounding up his crew and heading off back towards the station.
Charlie and Denise came over to help her begin cleaning up some of the mess, and to prevent people from stealing anything. She was blessed to have such a great crew of friends with her.
“Well, I was able to get hold of a friend of mine who can replace these doors this morning,” Charlie said.
“Thanks, Charlie,” Lola told him. “That is a lifesaver.”
The three of them worked to get things back in order, and by late afternoon, everything was cleaned up: the front door was back in place, and they had orders for the equipment that was damaged to be replaced. The only bad news was that the diner was going to have to be closed for a few days, which would result in a lot of lost revenue.
“Unbelievable,” Piper said when she arrived at the scene. “This guy is definitely pushing all the right buttons.”
“Any word on his location?” Lola asked. “I hate to pressure you guys, but I don’t know how much more of this harassment I can take.”
“Ryder is working on it,” Piper answered. “He has a few of our strongest pack members investigating. They’ll turn up with something, you’ll see. You just have to be a bit patient.”
Lola knew it shouldn’t have been, but it was comforting. She hadn’t been able to keep her mind off Ryder. He was so strong, so powerful, and it wasn’t just because he was a wolf. It was just his character. She could tell by his stance and by what he’d told her that he would do everything in his power to keep her safe.
“Great,” she said to Piper. “Thanks.”
Lola was afraid to go home, but she wasn’t about to let this jerk push her out of her own house. Kelly and Lisa had both gone home to California, and she didn’t have any close friends she felt like she could call. She wanted to ask a member of the wolf pack to maybe stay over, perhaps even Piper, but she decided to keep her fear to herself. They were already doing so much to help her.
She forced herself to try to put it all out of her head. She called the security
company to see about getting a system installed in her home, but they couldn’t come until the following day. Lola lived in a safe neighborhood, so she’d never really considered getting a system for her home like she had for her business.
Now, however, everything was different. She just hoped that everything would be okay that evening.
As she drifted off to sleep that night, she found herself wishing that Ryder was beside her. It would have felt so safe to drift off in his muscular arms, in his safe embrace.
6
Lola was awakened by the sound of glass breaking, like someone was carefully punching through it.
She immediately bolted upright in bed. She held her breath and listened over the roar of her pulse pounding in her ears, trying to make sure she was not dreaming. It had to be nothing. It had to be. She was safe as could be in her own home, right? That was the way she was supposed to feel. But right then, she felt terror like she’d never known. This had to be a dream. It just had to be.
It wasn’t.
As she listened over the deafening silence, Lola plainly heard a few unidentifiable clicks and then the sound of her back door slowly opening She could almost feel the disturbance in her bedroom.
Lola was frozen solid, but only for a moment. Her adrenaline kicked into high gear, and she grabbed her phone from her nightstand to dial 911.
After two rings, a dispatcher answered her. “911, what’s your emergency?”
“Someone is breaking into my house,” Lola whispered as silently as she could. “Please send someone.”
The operator took her address and advised her to hide in a closet. Help was on the way.
Lola did as she was urged to by the operator and ran to her bedroom closet. Then she waited, the dispatcher remaining on the phone with her, quietly reminding her to stay calm and that help would soon be there.
Loud noises were now coming from outside. They seemed to be on the other side of her bedroom wall, which was her backyard. She pulled the phone from her ear and listened intently, placing her ear against the wall. She was hearing animal sounds. But they didn’t sound like they belonged to any animal she’d ever heard before. Its snarl was louder, deeper, almost like a bear. It took her a moment to realize what she was listening to, though it soon became very clear.
It was a wolf. It had to be one of the pack.
Lola stepped out of her bedroom closet and ran to the window. In the shadows from the bright moonlight, she could clearly see a large wolf standing on two legs, his head thrust back, his chest stuck out, and dragging what seemed to be a man by his leg. The man on the ground began screaming a loud, high-pitched wail of pain and terror.
Lola ran out of her bedroom and out the patio door—which now had a big crack in it around the handle—into the backyard, where the battle was taking place. She couldn’t believe this was happening. Even though she was aware of the existence of lycans and had witnessed some of their powers, she’d never seen one in a fight before. And this wolf was absolutely enraged.
The wolf had the intruder in his clutches now, and he began to pound on his chest, the thuds echoing through the night air like a hammer being struck against a boulder. Was the wolf going to kill him? Lola didn’t want to watch that, she didn’t… she didn’t want…
But then she saw the revolver lying on the ground in front of her. This man had been sent to end her life. If the wolf hadn’t been there, she would probably be dead.
The wolf picked the man up over his head and threw him down onto the ground. The man gasped for air, but he was still fighting for his life. He struggled to his feet and tried to run away. The wolf stalked towards him, easily catching the limping man and grabbing him by the back of his neck.
This is it, Lola though, bracing herself. It is really going to happen.
The wolf reared back with his massive claw and waited, hesitating. He was shaking with rage. Lola could see that the wolf wanted to kill the man, but for some reason, he didn’t seem to be able to bring itself to do it. Finally, the wolf leaned down and head butted the man, knocking him unconscious. Lola could see in the bright moonlight that her attacker was still breathing.
In the distance, she could hear police sirens wailing. She couldn’t believe it had taken them so long to get to her house.
“Thanks,” Lola murmured to the wolf.
It was odd, but even though she was standing face-to-face with a seven-foot tall werewolf, who had just throttled a large man almost to death, she was no longer scared. As a matter of fact, she felt safe. For the first time in days, she felt actually safe.
The wolf began to shift back to his human form. Within seconds, Lola was staring into the face of Ryder. He had come to watch over her, and he’d done so without being asked.
Had he done it because he’d assured her he would keep her safe? Or was there some deeper meaning to his actions? Lola didn’t want to get her hopes up with the latter… but why had Ryder not told her that he would keep watch over her home?
It took Lola a moment to realize that Ryder was naked. His ripped clothes now lay in a crumpled pile at his feet. In the bright moonlight, she could make out every subtle nuance of his perfectly chiseled physique. She did her best to not gape and stare at him, but her eyes were beyond the scope of her control at this point.
“You’re quite welcome,” Ryder said, leaning down to pick up his tattered clothes. “I should probably grab my change of clothes before the cops get here.”
Lola laughed nervously as he jogged towards a duffle bag he’d hidden behind a large bush in her yard.
The story they told the cops was that Ryder happed to see an intruder enter her backyard when he was driving by, and he’d confronted the man. The burglar had a gun and a fight had ensued. It was a likely story, and the cops had seemed to buy it. An ambulance had taken the man away, and the cops ensured Lola that he would be locked up.
When the cops left, Ryder stayed behind with Lola. She was grateful for his help, and made some coffee before walking over to join him on the couch. Her hands were almost shaking as she handed the cup to him.
“Hey,” Ryder told her, gently placing his hands over hers, “it’s okay. I’m not going to let anything happen to you.”
“Thanks,” Lola replied. “I hate to ask this, but I’m too scared to be by myself.”
“Say no more,” he said, pulling away from her. “I’ll be here as long as you need me to be. Besides, I doubt they will try this again tonight.”
“I know, but the fact that you are here makes all the difference to me. Thanks, Ryder.”
The two of them stayed on her couch, talking about anything and everything until the sun came up. By morning, Lola felt like she and Ryder had a really strong connection, something that went beyond him keeping her safe. He was typically so quiet, and he kept a lot of things bottled up inside himself. She tried not to pry too hard to get information out of him. Instead, she danced around the question in hopes he would somehow volunteer the answers to her doubts. Sometimes it worked, and sometimes it didn’t, but she was learning a bit more about him and it was marvelous.
Ryder had been born into the pack. His father had been the alpha before him, but he had passed his status on to his son when he was old enough. Ryder’s mother had died under mysterious circumstances, and it had broken his father until he couldn’t handle the responsibilities of leading the pack anymore.
“Did you ever find out what happened to your mother?” Lola asked.
“We don’t know to this day,” Ryder responded. “We believe it might have been a rival pack, or just some rogue wolf who decided he wanted to kill an alpha’s mate.”
Just hearing that answer broke Lola’s heart. “Why would they want to do that?”
Ryder shrugged his shoulders. “Who knows? When an alpha is mated to someone, it increases both of their strengths. They become like a shared alpha. But if one of them dies, then the other one becomes severely weakened. Sometimes it can kill them over time. Maybe that was the goal.”
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Lola found all of this both fascinating and heartbreaking. Robin had never really told her any of this, but then again, her parents were not alphas, and they had never trusted a mortal enough to really tell them any of these closely guarded secrets. It might have also just been the way things were done in their particular pack. As Ryder had explained, each pack had their own ideas about the way things should be done. And there would be serious consequences for any member if they chose to violate any of their sacred laws.
As the morning sun came up, Lola suggested going out to breakfast. “It’s my treat,” she said with a smile.
“Well, I never refuse free food,” Ryder replied, smiling back at her.
Lola grinned and grabbed her car keys.
7
Ryder had been dreading this, but he figured now was as good a time as any to get it over with. Sitting in front of the Order of Elders, the four men who were in charge of making sure no one committed any kind of treason against the pack’s customs, he felt as if he were being placed on trial—in a way, he was.
Some of the laws and procedures that were part of his pack had been developed and implemented into doctrine so long ago that he really didn’t understand how they were still applied and followed. But as the alpha, he had to go along with them.
His status didn’t matter in these cases; he was still bound to a lot of the same rules and punishments as any other member of the pack. So here he was, being summoned to appear before the Order of Elders to discuss a very important matter. They didn’t tell him what it was all about, but Ryder had a pretty good idea of what they wanted to say.
“We understand you are helping a young mortal woman with a serious matter,” said Byron, the leader of the Elders.
“Yes,” Ryder said. “I’ve enlisted the pack to come to her aid. If we had not intervened on her behalf and offered her protection, she would be dead right now.”