“I think you’ve done enough protecting me, Ryder. I seem to get hurt more around you than I do on my own. If I’m not mistaken, your second in command stabbed me. You stalked me, and killed my boyfriend, and then bit me…stop me if I’m off here.”
He just stood there, staring at me with no emotion on his beautiful face. I wanted to scream. I wanted to hit him, but in the end I just wanted to hold him. And I think that part pissed me off the most. His eyes held caution, as if it was taking everything he had to stand still.
“You need new wards on the walls. Yours didn’t keep him out. He was the one who—the one who attacked your mother,” Ryder said quietly as his eyes turned gentle.
“Raped my mother; he turned her FIZ, which should be easy for you to say.” I watched his expression shift. He smiled coldly, and I felt my pulse quicken. I was such a fucking masochist.
“So he did. You tapped a leyline?” he asked, distant and cold. I wanted to scream at him. Why wasn’t he trying to pull me to him and check for wounds? Anything would be better than this cold asshole that was suddenly treating me like a fucking stranger.
“There isn’t a leyline here. If there was, I’d still have my parents,” I replied, stopping the pain in its tracks as I forced it down.
“He just showed up?” Ryder asked, not bothering to turn around as Ristan sifted in, late to the party.
“No, Ryder, I opened the fucking door and asked him if he took sugar with his tea! What do you think happened?”
He growled, and I almost smiled—almost. There was the emotion. Maybe it was bad, but it was better than nothing.
“Next time, I suggest you kill him,” he replied.
I lifted a brow at his words. “Um, hello! I was trying until an army of men sifted in and scared him away! I had him right where I wanted him until you got here.”
“Maybe strike before asking if he’d like fucking sugar in his tea next time,” Ryder snarled.
“I thought it was Alden coming back in; he’d just left. I never imagined that the Fae who…” I swallowed. “That he would sift right in and start breaking shit!”
“Well, he did, and he could have easily killed you. He’s not some just newly Transition Fae like you! He could have killed you! I told you that you needed to fucking stay with me until you learned your powers,” Ryder snapped.
“Or, I could have killed him! We won’t know because you keep thinking you have some right to protect me, when you don’t.”
“You could have fucking died!” Ryder fumed as his jaw ticked wildly and his nostrils flared.
“But I didn’t. I was holding my own against him just fine until you showed up and scared him away! I get it. I’m nothing more than a child in your eyes, Ryder—and I wouldn’t survive a week in your world! But, right now, I don’t trust you—actually, at this point, I don’t trust anyone except Adam, and he’s not here right now!”
He nodded, but said nothing before he stepped back to talk to Zahruk. “Station Savlian and Sinjinn at the doors. Ristan, try to get a reading on the Fae who was here. Dristan, put his ass through every record we have and see if you can match his features, cloak, and brands. Call me if you find anything that goes bump in the night around here. And do not let Synthia leave this house alone at all. That’s an order.”
“Excuse me? You don’t control—” He sifted to me and pressed me between his hard body and the wall.
“I will not let anything happen to you. I’m not a fucking saint, Synthia. I’m not a fucking human either, so stop confusing me with what you think I’m allowed to do. I told you from the beginning of this that I wasn’t human. I don’t play by human rules.” His eyes lowered to my mouth, and came back up to lock with mine.
“Let go,” I whispered.
“Make me,” he challenged heatedly.
“Ryder,” I warned.
“How’s the hunger?” he asked, removing his hold on me and backing up to allow me space enough to breathe.
I met his eyes, and flashed him just how hungry I was, before turning and leaving the front room. I sifted the moment my feet hit the stairs, without realizing I’d done so. I’d only wanted to get away from his men and their probing gazes. I needed a moment alone to collapse and, the moment I hit the bed, I did. I inhaled slowly and exhaled even slower. I did it for several moments, before I noticed that I wasn’t alone.
“Are you okay, Synthia?” Ryder asked as he leaned against the door.
“I’m fine,” I whispered as I moved onto my side to look at him. The man was a sex god from any position.
“I may not be human, nor have I spent an extensive amount of time in this world, but even I know ‘I’m fine’ coming from a woman is normally code for she’s about to cry. You just faced the man who killed your parents. I’m here if you need me, or to feed. Use me, please,” he said softly.
“I have to be fine,” I said as if I’d said it for so long that now it was my motto.