The Pack (Completed Series)

Chapter 7 - Ryker

She was already getting under my skin.

The girl hadn't even been in the cabin five minutes, and my entire nervous system felt like it had been rewired. Not from her scent—though damn, her scent was wild, like wind after lightning—but from her presence.

She filled the room like she belonged in it. Like her energy had been waiting to slide into the cracks none of us wanted to admit were there.

That terrified the hell out of me.

Because I don't believe in fate. I don't believe in bonds that drop out of the sky wrapped in mystery and fire. And I sure as s**t don't believe in trusting someone who doesn't even know who or what she is.

But when she met my eyes?

That heat. That defiance.

It made my chest tighten in ways that had nothing to do with logic.

Kael and Elias gave her space. Made her tea. Pulled out their soft we've-been-waiting-for-you routine. And me? I watched from the corner like I was waiting for her to sprout fangs and tear the place apart.

I didn't want to talk to her. I didn't want to feel anything.

So of course, she came straight to me.

Aria stood a few feet away, arms crossed, soaked hair curling at the ends, eyes still flashing with that wounded-wolf fury.

"You've been staring at me since I walked in," she said.

"Correction," I muttered. "I've been watching you. There's a difference."

"Oh, yeah?" Her chin tilted up. "Which is the one where you act like you want to tear my throat out?"

I smirked. "That's the one where I'm not sure you won't try to tear mine out first."

Something passed between us. Tense. Electric. The kind of crackle I usually felt in the moments before a fight—or a kiss.

Her voice dropped just slightly. "You don't want me here."

"Didn't say that," I said, straightening from the wall. "I just don't trust you."

"Why?" she asked, stepping closer. "Because I don't know what I am yet? Because I didn't roll over and submit the second I walked in?"

Fuck. She was too close now. I could feel the heat coming off her skin, the edge of something primal radiating from her like a heartbeat. Every inch of my body tensed—not to attack. To respond.

She wasn't fragile. She was fire contained in human skin.

And that made her very dangerous.

"I don't trust anyone who doesn't know the damage they're capable of," I said, my voice low.

Her eyes narrowed. "Maybe I know. Maybe I'm just not ready to say it out loud."

We were too close. The air was charged. I could see the freckles across her nose, the line of her jaw, the droplets of rain still clinging to her lashes. She smelled like the forest and adrenaline, and f**k, it was getting harder to breathe.

I clenched my jaw and turned away first.

"You should get some rest," I muttered. "Long road ahead."

"You didn't answer my question," she said.

I paused at the doorway, my back to her. "What question?"

"You didn't say whether you wanted me here."

The truth was a storm behind my ribs.

And it scared me more than anything else in this goddamn house.

So I didn't answer.

I just walked out, letting the door click softly behind me—because if I stayed one second longer, I wasn't sure if I'd argue with her again... or kiss her so hard we'd both forget what we were fighting about.