Page 17 of Renegade Queen

The glare he pierced me with proved that Tank wouldn’t be the only overprotective male I’d have to deal with.

“Nothing. Eat, hydrate; this will be rough on your bodies, and if you want to survive, you need to be prepared.”

I stormed out of the living room, feeling like a dark cloud was hanging over me. Gone was the playful mood I’d wanted to start the day out with. Arlow wasn’t exactly the main issue for me. It was the whole MC. Finn might be all about keeping the shifter race intact and safe, but Arlow was more inclusive than that. Which meant there were others like me in the Wild Dogs MC, and I didn’t know how they would take the news that I was heading back into Nymeria. Or if they could even be trusted to know.

Chapter 8

Ryder

Ryder

Tank and Alyssa cleared out, leaving us in the apartment shortly after dropping their bombshell.

Maddox had strode to the window at their departure to stare intently at nothing outside.

“You don’t have to do this if you don’t want to,” Maddox finally said, looking over at me and Dean.

“Oh, fuck off, like we’re going to let you be the only one who gets to turn into some kind of badass shifter.” I laughed, but it was more of a nervous laugh than anything.

Alyssa had sounded too serious about the doom and gloom part of the plan, and I’d be lying if I didn’t say I was pissing myself, scared about the whole thing. That didn’t mean I was going to pass it up. I owed Damon; we all did. But this was also a once-in-a-lifetime, out-of-this-world-of-possibilities opportunity. And fuck me if I said I wasn’t also excited about the whole idea as well. Even if the bear was off the list.

“Maybe wolf is the way to go,” I thought aloud and then felt my cheeks flush when I realised what I’d said.

Dean had his signature Dean-scowl going on as he looked at me like I’d lost my mind, but I could already tell Maddox was thinking about it.

“Knowing your luck, you’re going to end up as a rabbit,” Maddox joked, and I shrugged. Rabbits could be cool.

“Maybe you two should stay behind,” Dean started.

I was surprised it had taken him this long to suggest it. Dean had always been overprotective of us. He felt he had something to prove: whatever Damon had done that night he turned up on our doorstep made Dean believe he owed him something.

He didn’t.

But nothing we ever said would persuade him otherwise.

“Let’s just say we had this argument and move past it,” I suggested. “We’re all going. From what Alyssa said, it might not be possible to actually go through this change. We need to see which of us survives it before making any decisions about going to Nymeria.”

“There’s no decision to make,” Dean snapped. “You two are staying here, and I’ll go through. If it doesn’t work for me, we can discuss one of you taking a chance.”

Maddox didn’t say anything. Instead, he went into the kitchen and started pulling food out of the fridge.

We watched him as he slowly started to make us something to eat. Or at least I hoped it was for all of us because, inexplicably, Maddox had mad skills in the kitchen, and my stomach was already rumbling.

“We’ve lived together as a family since we were kids,” he eventually said, chopping some vegetables and throwing them into a pan. “We trained together and made it into the same unit against all the odds. For as long as I can remember, through all the hard times, the wars, the missions, the failed relationships, the irate ex-boyfriends…” He glared at me for that one. “... we always had each other’s backs. This will be one of the hardest things we’ve ever done, and like everything else, we’ll do it together. We watch each other’s backs, and everyone makes it home.”

He sounded so like Damon at that moment. He was always the hardass who kept us together. The one who told it like it was and pulled us out of our bullshit for long enough to see reason.

“In it together?” I asked.

It was what we always said, ever since we’d been those fucked up kids that no one in the world gave a crap about. And the answer was always the same. Because when all you had in the world was each other, you fought for one another because no one else would.

We were a family.

And we did whatever it took to keep our family safe.

Chapter 9

Tank