MATED TO FATHER, FATED TO SONS-Chapter 14: SAVIOR COMPLEX

RYKER

Why the hell was she going on a walk with Rowan?

That was hours ago.

Not like I am jealous. Not of Rowan. I just don’t want her making any friends here, if she does it will give her autonomy and if she has that, I have lost my hold.

I can’t afford to lose my hold.

I pulled the trigger.

The gunshot echoed and the target’s head exploded in a spray of paper and stuffing.

The underground range smelled like gunpowder and oil and the kind of violence that made normal people uncomfortable. Concrete walls.

Cole stood two lanes over working through his own clip.

I reloaded and fired again, this time aiming for the target’s chest.

The recoil kicked back into my palms which had always grounded me but it did nothing to quiet the noise in my head.

Hours. They had been gone for hours.

What was he doing with her for hours.

"You are shooting angry," Cole called over, lowering his gun and pushing his safety glasses up. "Want to talk about it?"

"No," I said, firing three more rounds in quick succession. Pop. Pop. Pop.

The target shredded.

I pictured Rowan showing her the lake, because of course he would take her there.

That was his move, the sensitive one, the one who shared meaningful places and made girls feel special.

I fired again and the target’s shoulder disintegrated.

"It’s the girl isn’t it?" Cole asked, walking over and leaning against the divider between our lanes. "You are obsessing."

"I am not obsessing," I reloaded, my hands moving on autopilot. "I am strategizing."

"Right," Cole said, his tone making it clear he didn’t believe a single word.

"And what exactly is the strategy here? Shoot paper targets until you feel better about your brother spending time with your father’s future mate?"

I turned and leveled the gun at my target, squeezing off the rest of the clip until the magazine clicked empty.

The target looked like it had been mauled by something feral.

"The strategy," I said, setting the gun down and turning to face Cole. "Is making sure I use her to get what I want,"

"What do you want Ryker?" Cole asked, placing the gun on the tray they had arranged where other weapons laid gloriously.

"To ruin her, and my father." I didn’t look up to pull the trigger, muscle memory. I pulled it and it went through the mannequin they had assembled at the left.

I placed my gun beside Cole’s and we made our way to the exit whipping away all the gunpowder residue from our hands with clean white towels.

"Are you sure that is what you want? I have seen the way you looked at her."

"How the fuck do I look at her?" I snapped back, maybe a little too quick.

"Like a hunter, hunting his prey. You want her and why are you trying to lie to me. You know I won’t judge you."

I pulled the car door as we entered, I tossed the towels back to the passenger seat. Cole entered through the other door and we both sat pulling the seat belt against our chest.

"I am not lying, Cole. Yes, I am hunting her but not because I want her. Yes, maybe I am having fun but...." I trailed off, my mind suddenly being pulled back by her eyes. The way she looked at me that night .

The way she responded to my touch, she wanted me and not because it felt good the way I touched her, she wanted to feel me.

"Earth to Ryker," Cole called out.

"I think she is a virgin," I responded, totally unrelated to what he had just said.

"I heard she is, Ryker I am sure you dad will be keeping her for his wedding night and you can’t afford to touch her, he would know,"

A smile formed on my lips. I pulled the car keys to drive.

"I know that evil smirk, Ryker, whatever you have in your mind. Don’t do it. Your father will kill you,"

"I am not afraid of death, I want to ruin him. I want to make him pay for what he did to my mother."

I paused, my fist clenching hard to the steering wheel as I pulled away from the shooting range. "He watched her suffer and why? Because of that bitch he called his fated mate.

"I know, he deserves all the pain that you are going to give him. But does she?" Cole asked and I could see the concern in his eyes.

I didn’t respond immediately, my mind trailing back to those amber eyes of hers, they way she looked at me.

She is fragile and she stared at me like some sacred ornament that needed to be protected and not destroyed by a masochist like me.

I shrugged the thought away, I can’t afford to be thinking of her in such a way, I veered the wheel taking the right turn that led back to the pack house.

"She is just collateral damage and it isn’t like she is some innocent girl. She came here to pay off a debt her father had," I pulled to the packing lot, my eyes travelling to the chaos happening at a distance.

I couldn’t quite figure out what was happening.

"What’s going on there?" I asked, pointing at the garden area of the pack.

"I am sure it one of those sentinels fighting, we should ignore it,"

There was a crowd and as someone who was drawn by chaos there was no way I was going to ignore it.

I stepped out of the car and the heat hit me first.

The crowd had gathered in a half circle around something in the garden area and I could hear murmuring.

Cole was already moving ahead and I followed, pushing through bodies until I got to the front.

Then I saw her.

Amaris stood on a platform of stones in the center of the garden, barefoot, her dress clinging to her from sweat.

The stones beneath her feet were the kind we used for heat endurance training, dark volcanic rock that absorbed sunlight and turned into miniature hells.

She was shaking, her whole body trembling as she tried to shift her weight from one foot to the other, and tears streamed down her face mixing with the sweat.

My father stood off to the side with his arms crossed, watching her with that cold detached expression he wore when he was making a point.

Rowan was beside him looking like he wanted to intervene but didn’t have the balls to actually do it.

I felt something crack open in my chest.

"What the fuck is going on?" I demanded, rounding on Rowan.

He turned to me and his face was tight with frustration. "She challenged him. Talked back. He is making an example."

"An example," I repeated, the words tasting like ash. "She is standing on hot stones in the middle of the day for talking back?"

"He says she doesn’t have respect or regard for him as Alpha," Rowan said quietly. "He will keep her up there until she apologizes."

I stared at my brother like he had grown a second head. "And you are just standing here?"

"What do you want me to do Ryker? You know how he gets."

I turned away from him and walked straight toward my father, my hands already curling into fists. The crowd parted for me, probably sensing the violence coming off me in waves.

"Stop this," I said when I reached him.

My father didn’t even look at me. "Stay out of it."

"She is up there crying because your ego can’t handle a little disrespect?"

That got his attention. He turned his head slowly and his eyes met mine, dark and cold. "She is my mate and she will learn her place."

"Your mate," I said, stepping closer. "Is that what you call someone you are using as a breeder? Is your ego really that fucking big that you need to torture a girl half your size for having a backbone?"

"Watch yourself," he said, his voice dropping to that dangerous register.

"Or what?" I shot back. "You will put me up there too? We both know you can’t punish me the way you punish everyone else."

His fist came out of nowhere and connected with my jaw, snapping my head to the side.

The second punch hit my nose and I felt it crack, blood immediately pouring down my face.

He grabbed me by the collar and pulled me close, his face inches from mine.

"You don’t know when to shut your mouth," he growled.

Rowan was there suddenly, grabbing our father’s arm. "Dad, stop."

My father shoved him off hard enough that Rowan stumbled backward, then he pushed me down to the ground and stood over me with his hand still fisted in my shirt.

"Watch your mouth," he said again.

I wiped the blood from my nose and looked up at him, my vision blurring slightly from the hits. "Or what? You will kill me?" I laughed and it came out wet and ugly. "Because you know damn well you can’t punish me. Not the way you want to."

We stared at each other, two wolves circling, waiting for the other to make a move.

The whole pack was watching now, dead silent, waiting to see who would break first.

My father let go of my shirt and stepped back, his expression unreadable.

Then he turned and walked away without another word, the crowd parting for him like water.

I stayed on the ground for a second, breathing hard, then pushed myself up and wiped more blood from my face.

My nose was definitely broken and my jaw felt like it had been hit with a hammer but I didn’t give a shit.

I walked over to the platform where Amaris was still standing, still shaking, her feet probably burned raw by now.

Tears streaked her face and when her eyes met mine they were filled with pain and something that looked like defeat.

I stretched out my hand. "Come down."

She shook her head, her voice barely a whisper. "No. I will serve my punishment."

"Are you fucking serious right now?" I said, my voice coming out harsher than I meant. "Get down here."

"No," she said again, more firmly this time despite the trembling.

"You damn woman," I snapped, and before she could protest again I stepped up onto the platform, the heat searing through my boots, grabbed her around the waist and lifted her off the stones.

She immediately started yelling. "Put me down! Put me down!"

I tossed her over my shoulder in a fireman’s carry and stepped off the platform, her fists pounding against my back.

"Put me down Ryker! You are no savior!"

Everyone was staring. The entire pack watching as I carried the Alpha’s mate away from her punishment, her legs kicking and her voice echoing through the garden.

I didn’t stop walking.

Why the hell did I just do that?

I wanted to ruin her, that is the plan.

Now why am I acting like a fucking savior.