Chapter 6: Chapter Six

Tyler Trip

I found myself in a room filled with smoke. My eyes stung, my throat scratched, and my chest heaved, but I kept moving, never reaching the walls.

I tried to clear the smoke from my face, but it was thick and stubborn, clinging to the air, determined to choke me.

“Del?” I called out, my voice muffled and low.

The smoke seemed to sway in response.

“Tyler,” came her reply, slicing through the smoke.

Suddenly, flames burst forth, spreading across the floor and climbing the walls. They crackled and snapped, nipping at my ankles but not burning my skin. The smoke thinned, and for a moment, I could see her.

She stood still across the room, her nightgown hanging loosely off her small frame. Her honey-colored hair cascaded down her back, and her bangs hid one of her eyes.

She was smiling, her thin lips curved upward.

“Del,” I called again, louder this time.

The flames roared and popped, forcing me to shield my eyes. The smoke thickened, darkening until the room was nearly pitch black and Del was hidden from me once more.

“Tyler,” she screamed.

I winced as my ears rang.

“Tyler, help me!”

I sprinted toward where she had been standing, but my hands only met smoke. I growled in frustration and turned, running across the room again, only to be halted by a surge in the flames.

“Please help me!” she whimpered.

I tasted ash in my mouth. “Del!” I screamed. “Del!”

She was burning, she was crying for help, she was dying.

I couldn’t find her, save her, or extinguish the flames. I could only stand helplessly while the woman I loved was reduced to ash before me.

“Tyler!”

I collapsed, surrendering to the flames and letting them engulf me. Someone far off yelled my name again and I jerked up to see a dull sky hanging low above me.

My entire body was flushed with heat and my shoulder throbbed.

“Tyler!” It was Quin, a wolf I had fought with in the war. “Get up!” he shouted, his eyes wild as he grabbed my collar and shook me. I was bleeding, shot by the humans.

“Get up!” he cried as another round of gunfire echoed. “Get up!”

***

I woke with a start to the sound of knocking.

For a moment, I just lay there, staring up at the living room ceiling, still tangled in my sheets, feeling the hardwood floors beneath me, the damp pillow under my neck, and the soft sheets around my legs.

I wasn’t in a burning room. I wasn’t on a battlefield.

I was home.

I was safe.

And someone was knocking on my door in the middle of the night.

I sat up and glanced at the clock across the room. I corrected myself. Someone was knocking on my door in the very early morning.

With a sigh, I got up, kicking the sheets off my legs. Stretching my arms over my head, I walked across the room toward the front door, my bare feet slapping against the wood flooring.

I was sure it was Rowan coming to get an early start.

Suddenly, I realized it could be Jackie coming to evaluate my mental health and force me to share my feelings. I hoped it wasn’t either of them.

After the dream I’d had, I wanted to be alone.

I opened the door and felt my stomach drop.

Caroline Ryder was on my doorstep.

She tilted her light brown eyes up to mine, and I was once again struck by the uniqueness of them; the odd strip of bright blue in her right eye.

Her hair was wild and curly, made unruly by the humidity and the walk she must’ve taken to reach me on foot.

I stared, then began to fidget: I rubbed my jaw, cleared my throat, scratched the back of my head.

She stood patiently, her curious eyes studying me as she waited for my reaction. I could see the tension in her muscles; the fear urging her to run.

I felt a small smile tug at my lips. I was nervous. “Well?” I asked.

She dropped her gaze, and I looked down at her feet, noticing that she had two overstuffed bags with her. My heart pounded painfully at the sight of them and I took a moment to compose myself.

When I looked up, she was guarded, waiting for my response. I grinned.

“Welcome,” I said, stepping back and opening the door wider for her. She said nothing as she picked up her bags and stepped inside.

I nearly bumped into her as she stopped just inside the doorway to survey the bare house.

“I just moved in,” I said sheepishly, closing the door and rushing to pick up my sheets, which were in a pile on the living room floor.

She watched me silently, her face unreadable. I clutched my pillow to my chest. “The bed upstairs—”

“You don’t have to explain anything to me,” she said.

I let out a shaky breath. “Right. Um, you can put your stuff…anywhere.”

Caroline glanced up the staircase and then looked at me. “Is there a guest bedroom?”

“First room on the left,” I said without hesitation.

She pressed her lips into a thin smile before she trudged up the stairs, nearly toppling from the weight of her bags but refusing my offer of help.

I watched her until she disappeared and then sprang into action, gathering the sheets in my arms and tossing them into the nearest closet.

I rushed to the kitchen and flung open all the cupboards, searching for food or coffee or something that would make me seem normal.

I found a bag of chips, with only crumbs left, and a tin of instant coffee. The rest of the food Jackie had brought me had been devoured by the boys when they visited a few nights ago.

“Shit,” I muttered under my breath, searching for two mugs after I filled the kettle and turned it on. It wheezed and whined as it started up; the appliance must have been a hand-me-down.

“Isn’t it kind of early for coffee?” Caroline asked, making me jump. I hadn’t heard her come back downstairs. I turned quickly, spilling some of the grounds across the countertop.

“Never,” I said, cringing internally at the sound. Now I seemed like a coffee enthusiast, which I definitely wasn’t.

She didn’t say anything as she walked to the glass sliding door and peered outside. I watched her before I shook my head and turned back to the coffee, pouring the water into two cups while I stirred.

There wasn’t enough cream for both of us, so I made hers to her liking and drank mine black.

In the pale light of early morning, we sat together. The only sound was the soft scrape of our coffee cups against the table as we picked them up and set them back down.

I couldn’t figure out if she was nervous or just naturally quiet. She didn’t seem like the same gutsy girl who had confronted me and been so straightforward.

“I had a mate,” she finally broke the silence.

I almost choked on my coffee, startled by her voice after the long quiet. I quickly composed myself and nodded. “I know.”

She chewed on her thumbnail. “I don’t want another one.” I wasn’t sure if she was talking to me or herself, so I just nodded. “And I don’t know if I want to be luna.”

My stomach dropped a bit. “I wasn’t asking you to, um…” I hesitated, unsure how to phrase my thoughts without offending her.

“I wasn’t asking you for a hookup,” I said slowly, the word feeling strange on my tongue. I hadn’t used the term hookup since I was an annoying sophomore in high school. Since before I met Del.

Caroline blinked at me. “What?”

I felt my neck grow hot. “I wasn’t asking you just because you’re pretty.” Her eyes widened in surprise and I quickly tried to clarify.

“I just mean, I wasn’t asking you based on your looks… I wasn’t looking to sleep with you or… Damn, I just mean—”

She held up a hand. “I get it.”

I let out a long breath. “Good.” Silence fell between us and I found myself missing the confident charmer I used to be. It had been so long since I’d had to worry about impressing a girl.

“Why did you ask me?” she asked.

I didn’t have an answer for her. I shrugged and watched her expression fall. She had been expecting something; a specific answer. I had let her down. It was a lousy feeling.

She took a sip of her coffee. “I don’t want to make any hasty decisions.”

I nodded. “Better to take your time.”

She nodded back. “Yes. Exactly. I don’t want to make a snap decision, let the whole pack know, and then change my mind later and have to tell everyone…”

She chewed her nail again. “I just want to do a trial period.”

I raised an eyebrow. “Trial period?”

Caroline’s face was impassive. “Yes, I want to meet some of your inner pack, reconnect with the members, get a feel for what my responsibilities would be.

“I want to see if you and I…” She hesitated and I held my breath. “I want to see how we get along.”

I exhaled slowly and leaned back in my chair. “Right.”

“I just want to be clear that if I decide not to be luna, you won’t revoke what you offered my father yesterday,” she said, her chin lifted defiantly.

I tried to hide my offense. “Of course, I won’t.”

The tension around her mouth eased. “Good.”

More silence.

“You live here alone?” she asked after a moment, her gaze sweeping over the empty kitchen and the bare walls.

“Yeah,” I answered, “I haven’t had much time to decorate it.”

She didn’t seem bothered by the lack of decor, just curious about her potential new home.

If Del had been sitting across from me, she would have rattled off a list of everything she wanted to change, everything we would need to make it ours, to make it a home.

“It’s nice,” she said. I wasn’t sure if she genuinely thought so or if she was just being polite. It was hard to read her expressions. The only one she showed clearly was anxiety.

“You can do whatever you want to it,” I told her, gesturing around. “I don’t mind.”

She shrugged. “It seems fine. Maybe you should get a sofa though.”

I felt a pang of longing for Del. “Right. Yeah, that’d be okay, I guess. Maybe you can help me pick something out?”

Caroline twirled her mug around. “Anything will do.”

I scratched my jaw. She was definitely different. “What made you decide to come here in the middle of the night?” I asked, genuinely curious. “What made you consider being luna?”

She seemed wary of my question. “When do we start pack duties?”

I was intrigued by her deflection. Why didn’t she want to answer my question? “Rowan will come in a few hours. He’s been filling me in on what I’ve missed the last few years.”

Caroline raised an eyebrow. “Not Ryan?”

I took a sharp breath. I didn’t know how much to tell her or what to share. I watched her as she waited patiently for an answer, her face neutral.

I had asked her to be my luna, I had asked her to be my partner in leading this pack. It was only fair that I gave her a fair shot.

“Ryan isn’t exactly up to fulfilling his beta duties,” I said carefully. I wanted to see how much she already knew and how much she could infer.

“I’m guessing he isn’t happy you’re back,” she said, showing her intelligence. “I’m sure it’s not easy to get demoted.

“Probably even harder when everyone praises you for doing nothing while forgetting the lengths he went to when he was helping rebuild after Vex died.”

I was pleasantly surprised by her forthrightness. This was the bold girl who had caught my attention. “He plans to challenge me for my position,” I told her.

“When?”

“Soon, I’m sure,” I said, “before I gain too much of a following.”

She nodded, pressing her lips together as she thought. I felt a small thrill when I saw the gears in her mind turning.

She was planning something, working through the problem. She was on my side. It felt damn good to have someone there again, even if she brought the ghost of another girl with her.

“Are you ready for that?” she asked.

I hesitated. “Stells and I have a complicated history.”

She didn’t pry. “You’ll have to be ready if you want to stay in this house long enough to enjoy your new sofa.”

I smiled. “I’ve always wanted a sectional.”

She let out a laugh. “Recliners are the best.”

The front door swung open and Sarah’s scent filled the room. “Alpha? Trip?” she called out.

“In the kitchen,” I replied.

Caroline didn’t flinch or squirm; she wasn’t fazed by the arrival of another woman. She didn’t even bat an eyelid when Sarah rounded the corner and recognized her as the lead enforcer.

Sarah’s stride faltered when she spotted Caroline. “Why is she here?” she asked me.

“I’m here on a trial,” Caroline responded for herself, her voice strained.

Sarah crossed her arms over her chest. “Trial for what?”

“Leave her be,” I commanded softly.

Sarah’s eyes narrowed but she let the topic drop. “I wanted to talk to you,” she said, “alone.” Caroline met Sarah’s glare without flinching.

“She stays,” I declared.

“This is sensitive information,” Sarah insisted.

“She can hear it,” I responded firmly.

Sarah gave in after a long staring contest. “Ryan heard that you appointed Mick Ryder to be the human ambassador,” she said, a smug look on her face.

“And?” I prompted.

“He’s furious,” Sarah said, flipping her ponytail over her shoulder.

“About Mick or about me appointing a human ambassador at all?”

“Both,” she said, her gaze flicking to Caroline.

“What did he say?” Caroline asked.

Sarah sighed. “He said Ryder is too much of a scatterbrain to handle any important role in the pack and that there’s no need for an ambassador to the humans because we shouldn’t be reaching out to them.”

I appreciated Sarah’s straightforwardness, but sometimes I wished she knew how to soften the blow.

“We have to reach out to the humans,” I said, glossing over the part about Mick. Ryan was right. The eldest Ryder could be clueless and a bit slow, but he had good intentions and a kind heart.

As far as I knew, the humans weren’t a big threat to us. Mick would do the job well.

“We’re living in a world after war and we need to maintain relations with them. We don’t want to stir up suspicions by keeping to ourselves. We need to show them that we aren’t a threat.”

“Ryan had a different approach,” Sarah informed me.

Caroline frowned. “He never let us go across the valley.”

I blinked. “What?”

Caroline and Sarah exchanged a glance. “Ryan didn’t allow any of the pack to go to Mt. Oaks,” Caroline told me. “A few ventured into the valley, but that’s all I know.”

Sarah nodded. “It was a big deal for Ryan. He freaked out every time someone mentioned going over there.

“He believed we needed to stay separate; that we couldn’t let the humans think we’d forgiven them or something. I think he wanted them to be scared of us.”

I rubbed my forehead as I pondered this. “All the more reason to have an ambassador now,” I decided. “Mick will just have to work harder to win their trust. Fear isn’t sustainable.

“It’s time to move on and bury the hatchet before they get so scared that they feel the need to start sleeping with their weapons under their pillows again.”

Sarah sighed. “Ryan isn’t alone in this, Trip. He’s convinced a lot of people in the pack that the humans are still our enemies.

“He has a big conspiracy theory about what happened to Stan Freeman on TV. He thinks it was all staged and that the humans are gearing up for round two.”

I was taken aback. This wasn’t the Ryan Stellar I used to know. My friend had never been one to scheme; he’d never plotted or made up conspiracy theories.

Ryan was often the most levelheaded person in the room; another reason why I’d initially appointed him as my beta.

“That’s dangerous thinking,” Caroline murmured.

I couldn’t help but agree.

“The war is over,” I stated firmly. “I watched humans lay down their weapons. I spoke with other alphas in the northern camps, talked to White Wolves and regular foot soldiers. The fighting is over.”

Sarah lowered her head. “I agree, Alpha. We should be showing the humans that we’re friendly, not staying away and making ourselves seem mysterious and threatening. I don’t want to lose anyone else.”

I winced as my mind flashed through every face I had seen fall. Every face I had taken out of this world with my own hands.

There was nothing glorious about war; nothing glorious about victory. Every enemy you killed was someone’s child, someone’s friend, someone’s lover. There was no glory in that.

“I want to meet with Mick Ryder,” I announced. “Prepare him for a preliminary meeting with the human settlement to go over my expectations.

“I want him to understand exactly what I hope to achieve from an improved relationship with Mt. Oaks.”

Sarah nodded. “And Ryan?”

“Needs to understand that he isn’t the alpha anymore,” Caroline said coldly.

I nodded in agreement. “Let the inner pack know that any talk of disobedience from Ryan is an act of treason. Regular wolves can have their doubts; they have a right to them.

“But Ryan needs to bring his problems to me, not use them as rallying points to stir up the rest of the pack.”

“Of course,” Sarah agreed, glancing at her watch. “Morning training starts in twenty. I need to get down to the field before the enforcers show up and think they’re getting a day off.”

“Thanks, Sarah,” I mumbled as she left.

Caroline stood and gathered our mugs before rinsing them quickly under the sink and setting them upside down on the drying rack. She turned then, leaning against the countertop.

“Why did you appoint my brother?” she asked.

I swiveled in my seat to face her. “Because I think he’ll do a good job.”

“And my father?”

“He’ll do a good job,” I repeated.

I knew what she was thinking. She thought I had appointed Mick and her father to win her over so she’d agree to be my luna.

She wasn’t entirely wrong. I did think that employing her family would improve my chances of her agreeing to be luna, but I only realized this after I’d asked her.

“She didn’t see the humans coming before they ambushed us,” she stated, her voice steady but laced with lingering pain. “She was supposed to be on guard that day. The day we lost Vex and—”

I let out a low growl.

She blanched. “I didn’t mean to—”

“I know what we lost that day,” I shot back, my throat raw with emotion.

I could have blamed her father for Del’s death. She was right. Rick Ryder was on guard duty the day we were ambushed.

But there were no warning cries, no signals, no flares. Only smoke and screams, and by then, it was too late.

But I didn’t blame Rick Ryder for Del’s death. I blamed myself because, when it came down to it, I was the one who should have protected her.

She was my mate. My responsibility. She had trusted me with her safety as her alpha, and I had promised to protect her when I marked her skin.

I had failed.

“I need to get dressed,” I said, pushing away from the table and escaping the room.

I bounded up the stairs and sought refuge in the bathroom. I turned on the shower and stepped under the water.

Maybe I’d made a mistake asking her here. I wasn’t ready to bare my soul or share the twisted thoughts in my head.

It was only a matter of time before Caroline would reject me. The moment I was honest with her; showed her how damaged I was; admitted that I was lost.

I cursed under my breath and closed my eyes.

I avoided her for nearly an hour, taking my time getting ready and then hiding out in the bathroom. But in all that time, she didn’t call for me, intrude, or question.

I forced myself downstairs when I heard Rowan at the front door. Caroline was answering it when I descended the stairs, dressed in a gray t-shirt and jeans.

Rowan was polite but rigid with her, clearly surprised that she was here at all.

His eyes met mine over her head and narrowed.

“I see you’ve taken Trip up on his offer,” Rowan said as he entered the house, his smile forced. It was strange to see my third acting so formal when he was usually so warm and friendly.

I was beginning to understand the depth of the pack’s resentment toward the Ryders and why Rick had chosen to live outside of the pack’s territory.

“She’s on a trial,” I said, moving to stand beside Caroline.

She shifted slightly.

Rowan noticed. “A trial?” he echoed. “Great.”

There was a moment of awkward silence.

“Let’s get going.”