AMARIS
"Fucking coward, put down," I yelled at the top of my voice.
The sentinels had dragged out of my room an hour after Alpha Corvin left.
I didn’t understand what was happening at first, just rough hands on my arms pulling down the hallway while I stumbled trying to keep up.
Nia had followed behind wringing her hands and looking like she wanted to say sothing but didn’t have the courage.
They brought to the garden where half the pack had already gathered like this was so kind of show, and that was when I saw the platform.
Dark stones arranged in a circle, the kind that looked like they had been pulled straight from a volcano.
"The Alpha has ordered you to stand here until you apologize for your disrespect," one of the sentinels said, his voice flat and emotionless, he had done this a hundred tis before. I know.
I stared at the stones and then back at him. "You are joking."
He wasn’t joking.
They shoved onto the platform and I felt the heat imdiately, searing through the thin soles of my shoes before they made take those off too.
The second my bare feet touched the stones I scread, the sound ripping out of my throat before I could stop it.
It felt like standing on fire, like every nerve ending in my feet was being burned alive.
I tried to lift one foot to give it relief but that just made the other foot burn worse and I kept shifting back and forth like so kind of deranged dance while tears stread down my face.
Rowan had been there in the crowd looking stricken, his hands clenched at his sides like he wanted to do sothing.
He took one step forward and then stopped, his eyes darting to where his father stood watching with that cold detached expression.
Rowan looked at and I saw the apology in his eyes, the guilt, the cowardice.
He didn’t move again.
Of course he didn’t. He was too scared of his father, too worried about keeping the peace, too trapped in whatever duty he thought he owed.
I should have expected it. n like Rowan didn’t stand up when it mattered, they just felt bad about it later.
But then Ryker had appeared.
Ryker who hated . Ryker who wanted to use .
Ryker who had made it very clear I was nothing more than a pawn in whatever sick ga he was playing.
He looked at standing there crying and shaking and sothing in his face changed to dark and violent, and he went straight for his father without hesitation.
I couldn’t hear what they said at first over the roaring in my ears and the pain radiating up from my feet but I saw Ryker get punched.
Once. Twice. Blood pouring from his nose while he just stood there taking it and then firing back with words sharp enough to make his father hit him again.
For .
He was getting hurt for .
I didn’t understand it. Everyone had warned about Ryker, told he was dangerous and cruel and that he would break if I let him.
Rowan had said it. Even Nia had hinted at it with her careful words and pitying looks.
But this sa Ryker was standing in front of his father bleeding and shattered because I was being punished.
What the fuck was wrong with him? Was I worth the fight?
Nobody had ever stood up for before. Not once in my entire life.
My brothers used to lock in closets and my father would leave in the dungeon for days and nobody ever said a word.
Nobody ever stepped between and the punishnt. Nobody ever took a hit ant for .
Until now.
Until Ryker.
The stones had burned my feet raw by the ti he ca for , my whole body shaking so hard I could barely stand.
I was used to punishnt, I had survived worse than this, way worse.
My father had beaten unconscious more tis than I could count.
My brothers had starved for weeks. This should have been nothing.
And it was nothing.
That was why I couldn’t apologize.
That was why I had to stay up there even though every second felt like being skinned alive.
Because if I broke now, if I gave in and said I was sorry, it would prove everything they thought about .
That I was weak. Fragile. Just so helpless girl who needed to be saved.
I refused to be that.
So when Ryker stretched out his hand and told to co down I shook my head even though I wanted nothing more than to collapse into his arms.
"No. I will serve my punishnt."
His face had shifted frustration and anger and he yelled at like I was the one being unreasonable.
Then he just took .
Stepped onto the platform, grabbed around the waist and lifted like I weighed nothing at all.
I fought him imdiately, pounding my fists against his back and screaming for him to put down because I didn’t want to owe him anything. I didn’t want to be grateful.
I didn’t want to feel like I needed saving.
"Put down Ryker! You are no savior!"
He didn’t listen. He just kept walking with slung over his shoulder like a sack of grain while the entire pack watched and whispered.
By the ti we reached my room I was still yelling, still fighting, my burned feet throbbing and my pride in shreds.
He dropped onto the bed and I imdiately scrambled back, glaring at him as he closed the door behind us.
"I don’t need your help," I retorted, my voice coming out sharper than I intended.
Ryker turned to face and his nose was still bleeding, his jaw already starting to bruise. "Can you shut up and be grateful for once?"
"I will not be grateful," I shot back, crossing my arms even though my hands were shaking.
"You don’t get to play hero and expect to be indebted to you."
"Amaris," he said, his voice dropping into that dangerous register. "Don’t push ."
I should have stopped. I should have recognized the warning in his tone, the rise in his shoulders, the way his eyes had gone dark and focused entirely on .
But sothing had snapped inside today, sothing that made reckless and stupid and unable to shut my mouth.
"Or what?" I said, lifting my chin. "What are you going to do Ryker?"
I didn’t know where this was coming from. This was the sa talk back that had gotten punished in the first place.
This was the sa defiance that had landed on burning stones in front of the whole pack. But I couldn’t stop myself.
Ryker stared at for a long mont, his jaw working like he was grinding his teeth.
Then he turned away and ran both hands through his hair, pacing to the window and back.
"Fuck it," he muttered.
Then he crossed the room in three long strides and his lips crashed into mine.
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