Chapter 61

They needed to meet Duncan before the other pack could reach the party. And they needed Blake with them so less bloodshed happened. If Ryker had had any idea that Duncan wouldn't know what happened to his Beta, he wouldn't have kept Blake this long. And it wasn't really Charlie's fault. Jake was just a power-hungry idiot and--

"What do you need me to do?"

Jo's voice broke him out of his internal emergency planning session. She was still next to him, her eyebrows knit together, stance ready. When she asked what she was supposed to do, she really meant it.

"I need to find Duncan before he gets here," Ryker said, frowning. But that would mean leaving Jo behind again, and that was the last thing he wanted to do. She would be safe surrounded by this many werewolves, and she could take care of herself...but still.

"I'm going to find him," Malcolm said as he approached, his eyes dark and menacing. "You're going to go get Blake."

Ryker instinctively straightened his shoulders. "This is my problem--"

"Which we're going to fix by giving them back Blake," Malcolm said firmly. "But we can't give him back if he's at the cabin."

His dad was right, Ryker knew that. Still, there was part of him that was aggravated with his dad for not trusting him to handle this. But the more rational, human side of him knew that his dad had more experience with handling tense relations between packs. He'd probably talked down aggravated Alphas before. Ryker needed to get it together for the sake of his pack.

"Ok," Ryker said, giving his dad a tight nod. "I'll go get Blake."

Malcolm surveyed the party for a moment. "I've asked Brett and Aaliyah to stay here with Lexi and the pack, just in case. Hopefully the fight will never reach here."

Jo was looking at him, the question she'd just asked still in her eyes and Ryker put his hand to her back, drawing her close to him. His dad has just made his decision easy. "Jo will go with me," he said, "since Brett and Aaliyah are here."

Malcolm nodded, eyes assessing Jo for a minute. "Good idea, I hear Blake likes her." Ryker grimaced, but Malcolm had already turned and headed toward the woods.

"Hey," Jo said, squeezing Ryker's arm slightly as she turned him toward her. "You good?" He knew what she was asking. Was he under control and ready for this? His wolf was feeling challenged by his dad, by Blake...it was a lot to reign in right now.

The only good thing about that was that if it came to a fight, he was good and riled up.

Okay, some people would say that was a bad thing.

But you had to focus on the positives.

"I will be," Ryker said, pulling her closer, just to hold her for a second. "Sorry I spoke up for you, are you okay coming with me?"

Jo smiled up at him, running her fingers through his hair in a way that was instantly soothing. "Of course. Wherever y'all need me tonight.

"With me," Ryker said immediately, then gave her a sheepish look. "Not just 'cause I want you with me..." although that was always a given, "but what my dad said," it felt like he was practically grinding his teeth, "is probably true."

Jo hid a smile in his shoulder, but her eyes couldn't hide her laughter. "Mhmm."

Ryker rolled his eyes and moved away, grabbing her hand to pull her toward the forest. "Let's go get him."

"Won't the car be faster with me tagging along?"

Ryker shrugged. "As long as you're willing to run, tonight it won't be. The cars are pretty blocked in with all the party guests." Ryker could see the doubt creeping into her eyes–probably worrying she was holding him back or something crazy like that. As if she could ever.

"Don't worry, we have an extra car at the cabin," Ryker promised her. "The guard took it over there earlier."

Jo nodded, breaking into a jog beside him. "Wouldn't it be faster for them to go ahead and bring Blake themselves?"

"They kind of are," he said, jumping over a fallen log, keeping an eye out for Jo in his peripheral vision to make sure she made it over too, "they're going to meet us part way and we'll take him from there." At Jo's curious look, he continued, "Outside of a pack, only Alphas can talk to each other, and only if they've met each other first. The guard wouldn't be able to get through to him."

"'When we're done with all this," Jo said, huffing a little. 'I'm gonna need to borrow some books from your werewolf library."

Ryker snorted. "Or I can just tell you things."

"But then I get it piecemeal," she said, not exactly keeping up but not falling too far behind. Maybe they should've tried to find whoever parked the farthest away. But he would never mention that at this point. "Whenever you think of something instead of on my own terms."

"I don't think there's a book," he said, "But I'll try to get better about it?"

"You don't sound super sure of yourself there, babe."

He meant to be, but he had grown up as a werewolf. He was sure there would be things he would leave out or forget just because it seemed common sense to him. Like there were probably plenty of things he should've told her by now, but...he'd have to write them all down and even then he would bet he'd leave something out. "I'll write the book."

Her quick huff of a laugh made him want to grab her hand and go anywhere besides the cabin, but they had a job to do. The safety of the pack relied on them right now.

Weaving through the forest, they moved around pines and ferns, Jo staying in his footsteps. It was chilly enough with the sun almost down that they could see their breath as they ran, coming in hot puffs of steam.

"Who's with him?" Jo asked as they crossed a stream over a small stone footbridge someone in his family had built ages ago.

"With Blake?" Ryker asked and then went on, not waiting for the confirmation. "Hannah and Eli pulled the short straws tonight." Lincoln and AJ were both off duty, mainly because AJ needed a break and Lincoln would make everyone's lives miserable since his mate, Naomi, was going to be at the party with the rest of the Callahans.

He reached out again and called to Hannah. Almost there.

Us, too. Hannah's mental voice was loud, which meant they really weren't far away.

Good.

The road to the cabin wasn't far from their current spot, but from here they would have to leave the path. Hannah and Eli would meet them on the road with the car and Blake, then they would go to join the others who were patrolling the area while Jo and Ryker took Blake back toward the edge of Duncan's territory. The plan somewhat hinged on Blake trying to contact Duncan, but Ryker would make sure he did. Even if he had to hurt him a little to make him do it.

Part of him thought it would be a better idea to take Blake back to the party and wait until Duncan showed up, but there was always the chance that Duncan would attack somewhere else in Jackson's Hollow first. They needed to be proactive.

They should've dumped Blake back on Duncan's side of the line right after the fight, but he might've died or gotten sick from his injuries... Ryker cursed under his breath. The past was done and he couldn't change it. He had to work through the problem in front of him now.

"We gotta head towards the road," Ryker said, turning back toward Jo before gesturing at the woods in front of him. Luckily, these parts didn't have a huge amount of undergrowth–the big trees towering overhead kept too much sun from reaching the first floor.

"Okay," she said, reaching out to grab his hand. "Lead on."

Ryker stole a moment to lean down and kiss Jo's temple–every day she impressed him more and more. Today it happened to be her willingness to jump into strange situations for the pack, tomorrow it'd be something else. He was the luckiest guy out there when it came to who he managed to snag as his mate.

"What was that for?" Jo said, looking up at him curiously as they moved forward although a hint of a smile played around her lips. She never said it, but Ryker was pretty sure she liked how into physical touch he was. Or, he hoped she did, because that wasn't going away anytime soon.

"Just cause," he said, giving her a soft grin. Jo rolled her eyes but was diverted by a huge log in front of them, which Ryker helped her over. And then they were finally at the embankment next to the road.

"Just up here." Jo nodded and followed him as they climbed.

We're at the road.

Just around the corner I think.

And very soon, a familiar SUV was pulling up. Hannah's car since she'd graduated high school. The back window rolled down as the car slowed down, half-pulling off the road as much as it could and blinkers going on to warn other drivers. "Hey guys!" Blake said with a huge grin.

"Hey Blake," Jo said, smiling a little. Ryker chose to favor him with a dark look. One, for causing this mess. And two, he wasn't going to forget that Blake had tried to ask Jo out. Ryker pulled Jo closer to him, subtly reminding the other guy that there was no need to look at her so...cheerfully.

Jo gave him a bemused look, but apparently decided to leave it alone, which Ryker was grateful for. It was nice to get to indulge in his possessive alpha instinct every now and then.

Hannah and Eli jumped out of the car, Hannah tossing him the key. Ryker caught it with a deft flick of his wrist, but moved with Jo around to the passenger side of the car, listening for any oncoming cars until she was safely in.

"Good luck," Hannah called as she and Eli watched them.

"Thanks," Ryker said, coming back around to the driver's side of the car. "Stay alert, we'll update everyone as soon as we can." They nodded and took off, while Ryker wasted no time doing the same, every instinct honed and searching for alerts from his pack.

"You just couldn't wait to spend more time with me, could you?" Blake said, beaming into the rear view mirror from the second row.

Ryker glowered at him before returning his attention to the road.

"Listen for Duncan," he growled, his wolf side on edge from all the tension. And Blake wasn't helping in any way with that.

He really couldn't wait to get rid of this guy.

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A/N: Sorry there wasn't an update last week, I had personal stuff going on. Keep a look out on Wednesday for a new story I've been working on alongside this one and Popcorn & Twizzlers! It's set in the same storyverse as Light the Fire, but it takes a different angle, away from werewolves and into other supernatural aspects of the near-Earth world. Their story will eventually connect to Ryker and Jo's!