Author's Note: Ryan's image is attached. Also, the attached song is not required to listen to while reading. It is a German song, and I attached this video version so you can understand the lyrics as they come up on the screen and why this song is "Ryan's song" (as well as any villain's song, haha). So yeah, I wanted to share this song that helped me write Ryan's scenes. ;)

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A chorus of gasps whisper through the stillness. Even the crickets are stunned into silence.

My mouth is hanging open and catching flies, but I don't even notice. No freaking way! Keith's mate can't be one of them!

Leah snaps her fingers in his face, causing him to blink. "Pull yourself together," she whispers.

My heart nearly breaks when realization floods his eyes. His mate is with the enemy. If we can't resolve our land claim, what does that mean for her? She'll choose him and that will be it, right? No harm, no foul. Mates belong together.

Unless she rejects him like Megan did, a small voice in my head says.

My eyes drop to the ground as we start to make our way into the house. I feel my muscles tense up immediately as I pass through the doorway between the two guards. I try to take deep breaths to relax myself and keep my mind clear and focused, but my heart is racing too fast.

What if this is a trap? We can't trust Ryan after all.

I look up in hopes of finding courage in my mate, only to have Leah catch me. Her hand rushes up behind my head and pushes it down.

"Stay low," she utters under her breath.

Taking a shuddering breath, I do as she says.

I expect to have men jump out from behind furniture as we make our way into the kitchen, but there's no one there. The woman follows behind us and I refrain from looking over my shoulder at her. I can feel her eyes piercing through my back, sending shivers up my spine.

We enter the kitchen, but there are so many people in there already that Evan, Brianna, Leah, and I find ourselves squeezed between the wall and the table.

Four shirtless men bearing identical claw marks across their chests and tattoos are lined up along the counter behind the island. Their arms are crossed before them and their poker faces set to emotionless.

Sitting cross-legged on top of the island is a man with long, unkempt brown hair that falls a few inches past his shoulders. A thick, bushy brown beard covers the lower portion of his face, bearing a striking resemblance to his father, Marcus.

Unlike the other men behind him, Ryan is wearing a black T-shirt with his black cargo shorts.

My glimpse of him is cut short when his gaze turns from Rick to me and I reflexively drop my line of vision to the floor and the dirt we brought in with us.

The tension is so thick, everyone in our group looks like they're struggling to get enough air into their lungs.

When Ryan speaks, his voice is rough and grizzly. "Welcome back."

He hops down from the island and lands on silent bare feet. He goes to his parents first with his arms held open. "I've missed you all so much."

That does it for Tamara and she breaks down in tears. She goes to hug him, but Marcus pulls her back and positions himself between her and his eldest son.

It's painful to watch, so I keep my head down and choked back my emotions.

Marcus' voice is strong and unmoved. "What do you think you're doing?"

"Taking back my birthright."

"You're birthright isn't handed down to you until your thirtieth birthday. You know that."

"I see no use in waiting for it now, especially when you seem to have no use for it anymore anyway."

Marcus struggles to maintain a calm and steady voice, but it falters under the strain. "You took off and we never heard from you again. We thought you were dead. What would you have us do? Wait for a ghost? Don't be ridiculous."

"Marc-"

Marcus shushes her and there's a momentary pause before Ryan breaks the heavy silence.

"Well, now I'm back. So, what's the issue?"

"You know very well what the issue is," Rick pipes up, his voice, although calm and stern, is laced with anger.

"I'm sorry, did I authorize you to speak?" Ryan jeers.

My head snaps up in horror as a collective of sharp nasal inhalations resound around me. Everyone is staring at Ryan with wide eyes before turning to Rick to see his reaction.

Rick's poker face is rigid, but it's obvious that he's struggling to refrain from ripping Ryan's throat out. "I believe, I'm the one who should be asking you that. This is my land and my home that you are occupying."

Ryan's dark eyes narrow at Rick. "If that were true, my parents should be dead, as per the Alpha Code. Clearly, they are not."

"Ryan, we believed you to be dead," Marcus says. "Your mother and I mourned for years and with our ages, we knew we would be targeted by neighboring packs. Leah mentioned a shifter in the Silver Star Pack that was alpha material and if we signed a treaty with the Silver Star Pack, giving him the territory, they would not only maintain peace with our two packs, but they would agree to protect us and vice-versa. Rick is now the alpha of the White Peak Pack. This is his territory, his right. You-" he hesitates and tries again, "by your actions, you have denounced your birthright to the land and pack. You have no right to claim any of this now."

"You're a fool," Ryan says.

Marcus holds his head high. "Fools run away from responsibility instead of owning up to their mistakes."

Snarling, Ryan lunges for his father, his hand reaching out for his throat when it's grabbed. His dark eyes turn on Rick as he grips his arm.

"Touch him, and I'll rip your arm off."

The cocking of a handgun with the end of its barrel pressed against Rick's temple silences everyone in the room.

The dark haired woman, Keith's mate, points the gun at Rick's head without hesitation. Her olive complexion hints at her Hispanic or Latina roots made darker by frequent sun exposure with eyes as green as spring grass. Her beauty is only marred by the jagged scar running down her left cheek from her eye.

"Nobody move, or I'll pull the trigger."

My breath catches in my throat. Shit just got real!

We all stare at her with wide eyes. She can't be serious! Where did that gun come from? We're not immortal, and even if we were, we surely couldn't survive from a bullet splattering our brains across the wall.

"Release him," she says to Rick and he promptly complies, knowing that he cannot win against a bullet.

I exhale, but the tension doesn't subside. He came this close to death. These shady dealings are not cool.

"Thank you, Jade," Ryan says as he lowers his own arm and brushes a tangled strand of hair from his face, composing himself.

Her green eyes harden on him for a second before she closes them briefly and her face returns to its previous emotionless state.

She catches my gaze and I quickly look away to Keith. His jaw is clenched and even I can't tell what must be running through his head.

She's his mate?

We're screwed.

"Name your terms and conditions, Alpha," she says to Ryan, bringing us all back on topic of our little visit, but she continues to scrutinize me.

I lower my eyes, trying to figure her out. Why is she staring at me? Do I know her from somewhere?

"I was getting to that, thank you," Ryan says.

If it weren't for the fact that her attention was so keenly focused on me, I'm sure she'd raise an eyebrow at his condescending tone, but instead her eyes narrow at me and her nostrils begin to flare.

Damn, what is her deal?

"I would love to catch up with my family after all this time, but I must insist that some business matters be settled first, like my name signed to the title of the land and pack," Ryan says.

Rick opens his mouth, but Ryan raises his hand to silence him.

"Everyone in the current pack is welcome to stay, but they must renounce their loyalties to the alpha and declare their loyalties to me."

"And anyone who refuses?" Rick asks.

"Anyone who refuses will be executed, of course."

The gun is still pointed at Rick's head, but he notices that the woman, Jade, is staring transfixed on me. With lightning quick reflexes, he pivots, grabs the gun with her fingers still wrapped around the trigger, and pulls it away from his head. It discharges, creating a hole in the ceiling as Rick tears the gun from her grasp.

It falls to my feet with a clunk, and I stare dumbly at it.

Shit!

Swiftly, Jade kicks Rick off her and lunges for the gun.

Keith hasn't peeled his eyes off her since he first laid them on her. He tackles her, sending them both crashing into the wall next to me.

Holy-Get it! My mind screams and I dive for it.

Evan's standing protectively in front of me once I wrap my fingers around the smooth grips of the handle. It feels foreign in my hands and heavier than I anticipated as I stand back up.

Evan snatches it from my trembling fingers and points it at Ryan's head six feet away.

"Your terms and conditions are invalid. This is not your land or your pack. You forfeited that when you killed your mate and abandoned the pack." Evan's voice is surprisingly calm and I'm relieved by how confidently he holds himself with the gun pointed at his own flesh and blood.

A series of guns appear from the hands of Ryan's guards behind him. Half of them point their guns at Evan, while the other two point them at Rick.

"You didn't really think we'd come here unprepared, did you?" Ryan says with an amused chuckle.

"Only dishonorable and weak shifters resort to man-made weapons," Rick says in a low, warning tone.

An elbow in the stomach sends Evan lurching forward and the air rushing out of his lungs. Jade snatches the gun from his hand and pirouettes back into position a few feet from Ryan, pointing the gun at Evan as he gasps for air.

Instinctively, I hunch over him in concern, but he pushes me back behind him as he straightens himself up, still wheezing, and grimacing from the pain.

Keith is coughing next to us as well, trying to fill his lungs with air from a similar blow from his mate.

Damn, that girl is fast! She has to be. There's no way that she could physically dominate Keith's strength. He has to be twice as big as her, meaning twice as much muscle as her as well.

But her actions don't suggest affection toward a mate, and that scares me even more.

"Well, well, well," Ryan says, his eyes falling on me as Evan tries to compose himself. "Looks like my mate snatching brother has finally found his soul mate."

"I didn't know she was your mate, so, I can't be blamed for stealing her, when I didn't," Evan rasps.

Ryan's face darkens. He tromps over to Evan and grabs him by the collar of his shirt. "She would have been mine if you hadn't interfered."

Jade is still pointing the gun at Evan and her eyes flick up to mine briefly before she pulls back a step, aiming the gun at me now.

"You can't own someone, not even your mate," Evan says, his voice cracking a little. "They aren't objects that you can claim possession over. She was right to reject you."

"She was a fool to reject me!" he snarls back, his nostrils flaring. He shakes Evan roughly. "I could have given her the world! She'd have been like a queen, goddammit! She was the fool!"

"We don't want the world," I hear myself saying. "We just want to be loved and accepted for who we are."

I swallow as his dark eyes, brown as acorns, fall on me. He wrinkles his nose. "So says the fool. Don't think for a second that I don't know who you are."

"Ryan, think about what you're doing," Marcus says as he takes a step toward his sons. "Unhand your brother. You never would have laid a hand on him if he and Megan hadn't been an item."

Ryan turns and snarls at his father. "How dare you speak her name in such a manner! That bitch had what was coming when she turned me down!"

Evan shoves his brother away from him. "You're one to talk!"

Jade cocks her pistol in warning at Evan, forcing him to withdraw his aggressive stance.

"You are in no position to argue, runt," she says gruffly.

"Why? You think I'm scared of you?"

"I would be," she says, turning the gun on me, "I hold your mate's life in my hands."

Evan's jaw clenches as I gulp. Of course, he shuts his trap with the gun pointed at me. Wolf's out of the bag now-they know who I am and what I am to him. It doesn't surprise me that someone would eventually turn a gun on me. I just never anticipated it to be Keith's mate.

Yup, we're not screwed here at all.

"Your terms and conditions," Rick says to take the attention off me and return it to where it should be, on the alphas. "May we discuss them privately with our betas?"

The left corner of Ryan's lips pulls up in a twisted half smirk. "That's what I want to hear. Let's go into the study."

Rick nods and inclines his chin at Jade. "No guns."

"Of course." Ryan nods to Jade, who lowers her gun, steps back, and hands it to another man in their pack, the one standing next to the refrigerator. "At ease."

His men lower their weapons and slide them into back pockets, their arms crossing over their chests once more.

Ryan and Jade step out of the kitchen with Rick and Keith in tow. No one misses the storm swirling in Keith's eyes before he disappears, and no doubt our thoughts and prayers are with him. His predicament makes our situation even more challenging.

We don't want to kill Ryan, or Keith's mate if we can help it.

Evan turns and wraps his arms around me, his breath pressing hard against my neck as he inhales and exhales deeply. I'm still trembling from the gun being pointed in my face, and welcome Evan's warm embrace as his scent envelopes me in a haze of tense comfort. His heartbeat pounds against me, making me realize how close we were to losing each other if someone got a little trigger-happy.

Tears slide down my cheeks. I can't lose him now. I need him. He is my world and I'll do whatever I have to to keep him alive.

How hard this must be for Keith?