And There Were Wolves

(d) twenty four

"Yes." I frowned, not really sure how his emotion could flip from 'about to blow up' to 'gentle and kind' in a matter of seconds. I preferred him to be in his good mood anyway so I sat on the bed again. There were about a few feet away between us. "Although I can't really say that she gave it to me considering I took it from her drawer." I let out a nervous chuckle, eyeing him anxiously. This Ryker was unpredictable, I could never know when he would flip or when Khrysaor would take over.

He caught the small Eiffel tower, the one I'd put healing charm, between his thumb and forefinger, and he paused. He glanced over at me, then opened his free arm. "Come here." If this was the old Ryker, I would gladly roll into his arms. But this wasn't the old Ryker, as much as I wished him to be. In the end, it was the softness in his eyes that won me over and I braced myself for the worst as I closed the gap between us. He put his arms around my shoulders, his forefinger was making little circles on my forearm. "What about this one?" He touched an intricate, flower-shaped pendant that Dmitry had given me on my eighteenth birthday two years ago.

"That one was from Dmitry," I answered carefully. Up until now, every time I'd brought up people from the North, he had shown zero interest. It was almost as if they meant nothing to him.

This time, however, Dmitry's name seemed to instigate a different reaction from him. A small, delicate frown formed in between his eyebrows, and his fingertip lightly touched each petal of the unique pendant. He appeared to be deep in thought. "Was it a gift?"

"Yes," I drawled, a bit unsure if I should go on and tell him about it. I couldn't tell whether it would piss him off or not. He had been acting strange, even the mention of Eros had brought anger the other day.

But then a strange thing happened. Ryker shifted his gaze from the pendant in his hand to me. "Tell me," he gently urged.

"Uh, well." I cleared my throat. I didn't expect this at all. "He gave it to me on my eighteenth birthday, about two years ago. It was supposed to be a necklace but you know me." I let a small chuckle slip out of my mouth as I recalled the good old days. "I don't really wear jewelry, let alone a beautiful necklace such as this. This bracelet is the only thing I could tolerate, really." I knew I was rambling at this point but I didn't care. I wanted this moment to last. Cuddling with him like this. Him being gentle and caring instead of all sexual and rage. I truly missed this. So much that my heart ached. "I gave up after wearing it for a few days and it got tangled with my hair or my shirts. So in the end, I took the pendant and placed it here. Luckily, Dmitry didn't get angry when he saw that I basically dismantled the necklace he gave."

"Of course, he won't." There was affection in his voice when he finally spoke of his best friend. "Dimka isn't the kind of guy who would get angry at you because you did something when he knew that that something actually makes you happy." Ryker caressed the flower-shaped pendant for another few moments before he moved on to the next one. To surprise me further, he let out a deep chuckle. He actually found it funny. For someone who hadn't heard him laughing or even seen him smiling for the past three days, witnessing him being like this, acting like his old self, startled me the most. "Let me guess, this one was from Trish, is it not?" He touched the London Eye charm and then another one a Union Jack bikini. "At least these two were from Trish, I could tell that much."

My eyes were fixed on him, watching his expression, and I smiled. "You're right. A souvenir from her last trip to London."

With his fingers still holding the charms, he moved his head a bit so he could look at me. "How're they? How's everyone back home?"

I blinked. Was he even serious? Was that truly a longing that I heard in his voice? Thank goddess I had shielded my mind from him, blocking the bond. "They're alright. At least the last time I saw them which was two years ago before I left the packhouse."

He nodded understanding even though I hadn't told him about my trip to the East and how I had become Deidre's apprentice for the last two years. "Do you miss them?" I dared to ask even though I knew this could bring his wrath. But at the moment, he looked so damn vulnerable and gentle. We were even cuddling for god's sake so here was hoping!

"I do," he said with a sigh. His silver eyes held me for the longest time. "I miss you the most." Then as if it brought him so much pain, he dropped his gaze back to my charm bracelet in his hand.

I had to admit, this conversation was becoming more foreign every passing second. Not only was it the first normal one we'd had since I'd arrived, but it was also the first time he'd really seemed interested in anything that didn't involve biting and drinking from my jugular, or doing it doggy style.

"I saw your sister not long ago," I said in a lame attempt to change the subject since the atmosphere was beginning to feel a tad heavier, a bit too much for me and I was guessing for him too.

"Tiffy?" His eyes looked up. "How's she?"

"She's great. She was here with his son. I think his name is Dragon or something." I frowned. That didn't sound right. Despite having a near-perfect photographic memory, I wasn't that good at recalling people's names.

Ryker burst into a pear of laughter, shaking his head. "That must be Draven. I told Tiffy not to name him that. I was only seven years old when she had the twins but even then, I knew what I was talking about. But she insisted that she named them Draven and Declan."

I frowned. "I swear I heard your sister saying something about Declan having a baby or something but I could be wrong."

Upon hearing that, Ryker groaned. "Bloody hell, if these kids are having kids then I am so close to being called ancient."

I laughed, then as if my brain had just now started to process what he had said earlier, I said, "Wait, so you and your nephews are only seven years apart?"

He nodded, smiling. "Yeah. I think my parents didn't truly expect to have me. I mean, they already had a son and a daughter at that time. But yeah, I believe I am the same age as Tiffy's fourth son, Javier."

"How old is your sister?" My eyes widened in surprise. I could hardly believe it when Tiffany herself had told me about her nine children. It had blown my mind but for all I knew, or perhaps she had informed me before but I hadn't paid much attention, Draven was the eldest, and all her other children were, well, children.

"Her eldest is thirty-nine years old so you could do your own Math," answered Ryker with a grin.

Reaching over, he set the bracelet back on the nightstand, then turned to me, closing the space between our mouths until our lips found one another. It was the softest, most gentle kiss he had given me since he'd caught this disease, and my mind couldn't quite comprehend what was actually going on. Instead, I focused on the feeling of his lips against mine, how he caressed me, like a lover would. I was half-expecting him to snap at any moment and turned violent as he had always done yet it never happened. There was no lip bitting, no sucking blood out of my jugular, or roughly mounting me.

Instead, by the time the kiss ended, he wrapped his arms around me, then softly planted a kiss on my hair, and whispered, "Good night, Love."

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Dear Readers, any idea what on Moon Goddess' name just happened?