Free Me From the Wolves

[13] Wolf's Out of the Bag

"I don't know how you know—or what you think you know about Aaron, but I doubt Stella cares about some unpopular guy who died months ago," Trevor scoffed.

"I guess you're right," I smiled. "Maybe she was here because she didn't want us to tell her mom about her possibly becoming a werewolf, but I could be wrong."

Trevor's lips separated in utter shock as Andrew stood up in bewilderment that I just revealed the werewolf secret to Trevor, since I doubted he knew Trevor's very own secret. I quickly turned to Ryder, grabbed his hand, and pulled him up the stairs.

"You shouldn't have done that," he said once we reached the top of the stairs.

"Who cares?" I asked, continuing the route to my room. "If Stella turns, he'll know about her anyways. If she doesn't, then it doesn't matter."

"It does matter," he told me. "There's an entire treaty you don't know about. You can't just say whatever you want to make a point."

"Who says I was trying to make a point?"

He pathetically scoffed and grabbed my waist to pull me into him. "I know you," he reminded. "You only said that because you wanted him to know that you know about werewolves so he would stop messing with us."

Well. Apparently my mate knew me.

"Maybe," I crookedly grinned.

"Maybe," he repeated with a smile and then leaned down to innocently kiss me. I grabbed a hold on his shirt and that's when he pulled away from the kiss and gave me a mischievous smirk. "As much as I want to continue where we left off before my mom ruined the moment..." he laughed and I even saw him blush. "I have to go take care of business."

"And you promised to be a gentleman tonight," I reminded him of his previous promise as his hands had slid lower down on me to contradict his chivalry. He quickly stole a kiss on my cheek after rolling his eyes and then finally backed away.

"Good night, Ashlynn Everton," he wished while still holding on to one of my hands I reached out with even though he lingered at the door.

"Good night, Ryder Ramon," I returned and dropped the hold. He turned his shoulders to leave and then glanced back at me.

"I love you, you know," he smiled so purely.

"Oh really? Is that what they call it these days?"

He closed the distance with two strides and pressed his lips against my lips. They traveled to my cheek and to the lobe of my ear before he whispered: "Don't be a brat."

But I'm your brat, I reminded and then he pulled away entirely. I heard him jog down the stairs while calling out "If you need anything, I'll be around!" but I waited until I heard his car drive off before I went back downstairs.

Immediately, I saw Trevor approaching the door to the loft's stairs as if I had caught him trying to get to me. He saw me and took a step back instinctively.

"I didn't know about Stella," he informed.

"But you knew about Ryder and his pack," I reminded.

"Why does everything go back to him with you?" Trevor mentioned.

"Because Ryder is everything to me!"

The response honestly sounded ridiculous. But the fact that it flowed out of my mouth so eloquently and blunt without a trace of guilt or doubt afterwards must've been an indication that it was true.

"You don't know what you're getting yourself into," Trevor finally yelled at me.

"Don't I?" I approached him.

"Ryder's a no-good delinquent who—for some reason—is being nice to you only to use you for something because the kid is dangerous and reckless and—"

"And a werewolf," I interrupted. Trevor shut up. "Just say it. Ryder's a werewolf. You don't hate him because of his record or how he acts; you hate him because he's a werewolf and if you can be good being what you are, he should too!"

"And I'm wrong for that!?" Trevor asked. "You're defending a werewolf—a werewolf!"

"And why would you have anything against werewolves?" Andrew asked, starting to take my side of the room after catching up to what was going on. Trevor sighed.

"Because—because they're werewolves for crying out loud!"

"In my opinion, that makes him better than you. Being a werewolf makes us better than most people, actually," I added and then he frowned when he recognized I had included myself (maybe even Andrew).

"Us?" I heard him mutter. At first I thought he knew I was a werewolf because of scent, but Ryder had told me once before that anyone who met me any time after meeting Ryder would smell his scent and his claim on me instead of my own. It was a territorial mechanism and I guess that masked me from the truth in Trevor's eyes. But Trevor was just shocked and glanced between me and a sighing Andrew whose secret I revealed as well.

I was done here.

"Oh, and I wasn't defending just a werewolf," I denied as I began to depart. "I was defending my mate."