Jo was staring at him. She wasn't saying anything. Her eyes were huge, deep brown and unreadable. Ryker ran his thumb over her cheek, not sure what to say since he wanted to give her a chance to say something first.
She leaned into his touch the slightest bit, but she still didn't say anything. The silence was beginning to stretch, and it wasn't the comfortable kind of quiet that usually rested between them. He wished he had had a chance to talk to Brett or his dad about this before he had brought it up with Jo, but even then, the situations were entirely different.
"Jo...?"
She blinked. "You're sure?"
"About you being--"
"Yes, that. You're sure?" Jo narrowed her eyes at him, searching. "How can you be sure? I'm not a werewolf or anything. What if it only works with other werewolves?"
Ryker was already shaking his head. He wanted to reach out and pull her to his chest, but he also knew he should give her space. His fingers itched with the need to hold her. "It's happened before."
When both her eyebrows shot up her forehead, he quickly held up both his hands. "Not with me," he said firmly, "I'm just saying that there have been other pairs where one is a human. Or something else." In case she was worried about her fire powers also making this bond weaker or something. In his opinion, maybe that made it stronger. In any case, he knew she was the one and the only one for him.
"But how do you even know for sure?" she asked. She pushed her long black hair back behind her ears as she started to pace the floor. "Maybe it's not."
Ryker crossed his arms over his trust. "Trust me. I've never felt this way before. I know it's you."
"Then why didn't you say anything earlier?"
Ryker sighed. "Jo, how would you have felt if I told you a couple weeks ago that I'm bonded to you for life. That you're the only woman I'll want to be with for the rest of my life, and imagining my life without you would be like imagining my life without lungs. Which I need, by the way."
"That's...a lot." Jo pressed her lips together as she turned toward him. "And it's just biological?"
"No!" Ryker looked away, grabbing his flare of frustration and trying to bury it. He wanted to help her understand but he felt like he wasn't doing a great job. He could kill Duncan for dropping this on her. "It's not just because of genetics or something. The bond between mates is different. It's bigger than that, and I didn't tell you because I didn't want to freak you out."
"I'm not freaked out!"
Ryker started to say something about that then stopped himself. Gently, he reached out and touched her arm, his fingers sliding down her skin until he reached her wrist. With a careful twist of his fingers, he encircled her wrist and stopped her pacing.
"Jo. It's okay. I just...didn't want you to worry about me leading you on. It's not ever been that."
Jo sighed, staring up at him, but this time the silence wasn't strained but...searching, or even accepting maybe? Yeah, or maybe that was just his brain trying to manifest what it wanted. "What has it been?" she asked after a few moments, her voice uncharacteristically soft and hesitant.
Not his Jo.
He hated he'd been part of causing that.
Ryker moved his hand from her wrist to her hand, interlocking their fingers before looking up at her. He'd never been a spill-your-guts, bare-your-soul kind of guy, but if ever there was a time he needed to be, he figured now was it. But in a normal, human way that Jo could be okay with. Damn it, he should have taken that speech class, learned how to be better with his words. He took a deep breath, putting into words the way he'd been feeling over the past week. "Like I discovered the home I didn't even know I needed, and every day I keep finding things out about it that make me love it even more."
He distinctly heard a quiet hitch in her breath, and Ryker could only hope that was a good sign. Maybe as his soulmate, Jo got what he was trying to say. Ryker took a tentative step closer, relieved when she didn't pull away. He wrapped his other arm around her waist, pulling her closer. "I didn't know what to think at first either," he admitted, studying her face carefully as he spoke in case it suddenly became too much for her. "I was worried about how to approach a human and explain all this. I was worried about your safety among a pack of werewolves."
It had been such a relief, finding out she could defend herself supernaturally as well. He'd lowered so many defenses that night with her because of that. "But one thing I knew from the start," he continued, "was that I wouldn't be able to stay away from you. You made me think and feel things I never have before." He shook his head, suppressing a grin as he thought about his family's teasing comments on his personality change. Specifically, how much he smiled apparently. He never knew everyone thought he was permanently grumpy before Jo.
Jo shook her head. "Because of the bond."
"No," Ryker growled, trying not to be angry she still thought that. "I couldn't stop thinking about you from the moment you argued with me in the hardware store. The bond was barely there at that point."
Jo's eyes glimmered with amusement at the reminder of their first encounter, which gave Ryker some hope. Amusement was better than a lot of the other emotions he'd seen in the last few minutes. There was some curiosity there too. "So the bond isn't instant?"
"Not really," Ryker said. "It clues you in to your soulmate, but it grows as your relationship grows. Trying to figure out what causes what...it's like asking if the chicken or the egg came first."
Jo snorted, finally relaxing in his hold as her free hand traced random patterns on his bicep. It was just a little distracting. His eyes watched her hand. Okay, a lot distracting. "It's a lot to take in," Jo admitted. "But...I'm...it's good I won't have to worry about some random girl showing up in the future."
"I never wanted to do that to a girl, which is why I waited..." Ryker trailed off, thinking, then sighed. "And which is why Duncan is probably suspicious about me spending so much time with you."
"Why would Duncan care?"
Jo had a knack for asking him the difficult questions, the ones he most wanted to avoid. But it was important for Jo to know this too, especially as Duncan edged closer to the truth. It was probably only a matter of time now. "Think what it could do to someone to lose the person they know is their one and only soulmate."
She tensed. "So what, he's going to try to kill me? Which, by the way, would be hard since I can shoot fire out of my hands."
Ryker had to force himself to not hold her tighter. "I don't know what he's planning," he said honestly, "But I don't think he knows that you're my mate. Not yet anyways." He couldn't keep it a secret forever, and once other people knew, it was only a matter of time before Duncan found out. There weren't spies in Ryker's father's pack, but wolves talked. People talked.
Jo nodded. "Right, so an angry wolf boy might be planning to murder me to cause you pain, got it." The curl of her lips cued him in to the fact that she was teasing, but he still groaned. "This is a bad movie trope, you know."
Ryker huffed and squeezed her once. "I wouldn't let that happen."
"I'm not planning to let it happen either," Jo said. She reached up and tapped him on the chest. "I guess getting some better security might not be such a bad idea."
"Yeah, and a shotgun."
"Ooo, big gun."
"There's a gun store in Marion," Ryker said.
"Or, again, I have fire powers."
"That you're not entirely comfortable with yet."
"I'm getting there." The banter set Ryker at ease, since it seemed like she wasn't entirely mad at her. She probably was still a little annoyed, judging by the occasional frown she sent his way. But he could live with that.
"You know, that's actually a thought," Ryker mused, brushing a kiss against her temple. With the scare of Duncan actually stepping foot in her house--of him actually being alone with her--Ryker couldn't seem to keep his hands off Jo. He needed to touch her, smell her, reassure himself she was safely in his arms. He didn't know how he was going to leave tonight.
Actually, if he was being honest, he'd probably end up in wolf-form curled up on the ground outside her window.
"What's a thought?" Jo asked, frowning at him. Ryker idly smoothed his thumb across the wrinkle between her eyebrows.
"We should train you so you get comfortable with using your fire."
"I'm not sure how to train safely when I live in a place filled with ready-made tinder," Jo admitted.
"Hey, at least it's not a drought year." Ryker thought for a moment. "Why not do what you did when you showed me your ability? We can boat out on Avent Lake, there are some larger rocks and stuff out there we can go to."
"Wow, now we're even adding a training montage to the bad movie trope."
Ryker laughed, hugging her tighter to him for a brief moment. "I'm cool with that. The person training always ends up winning the fight in the end."
Jo pushed his chest. "How often do you watch terrible movies?"
"I was thinking of Rocky," Ryker protested, "or Karate kid!" Classics. Not terrible movies. No werewolves involved.
"Mhmm." Her lips quirked up slightly. "I know it was actually Mulan."
"Good big brothers watch Disney movies with their little sisters."
Jo threw back her head, laughing, and Ryker couldn't help the feeling of pride that swelled in his chest. He'd made her happy and laughing, even after everything that had just happened. Even after she'd found out about all the stuff he'd been hiding. They were going to be okay.
"I can't argue with that," she shook her head and moved away from Ryker, leaving a cold emptiness in Ryker that caused a small sound of protest to escape his lips before he could stop it. He knew his face was flushed with embarrassment when Jo stopped to look back at him, an eyebrow raised.
Ryker looked away, running a hand through his hair as he avoided her gaze. "Sorry, I just...aftereffects of stress. I...umm...we're good?" He wanted to groan at his lack of skill as he stumbled over his words. Way to impress the girl. But he had to know.
Jo studied him. "I'm still a little pissed," she said, crossing her arms. "And I've got a lot of thinking to do." Ryker swallowed. Shit. "But..." she smiled a little, her expression softening. "We'll be good."
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A/N: Thanks for reading this chapter! :D