Page 47 of Renegade Kingdom
Then I heard my wolf laughing.
Not mocking. Not bitter. Laughing with a joy I’d never heard from him before. A fierce, triumphant howl that reverberated through every part of me.
You might be a beta,he said, and there was pride in his voice that made my throat tight.But you’re a beta that was made to be a king.
It was all me.
The lattice. The wind holding us aloft. The lightning dancing between the columns like a living fence. The storm that had built itself around us, beautiful and terrifying and utterly, impossibly mine. All of it was pouring out of me with an ease that felt like breathing. Like it had always been there, a river dammed behind walls I’d built myself, and all I’d had to do was stop holding it back.
“Ryder.” Alyssa’s voice was breathless, her eyes wide as she looked at what I’d created. At what we’d created together, except the foundation was mine. The power was mine. “This is you.”
“I know.” And the strangest part was that I wasn’t afraid. It felt so effortless. So natural. Like it had always been a part of me, sleeping in the depths, waiting for the right moment to wake up. Waiting for me to stop being afraid of it. Waiting for me to stop telling myself I wasn’t enough.
“I think it always was,” Alyssa said, and I realised I’d spoken the last part aloud. “It’s the only explanation. This power was always yours, Ryder. You just needed the right moment to access it.”
Slowly, gently, I let us back down. My feet touched the ground, and then hers, my hands coming to her waist as I sought any excuse to cling to her. The wind finally settled around us like a blanket and my hands slipped back into hers, our fingers threading together. The lightning dimmed but didn’t disappear entirely, tiny sparks still flickering between our joined hands, reluctant to let go.
“I was never special,” I said, and for once the words didn’t come out self-deprecating or bitter. They came out wondering. Like I was seeing my own history with new eyes. Every moment I’d been told I wasn’t enough, every time I’d believed it, every joke I’d made to cover the hurt of being overlooked. All of it reframed by the power still thrumming through my veins.
“No,” Alyssa corrected me, stepping closer to press herself against me. I could feel the warmth radiating from her skin. Feel her magic pressed against mine like a physical touch, and every nerve in my body lit up in response. She was close enough that I could see the gold flecks in her eyes and the slight part of her lips and the way her gaze dropped to my mouth for just a fraction of a second. “You were always exceptional. You just couldn’t see it.”
Then she kissed me.
It wasn’t desperate or hungry or fuelled by fear the way so many of our kisses had been. It was slow. Sure. A promise made with lips and breath and the gentle press of her body against mine. Her hand came up to rest against my chest, right over my heart, and I felt the magic pulse between us, warm and steady, a rhythm that matched our heartbeats.
She was everything. Paradise wrapped in a package of perfection that I still couldn’t believe had chosen me. Chosen all of us. It only made sense that she could save a world, because nothing could ever stand in her way. Not Arik. Not prophecy. Not the end of everything.
Not with her mates at her side.
When she pulled back, the training ring was still crackling with residual energy. My energy. My power.Mine.
I looked at the lattice of lightning, still flickering faintly between the columns. At the wind that still swirled lazily around the ring, carrying petals in slow spirals. At the woman standing in front of me with eyes that held galaxies and a smile that could bring a man to his knees.
“I think,” I said slowly, “I might actually be able to do this.”
Alyssa smiled. “I never doubted it for a second.”
My wolf howled in agreement, and somewhere in the distance, thunder answered.
Chapter Fourteen
Tank
Ifound her in the training ring.
I’d been sent to fetch Alyssa for the meeting, a simple enough task that shouldn’t have taken more than a few minutes. Instead, I found myself standing in the shadows of the colonnade, watching her train with Ryder, completely unable to make myself known.
They moved together like they’d been doing this for years. Ryder’s wind magic swept through the ring in controlled gusts, lifting debris and petals in spiralling patterns that he directed with increasingly confident gestures. Alyssa met each display with her own power, fire dancing along her arms, water forming shields that scattered his wind into harmless breezes. They were testing each other, pushing each other, and the joy on both their faces was unmistakable.
But it was Ryder who held my attention.
The difference in him was staggering. Just days ago, he’d been fumbling with his magic like a man trying to catch smoke with his bare hands. Now he wielded it like an extension of himself. The wind responded to his will without hesitation, and whenlightning crackled between his fingertips, it went exactly where he wanted it to go. There was a confidence in his stance that hadn’t been there before. A certainty.
I was relieved to see it. Truly, I was. Ryder would need every scrap of that confidence when he faced the Autumn Guardian. But underneath the relief was something else. Something I didn’t particularly want to examine too closely.
Jealousy,the bear rumbled, never one to let me avoid uncomfortable truths.You’re jealous.
I shifted my weight against the column, not taking my eyes off the training ring. “I’m not jealous.”
