12. RYDER

“Your brother adopted a human.”

“I heard,” I muttered absentmindedly as I glanced around.

“Have you met her?” Dale questioned.

“No,” I lied.

He already knew the answer. The whole fucking pack knew about it. Those who didn’t see it happen, already heard about it.

My mate was the new human my brother adopted.

Olivia’s daughter.

I clenched my teeth and ran a shaky hand through my hair.

My head ached, my body was sore and my wolf was still agitated. We hadn’t seen our mate in a week.

Until this morning.

She had run from me the moment she realized who she had run into, and I hadn’t seen her since.

I was dying to get another whiff of her.

But Keiran had warned me to keep my distance.

I thought that with my heat over, he would allow me to seek her out. She belonged to me.

And apparently to him.

As well as Axel.

I growled, gripping the table tightly. My claws dug into the wood which made people turn to look at me. I sneered at them, instantly making them hurry away.

“What the