Ravage Me (On Hold-Permanently)(DO NOT READ!)

Chapter 7

Chapter 7

"It's okay if you don't want to do this now," Ryder tried to tell me. "We can wait until a little later, but I thought you would want to get those goddamn marks off of your arms," he said, spewing the violent anger at my ex-boss. He was extremely protective now, and at lunch, when some other werewolf tried to ask me what happened, Ryder literally growled at him. I had to put my hand on his arm to get him to calm down enough to finish his lunch. He was extremely angry that someone had put a mark on his mate. 

"And how would it look to my younger siblings when I get home tonight? Can you imagine a bunch of young, curious kids asking every single question about these marks? What could I tell them? I somehow burned myself while cooking?" I asked sarcastically, the nerves bundling up in my stomach. We stood right outside Ryder's Mercedes, facing the huge, looming pack house. It needed to be huge, I suppose, in order to house approximately twenty people at a given time. But knowing that didn't relieve my stress. It was entirely intimidating, and if Ryder wasn't standing right beside me, I would have probably run away screaming, completely terrified. 

We were out in the middle of the woods, a long distance away from town and society. I had never known before now that there was a bunch of houses here, all closely knit like a village, out here in the forest. Ryder told me that they preferred to keep their existence as secret as possible. The only humans who knew about werewolves were their mates and trustworthy relatives. It was just easier to make sure mundanes didn't know about werewolves. There were too many myths, too many stories, about the havoc werewolves could cause. They would be in danger, if the humans found out and decided to go and kill of the werewolves. 

Anyway, we were standing in front of Ryder's family home, the Alpha's house, and it was a good three stories tall, including a large, slanted loft. It was a mansion, really, and on the outside it was colored black. It looked like a house of horror, where people came to die, to be honest. 

As I stood there, rambling in my thoughts, I managed to convince myself that it might have been better that we waited. I was about to turn to Ryder and tell him I'd deal with my siblings, before a stern yet frail voice interrupted me. "Ryder!" an elderly woman called from the porch. I almost jumped out of my skin when I heard the voice and turned to it. She looked to be in her mid seventies, but she still stood up straight and tall, and there was a sense of elegance and pride in the way she moved. "Is that you?" she  called out, squinting her eyes at us. We were about thirty feet away from the house, still standing next to the Mercedes. 

Another man appeared in the doorway, and I blinked when I saw him. He was like a flawless copy of Ryder, though he had a little bit more baby fat on him. His muscles weren't defined as well as Ryder's, and he wasn't as tall. His voice also wasn't nearly as deep as Ryder's when he called out, "Ryder! Get you Alpha ass in here! Just 'cause you're Alpha doesn't mean we have to save you some dinner!" He called out in a southern drawl, and I noticed that the clothes he was wearing looked out of place. He was wearing a short sleeved flannel shirt, and light-colored jeans, complete with rips in various places. As if that wasn't enough to tell me that he was from the southern US, the big-ass belt buckle featuring the Lone Stars logo did. 

"That's my brother, Rick," Ryder's voice rumbled beside me, as he reached down to interwine our fingers together. "Let's go. Gran won't let us out of her sight now," he chuckled to himself, leading me up the walkway to the house. 

I bit my lip, the nerves threatening to overwhelm me. It was too soon to meet his parents, wasn't it? I was just a nobody Ryder basically picked up off the street, and this family, this home, was the center of "Werewolves United" for the US. It was like the heart for all of the werewolves in the US, their ultimate home. I had no place here, and I was terrified of what would happen when these strong people figured it out.