MATED TO FATHER, FATED TO SONS-Chapter 31: Devil INCARNATE

RYKER

That didn’t go how I fucking planned and I need to fix it.

I was halfway down the corridor when Nia stepped out of nowhere and planted herself directly in my path with her arms crossed and her chin up, and I knew whatever she was going to say she had rehearsed this conversation twice already.

And I was going to be pissed by it.

I stopped and looked at her, "Move, Nia."

"Whatever game you are playing with Amaris," she said, her voice low and pointed, "drop it, Ryker. She is not a toy to mess with."

I stared at her for a moment, keeping my expression neutral but behind my eyes I was puzzled, "Who told you I was playing any game?"

"Does it matter?"

"It does to me," I said, my voice dropping, "Was it Amaris?"

Nia held my gaze, "Cole saw her coming out of your room."

I exhaled through my nose.

That snitch and sure he must have blurted out to Nia while she shared his bed.

"Ryker." She took a step closer, dropping her voice further, "I mean it, she has been through enough, whatever this is, whatever you think you are doing, leave her out of it."

I looked down at her, at the genuine concern sitting on her face, and something about it irritated me more than anger would have, "Mind your business, Nia, specifically the business that pays you and not mine."

Her jaw tightened, "You know sometimes you act like the devil incarnate."

The smirk moved across my face before I could stop it, "You of all people should be able to recognize a devil when you see one," I said, stepping around her, "not an incarnate."

I left her standing in the corridor and kept walking.

I paced my room like a caged animal and every time I passed the bed I thought about her standing at my door last night, thought about the way she looked at me before she turned around and walked away.

Stupid. I was so fucking stupid.

I should have kept going, should have worked my mouth against her until her thighs were shaking and the only word left in her was my name, should have dragged every last sound out of her body until she was grabbing my hair and saying the right word, until she was begging me to fuck her properly.

I could have, I would have, and instead I let her walk out with that stubborn chin still held up and her dignity still mostly intact and now she was probably in my father’s room.

I abhorred that thought and everything attached to it.

I had made that comment at the dinner table deliberately, dropped Lila’s name and the slap into the conversation and watched my father’s face change, knowing exactly what he would do.

He would punish her.

She would then feel cornered and show up at my door because I was the lesser evil available to her in this house, and I would finish what I started until she said the second word, but he had taken her to his room and the thought of his hand on her....

My fist connected with the wall before I finished the thought, drywall cracking, pain blooming through my knuckles.

I stood there breathing through it because the pain was cleaner than everything else moving through me.

And Cole, that snitch, had apparently been watching the whole time and reported back to Nia like a fucksick informant, which meant I was going to have to deal with that too.

A knock interrupted my spiral and I turned toward the door ready to tell whoever it was to fuck off.

"Come in," I barked instead because manners were apparently still a thing even when I was falling apart.

Cole walked in wearing that easy grin he always wore when he was about to say something I did not want to hear, "Hey man, what’s up."

"Fine," I clipped, turning back to the window.

"Right," Cole drawled, closing the door behind him, "because you look totally fine standing there vibrating with rage."

I said nothing and he took that as an invitation, "So I heard Amaris and Lila had a clash today," he mentioned, casual.

"I don’t care," I said.

Cole was quiet for a millisecond, reading me the way he always did, picking apart everything I was not saying, "Do you really not care," his voice dropped, "because I saw her coming from your room last night."

My spine went rigid and I turned to face him slowly, "You what?" I feigned ignorance like I hadn’t heard it from Nia, already.

He shrugged against the door, arms crossed, "Relax, I am not judging you." The smirk stayed in place. "But you should be more careful because that could have been anybody."

"It is not what you think," my jaw tightened, "I am not sleeping with her if that is what you are insinuating."

Cole raised both hands but the smirk did not move, "I didn’t say you were."

He tilted his head, those sharp eyes picking through everything I was giving him, "But you want to." He paused.

"And from the look on your face right now you are very unhappy that she is in your father’s room instead of yours."

I looked at him and said nothing because there was nothing to say.

He pushed off the door and dropped into the chair across from me, elbows on his knees, "Ryker, she came to your room last night, she came to you. Meaning she wants you,"

"I did not finish what I started," I said, my voice flat, "which means she left unsatisfied and now my father has his hands on what her."

The words came out harder than I planned and Cole held my gaze and wisely said nothing further.

I detested the mate bond for exactly this, it took what was supposed to be clean targeted vengeance and turned it into pacing and wall-staring and the smell of her still on my sheets while she was on the other side of this house.

The slow game was not working and I was running out of patience for it.

The door opened without a knock and Rowan came in looking like he was ready to start throwing punches, jaw set, eyes tight with anger.

"Ryker, what is wrong with you," he demanded, stepping into the room.

I turned to face him fully, eyebrows lifting, "What part, because there is a lot."

"Do you want dad to kill her," Rowan pressed, his voice straining at the edges, hands rigid at his sides.

A smile pulled at my mouth before I could stop it, "Nice to see you are more concerned about her than your fiancée."

Rowan’s expression shifted, something complicated moving behind his eyes before his jaw tightened again, "I am concerned about Lila too, especially how fragile she is."

The laugh that came out of me was harsh and genuine and Cole shifted beside me looking uncomfortable but I could not stop it.

"What is so funny to you," Rowan snapped, color rising in his neck.

I wiped my eyes still grinning, "Your fiancée is anything but fragile and I don’t need a seer to tell me she was the one at fault between her and Amaris."

"You have never liked her," Rowan countered, hands curling into fists at his sides, "that is why you cannot see her goodness."

The laughter died and something hot and vicious replaced it in my chest, "What fucking goodness," I spat, stepping toward him.

Then I glanced at Cole, they said payback was a bitch. Cole’s eyes met mine and it was almost like he read my thoughts.

Cole was on his feet immediately, hand coming up between us, "Ryker, don’t."

I looked at him and saw the warning in his eyes, the silent plea not to do what we both knew I was about to do, "Men, I am sorry but I have to."

"Ryker don’t," Cole repeated, resignation settling into his voice.

I looked back at Rowan standing there with his chest out defending that woman like she was something sacred and something in me snapped clean, "Rowan, in case you don’t know, everyone sees Lila for the bitch she is except you."

"She is not," Rowan said, voice rising, shoulders squaring, "she is innocent."

"Innocent," I repeated, letting the word rot in my mouth, "yeah, innocent enough to fuck Cole."

The room went completely silent.

Rowan’s eyes widened and his face went pale and I watched him process the words like they were coming at him in slow motion.

Cole dropped his gaze to the floor, his shoulders slumping in defeat.

"What?" Rowan breathed.

I could have stopped. Could have walked it back and spared everyone the wreckage of what came next, but I was done watching him stand there defending her, and Cole had put Nia up to corner me in that corridor, so we were even.

"Yes," I confirmed, my voice hard and clear. "Your sweet innocent fiancée used to fuck Cole."