The Two Alphas of Rosewood Creek [MxM]

Chapter 59

Ryder wasn't his usual self, missing the cocky flagrant attitude he usually toted around. Rather, he appeared more fragile—weak, almost—the cloud of toxic masculinity he'd clung to had subsided. With Nate no longer backing his immature antics, the werewolf held no real power anymore.

After the rank matches, I'd heard he had his ass handed to him, losing miserably to Derrick for the coveted Beta position. Even though we had two alphas, there was only going to be one Beta, something that gravely affected Ryder's ego. With his fire engine red hair coiffed into a pompous, greasy comb-over, the dude stood in front of me, a twisted look of annoyance on his pale face as he tried to intimidate me with his presence.

If this was a few months ago, maybe I would've been freaking out, cowering in fear. Now, I held in my laughter at his attempt. Whatever this was, I was curious to see exactly what Ryder needed to speak to me about. River found the sight just as amusing as I did, waiting to see for himself what this jerk had to say.

We waited in silence before Ryder spoke his piece. "Remy, I just..."

"It's Luna to you." Quick to pull ranks, I didn't want my name to ever come from his stank mouth again. I was already bothered he felt comfortable enough to approach me alone.

Ryder sucked his teeth, irritated that he could no longer scare me. "Yes, of course, Luna," he played off his tone with fake pleasantries. "I was wondering if you could possibly help me out with something."

'Help you?' River's laughter filled my head. 'Is this guy for real? Help him? This has to be some joke! Where's Ashton Kutcher at?' I agreed. If this was a joke, it was hilarious, I thought, holding my own laughter in as I continued to partially listen.

"With the merging of the new pack, it seems that I've lost my rank as Beta," he said with slight confusion. My eyes didn't stop my intense staring, watching him nervously shift in his stance.

"I think there was a misunderstanding about that. Mistakes happen sometimes."

"Hmm," I was already disinterested; it was hard to follow along, my mind preoccupied with the time I was wasting standing here. Checking my phone, five minutes had already passed.

Great, now I'm really gonna be late for class!

"I was wondering if you could put in a good word to Nate about reinstating my position." He smiled, trying to sell this new persona to me.

Regardless, my bullshit meter was going off, finally processing his petty request. Here it was. Ryder thought he could use me to get back into Nate's good graces. The audacity of this wolf. He didn't have a problem beating me up a couple of months ago, stealing my prescriptions, and even going as far as to dump them. Everything he had done to me was unforgivable. Yet he was the catalyst for this change in my life. To his detriment, he had somehow managed to awaken River and change the course of my fate, allowing me to be the werewolf that I was today.

"Right..." I started. "You know I should really thank you. If it wasn't for your need to bully anyone you saw that was weaker than you, I would've never known I was a werewolf." The subject matter made the dude drop his fake smile, realizing now that he was never going to live that moment down.

"But unfortunately for you, I only do favors for friends, and I'm not your friend. Why don't you try talking to Nate yourself?" If my attitude was any indication, he had failed to convince me to take up his stupid cause.

Ryder's lips parted, his eyes narrowed as he watched me fold my arms. Feeling that the conversation had ended, I began walking off back in the direction of class.