After that day in the garden, Ryker had gotten extremely busy. He spent just a little time in his chambers, most of his time was spent travelling to different packs to know their welfare and see if there were still rogues lurking around the packs, going for meetings almost all the time to deliberate on the things to do and how to capture the rogues behind those letters he received before. 

Considering Adira's and Talon's suggestion of marking a second chance mate, he made use of the opportunity to get close to a few females from his pack and other packs he had visited, but none of them seemed to catch his interest, none of them awakened his wolf the way Isla did and it got him wondering who Isla was, and why she was all over his head.

He was back in the Darkwood pack after a two–day trip to the neighbouring pack. Exhausted, he took his clothes off and plopped on the bed, lost in thoughts. He missed Isla so much, but he couldn't bring himself to go to her. Tossing on the bed, he closed his eyes and then, there was a knock at the door.

Ryker smiled sheepishly, he expected that it would be Isla knocking on his door. He sighed, planning to tell her not to knock anymore whenever she was around. "Come in," he said, turning to face the other side of the bed.

The door creaked open and footsteps followed. A smile was dancing on Ryker's lips as he anticipated her warmth. The footsteps suddenly stopped sounding.

"Isla," Ryker called, still not looking at her. "Come over here, there is something I'd like to show you." He smiled, thinking of the golden necklace he got on his way back to the pack. He had planned to give it to her.

Milly looked at him where she was standing, wondering why he was smiling so much. She cleared her throat, alerting him of her presence. Ryker noticed that something was odd, he slowly moved his head to look back and his eyes met with Milly, she was glaring so hard at him.

"Isla, huh?" She scoffed, walking towards him.

"What are you doing here, Milly?" Ryker furrowed his brows in confusion. "I warned you to stop visiting here, didn't I?" He asked, anger evident in his voice.

"Because of the slut? Now, I see why you've been cold, it's because of that slut!" She yelled at him, throwing her hands over her head as soft sobs escaped her lips.

Ryker chuckled, getting to his feet. Still shirtless, he strode towards Milly and gazed at her. "Did you just call her a slut?" He asked, his eyes bloodshot red.

"Yes, that's what and who she is! She's a slut." She shouted, still crying.

"What right do you have to call her a slut when you are a slut yourself?" Ryker spat out and Milly's heart broke into a million pieces. She staggered on her feet, moving away from him. "If you call her a slut, what then would you call yourself?" He moved closer to her, pinning her to the wall.

Ryker caged Milly with both hands, deterring her from escaping. He was mad at her for calling Isla a slut, she had no right to do that. "Milly," he grabbed her chin, staring fiercely into her eyes. "Don't you ever call Isla a slut, the next time you do that, I will make sure to punish you?" 

They stared into each other's eyes, she was so scared as she froze under his hold. "Ryker," tears slipped down her cheeks, "What's it about her that isn't there about me?" She asked him.

They were still staring at each other when Isla slid into the room, her eyes darting to where Ryker and Milly were standing with his hand on her chin. Milly was the first to notice Isla, she quickly tiptoed to kiss Ryker on the cheeks. Smiling when she saw the confusion on Ryker's face, he was yet to know Isla was watching them because his back was turned to her.

"I will leave now," Milly said, freeing herself from Ryker's hold. "I'll see you later." She smiled smugly, walking towards the door.

Ryker was befuddled. Touching his cheeks, he turned back to see Isla staring softly at him, her eyes were dull like she was about to break down in tears.

"When did you get here, Isla?" He asked her.

"A few minutes ago, before you began to kiss each other." She said sternly. "The door was opened and I decided to come to check on you since you've been out of the pack for days. Do you need me to prepare bathing water for you?" She avoided his eyes, she shouldn't be mad that he was kissing his destined mate, but she was.

 Angel had told Isla that Milly was Ryker's destined mate and that she rejected him on the day he was meant to mark her, but she didn't state the exact reason she rejected the Alpha. She had claimed not to know it because it was never openly discussed, there were just rumours flying around the Alpha's chambers that Milly rejected him on the night he was supposed to mark her.

"We weren't kissing," he countered her words.

"But I saw you." She trembled, "It isn't my business though. She's your mate and you can do whatever you want with her." She bowed her head. "Would you like to have a bath now?" She asked him.

Ryker narrowed his eyes at her, loathing that she had a wrong understanding of them and he so badly wanted to clarify things and tell her Milly was no longer his mate, he wanted to tell her everything about what happened between them. He wanted to tell her Milly was the naked woman she once talked about to him in the forest, but he didn't. He stayed there, staring at Isla. Her innocent eyes squinted in worry, he had missed her so much and didn't realise how much until she was in his room.

He held himself back from pulling her into a hug. Walking towards the window side, he opened the windows and fed his eyes with the beautiful view of houses from the Darkwood. His mind was on Isla as he stared out, he turned back to see her looking at him. He sighed and said, "She's not my mate, Isla and I wasn't kissing her." That was the simplest way he could put it to her. "I would like to have a bath now, please prepare some water for me." He resumed staring out the window.

"Yes, Alpha." Isla didn't believe his words. She saw Milly kiss him and Angel told her they were mates. She knew for a fact that Angel couldn't lie to her. Something was wrong, there was something she didn't know and she wanted to know why Ryker said Milly was not his mate. It bothered her so much as she mixed his bathing water and she also couldn't decipher why she was so angry and jealous when she saw Milly kissing Ryker. "What was that feeling?" She questioned herself, walking back to the room to inform him that the water was ready.

Isla got back into the room and met the Alpha completely naked with his back turned to her.

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