I teetering and out of nightmares again that night. Sometimes they involved Ryder. Sometimes I saw little Clementine's face screaming as she watched her father fall. Sometimes I saw Hades' red eyes following me through the forest, warning me of what was to come. If only I had been smart enough to listen back then.

When morning came, Ryder was still adamant about going mountain biking. The grogginess in my head wanted to argue with him, but I recalled how he spoke about it. he had been so happy to get his dream job, working with bikes. Ravine, I think is what the bike company was called. I could already imagine him out there, grinning as he took a bad crash in stride, looking so damn handsome with a helmet on, leaning against his bike in the middle of the woods.

When he asked me if I wanted to join him, I just thought it would be a good distraction. I had been on a bike before and had maintained a decent level of skill over the years through the occasional ride around town. So, we rented me a helmet and bike as well.

Five minutes into our ride, I was wondering how on earth Ryder could ever enjoy something like this.

"I thought you said this was for beginners," I complained. I was already breathing hard and had a light sheen on sweat under my shirt.

"Georgia, this is the skills area, this isn't even a trail yet," he chuckled, looking like the picture of ease on his rental bike.

My imagination hadn't done him justice. I didn't know if it was because he was in his element or if he just radiated joy now, but he was incredibly handsome. The stormy eyes no longer looked so tortured. The broad shoulders didn't look so tight anymore. He was at home here. Confident and comfortable in a way I could never be.

I rolled through a strange, slanted turn. A berm, apparently. And when I looked back at Ryder for approval, he was grinning so broadly that I just wanted to bike and bike until my legs gave out.

So that's what I did. Obviously, mountain biking was not what I thought it would be. Long gone were my memories of serene sidewalk pedals. I thought the climb up the access road to the actual trails would be the hard part. Cardio was something of a strong suit for me, but I definitely preferred the sprints to the long grinds. And this was a long, long grind. It felt like the trailhead was getting further and further, not closer, with every pedal stroke.

Ryder kept calling back to me, checking in on me as we ascended. I would wheeze an answer, only impressed that he could hold a conversation while my lungs felt like they were constricting. But I would keep going. I would go as long as my body allowed me, because he was talking and he was happy, and if my legs burned and my eyes watered when the wind blew, so be it.

I was foolish enough to be thankful when we reached the trail of choice. It was a little green trail, which was apparently a good thing. I didn't really care all that much. I was just happy to let gravity do the work for me on the way down. I knew the woods; I knew roots and creeks and loam. If I could run over this stuff, I was sure that I could bike over it.

I was wrong.

Gravity helped get the bike going. And it kept the bike going. And it was getting faster. When I pulled on the brakes that Ryder had shown me earlier, I pulled so hard that I almost went over the bars. In a panic, I stomped my feet into the earth and stood for a moment, baffled by how complex this simple thing was.

"You alright?" Ryder asked, coming to a perfectly controlled stop behind me. "If this is not something you want to do or you aren't feeling ready, we can go back and just ride down the road."

"No." I was not going to let this go. Because he was happy. He was finally fucking happy in a way that I hadn't seen since he found out that I was a hunter. I was not going to take that away from him, even if it killed me. so, I gripped my handlebars and I stood on the pedals like he told me to, and I allowed the bike to do the work. There were parts that came naturally. I could read the trails easily because I knew mother nature, how she liked to lay down her roots and draw her creeks. I could trust my core to balance me, I could squat my legs and hold my body at the precarious place that gave me control and stability. If I could balance on a tree limb in a blizzard, I could make it down this trail.

I still squeezed the brakes when the speed got scary and I refused to even roll over anything that looked like it could remotely be a jump. I felt like I was going a thousand kilometers per hour, even though I was sure I was hardly moving. There were brief moments when I enjoyed myself, like really enjoyed myself and marveled at what my body could do when I gave it the chance. My arms were growing tired and my legs were exhausted from holding me in the same position, but I could hear the noise from the parking lot.

Just one more berm. I watched it intently. A pinch of anxiety struck me, letting me think about how it would feel to fall. But I knew this, not well, but I could do it.

I willed my body to move. my hips should have dropped. I should have turned my bars. I didn't do either of those things. And when I willed my legs to pedal, they didn't do that either, completely locked up.

I flopped onto my side, hitting the soft dirt with a dull thump.

In the time it took me to release my death grip on the handlebars and kick the bike off me, Ryder was there.

"Oh, Georgia," he said, a half-panicked sigh. "Are you hurt?"

"No, I don't think so," I grunted, hoisting myself up onto my elbows. I had much worse run ins during my time as a werewolf hunter.

He grabbed my bike and righted it for me before extending a hand. "Alright, let's get you up and off the trail then. I don't want us getting run over."

I reached out, almost surprised when my fingers curled around his wrist. It must have been the fear that stalled out my brain, something like target fixation. He pulled me to my feet, grinning as I recovered and wiped the dirt off the butt of my leggings.

"I haven't seen you this happy in a long time," I whispered, almost afraid to release the words into the air.

"I haven't been this happy in a long time, George." The grin didn't stretch his lips so much anymore. Something heavy and thick settled onto his features, a seriousness that I wanted to brush away. Then, he said, "I love you."

It was a shock to say the absolute least and I definitely acted the part by standing there with my mouth open, gawking at him. Why here? Why when I was covered in dirt?

"I know that this has been confusing and messy," he continued. I think a lesser man would have looked away, wounded by my silence, but he plowed on. "But I know what I'm feeling. I know what you make me feel. And maybe I shouldn't, but I do. When I think about coming home, I think about seeing you. Fuck, you're all I think about."

My heart swelled. The body that had felt frozen just a moment ago was now completely responsive. My lips pulled back until I was utterly beaming. Loved. Isn't that all I ever wanted to be? Isn't that all I had been chasing? "I love you, too."

The words were true. The feeling blooming in my ribs was proof of that, my smile was proof of that, the breathlessness in my chest was proof.

But one truth was not greater than the other.

I loved him.

Because of him, I would be handing the sweetest girl I had ever met to the werewolf royals.

~~~Question of the Day~~~

What movie or show did you find too unrealistic to enjoy?

Yellowstone for me! I think if I gave it time, I could get into it, but the perfectly dry calf standing up two seconds after being born, the fossil being blown up, but undamaged, it was a little much for me.