Discovery: Altera Realm Trilogy Read Online Free PDF

exchange between the girl and her father very closely, yelled out in surprise, "Excuse me!"
    "Syn, honey, it's an amazing opportunity," Joyce said.
    "Yes, amazing," Richard echoed.
    Syney looked back and forth between her two "pod people" parents. "What's going on here?" She looked at Cass. "What are you doing?"
    Cass stared back, directly into her eyes. "I'm not doing anything. You should listen to your parents and come with us to the school."
    "I will not!" Syney yelled.
    Cass looked shocked, her mouth open in surprise. "But...I..."
    "Syney Ashling Andrews! Do not raise your voice to our guest!" Joyce yelled. "I did not raise you to be rude!"
    Syney stared at her and was about to say that something was wrong, that these people were doing something—they had to be—but she stopped herself. Her mother looked so disappointed. Syney never had seen her like this before. She looked back at Cass. "I'm sorry for being rude. This is just a little surprising to me."
    Cass still seemed beyond confused. "I understand."
    The blond guy put his hand on Cass's arm. "It's all right," he said softly.
    Cass nodded. "I just.
.."
    "I know," he said.
    Everyone in the room was quiet for a moment. It was almost like a standoff.
    "This must be very disconcerting," the man next to the window said, breaking the silence. He turned to the rest of the group and walked over to stand behind Cass and the blond man. "But think about all the great opportunities this will open up for you. It's an adventure, and who wouldn't want that?"
    Syney looked up at him...and stopped. The entire room seemed to stop, including Syney's heart. He wasn't overly attractive, just average looking, with short curly brown hair and about a day's worth of stubble on his tanned skin. But it was his eyes that stopped her. Those chocolate-brown eyes that had calmed her with one look the night before. How could they be the same ones?
    Without even realizing it, Syney said, "OK, I'll go."
    The guy continued to stare into Syney's eyes, his expression softening from a stern resolve into uncertainty. She smiled and fought the urge to touch him, just a graze or tap to see whether he was in fact the wolf. He brought her the same amazing calmness from the night before.
    "Really? That's great!" Cass said, her exuberance returning.
    "Yes, it is!" Joyce looked at her daughter. "I'm going to miss you so much!"
    Syney reluctantly pulled her gaze over to her mother. "What? Oh, yeah. I'm going to miss you so much too."
    "Speaking of missing...when does she need to be there?" Richard asked.
    "Actually, this may be a little hard for you." Cass looked directly at Richard. "She has to come with us today."
    Richard nodded slowly. "I guess you'd better pack, kiddo."
    Syney watched the exchange again with a critical eye. Her father was a very sensible man, and he never would just let her leave with people they didn't know. There was definitely something going on here. She looked back to the guy with the eyes and found him still staring at her. Something very strange definitely was going on here, but she knew one thing for sure; she would go to the ends of the earth with the man in front of her. She didn't know why, but after looking into his eyes, she didn't really care.
    "Lots of packing." Syney looked at Cass. "I do need to say goodbye to my friend, Jess."
    Cass nodded. "Of course. We could come back for you in, say, four hours?"
    Syney nodded.
    "Well, that's that then." Cass smiled and looked back at her companions. "This is a great day."
    Syney looked at the three of them in turn. She was still very wary of this, but she figured she could always grab a bus the second things got too weird. She didn't feel threatened at all, but that was all because of
him
. She focused her attention on his dark brown eyes. "What's your name?"
    He looked back at her and seemed to hesitate before answering, "Hunter."
    Syney found herself lost in his eyes again. Strange. She couldn't normally look directly at a guy, and