Hunted (Book One of the Forever Faire Series): A Fae Fantasy Romance Novel Read Online Free PDF Page B

ride back into a motorcycle, he would have gone to the stable first to unsaddle the horse and bunk him down for the night. To take a look Kayla would have to circle behind or cross the camp, which would likely attract attention from the group around the bonfire.
    “This better be worth it,” she said as she started down the slope.
    As she stepped out of the snow onto the lush, green grass, a strange shiver ran down her spine. She could feel the soil give slightly under her weight.
    “A nice lawn?” she muttered, frowning. “In the dead of winter?”
    She skirted the edge of the treeline and moved within earshot of those around the bonfire. All of them appeared to be large, normal men dressed in regular clothes. None had facial tats or short black hair. Every one of them looked as human as Ryan had, at least before he had changed on her.
    Speak of the shape-shifting devil.
    Kayla’s gaze went to a larger man walking from the stable to the bonfire.
    “You’re late,” a man said, his voice sharp.
    “For what?”
    That was Ryan, and he sounded just as annoyed.
    “Trouble,” the man told him. “Jannon caught two mortals stealing from us. He claims he disposed of them.”

Chapter 6
    A s he joined his men , Ryan Sheridan regarded his second-in-command. Like the rest of them, he still wore the glamor of his mortal guise. Fae nature made it impossible for Colm Longacre to utter an untruth among his own kind, and he wouldn’t jest unless he was entertaining the mob.
    “He did what now?” Ryan asked.
    “Got rid of two vermin,” someone else answered.
    Jannon Ferguson elbowed his way to the front of the men as he took a drink from the oversize bottle of snowine he carried. In his true form, which was almost as large as Ryan’s, he resembled a shining god.
    “Caught our new groom and that needle-plying wench in the treasury, up to their elbows in our coin.” He spat in the fire, which reacted with the Fae drink he’d been guzzling by sending up a bright blue flare. “Bloody thieving humans.”
    Ryan inspected the drunken warrior’s garments for blood spatter, but saw only sparkling blue stains of drink on his tunic
    “You did not report this to Colm until now?”
    “All he does is coddle them. They needed learning, so I…” He raised one large, bulging arm and tried to snap his fingers, failed to connect them, and then batted the air with his huge hand. “I taught them.”
    In the past Ryan had seen Jannon use a single blow to cleave a boulder in two.
    “By what manner did you give this instruction?”
    “What the bloody hells do you care?” Jannon swayed and staggered a step sideways before he caught himself and drank again. “Weak, worthless scum, the both of them.” He wiped his mouth with the back of his fist. “Got what they deserved, they did.”
    “Now I see,” Colm said with an exaggerated nod. Then he sighed. “The fool wants you to think he did away with them, to goad you into thrashing him. I’ll wager he did naught to harm a hair on either.”
    Ryan saw that truth echoed in Jannon’s angry fists and guilty eyes, and considered thrashing him anyway.
    “You wish to deceive me, brother? Why?”
    “You know the reason. We all do.” Colm regarded the drunken warrior. “You can wound yourself a thousand times over, Jan, and bleed on every mortal female in these mountains so they’ll bed you and heal you. None of it will ever make you forget your clan.”
    “What would you know of women, Colm Longacre?” Jannon said, his upper lip curling as he fixed the other man with a sneer. “You’ve not pleasured one since you were gelded by that fucking witch.” As the other men muttered uneasily, Jannon wobbled around to face Ryan. “Beg pardon, my liege. I meant to say Her Majesty the Queen, that fucking witch.”
    Colm folded his arms. “And now I’d say the great hulking idiot wants the both of us to beat him bloody.”
    “What did you call me?” Jannon said, his voice growing louder.