Redeeming Rue AP4 Read Online Free PDF Page B

past her to the computer screen.  “So you think your cousins are going to Ashland to a ceremony?”
    “I think so.”
    “That means that your whole family will be there?”
    “The clan, yes.  Panthers use bonding ceremonies like family reunions.  Whoever is having the ceremony will have invited the entire family, and that means a lot of different clans from all over the country.”
    He looked at the computer screen for a few quiet moments, and she thought about how he’d never known what it was like to be part of a clan.  He leaned over and clicked around on the town of Ashland.  Then he opened a new tab on the browser and went to a better map program, switching to a satellite view.  Clicking and zooming, he navigated around the town as she watched with amusement.
    “Here, Ma, look,” he said, touching the screen with his index finger.  “Those are RVs.”
    Ashland appeared to be a farming town, but one section of the town had dense woods.  A clearing showed what looked like a small hotel with a big yard and lots of vehicles parked on the grass, and on the other side of the woods was farmland, where a large number of RVs and fifth wheels were parked.
    Her heart ached sharply.  Her family – her clan – was there in Ashland for a bonding ceremony.  If things had been different, she would be there with them, too.
    “So this means that someone in your family, maybe a cousin, is getting mated?”
    She shrugged and turned away from the screen.  It hurt to see her family gathered when she couldn’t be there.  “I have a lot of cousins and they’re scattered all over the country in different clans.  My fourth cousin Dag has sons who are a few years older than you.  They were infants when I shifted at sixteen and was banished.”
    “Would Dag hate you if he saw that you were albino?”
    “It doesn’t matter.”
    “But it does.  Maybe they’re in Ashland because his kids are getting mated, and we can go there and talk to him.  If he won’t reject us, then we can join with his clan.”
    She stood and hugged her son.  “Oh honey, it doesn’t work like that.  I’m banished.”
    “Banished by your clan, not by all clans,” he argued.  “Aren’t you curious?”
    “Of course, but you know what they say about curiosity and the cat.”
    He snorted.  “Ma, I don’t know what’s going on, but I feel like we should go there.”
    “Oh no, that’s out of the question.”
    He gripped her arm and his green eyes were so fierce and demanding that she froze and wondered what was going on with him.  “Please, Ma.  We can stay somewhere outside of town and you can disguise yourself and go see the ceremony.  The woods are a good cover.  I bet that the ceremony will be behind that hotel or whatever that big building is.  You can hide out in the woods and see what’s going on.”
    She stared at him in shock.  He’d never been so insistent.  “What’s really going on?”
    “I don’t know.  Seeing the town makes me feel like we should go.  Do you ever feel like that?  Like you need to do something?  If we’re moving to Canada, then what’s the harm of taking a short trip to Ashland and checking out your family?”
    “If my clan catches me, they’ll kill us both, Dom.”  But even as she said that, she couldn’t ignore that something was telling her to take the trip, and it wasn’t just Dom’s insistence.
    “They won’t catch you.”
    She didn’t want to tell him no, but more than that was the fact that she wanted to go, too.  Seeing her cousins at the bar had stirred something inside her.  Her clan had banished her for something she had no control over.  A part of her wanted to see them once more, even if it was from a distance.  She could tie up this loose end of her life before they started over in Canada.
    Rue and Dom left for Ashland on Thursday.  They stopped in a city twenty miles outside Ashland, and she found a hotel and paid for a room.  They explored the town of