Reluctantly Lycan Read Online Free PDF Page B

complete transition when I was supposed to.”
    “Then why did you abandon me?” He propped himself up with his elbows pressed into the bed a little ways behind him.
    “How can you be so oblivious? What were you doing the night before I disappeared?”
    He squinted, trying to remember. “Drank some moonshine with the guys. Can’t think of anything else. I was pretty wasted.”
    A single tear fell despite her best efforts and ran down her cheek. Angrily, she swiped it away. Too many had been spilled that night and in the years since. “Like I said, I ran to the clearing where we were going to meet, as always. Only you weren’t alone. You were screwing another girl.”
    “So you threw aside our life as pack mates because I had meaningless sex that I don’t even remember?” He gave an infuriating scowl in her direction. “The pack raised you when your parents were killed by hunters. Is that so easy to forget?”
    “You ’re blaming this on me ? I’m done talking about it. What’s done is done and I want you gone. I can’t believe I let you into my bed.” She wrapped the blanket around her, walked to the bedroom door, and unlocked it.
    Kaden crossed the room and put a hand to her cheek, for the first time touching her tenderly. “Maybe it was both our faults, but you need to come back home with me. I can’t continue on this way. I need a bonded mate.”
    “No.” Now that the animal appetite had been sated, her self-control had returned. “I don’t want to be a wolf and I don’t want to be with you.”
    “I’m returning to see my son tomorrow. You will have changed your mind by then.” He brushed by her, opened the door leading into the hallway, changed to wolf mid-stride, and disappeared silently down the corridor.
    Marala slumped to the floor and buried her face in her hands. The emotions overwhelmed her. The feelings of first love and of old betrayal tore her heart apart. If Kaden stuck around, the wolf in her would win. She curled into a fetal position, clinging to the blanket, and cried like she hadn’t in ages. She’d worked too long and too hard for everything to unravel because her formerly betrothed had returned.
     
    Jak showed up at the apartment early the next morning before school to retrieve a few textbooks he’d forgotten. Dishes were still in the sink and his mother’s purse on the counter. She should have been at work. Fearing a break in, he tiptoed down the hallway toward his mother’s room. When he found her on the floor wrapped in the blanket, he shook her.
    “Mom!”
    Her eyes flew open wide. “Jak. What is it!?” She looked around frantically, disoriented.
    “Thank god, I thought you’d been murdered. Why are you on the floor?”
    Mara kept the blanket wrapped around her body. “I had a strange evening.”
    “Did that Taylor guy spend the night or something?”
    “I did.” A loud voice said from the hallway. Kaden towered over them.
    Jak and Mara both gulped.
    When neither spoke, Kaden turned his attention to Jak and extended his hand in offering. “I’m Kaden, leader of the Dakota wolf pack.”
    “So, not only is my mom a lunatic, so is my father. Wonderful.” He reached out and shook Kaden’s hand despite his disbelief in what he was hearing.
    “I can prove it to you. Join me for a short road trip. I will return you home safely.”
    Jak turned to his mother. “Mom?”
    Her eyes slanted, but she nodded. “Bring him back, Kaden, or I will hunt you down, skin you, and use you as a living room rug.”
    He laughed and the hearty sound caught Jak of guard, making him jump a little. “Spoken like a true she-wolf. Let’s go, son. I’ll let you drive.”
    “I, uh, don’t know how to drive.” Jak said, jogging a few steps to catch up to Kaden who was already heading out.
    “It’s easy. I’ll show you.”
    Sure, his parents might be crazy, but Jak found himself grinning. For the first time in his life, he had a father.
     
    The ride out of the city was