River Cast: Part Two in the Tale of Lunarmorte Read Online Free PDF Page A

to Lucien and then Lucien to him. He knew the girl had been
through a lot, a Hades lot. But she knew the rules inside
out.
    You did not hunt other
supernatural races.
    If he hadn’t witnessed the
horrific situation Jae had been in with Caia’s uncle Ethan, he
would have been yelling at her by now. But he had seen only a
fragment of the damage committed to a girl who had once been the
most spunky, vivacious kid in the pack. He wasn’t going to condemn
her for this stupidity. He was going to put her in the truck and
leave this mess in the past where it belonged. That was if she ever
made a move into the apartment towards him. He frowned as her blue
eyes flickered towards the vamp kids who sat on a dilapidated old
sofa looking terrified.
    “ They’re
fine. No harm done.” He smiled cheekily, holding his hands up in a
surrender gesture. And he wasn’t lying. After they had come home to
find him there, they had attacked, but quickly saw reason after he
blocked and outmanoeuvred all three of them. And that tall chick
had game, he inwardly winced, recalling her near blow to his
groin.
    He waited patiently.
Jaeden didn’t respond.
    Finally, she took a
tentative step inside the apartment, her slender hands gripping the
tiny female vampyre behind her, pulling her inside before she
calmly slid the door closed. Ryder waited as she turned back
towards him, her face expressionless.
    She was different, he
suddenly realised.
    It wasn’t just that her
manner had changed. She used to be a bundle of energy, always in
motion, her sentences forever flowing into one another. Now she was
cool and aloof, a reserve in her gorgeous blue eyes that had never
been there before. Ryder shrugged off an uncomfortable, unwelcoming
feeling as his eyes drank her in. Jaeden had grown up... and the
effect was well...
    She was hot.
    Crap.
    “ What are you
doing here?” She finally asked, softly, warily.
    Ryder decided now wasn’t
the time to mess around.
    “ I’ve been
sent to return you to the pack.”
    Her eyes narrowed
instantly, her body shifted into defence mode. “I don’t want to go
back.”
    For the
hundredth time, Ryder wondered why Jaeden couldn’t stand to be
around her pack. When anything got to him that badly, all he wanted
to do was be with
the pack. The bubble of irritation under his skin threatened to
vocalise itself, but he checked it at the last minute. “I’m afraid
you don’t have a choice,” he replied evenly. “It’s either the pack
or imprisonment.”
    Her mouth fell
open.
    Finally. A
response.
    “ What?” She
growled, her lykan distorting her voice.
    Ryder chuckled, crossing
his arms over his chest. “What, you didn’t think you could break a
major Coven law and not have to deal with it?”
    The look of panic shot
through her eyes but only briefly - Ryder watched in amazement as
the look was literally shrugged out of existence as she walked
towards him, her shoulders drawn back defiantly. The girl really
had become something, he mused, enjoying the panther-like way she
moved.
    “ Why am I not
arrested then?”
    “ Because of
Caia.”
    “ Ah.” Jae
nodded, smirking at the irony. “They need her, and they know that
throwing away the key on me would piss her off.”
    Ryder gave a brief
nod.
    “ Hmmph.”
    What the
Hades did that mean? He wondered in
annoyance.
    “ I guess I
have no choice.”
    “ None
whatsoever.”
     
    ***

    It was weird seeing Ryder
again.
    His entire
presence filled the cab of the truck, as he drove them out of the
city and towards the pack. The fact that he was singing Sweet Home Alabama didn’t help the matter.
    Jaeden groaned and
burrowed deeper into the passenger seat. She couldn’t believe it.
How had she gone from being a Rogue Hunter one minute to being...
what... Ryder’s babysitting job?
    “ Sweet Home
Alabama! Yeah! Where the skiiiieees are sooo blue! Sweet
Home...”
    Oh goddess
help me , she whimpered. He was so out of
tune.
    “ Alabama!
Woo! Swe-”
    “ RYDER!”