The Bond (Book 2) Read Online Free PDF Page A

her grunting laugh echoing Willem’s.
    Aeron wiped his face and spit as he followed Anaya. “Disgusting.” He spit a few more times. “Some of your slobber got in my mouth.”
    As Aeron and Willem slid the large stable doors closed, Cheddar, long black hair tied back in a ponytail, walked out of Aeron’s study. “Anyone for hot cider?” He lifted up two mugs.
    “Oh, yes,” Aeron said, tucking the riding gloves in his jacket pocket. “But let me get her saddle off first.”
    “I’ll help,” Willem said, walking to the other side of Anaya.
    It took only a minute for the two of them to unstrap and transfer it to the saddle stand near the wall.
    Aeron accepted a mug from Cheddar. “This will help wash out my mouth,” he said. Eye on his bond-mate, he took a sip of the warm drink,.
    You did not wish to be left out, she sent as she circled her spot, so I licked your face, too. S he lay down, eyes on Aeron.
    Aeron smiled and shook his head. Right.
    “Let’s join the m in the investigation office,” Cheddar said as he handed the other mug to Willem. He turned to Aeron. “I want to hear about your excursion and so do Sharrah and Millinith.” He lowered his voice, a mischievous glint in his eye. “You should have seen Millinith. She was so chapped that Master Doronal went with you.”
    “Did she think he’d get hurt?” Aeron raised his brows, wondering if that was why she seemed upset.
    “Maybe,” Cheddar replied. Then, he grinned. “Or maybe she was angry that he’d gone instead of her!”
    They joined the rest in the office on the other side of the building.
    Aeron and Master Doronal spent the next several minutes describing the flight out and how they’d located the nahual. Aeron talked about his and Anaya’s nahual-sense and how they were getting better at focusing it. Master Doronal related how they had watched the nahual, Anaya hovering at a distance, as it dug into a small hummock .
    “I’m positive nahual can sense people,” Aeron said. “Probably like how Anaya and I can sense nahual.”
    “What makes you think that?” Millinith asked, eyes narrowed.
    “It turned and waited for us,” Master Doronal said, nodding.
    “Right,” Aeron said. “It knew we were there. Once Anaya landed, the three of us quietly made our way over to the nahual, and it was waiting, staring at us as we approached.”
    “ We suspected as much,” Millinith said, tugging her lip. “And this lends more cred ence to the idea.”
    “ The range doesn’t appear to be as great as our nahual-sense,” Aeron continued, “because it didn’t seem to know we were there as we watched it from the sky. But after we landed and got closer, it stopped digging and turned to watch us.”
    “How do you know it didn’t just hear you?” Willem asked.
    “Master Doronal thought to bring field glasses, and I used them now and again to keep an eye on the beast as we sneaked closer. I was watching the nahual through them when it just stopped digging and turned toward us. We’d been very careful to tread lightly before that.”
    “Reading Millinith’s reports,” Master Doronal said, “excellent as they are, did not prepare me for the  . . . wrongness of the creature. The only one I’d seen prior had been chopped to bits and pieces. They are so very like us, and yet so different.” He shook his head.
    Looking up at everyone, he said, “When we reached the beast, it was disturbingly calm. There we stood, a few feet apart, facing it: Aeron and myself and Anaya as well, who is no small thing. She was quite intimidating, actually, letting out an angry rumble every now and then as she watched the creature.
    “Even so, the beast stared at the three of us quite calmly. It was fairly dark, the stars and moons providing the only light, and other than Anaya’s occasional growl, the only sound was the whisper of the wind. It was a very strange tableaux.
    “Suddenly, the beast spun to face me and used the glamour spell. I recognized