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He had ue Hunter he’d met and he’d stayed with her pack for three ed in a passionate affair before he had to break her heart by telling her he couldn’t mate with her He had never been able to explain the reason, and she had told hiive him Her hatred over his betrayal hadti his face between her hands tenderly, "I understand now," she whispered

She knew about Caia then

Caia!

Lucien glanced down beside hiaze was on the floor, her long hair hiding her expression froed to put Rose at a physical distance without hurting her feelings and she just kept s on to his arm

"You two are acquainted?" Marita asked softly

His head snapped up at her tone and he knew… he knew just looking at her eyes, slightly round with innocence, that she had done this deliberately

Phoebe MacLachlan didn’t know Rose Bronson; their packs were on different sides of the country Marita had brought Rose here as a distraction

He stilled the growl in his chest

Whatever was going on here, he was going to get to the bottom of it

8 - Consequences

He couldn’t remember when he’d had thiswith her beside hi with Jaeden had hiood way

Almost like foreplay

Ryder clenched his hand around the steering wheel at the thought, but there was no getting around the fact that he was extreeous smile and caustic wit The truth was, he wasn’t known for sticking with one fehts of having a respectable young fe up But the scary truth was he had never been this comfortable, and yet this attracted, to a female in his life

Could Jae be histo kill hihed heavily

"You OK?" she asked quietly, and he could feel her curiosity That ed about her anyway: as curious as a cat

He nodded, throwing her a weak s a little ahead of himself, that was all For Gaia’s sakes, they hadn’t even kissed yet Hey, not to mention the fact that he still didn’t knohat the Hades she was hiding; and that brought hiood tioing to consider ‘courting’ Jaeden then he needed to know everything there was to know about her

He cleared his throat "Soooo question"

Not unexpectedly, Jaeden groaned "Why, Ryder, why? We were having such a pleasant journey together"

He chuckled and glanced at her, enjoying the cute way her nose wrinkled at him in distaste "I’m curious, that’s all"

"And you knohat they say about curiosity"

"Good thing I’m a wolf and not a cat then, huh"

She blew out a drauered tone, "What’s the question?"

"How on Gaia’s green earth did you end up with a bunch of va his head away frouard and embarrassed?

"Well, there’s definitely a story there"

She shrugged at hi to answer the question?"

"Yeah, but dying won’t get it out ofthe road!" he exclaiht ahead

Silence

"Jaeden?"

"OK, OK I ended up with vampyres because I roup of hunters, and it would be a good way to work out all ression"

"He?" Ryder did not like the sound of that

"Reuben He was cute and funny, and I think he’s older than he lets on because he’s very intuitive He see withdown killers, and saving a few people, would help"

"This randouy approaches you and you just, what… ht schools started teaching ‘stranger danger’ frouy," she replied defensively "He has a intuition I didn’t tell him all that much until we knew each other better, and even then I didn’t really explain the full scope of ood friend to oodbye"