Destined (War of the Covens 2)

“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.

She harrumphed.

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 presence filled the truck cab as he drove them out of the city and toward the pack. The fact that he was singing “Sweet Home Alabama” didn’t help matters.

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!” she exploded. “If I am to survive a road trip back to the pack, I’m going to need you not to do that.”

“Lynyrd Skynyrd?”

“Nope.”

“‘Sweet Home Alabama’?”

“Nope.”

He looked at her in confusion, his warm hazel eyes round, his usually sexy grin missing and replaced by a near-childish pout. “Then what?”

“Singing. Ryder. The singing.”

“Excuse me?”

“Please tell me you are not delusional enough to think you can actually sing.”

He looked genuinely affronted. “I will have you know that my voice has been praised by many lovely ladies.”

“Wow, you really must be good in bed, ’cause they’ve been feeding you a crock of crap.”

“What?” Ryder huffed, glancing from her back to the road. “Well … what? You know, I have been dropkicked by a lykan on steroids, had an actual samurai sword sliced through my shoulder, and been shot in the chest with buckshot … but that shit there really hurt.”

A silence descended upon the cab.

And then Jaeden erupted. She was laughing so hard she could barely breathe, and the longer she laughed, the wider Ryder’s grin got. When at last her giggles dissipated, she felt exhausted and mildly uncomfortable for having really laughed for the first time since Ethan.

“That was nice to hear,” Ryder said. “Even though I was being completely serious.”

The smile he threw her was soft and coaxing, and she suddenly remembered why he had been her school-girl crush. The wolf was gorgeous, no question. She looked away, trying to make out the passing landscape in the dark.

Reuben was going to be pissed off when he returned and found her gone. As it was, the goodbye had been harder than she’d ever wanted it to be. All this time she thought she had truly cut herself off from people, but no. The sight of Styx crying had done her in, leaving her with painful regret at not being able to put a comforting arm around the girl and tell her she was sorry, that it would all be okay. She’d left Lily to do that, who glared at her the entire time she packed, refusing to speak to her. Josh and Adam said their goodbyes, their eyes nervously returning to Ryder. She wondered what the lykan had done to them before she got there.

So she had left them. Styx was sad. Lily was pissed. What did they expect her to do? Fight the coven? Were they crazy?

No. She was going home. Where she belonged.

What?

A languorous, melting sensation spread through her body, and a tension she’d gotten so accustomed to slipped from her mind. She felt like she’d been sleeping for the last few months and now found herself awake. A rush of feelings, so in contradiction to what only minutes before she’d been so sure of, washed over her.

She wanted to go to the pack. She wanted to see her parents.

Wow. She was so sure she hadn’t wanted that at all.

Here’s hoping the telekinesis doesn’t kick in then, huh? she thought wryly, confused by her sudden desire to return to the pack.

“Hey, Jaeden?”

“What?” she asked without looking at him, trying to hide her sudden disorientation.

“Earlier when you said Caia would be angry at the coven if they locked you up, what did that sarcastic noise you made mean?”

“What did you think it meant? It meant, why the Hades would Caia care if they locked me up? We knew each other for all of five seconds.”

The growl that rumbled from Ryder’s chest alerted her. Perhaps she’d made a mistake.

“You ungrateful pup.”

Yup. Definite mistake.

“Caia risked her ass to save you from Ethan, and don’t give me any crap about it being her fault you were there in the first place, because it wasn’t. It was mine and it was Lucien’s, and it was your father’s. It was the pack’s fault we didn’t protect you. But Caia”—Ryder shook his head in anger—“that girl did everything she could. She risked everything to find you. And don’t you forget it.”

She wanted to scream at him, wanted to rail and rage that he had no idea what she’d been through, so how dare he? But in the end, she knew he was right. No matter how much she wanted to blame Caia for Ethan taking her, deep down she knew if there was one person in this world she might count on, she was guessing it was Caia Ribeiro. Ryder obviously thought so, too, and clearly had a lot of respect and admiration for her.