They all turned and watched the gorgeous female sashay into the room. Lucien had heard reports of Phoebe from Ryder who said the Rogue Hunter looked like an angel, fought dirty like Hades, and had a heart of stone. It looked like he was right. She was tall and curvy with heaps of golden hair cascading over her shoulders, but her ice-blue eyes were hard and calculating as they drank in the team, her mouth twisted in what looked like scorn.
She shook hands with no one, just braced herself against the nearest wall, her gaze straight ahead at Marita.
“And Phoebe has requested we involve another lykan whom she trusts. Rose Bronson.”
Lucien felt like he’d been sucker punched.
Rose. Rose was here?
Yup. There she was.
The statuesque redhead almost galloped into the room, and as soon as her brown eyes spotted him, she broke into a wide smile and launched herself at him. He instinctively caught her, although his mind was still in shock.
“Rose,” he murmured, and she pulled back, her citrusy scent bringing with it a rush of memories.
He met Rose two years after he’d left the pack. She was a Rogue Hunter, and he stayed with her pack for three months. Three months in which they’d engaged in a passionate affair before he had to break her heart by telling her he couldn’t mate with her. He’d never been able to explain the reason, and she told him she would never forgive him. Her hatred over his betrayal had made it easier to walk away … but it had taken him a long time to get over her.
“Lucien.” She tenderly held his face between her hands. “I understand now,” she whispered.
She knew about Caia, then.
Caia!
Lucien glanced down beside him to see how she was reacting, but her gaze was on the floor, her long hair hiding her expression.
He managed to put Rose at a physical distance without hurting her feelings; she just kept smiling at him and holding on to his arm.
“You two are acquainted?” Marita asked.
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 on purpose.
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 this much fun.
The daytime drive hadn’t seemed so long with her beside him, cracking jokes, teasing him. Sparring with Jaeden had him strung out … but in a good way.
Almost like foreplay.
He clenched his hand around the steering wheel at the thought, but there was no getting around the fact that he was extremely attracted to the now-senior Jae, with her gorgeous smile and caustic wit. The truth was, he wasn’t known for sticking with one female, and he had a pretty colorful past as a player. Thoughts of having a respectable young female like Jaeden in his bed were enough to have her father kill him if he ever found out.
But the scary truth was … he’d never been this comfortable—and this attracted—to a female in his life.
Could Jae be his mate?
His heart stopped.
Yeah, Dimitri was so going to kill him.
Ryder sighed heavily.
“You okay?” she asked. He could feel her curiosity. That much hadn’t changed about her anyway—as curious as a cat.
He nodded, throwing her a weak smile. Yeah, he was cool. Just getting a little ahead of himself, that was all. For Gaia’s sake, they hadn’t even kissed yet. Not to mention the fact that he still didn’t know what the Hades she was hiding, which brought him back to another dilemma. They were having such a good time together, and he didn’t want to spoil it, but if he was going to consider “courting” Jaeden, then he needed to know everything there was to know about her.
He cleared his throat. “So … question.”
Not unexpectedly, Jaeden groaned. “Why, Ryder, why? We were having such a pleasant journey.”
He chuckled and glanced at her, enjoying the cute way her nose wrinkled in distaste. “I’m curious, that’s all.”
“And you know what they say about curiosity.”
“Good thing I’m a wolf and not a cat then, huh?”
She blew out a dramatic breath, asking in a beleaguered tone, “What’s the question?”
“How on Gaia’s green earth did you end up with a bunch of vampyres?”
“Oh.”
Ryder grunted, turning his head from the road to see her expression. She looked caught off guard and … embarrassed?
“Well, there’s definitely a story to tell.”
She frowned. “Watch the road.”
“Are you going to answer the question?”
“Yeah, but dying won’t get it out of me any faster.”
“Okay, I’m watching the road!” he exclaimed, staring straight ahead.
Silence.
“Jaeden …”
“Okay, okay. I ended up with vampyres because I met one on the bus who told me he ran with a group of hunters, and it would be a good way to work out my aggression.”