I still wasn’t ready to go home but I knew that I had to so I drove behind Chase since he stayed at the Lake house while I showered and got dressed. Abeloth was snorting in my head that we didn’t need a babysitter or an escort home.
“Shit is going to hit the fan,” Abeloth said.
“I get that feeling too,” I said to him.
“Guess we’ll know soon enough,” he mused as we entered lower Aurora and headed to the house.
I wasn’t looking forward to this. Lucas had a quick temper and when he was pissed off like I knew he was then you were in for the ride of your life. I had embarrassed him and the lair. As a Sire’s son I was one of the lead examples and the only one to reject my bonded half.
“Good luck brother,” Chase said as we climbed out of our cars.
“Did he send you to the lake house to look for me?” I asked him.
“No, I figured that one out all by myself, give me some credit,” he said with a smile.
“You really ruined my last day of freedom there,” I said to him.
“Shit Ry, that woman was in her twenties,” he said to me.
“What is that you’re always saying to me? Live a little, don’t bang just one girl,” I used his own words against him.
“Well yeah, but that was before I met Melissa,” he said.
“How is that going?” I asked him as he opened the front door.
“Really well actually, I like her family, she likes mine and we’re taking things slow,” he said to me.
“Chase the celibate Sire,” I said and laughed.
“Dad’s probably in his office,” he said and then laughed at me as I swallowed.
“It’s been nice knowing you,” I said as he laughed again.
I headed up the stairs and paused on the landing. I could smell Lucas there and I knew he was sitting in his office. He would also know where I had been since I knew that Chase would have called him the moment he saw my car there in Fairview.
“Ryder,” Lucas said as I still stood there on the landing.
“Dad,” I said as I walked to the doorway of his office.
“Take a seat,” he said.
I closed the door behind me and sat down opposite him and looked him in the eye. I knew what was coming and my reaction would depend on how soon he lost his temper with me. I wasn’t going to back down and he wasn’t going to like that.
“Care to explain what happened on Friday night?” he asked me as he leaned back in his chair.
“Not really, you were there,” I said to him and he smiled as he watched me. It was a dangerous smile.
“Seventeen and suddenly you think you’re a man?” he asked me.
“I’m not a kid anymore, my choices are my own to make,” I said to him.
“You represent me and this lair!” he said suddenly angry.
“It’s still my life and you have an heir, so my actions aren’t all that important,” I said to him.
“You took a vow when you merged with your beast to not reject your bonded half,” he said with a sigh.
“Abeloth rejected her as well,” I said to him.
“Which is why the Elders haven’t demanded your presence for punishment yet, we can still rectify this,” he said to me.
“Rectify this?” I asked.
“Yes Ryder. You’ll meet with the Elders and Tia and complete this bond, do the marking and things will settle down,” he said.
“No,” I said.
“Excuse me?” he asked as he stood up.
“I said no,” I said and stood up as well.
“What the hell is wrong with you?” he asked me angrily.
“You know what Dad, I don’t need this bullshit. You of all people should understand this! You can’t force me to do this!” I said angrily.
“Ryder, you will do this! We don’t reject our bonded halves!” he yelled at me.
“I won’t!” I yelled back at him and left his office.
“Don’t walk away from me!” he yelled as he followed me to my room.
“I don’t care what you or the Elders have to say! I’m not doing this!” I said as I grabbed a bag and started shoving my clothes inside.
“So you’re running away?” he asked me.
“I’m not running, I’m leaving, there’s a difference. I won’t stay here and be pressured into making some whore my bonded half, I don’t care who says what! I’d rather reject this lair than do that,” I said to him.
“Careful Ryder, if I cut you off, I cut you off completely. The Elders won’t be happy with this and neither am I,” he said to me.
“Fuck the Elders, fuck this lair and fuck you,” I said and stood with my bag in my hand.
I saw his fist hit me in slow motion but it felt like a train had hit me instead. I should have expected this, I was out of line but right now I didn’t care. I dropped the bag as his other fist connected with my ribs. I kept my arms close to my body and just tried to block him.
“Stop it!” Rylee yelled as she and Chase barged into my room. I hadn’t once hit him back, I wouldn’t hit my father.
“Fuck this,” I said and picked my bag up again as I wiped the blood from my mouth and walked past him out of my room.
“Ryder!” he yelled and Rylee tried to grab my hand. I pulled my hand free and walked down the stairs as Chase ran behind me.
“What the fuck are you doing?” he asked me, his eyes wide with disbelief.
“Leaving,” I said and opened the front door.
“Ry, wait, don’t leave like this,” Chase begged me.
“It doesn’t matter Chase, I can’t stay here and I won’t be forced to bond with someone I don’t want to be bonded with,” I said as I reached my car.
“So you’re just leaving me?” he asked angrily.
“You’re the future Sire, your place is here,” I said to him.
“So are you! We always said we’d do this together,” he said as he tried to stop me.
“Get your hands off me Chase, I’m leaving and that’s final,” I said as I pushed him out of my way and climbed into my car.
I drove away from the house without saying another word and without looking back. Abeloth had wanted to separate from me in my room when Lucas had started hitting me but I kept him at bay and now he seemed to settle down.
“You did the right thing,” he said in my head.
“Did I? I yelled at my father,” I said to him.
“He’ll get over it,” he said and turned on his side to sleep.
My phone rang a few times and between Lucas, Rylee and Chase they would try to call me every hour but I ignored them. I heard my phone ping and looked at the text message.
-Disconnect the gps of your car, located under the dashboard. Switch off the location on your phone. I can see that you’ve just left Aurora. Drive to Chicago and ask for Wentworth at the building on the corner of East 91st Street and South Jeffrey Boulevard, you’ll know it when you see it- Rev.
I pulled off next to the road and found the gps in the car. I pulled the wires loose and then I switched the gps location on my phone off as well. I wondered who Wentworth was and why Rev wanted me to go see him, I also knew that Rev was doing this without my father’s knowledge.
It took me less than an hour to reach Chicago and I drove to the address that Rev had sent me. I parked across the street and looked at the warehouse like building. That had to be the place, everything else looked like houses.
The door on the side opened as I neared it and a man looked me up and down, trying to assess my weaknesses and strengths. Abeloth didn’t like it and I had to keep a strong hold on him not to separate and kill this man.
“Name?” he asked me.
“Ryder Grey,” I said and he nodded.
“Follow me,” he said and walked into the building.
“I was told to ask for Wentworth,” I said at his retreating back.
“Referral?” he asked me.
“Rev Harris,” I said and he stopped short and turned back to face me.
“Rev sent you?” he asked me looking like he didn’t believe me.
“Yes,” I said as I took in my surroundings.
“Then you’ll have to go see Wentworth directly,” he said and motioned for me to follow him.
I followed him up a staircase and down a hall. He stopped in front of a door and knocked twice before opening it. He motioned for me to walk inside and then he closed it behind me. I stood in what I assumed was Wentworth’s office and looked around.
“What’s your name boy?” the voice came from the side and I turned towards it.
“Ryder Grey,” I said as he stepped out of the shadows.
“Wentworth Black,” he said and offered me his hand which I shook, “take a seat and tell me why you’re here.”
“I was sent here by Rev Harris, he told me to ask for you,” I said as I took a seat.
“Ah Rev Harris, man of few words,” he said and smiled. I couldn’t really place him.
“Honestly I don’t know why he sent me or why I came here,” I said as I looked at him.
“How old are you?” he asked.
“Seventeen,” I said and he frowned.
“Well Ryder Grey, this is the secret Elite unit of the Elite Hunter Team. We’re a small division and we go where nobody else wants to go. We handle the most dangerous and vile of our kind, you must have something good if Rev sent you to me,” he said.
“I didn’t even know there was an elite unit,” I said to him.
“Exactly,” he said with another smile.
I spent the next six months in Chicago and underwent rigorous training under Wentworth and his men. The groups were small and once you failed your mind was wiped by a witch and you went back to your old life. I felt at home even though I was the youngest by three years and I quickly became close friends with the other guys I was training with.Most of them had green or blue dragons and one or two had a violet one. There were no yellow dragons in our unit and these were the best of the best. Training started at five am and we stopped at ten pm every day. It was hard and brutal and we even underwent torture training where we were tortured.If I had been a boy when I walked into that building I was definitely a man after those first six months. We were taught how to fight with weapons, without weapons, with your dragon and without your dragon. There were vampires and wolves training with us and we would go head to head with each other.We were taught how to read people and situations, ho
I spent the rest of that Sunday shopping and settling in. I had gone for a jog since I was still in the training routine and I couldn’t just sit idly at home and do nothing. I had cleaned the house, jogged, washed the truck, gone shopping and packed everything away and I had already checked in.I felt better after talking to Chase and slightly worried that Lucas was looking for me so I drove to another store and bought a new cellphone. I drove to the forest behind the school and sat in the truck and called him.“This is Lucas,” he answered.“Hi Dad,” I said.“Ryder, are you okay?” he asked me.“I’m fine,” I answered him.“Where are you?” he asked me.“It doesn’t matter where I am or what I’m doing, stop looking for me,” I said.“I’ll never stop looking for you, you’re my son,” he said.“I’m working, taking responsibility, standing on my own two feet, you should be proud instead of trying to treat me like a little kid,” I said to him.“You have responsibilities at home,” he said to me.
It took another two weeks for Coach to organize the fight and he wanted me to be first up. I had started spending time with the other ten guys at school. They weren’t professional fighters but the fear of juvie kept them fighting even when most of them didn’t want to.The fights usually consisted of them being beaten up by adults which was hardly fair and I could see some of them were sick of it. They got paid just enough to keep them wanting more but not enough to stop or say anything.“It’s basically a blood sport where people bet on how fast our asses will be kicked in that ring,” Michael said as we sat at one of the outside tables.“Grown ass men, ex boxers, fighters or just plain crazy guys looking to vent kicking our asses all over the place, no fear of being arrested and they pay to hit us,” Denver remarked.“That’s bullshit actually,” I said as they looked at me.“There&rsquo
Felix and I spent the next nine months on the road searching for those rogue packs and eliminating them after getting the information that we needed to move on to the next one. We would call Wentworth to send in a cleaning crew after we were done and we had specific orders not to leave anyone alive.I hadn’t spoken to my father again after that one phone call and it had already been three months since the last time I phoned Chase. I couldn’t call him now as we were on the road heading to the location of a vampire coven.Felix was driving as I checked my two guns and strapped my other weapons to my legs and arms. I had started adding tattoos to my arms, one for every ten kills and I had almost completed my second sleeve. Felix had laughed as I sat in the tattoo parlor and then to my shock he sat for one too and our arms looked almost identical.We had become best friends over the last nine months and we had declared ourselves brothers of other species. We had vowed to always have each
“He should start to wake up any minute now,” Stella said.“Thanks Stella,” Lucas said as he sat next to the hospital bed.“Has Abeloth said anything?” Rev asked.“Not a word, he’s waiting for Ryder to wake up before he speaks,” Lucas said.“He’s extremely loyal,” Rylee muttered.“Too damn much for their own good,” Lucas said as he sighed.“At least Abeloth brought him home and he’s healing,” Chase said.“I want to know what the fuck happened to my son and where he’s been for this last year and a half,” Lucas said angrily and Chase looked away.“Lucas you might not like the answer,” Rev said and Lucas looked up.“What the fuck do you two know?” Lucas demanded as he looked at Rev and Chase.“I haven’t spoken to him in over three months,” Chase admitted, “but the last time we spoke he was heading to Idaho.”“And what was he doing there?” Lucas asked clenching his jaw.“I can’t tell you,” Chase said and Lucas slammed his fist down on the flimsy hospital trolley and it cracked in the middl
Stella discharged me but put me on bed rest for the next two days, I was itching to do something, anything at this point, I even missed training. Chase was busy during the days as he attended university and my father still hadn’t come to talk to me.I walked into the house at nine am and went upstairs to my room to have a decent shower. I stood under the hot water for as long as my throbbing leg allowed me and walked into my room with the towel wrapped around my waist.“You look much better,” she said as she sat on my bed.“What are you doing here?” I asked her.“I live here now, it’s good to see you Ryder,” she said as she stood up.“I really can’t say the same,” I said as I walked to my dressing room and started getting dressed.She was standing behind me shamelessly watching me as I got dressed. I ignored her as much as possible until she wrapped her arms around me from beh
I was sitting in a booth in the back, just needing some alone time and I was lost in thought as I kept seeing everything that had happened on that last assignment. It haunted me, Felix’s face just before he died. The whole setup with that ambush was puzzling me.“Is this seat taken?” I heard someone ask and I looked up.“Hey, no it’s not,” I said and smiled as she slid into the booth opposite me.“I heard a rumour that you were back,” she said and smiled at me.“Guess it’s true,” I said and she laughed.“How have you been?” she asked me.“Good and you?” I asked her.“Not too bad, my classes ended early today. I usually come here to do my homework, it’s quiet,” she said as a waitress brought her coffee over.“What are you studying?” I asked her.“Bookkeeping,” she said and then she laughed, &
“Can someone please explain what the hell is going on here?” Lucas asked as I stood shielding Megan with my body.“You can’t punish Ryder for this rejection, he did nothing wrong,” Megan said loudly.“And you are?” Elder Victor asked her.“Megan Greer,” she said.“The Elders decision is final young lady,” Elder Michael said.“I have proof,” she said and Tia’s eyes widened.“I hate you!” she yelled at Megan but I didn’t budge and she was hitting me out of frustration.“Please come here,” Elder Cliff said to Megan.I waited until Megan had reached the Elders and my father and she took her phone out. She turned the phone sideways so the Elders and Lucas could all watch the video she was playing for them. Lucas’s eyes found mine a few times and I could see rage in them.“Elko, you may let Ryder Grey go,” Elder Cliff said as the video ended.“We have seen enough proof that we support Ryder Grey’s rejection of Tia Malone. In the video it is clear that she had ill intentions with this bond a