Read Taken In by the Pack: Second Chances for Free Online Page B

to be talking, or doing much of anything, just watching attentively, as if they were afraid I was going to hurt Bryson, even though he was probably twice my size and four times as strong.
     
    “Adalyn.” His voice was soft and firm at the same time, as he tried to pull my attention back to him. My mind finally made the connection, that this was the voice of someone who was used to being in charge, and being listened to without question. It seemed like the voice of someone completely different than the sweet boy I had dated years ago, and yet it was the same voice. Still, I looked back up to him as he had intended. He was certainly as handsome as he had ever been, and even more alluring.
     
    What in the world is going on?
     
    I could feel tears trying to well up in my eyes. I was so completely confused; by him, by my own actions, and not least of all by this strange and threatening group.
     
    “If I let go, will you stay and listen to me?” He sounded so calm, so rational, as if nothing at all out of the ordinary had been happening.
     
    I tried to answer, but I couldn’t find my voice, so I merely nodded slowly. He let go of my arm, but kept his hand close to it for a long moment to make sure I would stay put.
     
    “Adalyn, Elijah was following you on my orders.” His tone was stiff, but strangely matter-of-fact, as if this should have been perfectly obvious. It wasn’t.
     
    For a long moment, I was genuinely worried I would pass out; I felt light-headed, and my vision began to fuzz out at the edges. I must have actually started to swoon, because he took hold of my arm again, but gently this time, supportive.
     
    “Your… orders?” I finally managed in a rough croak. He nodded slowly, his brows furrowed, the corners of his mouth turned down and his eyes full of concern at the way I was reacting. “What do you mean ‘your orders’? Why would a guy like that listen to you? You’re like half his age. And why would you have someone following me anyway?” By the end of this string of questions, my voice was rising again.
     
    “Shhhh, Ada, honey calm down,” he soothed, rubbing my arm gently.
     
    “Don’t you dare call me that! And answer my questions!” I lowered my volume a bit, but I was no less vehement.
     
    He sighed, regarding me for a long moment before he started to talk.
     
    “Maybe you already figured out, I am the… leader, of this… group.” The pauses seemed odd, like he was having to find the words. “I had Elijah follow you when I couldn’t.” He seemed uncomfortable now, as if finally becoming aware of how creepy that sounded.
     
    Good.
     
    “Oookay.” I pressed my hands to my temples, trying to make this make some kind of sense. “But— I still don’t understand. Why are you the leader? Why would these guys so much older than you pay any attention to what you say?”
     
    “It’s-” he paused, chuckling faintly, “well, it’s sort of an inherited position. Most of the time.” He lifted a hand to run it through his chin length brown hair, leaving it tousled it a bit so that it was messier when he was done instead of neater. “So when my dad died unexpectedly, I sort of became the leader. That’s-” he paused again, scuffing his feet a bit, like a child caught doing something naughty. “That’s why I left Charlottesville. To come back here, to fulfill my obligations to the… group. To take his place.”
     
     
    ❖ ❖ ❖

 
     
    I had the strangest sensation, as if the world literally lurched sideways under my feet. I felt light-headed again, and dizzy. This is why he had left me, crushed, all but destroyed? To take over as the leader of a freaking motorcycle gang , or whatever this bizarre group was? Had he never cared at all? Or was he just insane?
     
    “You aren’t making any sense!” I was whining, and I knew it, but I just couldn’t help it at this point. I was so dazed and bewildered, I just couldn’t make any sense out of any of this. “Why