‘He’s always attracted women like that and usually tires of them and moves on. But evil Ella is such a strong personality she has started to control him,’ Conor put in.
Jason agreed. ‘What I don’t get is he adores you, Cassie, yet his choice is the total opposite.’
‘Don’t give up on your friend. This is hard for him too. Can you imagine the hell he is putting himself through, bending backwards and doing what he can to please her but also missing you all like crazy? He would have received Kayden’s call and is probably frantic about now because he can’t get to us in time. That’s the biggest lesson he has to learn. As Kayden said, she will always make it hard for him to respond and he knows now he has to choose.’
‘I wish we were as confident as you are, Cassie,’ Ethan said, a bit glum.
‘It could be anyone of you in that situation. It would make no difference I would hold the same hopes for you. It would be a sad day for any of us if our chain gets broken.’ She gave them an evil little look. ‘And if this doesn’t work by playing nice, I’ll just have to go scratch the witch’s eyes out and zap her so hard she never even tries to look back,’ she giggled.
They all started to laugh and Jason squeezed her, feeling in a better mood already. ‘You’re good for us, Cass.’
Kayden came back, his face expressionless and his eyes more focused and darker than she had ever seen them. ‘They’re not happy Woody’s not with us and that we have replaced him with a woman. Sorry, honey but the bitches in their packs are the weakest sex. They only use their females for breeding, not fighting. They’re going to call on Orion to step in if we can’t stop Arietis. This could blow up into a full-scale attack. What worries me more is that Aldebaran can at any time blanket Cassie and take her out of the picture so she can’t help us fight. We men will have to be alert so we can warn her to get out of the way. Cassie, this time if I say move, don’t even look behind you, spin in a downwards spiral and get out of there,’ he said, putting her back on the horse. From his hands she could feel tiny sparks of concern that gave her body small anxious shocks where he touched. She knew he wanted to rip her off Starburst right then and there and take her with him on Zoltan but she also knew he needed to be hands-free to help his men.
SX Arietis was in sight as Kayden pulled them up and positioned the horses where they waited patiently for instructions. Starburst and Cassie were to remain where they were until needed. She was the back-up to shoot him out into orbit if he passed by the others. The four of them shot off after Arietis to intercept him and to Cassie it looked as if he put a burst of power on and took off like the speed of lightning. If it were Kayden’s plan to talk to him, it seemed unlikely he was going to hang around long enough to listen. The Cloud Riders were travelling so fast now they seemed to blur into the spinning star. She heard Kayden talking to Arietis, trying desperately to make him stop and discuss it. Kayden had called to Cassie to get ready on his command in order to push him out of harm’s way. He moved in closer and just as her hands went up to push him out into the atmosphere where he could cause no danger, the star pulled up suddenly. It slowly moved towards her, stopping so close she could see a figure watching her from a control tower.
Kayden instructed them to land on Arietis’s star. However, they were ordered to stay on the horses and to ready themselves for an assault in case it was a trick. Arietis was waiting for them outside with his many guards when the horses landed on the surface.
‘Ahearn, lord of the horses,’ he smiled at Kayden. ‘You have recruited a new soldier and what a perfect vision. I couldn’t help but stop to admire her just for a minute. Has she a name?’
His eyes were fixed on Cassie, so Kayden glanced over, nodding for her to answer him.
‘My name is Cassandra Wyatt.’
He walked over to her in a trance-like state, took her hand and kissed it. ‘Your beauty dazzles me, Miss Wyatt.’
‘Funny. You shouldn’t be so kind and flattering considering I was just about to send you to the never land.’
He laughed heartily and made her smile. She liked his laugh, even if he was a bad boy. Then his face became serious again. ‘Perfection has always got an evil side. I wouldn’t have expected less and yet even so, you have stopped me in my tracks. I am a man, after all and to meet such beauty is humbling. Thus I will allow your sarcasm towards me.’
Kayden wasn’t giving her any instructions, therefore she figured he wanted to play this out and see what happened. Cassie pulled an innocent girlie look and grinned. ‘I meant no harm by my comment. All is fair in love and war though, is it not?’