Hybrid Aria by Jessica Hall novel Chapter 27

Aria’s POV

Running down the stairs and racing out the back, I saw Zane had set up a huge jumping castle. It was a princess one with a huge slide and on the side a climbing wall and a jumping pit. Christine was on it, bouncing around with Lily and Amber. Seeing me walking towards them, she waved me over, telling me to get in. I hadn’t been on a jumping castle since I was a kid. The jumping castle looked intimidating, an injury waiting to happen. As I went to climb up, my legs were suddenly ripped from underneath me, making my stomach drop and the air to leave my lungs before I was tackled, my body bouncing in the air on the jumping castle. My legs stretched out in a not so lady-like manner.

Looking over, I see it was Wendy. She was laughing hysterically at her actions, which nearly caused me to have a heart attack. The worst part though was looking back out through the netting and seeing Zane, Reid, and Mitch were laughing, sitting on the bench seat watching. Getting to my feet, I tackled Wendy onto the slide, and we both ended up rolling down before I ended up landing on top of her on the grass. Jumping to my feet, I took off running. Wendy started chasing me along with Lily and Amber, who jumped off the castle to help her. When they failed to catch me, I heard Wendy’s cracking bones as she dived into her wolf form. Her wolf was a light grey with a bluish tint to it. She had a white streak that went from her head to her tail, and she was big even in wolf form. Growling playfully, she ran at me, before lunging. I dropped to my knees, landing on my back, sliding along the grass. Wendy went straight over the top of me landing on her paws, spinning around. I stuck my tongue out at her before taking off heading straight towards where Reid, Zane, and Mitch were sitting. Darting behind her mate, I shoved him at her just as her wolf went to tackle me.

Mitch landed on the grass with a loud thump. Lily and Amber both jumped on him, holding him down. Knowing Wendy couldn’t climb on to the castle in her wolf form without popping it, I tried to sneak back to the jumping castle to catch my breath. Wendy, noticing my hesitation looking between the trees and the castle, chased me down, her fast on my heels running around the back of the jumping castle. I took off towards the trees when I heard a loud growl.

Looking back towards everyone, Reid was taking off his shoes. Wendy’s wolf collided with me, knocking me to the ground before she started playfully sniffing my face, telling me she won. Looking back over, I watched as Reid took his shirt off. Damn, that man is fine.

Reid had a silly smirk on his face that turned into a devilish grin. Christine mind linked me, her voice ringing loudly through the link. “I would run if I were you. The big bad Alpha is coming.” I watched as everyone turned to look at the Alpha. He shook his head at Christine for dobbing him in. I watched as he started running towards me. I heard the sickening crack of his bones snapping mid-jump as he took his wolf form. Landing on the grass about 40 metres away, I stared at him. His wolf was more like the size of a bear, completely black, his shiny fur had not a patch of colour anywhere. Even in his wolf form, Ryder seemed to be smiling, baring his teeth. Jumping to my feet, I ran straight towards the trees.

I could hear Ryder gaining on me, hear the twigs breaking under his giant paws. Running through the forest, everything became a blur. I felt free as the trees whipped past me, the branches hitting my skin. My adrenaline pumped with excitement as I weaved in and out when suddenly I hit a clearing. Nowhere to hide, I turned to the left, running along the tree line. Ryder still hadn’t caught up. Using that to my advantage, I climbed a huge tree standing on the branch, I waited.

A few seconds after knowing the branch would easily hold my weight, I got comfy on my branch, draping my legs over either side. Ryder came into my line of sight he was sniffing the ground. I placed my hand over my mouth to muffle my giggling. I watched as he kept running past then stopping after losing my scent. Turning around, he was at the bottom of the tree I was hiding in.

I watched as he sniffed the tree before looking up, his gaze landing on me straddling the branch. He tilted his head to the side. “Ryder can’t climb, but I can.” Reid’s voice coming through the mind link, my smile dropped. I looked down before climbing another branch. Going back to his human form. I heard him laugh, making my eyes dart back to him. Reid was standing there in all his naked glory, smiling back at me. He started climbing the tree alarmingly fast. I took off running along the branch before jumping to a nearby tree, gripping the tree with my claws before I steadied myself. Looking at the ground, I gasped. That’s a long way down in my adrenaline rush I hadn’t realised how high I had actually climbed. Frozen on the tree, Reid jumped over landing on the branch above me. “You can run, but you can’t hide.”

“Ha, that’s what you think,” I threw back at him before clenching my teeth. I jumped off the branch the ground rushing towards me, making me let out a high pitch squeal, my feet landing on the ground below. I was now looking up at Reid who looked like he was about to have a heart attack at my little stunt. I saw him mutter something under his breath but couldn’t make out what he was saying. I knew he would have to climb down. His human form isn’t sturdy enough to jump the thirty or forty metres to the ground.

“You could have hurt yourself doing that.”

“Don’t you mean, you would hurt yourself if you tried that?” He shook his head at me. Climbing down the tree while I watched his nice firm ass. I giggled to myself watching him swinging from branch to branch, like Tarzan.

“What are you laughing at?”

“The view,” I called back. He smiled at me. Before hanging from a lower branch by his arms, he let go landing on his feet in front of me. I stared at his gorgeous body covered in sweat, his tanned skin shining in the sunlight. My eyes running down his body to his V-line.

“Hey, my eyes are up here.”

Rolling my eyes at him. I shoved him to the ground, making him land in the dirt, and took off running towards the Pack house. I could hear him shifting back into wolf form just as I broke through the tree line. Seeing his clothes laying on the ground, I reached down and grabbed them, only leaving his shoes. Zane and Mitch watched as I darted inside, locking the door behind me. Everyone was standing inside the kitchen, watching amused. I knew Reid wouldn’t fit inside the door in wolf form, his shoulders were too wide. I watched as he breathed on the glass, I waved his clothes at him.

“He is going to kill you when he gets inside,” said Christine.