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Roark Ryder
Roark Ryder
Author

Novels by Roark Ryder

The Dark Ones

The Dark Ones

Georgia Pearce is a typical teenage girl, anxious to find her place in the world when she encounters Hayden Ryder, the enigmatic new student at her school. She is captivated by his beauty and aura despite his fierce temper. At first, he seems to despise her but is then inexplicably drawn to her too. What Georgia doesn’t know is that Hayden has a chilling secret, a beast that lurks within him. Ignoring the signs, she falls deeper in love, unaware of the danger she faces. Mysterious deaths begin plaguing her town as Hayden’s behavior grows more unpredictable. Could he be the one to blame for all the killings? Georgia’s need to protect herself is overwhelmed by her instinct to stay by his side. She refuses to give up on him, believing that her love will be enough to tame the monster inside Hayden. Is she just naïve, or more capable of protecting herself than anyone realizes? Does Georgia’s love for Hayden prevent her from seeing a simple truth, that loving someone like Hayden walks hand in hand with her doom?
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Chapter: Chapter Twenty: United
Georgia stood with her head down as she stared at the coffin in front of her while the Priest addressed the mourners. A single tear rolled down her cheek. So many of her childhood memories of Abbi came flitting back to her mind now. She felt guilty about how tainted they used to seem. Between her parents, extended family, and the doctors always telling her that Abbi was crazy, she used to look back on their time together with a level of discomfort. It always felt like her Abbi was lost and nothing she had ever said to her was worth remembering. She knew that Abbi loved and favored her more than her cousins. That part was always obvious. She could still picture the huge smile that would spread on her face whenever Angela took her to visit Abbi as a child. “ven aquí mi niña,” she would say, holding out her arms widely to embrace her. “Come here my little girl,” it meant. The words rang through her mind now and made her tears fall faster. Hayden was beside her and put his arm arou
Last Updated: 2023-01-09
Chapter: Chapter Nineteen: Uncertainty
Once home again, despite all the fear raking through her mind, Georgia fell into a deep sleep that night. She thought of Abbi. Since their visit, she’d been able to sense her even though they were too far away to communicate. All she could sense was her overall energy and mood. Before falling asleep, the last thing she felt was that Abbi was anxious. She could also tell she wasn’t doing well. Her energy was more distant than ever and it felt like a signal that kept growing weaker. Georgia instinctively knew what this meant. She didn’t have much time left. Knowing how close to the end she was and how much she was suffering, Georgia couldn’t understand why she desperately clung on. She could sense that Abbi was refusing to let go for a reason. She just didn’t know what it was. When the morning arrived, Georgia’s mood was morose. She showered and changed, taking a lot more interest in herself during these activities than she normally would. It was an unnerving feeling knowing this could
Last Updated: 2023-01-09
Chapter: Chapter Eighteen: Bitter-Sweet
As Georgia lay in bed that night, the full weight of the last two weeks came crashing down on her. Since meeting Hayden, discovering their connection, and falling in love with him, their world together had dominated everything else. Nothing was normal anymore. So much had happened since meeting him, it felt like months had passed instead of just two weeks. The events of earlier that day played in her mind. Remnants of Hayden’s deep pain and remorse still churned in her brain. She felt it all and now knew why he was such a tortured soul. Seeing Claudine Grimsby’s mutilated body had been so difficult for her to deal with but it was nothing compared to Hayden’s agony when he discovered his parents. They were almost unrecognizable. To have seen that and then had to live with the knowledge that he’d done it was unimaginably difficult. She felt for him. He kept blaming himself. Later he blamed the wolf and separated himself from its actions as a kind of defense mechanism. It was a lot to
Last Updated: 2023-01-09
Chapter: Chapter Seventeen: Remorse
The drive home was subdued. There seemed to be a silent understanding between them. The quietness acted like a reminder that their entire future together was now predicated on surviving a fight to the death that neither knew if they were ready for. It got to Georgia after a while and she tried to ease the underlying tension. She searched Hayden’s mind. Despite his promises to Abbi, he still kept most of it tightly closed. She searched for a way to calm his mind. She played around with the music, selecting love songs at first. Since they were facing an uncertain future as lovers, these only made the mood more depressing so she switched to more upbeat tracks. These made her feel better at least so she decided to speak first. “I feel terrible for Abbi. To think, all those years we just treated her like a crazy person.”He agreed and then opened up a little. “It must have been horrible keeping all that inside for so long. It’s a very lonely existence to bear. Before you came along, I ex
Last Updated: 2023-01-09
Chapter: Chapter Sixteen: Understanding
It was a crazy thing to be in love after just one week. Despite the strangeness of theirs, Georgia knew it was real—more real than any other love story she’d ever known. It wasn’t just words, they truly meant it. She was left rattled but still happy. The pain and fear of knowing Hayden contemplated leaving her was difficult to deal with. She reminded herself that he wanted to leave but didn’t. Instead, when so many surrounding circumstances made him want to walk away, he still chose her and chose to stay.There was no existence without him. It was a scary feeling. Being so dependent on another person wasn’t healthy but whatever binding force drove them to each other seemed to only have one setting—permanent and irrevocable. She watched him now. He’d shown up on time to fetch her. He also opened the car door for her, held her hand tightly throughout the day, and kissed her without abandon in the hallway that morning. He even smiled more, was clean shaven, and sincerely cheerful. It was
Last Updated: 2023-01-09
Chapter: Chapter Fifteen: Loved
The rest of the weekend passed by in a depressing blur. Georgia spent the remainder of Saturday night desperately trying to connect to Hayden. She sensed the anger and rage in him as he drove away that night. She managed to keep it bay during the fight but knew as he left that it wouldn’t stay that way. Just as she was getting better at tapping into his mind, he was getting better at blocking her from it. He shut her out completely after that and she was forced to spend the entire night wondering if he was safe. Sleep evaded her completely until eventually, she heard the birds chirping and saw lines of sunlight creeping in through cracks in her curtains. That morning was a drag. She got through it on autopilot, a painful migraine shadowing her every move, and making her feel like the walking dead. Her parents were oblivious. Her mom kept going on about how great Hayden was. It irritated her since she was annoyed with him but played along to not arouse her parents’ suspicions that thi
Last Updated: 2023-01-09
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