Rejected (Shadow Beast Shifters, #1)(13)

He had nothing to worry about, truthfully, but he could at least attempt some humility.

The sounds of an approaching wolf propelled me forward, and I’d been sure I was about to make it when Jaxson got hold of my shirt with his teeth, yanking me back. How the fuck was he so close?

The overachieving bastard had shifted in seconds.

People were only a few dozen feet away, and I could have screamed, but if Jaxson’s wolf was in control, he’d kill them all. I couldn’t do that. Not to innocent humans.

I had to accept my fate.

Fighting to get free, I was halted when he pounced on my back. Dude was a big man, and an even bigger wolf. With the air knocked out of me, I tried to crawl, gasping for breath. Jaxson slid off, nudging me over so I was on my back, and with my chest heaving, I stared up at his midnight black wolf.

Fangs flashed in my face as he growled, and I knew this was my last moment on Earth. No matter how I tried to fight, he was larger and stronger, and I was succumbing to the injuries littering my body.

Sorry, my wolf.

I’d longed to know her better, but it wasn’t to be.

Maybe in our next life.

She howled then, a long, echoing lament that filled my body, but no sound emerged from my mouth. Jaxson leaned in closer, and just as his jaw clamped around my throat, I heard a shout from behind him. It sounded like Torin, but I couldn’t be sure because the wolf holding my life in his jaws sank his teeth in, yanking at the skin, and everything went black.





8

A t some point, I had accepted that there was no waking to another day.

I’d seen my last sunrise.

Eaten my last taco.

Sang my last song.

And while I had no regrets about running and attempting to have a better life, I was pissed as fuck about dying. I sure as hell didn’t deserve this fate, especially at the hands of the bastards who’d made my life hell in the first place.

Except it turned out death didn’t quite want me yet.

A splash of water smacked me in the face, followed by a slap across my aching cheek.

“Wake up, you stupid bitch,” a voice growled close by.

As more awareness filtered through me, pain made itself known. A groan escaped my lips, the sound small and pathetic.

“Should have left her for dead,” that same female grumbled. “Useless cunt is just lying in her own filth. Embarrassment to shifters.”

“Takes one to know one,” I murmured, words raspy and barely audible. My eyes still weren’t open, but I scented her moving closer.

“What the fuck did you just say?”

I forced my lips into a smile, even though my face felt like it was on fire. “I’ll talk slower.

Takes… One… To… Know… One…”

At this point, I could barely remember what she’d said. She’d called me something… Useless…?

Worthless?

“Did you just call me a cunt?” she snapped, and the pain in my side increased. At this point, I felt the nails digging into me from her half-shifted hands.

“Right,” I slurred. “I almost forgot. But yes, you’re a total cunty fuckhole, and I hope you get herpes and die of syphilis after your dick falls off.”

She roared so loud, it would have hurt my ears if I wasn’t already in so much pain that a little earache was nothing of concern. Her grip on me tightened, and another weak whimper left me.

“You’re going to wish that you died when you ran,” she murmured, sounding gleeful. “My job is to break you down until you are begging for death, and then, Victor is going to take over.”

Now I knew who this was: Glendra, the alpha’s mate. Torin’s mom, or as I liked to call her, the pack whore.

She was a nasty shifter I’d hated for years. She’d hung around my father like a bad smell way too many times for me to think she was anything other than someone who craved the attention of powerful men. She needed the gratification, and despite having a true mate, she could never seem to stop her wandering eye. And part of me still wondered if she wasn’t half the reason my father had attacked the alpha. Wouldn’t put it past a bitch like her to deliberately orchestrate drama that ended in murder.

Despite my pain and fatigue, I called on my wolf, and she rose within me like the perfect spirit goddess she was. The Shadow Beast was our god, more devil than angel, and I’d need his resilient strength to get through this.

Darkness was going to be my calling, and I allowed it to fill me so I could best this wolf.

Slamming my head forward, I cracked her in the face, knocking her scrawny ass off me. I followed this with a two-footed kick that sent her shooting away. Her screech was cut off by a heavy thud. She’d definitely hit something hard. My eyes were open enough at this point to see her sprawled back, unmoving.

And I knew exactly where we were: in the torture chambers below the main pack house. This is where my mother and I had been taken when Dad had attacked Victor. It was here we’d been subjected to “questioning” until everyone had been satisfied that we’d had no idea what my dad had been planning. Fat lot of difference that made anyway; we were still treated like fucking lepers.

But at least I knew my way around here from that time. Silver lining?

Glendra had left the door to my cell open, and I took the opportunity to get the hell out of there.