Rejected (Shadow Beast Shifters, #1)(26)

“It’s not your fault, Meers,” Jaxson replied, almost instinctively defending me. I didn’t bother to argue since we were now outside, the fresh icy air slapping us in the face, and we could finally see a little in front of us.

Out here was a source of light I couldn’t identify, but it was enough for our shifter vision to kick in. “This is not like nightfall,” I breathed. “It’s like a shadow has blocked out the sun completely.”

A shadow.

Mother fucking fucker.

“I can scent pack over here,” Jaxson said, and for once, those words were a relief.

He led me around the side of the house, toward the front entrance with its circular driveway.

Jaxson’s fancy blue sports car was awkwardly parked there, driver’s side door still open like he’d exited in a rush. And right behind it was…

“The fuck…” Jaxson muttered, seeing them at the same time as me. “They weren’t here when I arrived.” His hands trembled as his voice wolfed out.

Hundreds of pack members were out in front of the pack house, statue still, staring up at the sky.

At a tiny point of midnight shimmer to be more accurate. Shimmer that was the source of light.

Jaxson angled his body in front of mine. “It’s magic.”

We might have been shifters, but that wasn’t really magic. We shared our souls with beasts, and they lent us their energy and senses, giving us extra abilities. Magic, like waving wands and casting spells, was the stuff of legend.

No supernatural creatures we knew about could do this.

“Stay behind me,” Jaxson said, creeping closer to the pack.

No way did he get to order me around, so I moved forward at my own pace, by his side. When we reached the front of the group, where Torin and Victor stood, I could really see the spot of darkly shimmering mist. A mist that every single shifter stared at.

It was about eight feet tall, flickering gently in the night air; a portal of midnight glitter that shouldn’t have been visible against the black backdrop, but it was.

“Mera,” Jaxson hissed, pulling me to a stop. “Don’t move a muscle.”

I jerked my arm free. “Muscles move whether I want them to or not. You really shouldn’t have slept through biology.”

He glared at me. “Not the fucking time, Sunny. Not. The. Time.”

I smiled sweetly, hoping that it wasn’t so dark that he would miss the murder in my eyes. “If you call me ‘Sunny’ one more time, there will only be one functioning member of this pack remainin—”

My threat was cut off by an icy rush of air. So cold that even with a shifter metabolism, I shivered uncontrollably, my skin covered in goosebumps.

“That’s why I said not to move,” Jaxson murmured so low, I could barely hear him. “That sparkly mist is hiding something.”

The icy air ramped up, and maybe it was that I was staring directly into the shimmering darkness, but I saw the exact moment the shadows abandoned their master, revealing a being that could only be described as beyond this world.

My mouth went dry as I stared, frozen by more than the arctic winds.

He was touched by light. The only light that currently existed in the world. Raven hair tousled in curls atop his head—a hairstyle that could have made him appear angelic, but there was nothing further from the truth.

He was breathtakingly scary and perfectly sinful.

Maybe it was his intimidating height, well over a foot taller than me, or maybe it was the way his eyes were beams of red and gold, flickering between the two with an intensity that had me wanting to start running and never stop.

I didn’t move, though, unable to tear my gaze from him, devouring each detail like it’d be on the most important test I’d ever take. He had a cut jaw and high cheekbones, lending him to an ethnicity that could never be defined, because it did not exist on the earthly plane. His clothing was exactly what I’d expect a human to wear: dark pants, heavy-soled boots, and a form-fitting black shirt. But the body below them was impressive to the point of impossible.

And I was almost certain his muscled arms were inked as well, tattoos peeking out from the edge of his shirt. They should have been hard to see in the night-like light, on skin that was the darkest shade of bronze in existence, but they glowed softly, adding one more impossible to this… creature.

He stepped toward me, his focus intense, while flickers of inky smoke swirled lovingly around his perfection. I couldn’t tear my eyes from that face carved from gods and sin, wrapped in bronze skin and depthless eyes.

I stared into a nightmare-spattered dream. And it scared the absolute fuck out of me.

“Mera!” Jaxson shouted as all the shifters around us collapsed, like they’d been released from the magnetic hold of this being.

At the same time, the shadows withdrew, retreating from the pack lands as they tunneled back into him, until once again, the world was filled with midday light.

“What the fuck is happening?” Victor roared, having finally returned to his full senses.

His eyes darted around, trying to figure out exactly who was to blame for his sudden appearance in the front of the pack house. When his gaze landed on the smoke-laced male, he blinked more than once, his anger dying off.

“Who are you?” he whispered.

The shadow dude paid no attention to the alpha, his eyes locked on me. I had no fucking idea why he was staring me down like I was the last ice cream on a summer’s day, but it was completely unnerving.