Rejected (Shadow Beast Shifters, #1)(70)

Shadow tilted his head, arrogance creasing his brow as he looked me over. “She’s so human, though. Frail and powerless. There’s no way she’s from my realm.”

I forced a bright smile. “You should take this frail, powerless human and get to Earth, hey? Since we apparently have a world to save and you can’t do it without my frail, powerless help.”

Shadow’s lips twitched, and I received a smile from Reece.

“Come on, wolf,” the beast said, turning to leave.

“You forgot ‘frail and powerless,’” I called after him.

Reece continued to stare at me, a tiny half-smirk still etched on his lips. “What?” I asked, wrinkling my nose. “He said it.”

The deity shrugged. “You’re right. It is interesting, though…”

Don’t ask. Don’t ask.

“What’s interesting?”

“That he lets you push him that far. The last few shifters learned fairly quickly that Shadow doesn’t suffer insubordination for long.”

I swallowed hard, thinking of Victor. “Does he regularly murder shifters who don’t obey his every command?”

What kind of fucking psycho did that?

“He doesn’t randomly kill for fun,” Reece said, like he was personally vouching for Shadow’s character. “Only if they fight against his control.”

I… just. That was basically the same thing.

“You two need help,” I choked out. “Your brains don’t work normally.”

Reece just laughed, seemingly not offended, and at least this little moment had apparently warmed the desert deity up to me.

I was all about small victories these days.





39

Shadow didn’t know it, but this time, I had another plan to enact while we were on Earth. Of course, step one was to save humans from the creature, but step two was to figure out if I could sneak away from him. I needed to know exactly how long it would take him to find me, and when he did, I might even learn the means he used to track me.

This would help me cover my trail when Angel’s plan went into effect.

A dangerous little experiment that I’d probably be soundly punished for, but it would be worth it for whatever knowledge I might gain. I didn’t think he would kill me, at least not yet. He wanted to see if I could unlock the door to the Shadow Realm—I was coming to understand that was his ultimate goal. He didn’t really care about returning the creatures, since they could obviously remain in the prisons indefinitely.

He needed that door open, for whatever personal reasons he was not sharing with me, so I was reasonably sure he wouldn’t kill me. Yet. And now seemed like as good a time as ever for a trial run of the great escape.

“Hurry up,” Shadow snapped, seemingly in a worse mood than usual.

“What’s up your ass?” I asked him.

He seemed to be trying to decide between sighing or smiting me, but with a much greater strength of character than I had, managed to refrain from both. “Nothing is up my ass. I’m just sick of cleaning up your messes and having no reward for it.”

For a beat, I wondered what reward he was talking about. Was I supposed to suck his dick or something? I mean, I sure as fuck didn’t remember there being any talk of reward… Oh, wait.

The Shadow Realm.

He wanted me to unlock the Shadow Realm. Frankly speaking, it seemed like he needed his dick sucked more, to be honest. Dude was a tad wound up.

“Whatever you’re thinking, you need to stop now.”

I jerked my head up, wondering if he could read minds as well.

“Your scent changes when you’re aroused,” he said bluntly. “Not to mention the rapid breathing and pupil dilation. Classic signs that you either can’t or don’t bother to hide.”

“Why should I hide it?” I asked with a little jerk of my shoulders. “Natural response to stimuli, and a normal shifter need. Don’t you have needs?”

He bared his teeth at me. “My needs are being met.”

A piercing hot emotion hit me, almost sending me stumbling. I refused to believe it was jealousy, since Shadow was nothing more than my temporary jailer, whom I would hopefully be free of soon.

No way was I Stockholming over here and falling for him.

All we had was a physical attraction, or more accurately, that was all I had. Shadow Beast might have treated me a little better than his other prisoners, but we both knew I was just a means to an end.

I had to step into reality and stop creating false bonds between us before I started scribbling love hearts with our initials in them.

Time for a subject change. “Where are we on Earth this time?”

His eyes narrowed. “You don’t recognize this area?”

I took another look around. “No, I don’t think so…”

The early morning sun was weak and there was a chill in the air, which told me we’d once again skipped into the next season. “Wait… It smells like California.”

“It is,” he said.

“Torma, California?” I guessed.

“And they call humans slow,” he drawled. “Yes, we’re on the very Eastern point of your pack’s territory, to be exact. A mass of shadow creatures have gathered here, and I’m sure even you can figure out why that might be.”