Rejected (Shadow Beast Shifters, #1)(85)

“No matter the situation, you never have the right to take my will away from me,” I said, my voice calmer.

Part of me was still pissed off, ready to throw down, but in truth, Len had let me get a decent hit in and hadn’t returned the favor. And if he was literally trying to save me, then I no doubt owed him an apology. Which was in the mail. With the rest of my fucks to give.

“I understand,” Len said. “It won’t happen again.”

Right. Sure. Very reassuring.

“So, what now?” I sighed. “I just hang out here in your garden that I can’t touch, waiting for Shadow to call on me, like it’s the 1900s on Earth?”

“You didn’t miss that thing about not touching the flowers, eh?” Len grinned. “Humans are smarter than they’re given credit for.”

I didn’t bother to inform him I was probably as human as him, according to Angel anyway. “Your bellow of ‘halt’ wasn’t exactly subtle. And I know the fables of this land. Just lost my head for a moment with that particular flower.”

Len’s grin grew broader. “Oh, yes, she’s my most enticing little sweetheart. But also not good at playing with strangers.” He turned abruptly, strolling toward the vibrant pink flowers, and when he reached out to touch them, they morphed completely into a single entity, with a huge open mouth and razor-sharp teeth formed by thorns. Thorns that hadn’t been visible at all in their other form.

“They like to lull their prey into a false sense of serenity,” Len said, continuing to pet the damn plant monster like it was a cute kitten. “Never trust anything this beautiful.”

I lifted an eyebrow. “Already ahead of you. Why the fuck do you think I fight so hard against Shadow and his band of merry psychos?”

Len abandoned the creepy flowers and I stared fascinated as they returned to their sweet and innocent state. No one would expect that under that perfect fa?ade was a plant that ate people for breakfast.

“You think we’re Shadow’s band? How do you know I’m not the lead singer?”

All of them had a surprisingly strong grasp on the English language, and I had a sneaking suspicion that like Angel, they’d all spent more than a little time Earthside.

“I notice you didn’t deny the psycho part.”

He shrugged. “‘Psycho’ is in the eye of the beholder. And truth be told, there’s very little we haven’t done in our long lives, and not everyone is going to understand the way our power or minds work. So… yeah, there’s truth in what you’ve said.”

“No argument from me,” I said, forcing myself to keep a straight face.

I looked around again, ignoring his smirk. I couldn’t offend this guy, that was clear, so I stopped bothering and instead gestured to the land of Faerie. “Are you going to show me around?”

Len’s smile faded a touch. “You should stay here in the immortal gardens. This world is not kind to those who carry human weaknesses. It’s best that we don’t tempt the land of fae.”

I blinked at him. “Okay then. Weirdest warning I think I’ve ever received, but I’ll heed it, don’t worry.”

Len led me back to the platform I had woken on, and now that I wasn’t focused on the flowers, I saw it was a large slab of rock with a thick, soft cloak draped over it. That was where his silver cloak had gone—I hadn’t noticed until now.

“Sorry I hit you,” I said softly, staring at the evidence of him not being a complete asshole.

Len just nudged my shoulder. “I deserved it. I forgot about consent—fae aren’t the best with acknowledging consent, especially royals, but most of our females are submissive in a way humans and shifters are not, so it’s not usually an issue. Personally… I prefer the fire.”

Our eyes caught and while there was no real spark between us, I appreciated his confession. In truth, this was exactly what I’d been hoping to find in the library so I could win the bet. A connection with someone I found attractive. Len ticked all the boxes in that regard, but… I needed the spark. It didn’t have to be the raging forest fire that Shadow created, but at least a small flicker.

Dammit. I was broken, and it certainly looked like I was not going to win the bet now.

Wouldn’t put it past Shadow to have orchestrated this entire event to ensure I’d be stuck in Faerie for the rest of the days of the bet.





48

The rest of my afternoon—it was afternoon, right?—was spent in Len’s garden. Turned out this was his private land, cultivated over the past thousand years, and no one was allowed to enter without his permission. The plants would literally eat them if they did.

Two sentinels sat at his front entrance. Massive flowers with a huge opening in the center, their pistils basically a full row of razor-sharp teeth. They reminded me of jacked-up, ogre versions of the Venus Fly Trap, and apparently, if they snatched you up into their huge mouths, you were done for. Not even Len could release you before they’d crush your body.

“But they won’t eat me now?” I asked again for the tenth time when we wandered a little close for my comfort.

“You’ll be fine with me.”

Len’s smile was relaxed, and I would normally take that as a good sign, but I was coming to learn that he didn’t stress about much. A being who was basically immortal, had lived a thousand plus years of life, and was a powerful prince, didn’t worry about killer plants.