Rejected Mate (Feral Shifters 1)

My gaze flicks toward the corner of the hotel room, and I realize Kian and I aren’t alone.

There’s a man standing in one corner, watching us with blazing blue eyes. His skin is tan, making the light blond of his hair appear even paler. His face is devoid of expression, not a single emotion readable in his features, but the way he stares at us so intensely makes goosebumps break out on my skin.

Shock ripples through me, and on its heels comes the orgasm that’s been threatening for so long. I cry out, clinging to Kian as he drives into me. He bites down on the curve of my neck, growling against my skin.

“Mine.”

The voice sounds like Kian’s, but as I watch, the stranger’s lips move, forming the exact same word.

As if he’s claiming me too.

My eyes pop open, and I suck in a gasping breath as I wrench myself out of the dream. My heart is thundering, and lingering pulses of arousal make my clit throb. The room is dark, and there’s a disorienting moment where I struggle to remember which hotel room I’m in, in which city, in which state.

Instinctively, my gaze darts toward the corner of the room where the stranger watched us in my dream.

A man stands there, half obscured by shadows.

A tall blond man with bright blue eyes.

Chapter 7

I jerk up in bed, shock flooding me and turning my skin to ice.

The man and I stare at one another in silence for several heartbeats, neither of us moving. He’s unblinking, a ghostly, beautiful statue in the sliver of light falling through the crack in the curtains. Half his face is forged from the shadows in the corner, and the other is damn near alight from the streetlamp outside.

For a moment, I sit frozen, my hands clawed into the blankets against my chest. On the heels of my dream, I’m not entirely certain he’s real. Maybe he’s just a vision—a night terror, a holdover from the dream, the way old photograph negatives could overlap in the developing process.

My head feels foggy enough to lend truth to the idea. Despite my jolt of terror, maybe I just haven’t fully awakened. There’s no way someone could have gotten into my room without me knowing it.

But… the ache in my head from the fight with Kian is more pronounced now. The ibuprofen I took earlier has worn off, so the throbbing has crept back in. I have vivid dreams, but they don’t usually include pain.

Then the mate bond hits me, and I know it’s not a dream.

The bond rushes through me like the wind on my bike. My wolf howls to life, a presence inside me that whines for this pale-haired stranger, aches to be close to him. The bond is electric in my body, just as strong and certain as it was the night I bonded to Kian. It’s an almost corporeal connection, a line stretching between us, connecting us as one.

He’s one of them, I think, floored by the realization. This man is one of my three mates.

It’s hard to swallow. Even harder to believe. I was raised with the dead certainty that every wolf had one fated mate, if you were lucky to meet them and be bonded. But I watched Ridge learn to share Sable with her other three mates—all of them alphas of the packs that came together with ours. Not to mention, Gwen warned me that I had three mates after I’d already bonded with Kian.

And here he is. One of them, at least.

So I have no reason to doubt the feeling.

My chest tightens, and my stomach churns. His face is entirely unfamiliar—a stranger—and yet everything about him screams mine. There’s a familiarity that runs deeper than the surface. The way I sensed Kian like a storm on the horizon when he walked into that bar three years ago. My body knew before I did.

The bond is an all-out attack on my senses trying to drag me to this nameless stranger, but I remain on the bed, looking at him while he’s looking back.

He doesn’t move, though I know he feels it. There’s no way he can’t. It’s a desperate pounding in my blood that has to be happening to him, as well.

The air conditioner kicks on with a low hum, startling me from the reverie. The real world rushes back in, dampening the screaming bond enough that I can gather my wits about me. I shove away the rising desire, the aching need, and remind myself that this man is dangerous.

I came here to kill him. Even if I didn’t know him at the time.

Get off your ass, Amora! my mind screams. I know I need to leap into action. This is my chance—a second chance tonight to carry out my mission.

Still, I remain frozen in place.

God, he’s gorgeous. Where Kian’s darkly sensuous, this man is pale and illuminated. Even standing as still as stone, he vibrates with energy.