Rejected Mate (Feral Shifters 1)

“All because we fucked?” I say, my heart beating fast in my chest.

Frost and Malix shift back into their human forms as I speak. Gray smoke filters away, like the trail of a smoker finishing their cigarette in a darkened room.

Then all three of them surround me.

Naked.

My heart races for reasons much, much more devastating than my initial fear over their strange shadow forms. I have to carefully keep my eyes up, focus on their hard expressions, their smooth chests rising and falling from their breaths.

If I look any further south, I have a feeling I won’t be able to handle it. Heat and desire already fill every corner of my body.

“Yeah,” I say, keeping my voice pointedly bland. “We fucked in a shitty hotel room in Montana. And we did it because I went to the bar looking to get laid. Kian came in for a drink, and he was exactly the candidate I was looking for.”

I look at the man in question then, holding his gaze as I continue. “We had sex, and the mate bond presented itself. But the next day, we went our separate ways. I wasn’t looking for a mate, and neither was he. Just because fate says something has to happen doesn’t mean you have to go along with it. Because sometimes fate is fucking wrong.”

Kian’s gold-ringed eyes glitter in the darkening room. I’m still holding his gaze, challenging him, looking him right in the eye so he knows without a doubt I’m not broken by what happened between us. Maybe I was back then, for a while, but that’s—in his words—ancient history.

I finish by echoing his earlier statement, forcing the words from my mouth. “It meant nothing.”

A long moment of silence settles over the room. The sun is almost gone outside the window, casting us in shadow. I want to turn on a lamp, shine some light in here to chase away the doom and gloom, but I don’t want to move either. As far as I know, I’m the only thing keeping them from shifting back to those horrific forms and tearing this place apart.

Malix stalks away toward his backpack in the corner and bends to dig around for some clothes. I steal a glance at his body, my breath hitching in my throat. His ass is tighter and rounder than the best Grecian god statue in the world. His cheeks taper into thick thighs and strong calves beneath, and his muscular torso above.

I feel an intense, deep-seated urge to sink my teeth into that expanse of dark brown skin.

The moment the thought fills my mind, I whirl away from the three of them and focus on taking a few deep breaths. The room was drenched in their scents just a while ago, but something about their shadow wolf forms made all scent vanish, leaving the air fresh. Filled with tension, but fresh.

I stand still, facing the window as I listen to the three of them moving about the room as they dress. The two men’s response to finding out about my night with Kian seems like an overreaction. I don’t understand it. Hell, I don’t understand anything about the lingering tension in the room or what’s really going on between the three of them. And quite frankly, I don’t want to. It’s none of my business.

My business is to make sure that before all of this is said and done, the three of them are six feet under.

It’s almost fully dark out by now, and I stare out the window with my arms crossed under my breasts. A twin pair of headlights passes by in the parking lot outside, illuminating the room. As the two beams drift across me, they light up the ceiling and the wall.

Except for a splotch of darkness in the corner that the light can’t seem to penetrate at all.

A shadow.

And not a natural one.

I barely manage to scream out, “Frost!” before the living shadow lunges right for me.

Chapter 14

I leap aside and, thankfully, land on the mattress instead of the ground. The shadow narrowly misses me, and the air around my head displaces from its passage, whipping my hair around my face. I bounce precariously on the edge of the bed and nearly fall off onto the floor, though I manage to catch myself on the blankets.

All three men shout in surprise, but I’m too busy trying to get my limbs back in the proper order to see what’s happening.

Finally, I manage to lever up onto my hands and knees and glance wildly around for the shadow, ready to leap into action if it comes for me. Then I freeze.

Fuck.

There’s not just one shadow this time. There are several.

Kian’s on his knees next to the fallen television, reaching into his pack. He brandishes a long dagger, slicing out at the shadow that narrowly missed me. Across the room, Frost calls out his name, and Kian throws the knife to him. The blade twists and flashes silver in the dim light, but Frost catches it easily by the hilt and turns on two more shadows darting along the wall. On the other side of the bed near the bathroom, Malix is using another shadow like a punching bag.

Kian extracts a second knife from his bag—dear god, how many knives does one man need?—and jabs at the shadow in front of him. He curses when it darts under the television stand, then snaps, “Amora! Get the light!”

It takes me a split second to realize he’s said my name. I bound off the edge of the mattress and reach for the nineties era lamp hanging on the wall between the beds.