Rejected Mate (Feral Shifters 1)

He cackles and dances away, holding up both hands in supplication. The fear I saw earlier returns to his eyes, and I start to think he really must be a little unbalanced if he thinks it’s smart to play with fire like this. He knows we’re shifters, and even if he doesn’t know that the men are something even more powerful and dangerous than that, he should think twice about pissing off three wolves.

“It was a joke!” he insists quickly. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry!”

Kian snarls and snatches at Harry’s tank top, pulling him up to his tiptoes. “You want to discuss payment? How about we let you live? Is that good enough for you?”

“Kian,” I bite out, a warning in my voice. “Put the crazy man down.”

He bares his teeth at me. “Not until he tells us what we need to know.”

Sighing, I dig into my back pocket for my wallet and open it to take inventory of the contents. “All right, old man. I’ve got fifty bucks. Will that work?”

Crazy Harry grins at me over Kian’s arm, his weight dangling from his shirt. “Works just fine, little lady.”

I tap Kian on the shoulder. “Drop him.”

The massive shifter glares at me, his fingers tightening on Harry’s tank top. The gold rings around his rich brown eyes glint like the aura around a dying sun, and his brows pull together.

“Drop. Him,” I repeat, feeling like I’m arguing with a damn brick wall.

Snarling again, Kian releases Harry’s shirt, and the old man hits the ground on his bare feet, then falls backward onto his ass.

I offer Harry the bundle of bills. “Tell us what you know.”

He nods, counts the bills, then shoves them in his pocket. His hand re-emerges a moment later with a pack of cigarettes.

“In the northernmost part of the state, the Rocky Mountains,” Harry says, popping a thin white roll that is most definitely not a cigarette between his lips. “There’s a place called the Devil’s Teeth,” he adds, a gleam of mania in his eye. He clicks his lighter, then draws in a deep breath of smoke.

“Is it on a map?” I cut in.

Harry shakes his head and blows out the plume of white smoke. He still hasn’t gotten up off the ground. “No. But you can find it. The mountains look like a bottom jaw with sharp teeth and two prominent, vampire canines.” He leaves the joint between his lips and holds up his two pointer fingers, pointing at the sky in a kind of curved, toothy look. “Inside the bowl formed by the teeth is a ravine. The Tree of Life is said to grow in a deep, shadowed part of that ravine, somewhere north of the Devil’s Teeth.”

“How far north?” Frost asks.

Crazy Harry shrugs, and his beard quivers with the motion. “Don’t rightly know. I’ve never seen it.”

I thank Harry for his time, then we leave him sitting on the ground, smoking his joint while the ducks swim leisurely nearby.

Malix falls into step beside me. “Are we seriously listening to the crazy guy?”

“Yes, we’re listening to the crazy guy,” I say, rolling my eyes. “Not all crazy people are crazy. Sometimes, they just know things they’re not supposed to know and other humans don’t believe them. You’re a supernatural creature. You should know that.”

“The place isn’t even on a map.”

“Look,” I say irritably, “I grew up in the mountains. There are plenty of places that haven’t made it onto maps for whatever reason—especially places infused with magic. That doesn’t mean they aren’t there. And it doesn’t mean you can’t find them. It’s just more difficult. We still have to try. What do we have left to lose?”

Kian scoffs from ahead of us, his voice dark and hard. “There’s always something left to lose.”

We gas up the bikes then head north on the highway. I’m forced to ride with Kian this time, while Malix and Frost carry our supplies. The moment I slide on the back of his motorcycle, I stiffen and attempt to keep space between us.

Tension hums through his body too as he kicks the bike into gear. “Stop fucking around,” he snaps over his shoulder. “Hold on or fall off, your choice.”

I grit my teeth and slither my arms around his waist. Considering I’ve already done the bike wreck thing and established that, while I didn’t die, it hurt like hell, I don’t want to do it again. But I still try to keep space between us for as long as I can.

I hate that there’s no way to turn off my attraction to them. Even worse, the longer I’m with them, the stronger the feeling becomes. As we hit our traveling speed, I end up sliding against the vinyl until I’m pressed up against Kian’s back, my legs wide on his hips. And fuck if I don’t like it. I like touching him, straddling him, lying my head against his back as time passes and my eyelids grow heavy.

I want to hate it, but being close to him feeds a part of my soul and soothes my wolf. It’s not smart. It’s definitely not what I should be doing, because heaven forbid I get at all attached to these assholes, but here I am.

In the quiet parts of my mind where I can admit the truth to myself, I know that part of my soul will always want them.