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His Rejected Mate (Game Of Wolves Book 3) 44
“I’m all right,” Leif said. “It’s not that it hurts so much as it feels like…” He trailed off, his face crinkling in concentration. “Well, I guess I don’t know how to explain it. All my memories are out of joint. In the wrong order, if that makes sense. I also have this weird, overwhelming pull to go somewhere on the island. Almost like I’m being called to return somewhere I don’t want to go.”Kira and I shared a look, and she asked the question on both our minds. “Does it have something to do with Simon? The guy who did this to you?”Leif shivered at the mention of Simon’s name. “I can’t go back there. Not to him. I can’t.”The fear in his voice sent chills down my arms. He started to rock back and forth, slowly lowering himself to the floor, slipping back into his strange hypnotic state.J.D., seeing him reverting, turned to Zoe and the other healer. “Can you do more? Whatever you did to bring him around? Please?”Zoe and the other fae gave each other a helpless look before Zoe turn
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The question caught me off-guard. I hadn’t given that a second’s thought. After Kira’s rant on live TV about the connections being wrong, I’d never considered what it meant for me. I’d put fated mates behind me when I ran from my own.“I haven’t thought about it much,” I admitted. “Wasn’t planning on doing anything, really.”Kira moved to an unoccupied corner of the room and took a seat, beckoning me to join her.“In hindsight,” she said, “I can’t believe I ever thought Jayson Fell could truly be my fated mate. It’s crazy to think about it now. It’s ridiculous. Now that I know the truth, I can’t stop thinking there’s someone else out there I was supposed to be looking for.”It was like she’d twisted a knife into my heart. I didn’t want to talk about this anymore. Seeing her with Jayson had been bad enough, and the thought of her being with someone else was devastating. Even more so now that we’d admitted our feelings for each other. Internally, my wolf curled into itself, pressing its
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Ahead of us, Mika and Zoe ran toward the exit. Zoe had her arms up above her head as she ran, pulses of her magic bursting from her fingertips, trying to hold up the ceiling. Right behind us, J.D. shouted at someone to hurry.At the exit, a wiccan and Crew worked like mad, disarming the traps to let everyone out. Chelsey was right at Crew’s side. Kira and I huddled with the others, pushing forward with the group. I could sense the crowd wanting to bolt, to stampede away from danger, but we’d be dead in seconds if the traps weren’t disarmed.Finally, Crew stood and waved toward the cave mouth. “Run! Go, go, go!”We rushed forward, streaming out into the late afternoon jungle. When the fresh air hit my face, I released a shuddering breath. I put Leif down and turned to help whoever needed it. The noise from inside rumbled louder than ever. J.D. and two shifters ran past me, and he knelt to check on Leif.I ran back to the entrance, ignoring Kira’s call for me to stay. Fifteen feet insid
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The crowd gave terrified nods and clumped together. Eli moved to the right of the group with Kira at the left. Crew took the point position, and I had the rear, effectively pinning the survivors in with the best fighters on the outside. Gavin and Mika, along with a few people who’d scouted with Crew before, could handle themselves.“Let’s go,” Crew said, and he took off at a slow jog.The going was slower than I’d have liked, with the group weighed down carrying the unconscious forms of Leif and Abel, but at least no one straggled behind or complained. The jungle roared with a cacophony of sounds. Behind us, I could hear the snapping of twigs and crunching of leaves as beasts rushed toward the destroyed Haven. There was a bit of heartache, thinking of that place crushed under all that earth. It had been a bastion of safety in a world devoid of it.If I was feeling like this, then I couldn’t imagine what Crew was going through. The place had been his baby. A society he’d built up with
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“I’ll go,” I said. The next few hours would be the most dangerous. The creatures on the island tended to be most active in the five or six hours after moonrise.“Me too,” Mika said, standing and dusting his pants off.Another guy—a wiccan—volunteered as well. Crew thanked him and added, “That works. I’ll go on this watch, too. Eli, you’ll relieve us in a few hours. Go ahead and figure out who’ll be with you, then get some rest.”The four of us walked out to find the others and sent them back for food and sleep. Crew and I headed out to do the scouting, leaving Mika and the wiccan to watch the entrance. As the minutes and hours ticked by, I had a hard time not glancing up at the volcano in the distance, rising high above the dark jungle. Our one small slice of safety had been torn away. I grieved for Crew and the others who’d called Haven home.Just past midnight, I stood in a small clearing a few hundred yards from our camp and glared in the direction of the volcano again. My anger ro
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Leif nodded and let out a heavy sigh, then leaned back against the stone wall. He winced and put a hand to his forehead. “I can’t remember much of what happened while I was half-feral. It’s all jumbled and mixed up. The last thing that’s really clear, other than what happened in Haven, is when I was out in the jungle on that last challenge looking for you. I was walking through a grove of trees, and then…black. Whatever hit me got me totally by surprise.”“A lot has happened since then,” I said.Leif chuckled humorlessly. “Yeah. I can see that.”“Zoe says she thinks you can be cured once we get you off the island,” I said. “A good psychic healer and some top-notch spellcasters—people fully trained in healing—and you’ll be right as rain. This will all be a bad memory.”J.D. put a hand on Leif’s knee, massaging his leg gently. “Yeah, and I’ll make sure to replace all the bad memories with good ones.”Leif glanced over at J.D. Even in the moonlight, I could see the blush creeping into hi
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Mika shrugged my hand off. “I need to check on her.” He hurried off, joining Zoe, who smiled gratefully at his appearance.“I cannot believe that’s the same guy who came onto this island,” Wyatt said. “He never smiled and barely spoke. Now the grumpy fucker is a plush little wolf when it comes to Zoe, and she’s a smiley chatterbox. Like oil and water.”“No, not like that,” I countered. “They’re just different. Opposites attract. Mika had a rough life—no one on his side, lots of betrayal. Zoe is warm and kind and severely loyal. I think they suit each other.”Crew walked out of the cave, four volunteers following him. The four headed off to begin their watch, and Crew broke off and joined us.“Zoe gonna be okay?” he asked. “Someone said she was hurt.”“I think she’ll be fine,” I said. “One of the healers is looking at her.”He nodded, glancing at Zoe and Mika, then back at the cave. Most folks were huddled inside, but a few were milling about outside, being sure to stay far from the cl
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“You’re right,” I said. I needed to get my mind off this. I nodded back toward the cave. “I’m going to check on Leif. He woke up, but wasn’t feeling great. Eli was working on him when I left.”“You do that. I’ll see how Mika’s doing. I think he’s more upset than Zoe is right now.”Back inside, I found Leif sitting. He looked strained and upset, though not as bad as when I’d left him.“How’s it going?” I asked him.“Not good,” Leif said through gritted teeth. J.D. sat beside him, rubbing his back. “My head’s fucked up. Elianna—er, Eli—is helping, but it’s not enough.”“I’m trying not to put him to sleep,” Eli explained as she waved her hands over him. “I’d like him to be aware and able to help if there’s trouble.” She shook her head bitterly. “Whatever that fucking scientist did to make him feral is something I’ve never encountered before.”“How the hell did you end up on Bloodstone, anyway?” I blurted to her. It had always been too busy for me to ask questions, and Crew’s second-in-co
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Who knew what the future held? Maybe things would look even more different in a few years. After all, look how much had changed in a few short months.I walked down to get a better view of everyone. So many familiar faces. Chelsey and Crew, of course. Mika, with Zoe snuggled right up against him. J.D. and Leif, holding hands. Leif’s body, face, and attitude were stronger and healthier than during our final days on Bloodstone Island. It had taken weeks of intensive work with spell casters, healers, and psychologists, but he’d fully recovered. No longer feral, he’d begun working with J.D. to form a nonprofit company to help shifters who were in danger of going feral or who had recently slipped over. He wanted to give everyone the same help he’d been given.Abel had come with his new girlfriend, the woman he’d always thought should have been his fated mate. My brother Kolton stood beside Eli, their hands clasped together. Eli was even more beautiful than before. After we’d revealed all t
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I needed to speak to Kira alone. Now that everything was wrapping up, I had to see how she was doing. Taking her hand, I led her back down the hallway to a private alcove. I kissed her, my lips lingering on hers for longer than necessary. All the stress of the last few days—hell, the last few weeks—finally felt like it was easing. Now we would have time to think and recover.“How are you?” I asked. “After what Simon did to you in there?”Watching her turn into a mindless animal had frightened me even more than when she’d attacked me. Seeing those soulless eyes glaring down at me while she snapped and growled had damn near broken my heart.Kira took a steadying breath and nodded. “For a minute or two there, I really thought I might kill you. I had no control. The idea of killing my own fated mate was horrifying. I don’t think I’ve ever been that terrified in my life. But it’s over.” That beautiful smile returned to her face. “Whatever Lucina did broke that spell. I don’t think I’ll eve
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The elevator trip was spent in silence, each of us basking in the other’s happiness and relief. Kira’s emotions bounced through my mind, and I was ecstatic that we hadn’t lost this deep, binding connection.At the ground floor, the doors slid open and we were met with two voices, one mewling and begging, the other pissed.“Told your ass not to run, didn’t I? And my name is fucking August, not Autumn!”What the hell was going on?“Please, you must let me go, you must. I have fans. Oh, gods, it hurts. What do you want? Money? I can get you girls. Boys, if that’s your speed? Whatever you want!”Von?I turned to look at Kira, and her eyes were as shocked as mine. We sprinted from the elevator and around the corner. Von was pinned to the wall with the broken leg of a chair. The makeshift stake pierced him in the shoulder rather than the heart. August stood before him, using a hand to hold the vampire’s head up. Seeing us coming down the hall, he let Von go, letting the host dangle six inch
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Movement caught my eye, and I glanced at our friends. August was talking hurriedly to Crew, who nodded and took over control of the camera. August then rushed over to take a seat at the table while Crew zoomed the camera in close to August’s face.“Good afternoon, world. I hope you enjoyed the latest episode of the new show, What the Fuck? I’m your host, August Evander.“Now that I have a captive audience, I have some cats—er, dogs—to let out of the bag. I’m sure you’ll all enjoy this. We all love dirt. Let’s spill the tea, shall we?”August rambled off the information he’d dug up, starting with Crew’s parents. He proceeded to discuss the Tranquility Council’s corruption, the assassinations carried out by Tranquility operatives, pay-offs, embezzling, blackmailing, paid-off judges, murders, and more. Nearly every alpha and beta from the upper packs were named in some dirty dealing or another.At first, we stood transfixed by August’s rapid-fire delivery, but eventually, the board membe
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Heline turned and registered the camera. A mix of emotions flashed across her face--confusion, understanding, shock, anger, fear, rage. Her face was even paler than before as she took in the truth. Millions had seen and listened to her admit to all she’d done.Behind me, Wyatt chuckled. “After all this, I can’t believe I’m happy to see a camera.”Heline’s eyes widened, and I thought she was going to unleash a tirade on us. But instead, she grinned and laughed along with Wyatt.“Yes, yes, yes, so funny,” she chuckled. “Of course I knew that camera was there. Do you really think the great Heline would let anything happen to her acolytes? I care deeply for them. I would never allow harm to come to them for something I allegedly did.”“Really?” I asked dryly.“I fully intended to make the fated mate pairings right again. I always did, my dear girl,” Heline added.The way she called me dear girl made my guts go watery and cold. The smile on her lips was no longer jovial. It looked like the
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Stop! Please no, don’t hurt him. Gods, please stop, I screamed out at myself from deep in my mental prison, but through my internal screams, I watched as the jaws that had once belonged to me snapped and bit at Wyatt. He managed to hold me back, his hands under my jaw, but I was strong and he’d been caught unaware. I couldn’t even hear his thoughts or emotions now. All I could see was the terror in his eyes as my teeth drew nearer his neck.“Enough!” a shout erupted from behind me.Even in the manic feral state of my body, whatever controlled me turned to see the mousy woman standing. She lifted her arms and a flash of magic shot forward, surrounding me in a net of darkness, the strands of it digging painfully into me. With a jerk of her hand, I was hauled away from Wyatt, leaving him blessedly safe.Inside the strange magical net, Simon’s influence melted away, the weird connection between us shattering. Suddenly, I was free. Freer than I’d felt since that night all those years ago.
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“I can’t die like this,” he gasped. “My fans. They’re watching. If I die on air, it will be appalling.”Ignoring Von’s pleas, Wyatt said, “Call for Heline, Von.”Von’s murmured begging ceased. “Excuse me?”“Of every person on this show, you’ve been around the longest. If anyone knows the moon goddess, it’s you. You see her at the end of every damned season. Call her. Tell her to get her ass down here. Now.”“But…but…but,” Von stammered. “My boy, I can’t simply call to a goddess—aah!” Von’s words cut off in a shriek as Wyatt dug the pencil in deeper.“Von,” Wyat said with a sad shake of his head, “I am not a fan of yours. Please don’t piss me off. I’ve staked enough vamps in my day to know exactly how scared you are of this pencil.”I couldn’t take my eyes off Von’s face. The sheer terror I saw there was both sad and cathartic. He’d put us through so much shit, had giggled, laughed, and applauded over it. Now he was getting a taste of the danger he loved—and it seemed he wasn’t a fan.
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Every time I tried to open my mouth, nothing came out. I must have looked guilty beyond belief. Wyatt turned toward me and saw the look of horror in my eyes. The fingers of his mind drifted into mine, and an instant later, he spun in his chair, angry eyes leveling on Simon.“He’s doing something to her,” Wyatt snapped.Simon adjusted his glasses and laughed. “Me? I’m doing nothing. Perhaps Ms. Durst is simply speechless with guilt for her crimes. Have you thought about that, Mr. Rivers?”Veins bulged at my neck as I tried to force words from my mouth, but it was like a brick wall had been built between my voice box and my mouth. I stared down at the table, at the pad of paper and sharpened pencil I had before me, trying to make sense of what was happening. Around the room, the other guests and board members glared at me with dark, accusing eyes.A hand touched my leg. Firm yet gentle, gripping my thigh. The fingers cool even through my pants. Von’s assistant. Surprised, I glanced down
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Chapter 25 Kira The hesitancy I felt as we walked toward the table nearly made me freeze in place, but I pushed forward. I would not let these assholes see me weak.Before each seat was a legal pad and pencil, as if they expected us to take notes or something. Wyatt took his seat, and I sat beside him, the mousy little assistant on my other side. The woman still hadn’t said a word, which didn’t surprise me. If I had to be around Von Thornton all day, I’d keep my mouth shut, too. The guy never seemed to stop talking. The poor woman had probably given up on speaking while at work.Simon’s eyes were still on me. Even without looking in his direction, I could feel them boring into me. In the deepest recesses of my mind, I could still catch small hints and whispers of his voice, calling to me. It was less like the connection Wyatt and I shared and more like a faint memory. Any hope I’d had that I’d imagi
