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His Rejected Mate (Game Of Wolves Book 3) 7
Eli placed a calming hand on our chests, gently pushing us away from each other. “We will help you get Kira back,” she said to me. “But rushing into Simon’s lair with no plan and no backup is suicide. We have to think rationally, or it will go bad for everyone. Worst-case scenario? Simon kills her and cuts his losses. Best case? We underestimate him and we all get captured, too.”An irritated wince creased my face. She was right, of course. I knew better than to go off half-cocked. It was the kind of thing that would get you killed on the job. Hell, it was the same thing I’d always chastised Kira for at work.Still, it made me crazy to not search for her. Everything in me—my mind, my inner wolf, my instincts—told me to rush after her.Crew, visibly calmer, nodded in agreement. “I promise we’ll help Kira. The last thing I want is Simon messing around with anyone else. I’m not going to cut her loose to fend for herself, but we have to make a plan before attacking Simon. We’ve tried to f
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“Did you find Leif? Is he okay?”Knowing Kira was lost somewhere had put my temper on a short leash. “Yes, dammit,” I hissed at him, unable to stop myself. “We fucking found him and then lost him. We lost Kira, too.”J.D. shrank back a bit as I glared at him. From farther down the hall, more footsteps hurried toward us.“What do you mean you lost Kira?” Zoe asked. Mika, Chelsey, and Gavin trailed behind her.A deep, weary sigh shuddered out of me. I couldn’t talk, terrified I might actually burst into tears of fear and frustration.Zoe, obviously far less afraid of me than J.D., stomped over and shook me. “I said, what do you mean? Where is Kira, Wyatt?”“Gone. Gods almighty, she’s gone, okay?” My voice was strained, on the verge of breaking. My hands shook.“Motherfucker,” Gavin growled, rounding on me. “I knew she wouldn’t be safe with you!” He pointed an accusing finger at me. “This is your fault. If I’d been out there, you could fucking guarantee I wouldn’t have let Kira out of my
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This? This was unmitigated rage.“I’m sorry, Ben,” she spat. “But of everyone in this room, of everyone on this entire fucking island, you are the last person allowed to tell me what I can and can’t do. You gave up any say in my life when you turned your back on me on your parents’ porch a few years ago.” She suddenly frowned as though pretending to remember something. “Or wait… was it someone else who rejected me?” Sarcasm coated every word.The entire room had gone quiet as we all watched the argument play out, none of us daring to interrupt.Crew looked like he’d been kicked in the gut. “This… Chelsey, it’s not about—”“Not about what?” she snapped. “Not about ripping my heart out and leaving me to suffer alone?”Crew slammed a fist onto the table. “I have to keep my mate safe. Don’t you understand that?”My jaw dropped. I didn’t know the whole story, but from what Chelsey had explained, this guy had zero right to call her his mate.Chelsey took another step closer, kicking aside a
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Maybe I was imagining it, but I thought he gave Zoe a sidelong glance as he said it. It made me think that her volunteering had encouraged him. Strange.“Count me in,” Gavin said, leaning against the far wall.Crew cut his gaze back and forth between me and Gavin. “Are we going to have a problem here? I’m don’t want to have to break up some schoolyard scuffle in the middle of a battle.”Gavin locked eyes with me. After a few seconds, we both nodded. Neither of us wanted to be the cause of Kira getting hurt or put in more danger.“We’re good,” I muttered.“All right, then,” Crew said. “I think that’s enough. Eli and I will go with three other Haven citizens who already volunteered weeks ago when we started putting this plan together. Any more of us, and the team will be too big to move swiftly and quietly. I think if we can get our supplies and final kinks worked out, Wyatt’s plan to go tonight may work.”A shuddering sigh escaped me, and I pressed a hand to my mouth to hide the sound.
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Setting the injection gun aside, the technician leaned closer, hungry eyes taking me in as he gazed up and down my body. “Fascinating,” he murmured. “Supple, strong, and that smell?” He leaned over my body and breathed in deep, like a hungry man taking a whiff of Thanksgiving dinner. He sighed in pleasure. “So good.”The attention he was giving me wasn’t quite what one would expect from a scientist or doctor. There was a hunger in his eyes that made me nervous.“Don’t get too close,” the female warned. “You know how Dr. Shingleman feels about that one. It’ll be your ass.”He waved her off. “I know, but… I can’t help it. If you could smell the blood in her, you’d understand.”The female tech shrugged and turned away, checking over Abel again. The male vampire leaned close again. “Such a wondrous anomaly.”His gloved hand slipped across my stomach, up to my sternum, then across the mounds of my breasts. My skin crawled at his touch.“What would that blood taste like?” he whispered as if
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“Ah, yes,” Simon murmured with a smile. “This was one of the first. I think the human face gives it a, uh, I don’t know how to say it… a poetry? An immediacy, perhaps. It speaks to the soul. I truly view them as individual works of art. This is my newest.” He gestured to the next holding cell.This one had been totally sealed and filled with water. Inside, a being swam and thrashed in the water. It had the body and tail of a merperson, but from the chest up, it had the bulbous head of a great white shark. Serpentine legs moved in time with the tail, propelling it around the small enclosure. As we neared, the thing pressed itself against the glass, pushing its webbed merperson hands on the wall, and gazed out at us with lifeless black shark eyes.“Mother of gods,” I whispered.“I know,” Simon whispered enthusiastically. “Very exciting, isn’t it? It took a long time to get the spell right, but this one can survive in water and on land. Very difficult.”“Why?” I asked, the word leaving m
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Either Simon didn’t hear the shame in my voice or chose to ignore it. He nodded eagerly. “Indeed. With my increased magical powers, my experiments grew in complexity at an exponential rate. My inventions and developments progressed at leaps and bounds. Soon, I’ll be able to show the world what true power is.” Simon pulled his eyes away from me and stared into space, voice dropping to a whisper. “Perhaps one day, my father and his pack will look upon me with pride.”That last bit was barely audible, and it confused the hell out of me. Maybe there was even more going on in Simon’s head than he let on. Desperate to learn more, I kept my mouth shut, hoping he’d give more glimpses into his mind. Instead, he ushered me into another corridor, leading me away from his abominations.“Here is where I keep much of the fuel for my most intense magical work,” Simon said.He punched a code into a panel. A section of that wall slid aside, revealing floor-to-ceiling racks filled with angel wings. Des
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As badly as I wanted Wyatt to come swooping in like a white knight to save me, I also feared it. Gods only knew what kind of security measures Simon had built into this place. The creatures he had contained here alone would be more than Wyatt could handle on his own. Still, he would come for me. I knew it. He would fight tooth and nail to save me. It was a quality I’d spent years hating, but now? When I needed it most? I realized it was one of his greatest qualities. He’d never leave someone he loved to fend for themselves.We reached the exam room, and I spotted the vampire Simon had tortured on the floor. His burst eye had regenerated, but he still gazed out with dead eyes. Whatever Simon had done must have been severe for him to still be healing.The other tech sat beside Abel’s unconscious form, scribbling notes on a tablet.Before Simon could return me to the table, a Klaxon alarm ripped through the dull silence of the lab. Everyone, excluding Simon, flinched in surprise. The sci
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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
