Reborn (Shadow Beast Shifters Book 3)

Torin came for me that night. I wasn’t surprised, especially after the way I’d humiliated him in front of the pack. He’d been pretty restrained not knocking me down then and there to reestablish his dominance, but I’d known his restraint wouldn’t last for long.

When the rickety door to my apartment slammed open, Torin marched in like he owned the place. I was already waiting in the living room, threadbare couch at my back. My wolf drifted in my chest, closer to the surface than she’d been for a long time, thanks to the impending full moon.

“Mera!” Torin growled, and he was so pissed, his nostrils flared, hands already half shifted into claws. “Where the fuck have you been? Why aren’t you answering your phone? I’ve checked this place five times today.”

I shrugged, not even bothering to reply. It was none of his business.

He took a step closer. “This has to stop.”

Now it was my turn to bare my teeth at him. “I reject this—”

Before I could get the words out to finally sever our bond, he dove for me, and I had to shut my mouth to get out of his way. Torin had no right to come at me like he owned me, which meant I had to best him here tonight. It was my dominance that would win.

He was faster than I’d expected, which was stupid of me because the alpha gathered power from those in his pack. I should have gathered it as well, but because I refused to truly seal the bond—i.e., have some really bad sex—I was cut out of the share of power.

“Why do you hate me so much?” Torin shouted, clawing at his hair and face in frustration, cutting lines across his skin that healed instantly. “Sure, I didn’t treat you that well after your father’s sin, but I was never the worst. Jaxson and I stopped you from being raped. We stopped the members of the pack we could control from stepping over the line. You would have died a million times over if it wasn’t for us!”

He was shouting in my face now, his cheeks red, his eyes burning into me with intensity. “And yeah, I rejected you, but I reclaimed you as soon as I came to my senses. You have to understand, I never expected you were anyone other than Jax’s. When I was the chosen one, I panicked and acted like a stupid fucking moron. I’ve regretted it ever since.”

He was saying all the right words, but that was seriously all they felt like to me. Words. Empty, meaningless, say whatever to get his own way words.

“Being with you feels wrong,” I said, needing him to understand.

That statement hurt him, his eyes shiny as he stared at me. “We’re true mates,” he whispered, like those two fucking words solved all the problems in the world.

“We’re not.”

He blinked about a million blinks. “What the fuck, Mera? Are you insane? We have a fucking true mate bond, and that means you belong to me. Your heart. Your soul. And your goddamn body.”

I had been starting to feel sorry for him, but as always, his stellar personality took care of that. “You know I’m right,” I said shortly. “There’s no true bond between us any longer. You should make it official with Sisily and save yourself the rejection.”

Torin shook his head, coughing out laughter through his growls. “You never were one to mince words. Throw your every thought out there and deal with the consequences later.”

I shrugged. “Yeah, that’s what happens when you stop expecting to live past your next birthday. There was never any point in curbing my words. It made no difference to how the pack treated me.”

“Your father is to blame for that,” Torin shot at me. “Not me. I refuse to be punished for actions that weren’t my own.”

Oh, the irony.

“I heard a story about why my dad attacked yours.”

Torin stilled. “What did you hear?”

Oh, yeah, that wide-eyed look of panic told me he had a very good idea what I was going to say. “I heard that Lockhart considered me a demon child. He wanted Victor to use his alpha power to confirm it.”

“There was no evidence,” Torin said in a rush. “My father would have killed you if there was.”

And yet I distinctly remembered Victor calling me a demon… The night I’d first shifted, maybe?

Pain stabbed me, sharp and intense, and it took my breath away as I clutched my head. Torin, the sneaky bastard, saw his damn opportunity and this time when he leapt across the room, I was too slow to get out of the way.

The moment his hands wrapped around my biceps, I started to fight, but his strength far surpassed my own, and when he yanked me forward, kissing me with enough force to draw blood, I screamed and kicked like the devil himself had me. “You just need the bond reinforced,” Torin said, lifting his knee and slamming it into my gut in an attempt to stop me from kicking and clawing at him.

It didn’t work, instead enraging me further. “You have no fucking right to kiss me,” I spat at him. “Or touch me. Or be anywhere near me. Walk away now, Torin, before I kill you and take this fucking pack from your family line forever.”

He wasn’t listening, lust-filled frenzy turning his eyes dark and murky as he attempted to kiss me again. I managed to headbutt him first, his teeth cutting into my forehead, but I had zero regrets.

“Obey,” he commanded, using his alpha power on me. I felt the tendrils wrap around me, and while my wolf, who had been growling in my chest, settled, another part of me just grew more enraged. Torin was going to use his alpha power to hold me while he raped me? Holy fucking… He needed to die.

“No!” I snapped as fury swelled within me, an almost unnatural power, boiling and simmering below the surface. “You will obey me.”

Torin stopped his attempt at raping the bond into me, halting all movements as his eyes glazed over.

“Release me,” I said.

He dropped his hands, and my arms ached briefly as the blood rushed back into them.

“Walk out this damn door and never come near me again.”

He wanted to refuse—there was a moment when he clearly fought my control—but he had no true power here. My command superseded his, and neither of us had a clue how that was possible.

By the time I calmed down, my breaths no longer rasping from me, Torin was long gone. The burning anger under my skin lingered a little longer, until it too faded. Feeling like I was losing my mind, I rushed from my apartment, heading toward the school. I didn’t see anyone on the way and by the time I arrived, I felt much calmer. No less confused, but it was time to focus on what had happened here in the school.

As I stepped out into the moonlight, my wolf stirred listlessly in my chest. Prodding her energy, I tried to draw her to the surface. Come on. We need to shift, to figure out what’s been hidden from us.

This piqued her interest, and she stretched languidly in my chest before pushing forward. Holding on to her energy, I crossed the parking lot, making my way to the side entrance, where Sam waited. She was leaning against the wall, looking at her phone, but when she heard my steps, she pocketed the device. “Hey,” she said with a smile. “I was worried you weren’t going to make it.”

“Had a visitor I had to get rid of first,” I said, pushing Torin from my mind.

That motherfucker was just lucky he didn’t finish what he’d set out to do. Since I apparently had the ability to control him, and with that power, I could make him eat a silver bullet. He’d do well to remember that.

“Want to shift now?” Sam asked, already lifting her shirt. “The moon is fairly high, and I can feel the pull.”

“Yep, I’m ready.”

I got undressed too, and when we were both naked, I noticed the tattoo that started on her right side and wrapped around her back. From what I could see, it looked like a wolf, but one that was half-shifted into a red-and-silver beast.

It was such a contrast to the prim and proper teacher façade she had going on that I was genuinely surprised. “Amazing tattoo,” I said, gesturing to the part of the image I could see. “How did you get it to not heal over?”

Her smile was wistful as she pressed a hand to her side. “Before I turned, I ran away with a human. This moon-loving, crystal-wearing dude who was covered in ink. He convinced me to get this done, and I didn’t think it would stick, but somehow he managed it. Must have been due to me not shifting for the first time yet.”

She ran a hand over it, and in the weird play of light, it almost looked like it moved under her touch. “Why that image?” I asked. A regular wolf would have been the logical choice, not one that looked like the werewolf of human lore.

“It called to me,” she said with a brighter smile. “My beast.”

I was going to ask her more about it, but she had started to shift, so I did the same. My wolf didn’t fight me for once, and thankfully, her lethargy faded as our bones cracked and reformed into the wolf.

When I was on four paws, shaking off the change, my red fur bright under the moonlight, Sam padded toward me. Despite our heights being similar in human form, she was a smaller wolf, with shaggy black fur, and the most striking silver eyes. If I had to guess, her eyes matched the silver in her tattooed beast.

She yipped low at me, and I returned the sound, nudging her toward the door. It was thankfully unlocked and slightly ajar, and since I hadn’t even thought to check, it was a damn good thing my practical friend was here.

The interior of the school was dark, cool, and quiet, but with the monochromatic wolf sight, I could see everything as clear as in the day. It took us no time to make our way down the hall and into the cordoned-off section of the school. In wolf form I could smell the soot and char before we even entered the theater basement, and as we descended the stairs, it grew strong enough to fill my nostrils completely.

I sneezed a few times, and when Sam did the same, it was clear the sensitive wolf nose was reacting to more than just a long-ago fire.

Something big had gone down here, and whoever had tried to clean it up might have missed important clues.

We just had to find them.