Rejected (Shadow Beast Shifters Book 1)

“Once you shift,” Victor said slowly, his dark grey eyes taking me in, “I’m going to tie you to Torma, with the strongest bond there is between an alpha and his pack. You will serve me for the rest of your days.”

They’d all been waiting for us when Jaxson had marched me back into pack lands. Half a dozen wolves including Torin, and Jaxson’s father, Dean Heathcliffe.

I cleared my throat. “Let me get this straight. You despise me because of my father, have turned a blind eye to the pack’s torment of me over the years, but now you want me to…” I held a finger up. “And stop me if I don’t have this right… serve you?” I laughed, cementing my fate. “You better be referring to waitressing and not fucking because I promise you won’t be happy with a wolf like me in your bed.”

Victor’s expression darkened, his pale skin taking on the honey-blond color of his wolf as he stepped forward. “You think you’re too good to fuck the alpha?”

Uh, yes. A thousand times yes, but since I’d already pushed his patience today, I decided not to say that out loud. Victor didn’t appreciate my silence, either. His fist slammed into my cheek, knocking me off the step. Agonizing pain arced through my jaw and down my spine, my head spinning as black and white dots danced across my vision.

Victor moved over the top of me, a leg on either side of my torso. “If I decide to fuck you, mongrel pup,” he growled, “there’s very little you can do to stop me.”

He stepped away then, a swift boot to my side his goodbye.

“Get her back in the fucking cells and make sure no one goes near her,” he snarled to his son before he stormed out the door, dragging Glendra with him. She was in trouble, but I was too busy trying not to succumb to a concussion to worry about that stupid bitch. She’d made her bed, and now she had to lie in it with that shitbag she called a mate.

Jaxson got to me first, his touch gentler than I’d expected as he hauled me up.

“It’s the eve of the moon,” he said in a whisper. “The healing will kick in soon.”

“Ugh,” I groaned, the first sound I’d made since getting hit. I was pretty proud of myself for not even whimpering. Victor would never have the satisfaction, the sick bastard.

And I’d die before I let him touch me.

“Let’s get her downstairs,” Torin said, reaching his best friend’s side. “Before dad comes back again and does something worse.”

Maybe it was the blow to the head, but that sounded a tiny bit like judgment against his dad. I’d never heard Torin show anything other than respect bordering on reverence to the walking bag of sperm he called a father. Interesting. At least it would have been in normal circumstances. Right now, I was just trying not to pass out.

Torin held his hands out to Jaxson, like he was going to take me, but beta-in-training shook his head. “I got her. I’ll make sure she stays safe in her cell until the shift tonight.”

Torin shrugged, his interest in me already waning, especially as Sisily pranced her stupid ass into the room, looking fresh and perfect despite the early hour.

“Keep her alive,” Torin murmured before he walked away, leaving me with Jaxson.

I wasn’t too steady on my feet, so there was no choice but to let him half-carry me while I tried really hard to vomit on him. Again.

By the time he deposited me back in my original cell, the pounding in my head was worse, so I sank into the hard floor. Closing my eyes helped, as I focused on breathing in and out evenly, while praying I’d pass out for a few hours.

A clank outside my cell roused me sometime later, and I gingerly lifted my head to find Jaxson sprawled back against the wall opposite the bars, watching me.

“Creep,” I snarled, wincing at the jab of pain in my skull.

He shrugged. “You haven’t been attacked in your cell again, so maybe you should be thanking me.”

“Not even on my death bed,” I replied with all the sugary sweetness I could manage.

He just smirked, and I closed my eyes to block out his face. At some point, I dozed off, only to be woken again by an angry voice. When I managed to get my eyes open, I was ecstatic to see Dannie ripping Jaxson a new one.

“What happened to her?” she snarled. Her face was turned away from me, but I knew the expression she’d be wearing. Angry Dannie was scary.

“She insulted the alpha,” Jaxson shot back, standing up taller, towering over her. “She’s lucky to still be alive.”

Dannie scoffed and Jaxson narrowed his eyes on her. “What are you even doing down here? No one is supposed to be on this level.”

Dannie tilted her head back, meeting him glare for glare. “I’m here to check on my friend. I don’t trust you all to ensure her safety, especially since the alpha takes great pleasure in punishing that poor girl for an event that had nothing to do with her.”

I waited for Jaxson to argue with her, laying out in detail how my father’s treason had doused the Callahan name in shame, and that we all must suffer for it. Only… he didn’t.

His eyes met mine over her head. “She’s awake if you want to talk to her.” His voice was grim.

Dannie, no doubt, had already known I was awake. She took an extra moment to stare Jaxson down before she spun and made her way across to the bars. “Hey, sweet girl,” she said with a gentle smile, crouching down to my eye level. “I missed you.”

Guilt hit me hard. “I’m an asshole,” I choked out, pushing myself up, thankful my head wasn’t pounding quite as hard.

Dannie laughed. “Yep. Total asshole. You’re just lucky you weren’t around Simone when you first left. The mouth on that girl…”

A burst of laughter escaped me, followed by a groan as the pounding surged back with vengeance. When I was in a sitting position, I rubbed at my head, desperate for water to wash the dry taste from my mouth.

A bottle slid across the floor toward me, hitting my thigh. Lifting it, I found one of Dannie’s special concoctions. She called it an energy drink, making it for me when I was down, and while it tasted like ass, it was totally worth it for the results.

“I thought you might need a pick-me-up before tonight,” she said softly, her eyes darting to where Jaxson was still standing, arms crossed as he watched us both closely.

Trusting her, I unscrewed the top and downed the entire contents in one large gulp. The chicory flavor was a little saltier than usual, but as always, I just plugged my nose and chugged it. Almost immediately, the pounding in my head eased, and my eyesight was no longer doubled.

“You’re a witch,” I teased, sighing at the relief.

Usually, Dannie laughed with me when I called her that, but this time, she just smiled. A slow, secretive smile, and not for the first time, I wondered how much we truly knew about Dannie the wanderer.

“Rest up, my dear,” she added before she turned away. “I’ll see you for the shift tonight.”

Jaxson cleared his throat. “Solstice shifts are exclusive for alphas and betas only.”

Dannie wrinkled her nose at him. “Did I ask for your input? Did I even look in the direction of your pathetic face?”

He looked absolutely affronted that someone was talking to him like that, but before he could open his mouth and reply, Dannie got in first. “You had everything in your hands, pup,” she said softly, “and you threw it away through pride and fear. You’ve lost what you could have had, and when our girl comes into her own, she’s going to rip your face off. I, for one, can’t wait to see that.”

Jaxson spluttered, but Dannie was already sashaying her ass out of sight, uncaring that a furious shifter was half-wolfed-out behind her.

I was lucky to have a friend who thought I was something worth losing, when everyone else in my life—except Simone—had just thrown me away.

Jaxson’s black-as-fuck eyes were locked on me, his jaw hard and unyielding as the energy and scent of his wolf filled the underground cells. “Don’t lose it,” I said bluntly. “I don’t give a fuck what your personal beef with Dan is. Control your shit.”

He attempted to murder me with his expression, but I just closed my eyes and laid my head back down, determined to get as much rest and healing in before the full moon shift. Some wolves died during their first turn, bodies too weak for the soul they housed.

No fucking way would I give these assholes the satisfaction of seeing me succumb to the wolf in that way. Nope. They were going to see me stronger than ever, and one day, hopefully sooner rather than later, they would no longer be a threat to me.