Rejected (Shadow Beast Shifters Book 1)

I groaned as light shone behind my closed eyes, and rolling over, I stopped at the feel of sheets far silkier than the ones I slept on in the lair. What? Where am I?

As I forced my eyes open, everything hurt, even my eyelids as I tried to lift my head. Ugh… Why am I so exhausted? Fatigue pressed down on me, a weight sitting on my chest, and my mouth was so dry, I felt like I’d been left to bake in the desert for a month.

The room around me was completely unfamiliar, and when I finally got up, my head spun. Unease trickled through my stomach, and as the sheets dropped to reveal a set of naked tits—my naked tits—the memories of yesterday flashed through my addled brain.

Holy fucking fuck.

Faerie. The song. The painful need that had turned my body into an enemy I couldn’t fight.

And Shadow… oh, gods.

Shadow had given me more orgasms in one night than I’d had in my entire life. He was skilled, relentless, and utterly unstoppable when he set his mind to something. And that something had been to get me through the Faerie song.

Memories crashed into me, intense and unwavering, and my damn traitorous body wanted more. It was like we’d been conditioned now, and the mere thought of the Shadow Beast had my limbs trembling as heat and moisture pooled in my center.

That was going to be a problem I’d have to contend with at some point, but for now, mission pretend yesterday didn’t happen was in full swing. Just had to find some clothes first. Not that it really mattered. There wasn’t much of my body Shadow didn’t know at this stage, except my mouth. He’d never kissed me, and I hadn’t touched him. It had been all one-sided from what I remembered… the sole focus on me.

Some women might have loved that, but for me, it was a bittersweet memory.

Since there were no clothes at all in my vicinity, I wrapped the sheet around myself and dragged it from the bed as I got out. My legs took a few seconds to steady, and for a shifter to be feeling the aftereffects of the night so strongly, I knew that whatever the Faerie spell had done to me, it was still working its way out of my system.

After hobbling around like a newborn horse, I finally got my equilibrium back and was once again able to move freely without issue. A quick check of this room and the bathroom brought me up empty for clothing—no doubt because Shadow was a magical being who manifested clothing from will alone.

Which left me with one option: go out there and face the music. Maybe he could magic me up some clothing as well. I used the bathroom first, thankful that it appeared to be Earth spec. Almost everything of Shadow’s was based on things I was familiar with, and that told me, that despite his blasé attitude toward it, he actually loved Earth maybe a little more than the other worlds.

When I walked into the library, it appeared to be empty. In a palace this size, there had to be a ton of other rooms where Shadow might have been, but I was a little surprised not to find him here. A quick glance out the window told me that we were still zooming across the world, and below was what looked like a tundra of green ice, with dotted patches of green water between the frozen lands.

Faerie was one extreme after another, but I felt a sense of peace being here that was oddly strong. Peace and hunger, since apparently, a night of intense pleasure was draining. Reluctantly leaving the view, I staked my claim on the box of food, finding water, fruit, and a sandwich—all chilled and fresh, as Shadow had promised—that I wolfed down.

When I was satiated, I dragged one of the couches across to the windows and sprawled back into the soft surface, propping my feet up on a large glass panel to watch the scenery zoom past. When would I ever get to experience Faerie again? I didn’t want to miss a thing.

We weren’t the only palace floating above the land, with many other houses, drifting islands, and grand estates dotted across the horizon. None of them came too close; magic was clearly involved in keeping everything running smoothly.

I felt Shadow before I saw him, and knowing it was going to be awkward, no matter what I did, I decided not to turn and acknowledge him first. Because I was a coward like that.

“Len is here,” he rumbled, standing above me. The sound of his deep voice did something to me that I’d never experienced before. My body surged to life, every cell, synapse, and receptor standing to attention, as if their master had arrived.

No! Stand down, you disloyal bitch.

I could not give Shadow any extra power over me. I’d said it before, and it was just as important today: he had already had way too much control over me. My wolf howled in my chest, and I couldn’t tell if she wanted to roll over for Shadow too, or if she was reminding me we still had a true mate. I knew part of her soul hadn’t given up on Torin.

We don’t need either of them, I reminded her. Her howl died off, but she was extra restless as I focused on Shadow.

“Okay, cool,” I said as casually as I could, turning away from the view to finally meet his gaze. “For any reason? To warn us about another weird sex spell he forgot to tell us about?”

His eyes were blazing gold, and despite my fuzzy memories, I could tell he had not forgotten a single thing about last night. Thankfully, he didn’t force me to deal with the facts of what had happened—letting me hide a little longer.

“Come. I’ll show you.”

I hitched the sheet up tighter. “Do you have any clothing here for me?” I asked.

The flames flared as his eyes dropped along my body. “Inky can procure some.”

Of course it could.

Shadow turned away, and I didn’t imagine the tic in his jaw as he did. There was no time for me to overanalyze what that meant, because he was back in minutes with a set of clothes that fit me perfectly. I used the bedroom to change into the underwear, black shirt, skinny jeans, and a pair of calf-high black biker boots, which I loved more than any shoes I’d ever owned in my life.

My hair was a hot mess after being left to dry while also being thrashed about in my throes of pleasure, so there wasn’t much I could do except finger-comb through the tangled curls and leave it as a mass of insanity down my back. Not like I was trying to impress anyone, anyway. Apparently, I was nothing more than a duty to Shadow, and since it was laughable to think we could ever have more than a night of pleasure like that—he was a freaking god, for freak’s sake—I needed to get my head back to the status quo.

When I returned to the library, Shadow and Inky were waiting for me, and together, they led me out of the room and up another set of stairs that I hadn’t known was there. As Shadow’s broad shoulders disappeared onto the next floor, I followed, my mouth falling open as I reassessed if the library was still my favorite room.

It was an observatory. The entire floor, as large as the one below, had floor-to-ceiling windows that went on forever. “Wow,” I breathed, stepping closer. It seemed we had a much higher vantage point to see everything, even though it was only one floor above.

“Shadow is all about views and books,” Len said, walking in from wherever he’d been. His eyes were twinkling, and he was once again clad in the silver cloak, his hair pulled back in a braid, showcasing the perfect planes of his face.

“Views and books,” I replied. “Nothing wrong with that.” They were two of my favorite things in life as well, but I refrained from admitting that out loud.

When Len reached me, he kissed my cheek like we were old friends, and Shadow’s chest rumbled at the same time, which had Len chuckling. “Calm yourself, bro. I’m just saying hello.”

Pushing through both of them, I let a scowl form on my face. “No touchie from either of you, okay? Just show me whatever you were about to do up here.”

Neither missed a beat, striding away from the window toward a brightly lit back corner, where a… shiny silver chair sat.

“In the Shadow Realm,” Shadow said, standing close enough behind me that I could almost feel his touch, “we have a technique of marking our skin using energy from the creatures we control… from the mists. It’s the only ‘ink’ that circumvents our healing abilities.” He gestured to where Len was now bustling around, placing two shimmery jars on the tray table. Both jars appeared to house a mini Inky of swirling, smoky darkness. “I managed to bring a small sliver with me, and over time, it has continued to grow. So we slowly add to my piece.” He turned to his friend. “Len can infuse it into my skin using fae magic. He’s here to finish off my backpiece.”

My breathing was a little heavy. I’d always been a sucker for tattoos on men, especially when they were ripped as fuck with ink across their entire backs. I was shallow like that.

I’d caught sight of the ink on Shadow a few times, and I’d definitely wondered how he’d managed to mark his skin—looked like I was finally getting an answer to one of my questions.

Shadow looked smug as he stepped around me, his eyes taking in my facial expression, which was probably giving my thoughts away. Just as he was about to move to the chair, he leaned down and murmured near my ear, “I could scent your arousal anywhere now, Sunshine.”

Biting back a curse and a moan, I clenched my thighs and forced myself not to think about it any longer.

“Stop flirting and get your shirt off,” Len commanded. “I only have a few hours before the family requires my presence.” He grimaced when he said that, and I had a feeling he wasn’t too into family gatherings.

Shadow reached over, grabbing his shirt at the nape, yanking it up and over his head. It was one swift movement, and then all I could see was inked skin draped over muscles. While Len had lithe muscles, Shadow did not—he was big without being too bulky. With perfect abs, broad shoulders, and thick definition in his upper body, he looked like a work of art, and I meant that in more ways than the actual artwork on his skin. Being so long-limbed, it should have been hard to build heavy muscle, but he was clearly not a human or shifter and had managed it very nicely.

I had to bite my tongue to stop the drool from escaping.

“You have a lot of ink already,” I noted, thankful I didn’t sound as breathless as I felt.

Shadow glanced down at the scripted words—at least I assumed they were words since they weren’t in English—dancing across his chest. Below them there were multiple images of what looked like beasts and monsters. “These were done back home,” he said quietly, brushing a hand over them.

The tattoos moved with his touch, the dark ink swirling. Part of me wanted to reach out, too, and see if they would do the same thing for me,

“In the chair, Beast,” Len said, interrupting. He’d adjusted the chair, making it flat, and Shadow lay face down.

When he was settled, shoulders spilling over the edge of the chair, I stepped closer and eyed up the tattoo half-done on his back.

“Amazing.”

Seriously fucking amazing.

It was a tree of death, a huge single piece that depicted a dark shadowy scene, where multiple skulls were either growing or nestled in branches of a smoke-swirled tree. There was space near the top that wasn’t completed, and it was here that Len started working.

He nestled one of the jars in his hand, and when he released the silver clasp, the smoke twirled out. It looked like it was going to escape, but Len’s magic caught it before it could, the two infusing together as he rotated his hand across Shadow’s spine. No needles or machinery were involved, just some fae magic that was clearly the key to marking shadow smoke into unmarkable skin. At least outside of Shadow Realm.

The next two hours passed in a blink for me as I watched the magic unfold. Shadow and Len chatted, the sort of old friends who knew each other so well and had a million stories of shit they’d gotten up to over the years. It was nice to just sit and watch them together, listen to their banter, and by the time Len had to leave, the image on Shadow’s back was almost finished. It was going to be beyond spectacular when completed.

“I’ll see you soon,” Len said, kissing my cheek again before he all but stepped off the side of the building. I must have looked freaked out because Shadow shook his head. “He’ll be fine.”

Somehow, I had no doubt he would be.

After that, I ate more food, took a long nap, and by the time we were due to return to the library, Shadow and I had successfully reestablished our previous relationship. No awkwardness at all.

I mean, mostly.

When we returned to the familiar garden that I’d first woken in, we silently exited, and from there, it was an easy journey back to the library. I envied the way they could call doorways. Did they even realize the power in their hands—the ability to skip between worlds and never be a prisoner? Shifters, for all of our strengths, were still much closer to humans than the gods. It hadn’t been a fact I’d truly worried about until I’d found myself living in a library filled with beings so far beyond my comprehension. But despite the fact that I was out of my depth in almost every way possible, I was still alive, and I counted that as a victory.

The library was quiet when we entered through the Faerie door; the few goblins around shot me confused stares until they saw Shadow at my side. Then they just nodded and turned back to what they were doing.

No wonder he was a smug bastard. Surrounded by sycophants.

“It’s not healthy, you know.”

He met my gaze, his eyebrows slightly raised. “You do realize that I’m not privy to your thoughts, right? The randomness in which you spout words is astonishing.”

“Whatever, dude.” I flipped him off. “I’m talking about constantly surrounding yourself with yes-people. I mean, how does that help you grow in character or learn from your mistakes?”

Shadow bared his teeth at me. “What makes you think I make mistakes?”

I sighed. “Exactly what I’m talking about. Everyone makes mistakes; it’s just how it works.”

He shrugged while continuing to lead me through the library toward the Earth hallway. “I don’t know what to tell you, Sunshine. I was designed this way by the universe, a perfect predator.”

And where was the lie? Whatever his role to fill in this world, he appeared to be doing a fantastic job at it. He’d created a damn subgroup of humans when he’d merged us with animal souls. Who else could herald a claim to fame like that?

“Just don’t expect me to start kissing your ass,” I muttered. “You’re still the enemy.”

This time it was an actual grin, wicked and tantalizing. “Oh, yeah, Sunshine. You’ve made that very obvious. Except last night when you were screaming my fucking name.”

Jesus. My thighs clenched again, but I didn’t blush—I would not give him the satisfaction. There was something that had to be said about my time in Faerie, though.

“Thanks for helping me,” I told him seriously. “I don’t remember everything, but the pain before was really memorable.”

He paused in the white hallway. “It was my fault that I hadn’t checked the Fae calendar before I decided to use it as a safe zone. It was up to me to fix my mistake.”

My smile was bright enough to blind a person. “All I heard there was that you’re not quite as perfect as you seem to think.”

He shook his head, shoulders heaving as he let a rumble of laughter escape. “Don’t push it, pup. I could still kill you if the mood struck me.”

It was almost a joking threat at this stage. Not that he wouldn’t kill me, but he’d at minimum feel bad about killing me now, so we were making grounds in our relationship. And thankfully, what had happened on Faerie hadn’t sent us ten steps backward.

Denial was working out pretty well.