Rejected (Shadow Beast Shifters #1) - Jaymin Eve Page 0,39
with this devil. Thankfully, he released me just as dark spots danced across my vision. I collapsed forward, coughing and choking, my starved lungs desperately attempting to suck air in.
He retook his seat, relaxing, his legs wide in what used to be my favorite man-spread until I’d met this megalomaniac. “As I was saying,” he rumbled, “I need you to tell me exactly what happened on your pack lands earlier today. I felt your energy touch the Shadow Realm.”
His voice lowered on the last two words, growing colder, and I had zero clue what that meant. Shadow Beast was an enigma, and I had no reference for his tone changes. He was not shifter or human, and I was way out of my fucking element.
His chest rumbled at my silence and I gave myself three seconds to decide what to do. Lie or truth? Which gave me the better odds of survival? I had no idea if touching the Shadow Realm was forbidden or not.
“I really don’t know what happened,” I said, deciding part-truth was the way to start.
His scowl appeared like an old friend and I was already growing used to seeing it—Shadow’s signature look.
“I’m not trying to be difficult,” I said to him. “I really have no idea. Tonight was my first shift, solstice full moon and all that.” I refrained from adding my opinion on the stupidity of his rule, just in case he was easily offended. As much as I wanted to ask him why the age of twenty-two, now just didn’t feel like the right time.
“Your first shift?” He moved forward in his chair and I was almost certain I’d never had this sort of focused attention on me before. Shadow certainly knew how to make a girl blush.
And… piss herself from fear.
“Yes. First shift, and when the sun started to rise, I found my true mate.” I paused as the remembered pain sliced through me again. The unfulfilled bond was like a ragged piece of soul dragging across rough ground.
“Your mind has trouble staying in one place, I see.”
Shooting him my version of an angry face, I hurried to finish the story. “Anyway, as I was saying, first shift, got rejected by my asshole of a mate, got attacked, and because of the soul-deep pain of my rejection, my wolf went ballistic. This was when my vision doubled over, and I could see shadowy figures that definitely didn’t exist in the normal Earthly plane.” I swallowed roughly at the memory. “I’m fairly certain no one else could see them.”
“You touched one.”
Statement.
“Yeah, I think so.”
“Can you do it again?”
I blanched. “Why the fuck would I do it again? It was scary and felt… unnatural. Yeah, not a fan.”
He steepled his fingers. “Let me rephrase. You will do it again, or I’ll kill you and everyone you love.”
Fuck. “Well, when you put it like that…” I trailed off, wishing the floor would open up and swallow me. “The only problem is I have zero idea what I did, and replicating it is not going to just happen.”
This was probably the point he exploded and ripped me into million pieces. I really just hoped it was quick.
“Shift.”
“What…?”
“You’re a shifter. Shift.”
Fuck this guy. Fuck him right to hell. One without a library.
I spat my words out between gritted teeth. “Remember how I told you it was my first shift? I can’t change on command yet. Rules of the Shadow Beast.”
Should I really be reminding you of this, asshole?
Energy slammed into me, locking my body in a vise, and as my spine arched, my wolf howled and tore her way out of my body. Within seconds, I was no longer on two legs, but back in my red and white four-legged form, limbs shaking from the rapid change.
My brain merged fast into the wolf, growls rumbling in our chest as we stalked forward toward him.
Shadow was unconcerned. “Do you have the double vision?”
Our growls increased. Hackles up. Fangs showing.
The dark smoke wrapped around Shadow, who was once again watching me like I was the only being in existence. “You’re not seeing it now.”
It wasn’t a question.
With a wave of his hands, he forced the shift on me again, and my wolf’s howl turned into a scream as I changed back to human. It took a terrible toll on our bodies to change so rapidly, so it was no surprise that I ended up a naked, huffing, near sobbing mess on the floor.