Rejected (Shadow Beast Shifters #1) - Jaymin Eve Page 0,53

many resources, to the ground in a matter of months.”

I internally flinched. Fuck. I’d done that… freed these creatures that could destroy the world.

Stepping closer to him but maintaining enough distance not to get scorched again—even if at this stage a little fire sounded kind of nice—I peered around. “So, are you capable of tracking and containing them?”

He scoffed, like that was up there with my top stupid questions. And considering how he’d reacted to many of them, there was some stiff competition. “You will learn to fear me, little wolf.”

It was my turn to scoff, only it sort of came out like a snort. “Yeah, yeah. So you keep telling me. What’s the point of wanting everyone to fear you, though? Doesn’t seem like a great way to make friends.”

He stopped what he was doing, and even Inky ceased swirling around his arms, settling against his chest instead. “You want us to be friends?”

I shrugged. “I mean, what would it hurt if we’re stuck together for a while trying to track these creatures of darkness down?”

Shadow was the one to move closer, his energy caressing me, sending warmth across my body that was almost as good as an orgasm. “There are five beings in this world I call friend,” he murmured, his accent the strongest I’d ever heard. “Five whom I trust with my life, and for whom I would fight to the death.”

At this point, I was mindless, lost in the thrall of his voice and power, but he didn’t take advantage. Nope. He stepped away, tearing the delicious heat and tingling energy away from me.

“You’re not in that five, wolf.”

He started to walk, and I blinked, trying to bring myself back to reality.

The fact that I wasn’t in the five beings he trusted with his life shouldn’t have come as a surprise to me. I’d known this dude for about one point three seconds, and in that time, it had mainly been torture, snark, and fear, but for some stupid reason, I’d felt disappointed when I’d heard him say that.

Maybe by the end of my stay with the Shadow Beast, he would raise that number to six. Or maybe he’d murder me into a fiery ball of fur.

The fact that I didn’t know which way this would all go was not as terrible as I’d expected it to be. Maybe I’d lost my mind, or maybe… just maybe, this was where my life truly began.

All I had to do was make sure I stayed alive, which meant not pissing off this beast—and sticking around to see what destiny had in store for me.

Speaking of, he was off and running again, tracking the shadow creature down. It wasn’t exactly a quick process. We walked for miles, the snow growing thicker underfoot and the air colder on every part of my body exposed to the elements. No matter how much I tried to snuggle into my jacket, most of me still felt frozen, and eventually, when my eyelashes were nothing more than white popsicles, I ground to a halt.

“Are you legitimately fucking with me at this stage?” I growled, my wolf howling inside my chest. “Why are you so useless at tracking?”

Yeah, I was tired. Exhausted, even. And I’d sure as fuck had enough of being dragged halfway across the wilds of Canada, all for some small chance of stumbling upon a shadow creature.

“What did you say?” He sounded genuinely surprised.

“I expected you to be better at tracking than this,” I continued carelessly, my entire plan of staying alive lost in my exhausted annoyance. “You’re just leading us in fucking circles.” I threw my hands in the air. “And what the hell am I even doing here? Why do you need me? Does the one who released the shadows have to return them or something?”

“Yes,” he snarled. “The careless, pathetic human who released shadow creatures to destroy Earth has to be the one to claim them back.”

Well, shit.

“Sounds like you can’t really kill me then,” I said, finding the silver lining.

Huge hands, strong and biting, wrapped around my biceps and hauled me up so that my face was at his eight-feet height. I gulped at his snarling expression, perfect in how terrifying and breathtaking it was. “You underestimate both your own importance and that of Earth. I do not need this world. But you… you have friends here. Family even. You’d do well to remember that.”

His advice was solid, as advice went, but I was more consumed by the