Rejected (Shadow Beast Shifters #1) - Jaymin Eve Page 0,96

to touch it. Ironic, since this was the one thing Shadow wanted from me; the reason he had me locked up in the first place.

If I unlocked the realm, I might even be free to go back to Torma, bet or no bet. I mean, not that I would be rejoining the pack, no matter what Torin thought was going to happen, but I would return long enough to assure myself that Dannie and Simone were okay. Then I’d embrace freedom like I never had before.

Torin. What was up with that bastard of a shifter anyway? Since when had he decided to change his mind about wanting the true mate bond? It felt like a grab for power, not to mention control—he didn’t want his true mate freely wandering around the world.

Not that he’d have to worry too long about it… I was breaking the bond as soon as we were in the same room again.

At this point, I was sprawled across the bed, letting all these thoughts consume me. The lack of food wasn’t making me weak yet, but I was weary. Might be time for a nap. Maybe in my dreams I’d find the path to the shadow world, open the door, and the beast would release me from his hold.

Maybe I’d finally figure out what I was missing about the spell holding the door? What had we all missed? And in all honesty, how was I going to solve this mystery when a bunch of powerful god-like bastards couldn’t?

At some point in my musings and stress, I drifted off, a rumbling stomach my only companion. My dreams took on the same dark thread of my thoughts, slashes of red and gold scattered through a shadowed world. I was running, chasing, hunting. The wolf was in control as we let the colors slide across us. Only we didn’t have a real body. We were wolf, but we were not the wolf we knew from Earth side. This wolf embraced the fire-threaded darkness. This wolf could slip from solid form and become one with the shadow. And when we were shadow, we were powerful… invincible.

The feeling was heady, and I didn’t even try to fight as we lost ourselves in the darkness. This was where we should have been all along. This was my calling… my destiny. The Shadow Realm…

I jerked upright, shaking off the disorientation of that dream in a heartbeat, even as my breath burst in and out rapidly. It had felt so real. On my tongue, I could still taste the acrid smokiness of the land we’d traveled; feel the cold tendrils of mist on my skin; crave the vast freedom that had been sitting before me.

My chest heaved as I fought the dual sensation of existing between two places. Had I actually been in the Shadow Realm in that dream? Or was it just a manifestation of Shadow demanding I figure out how to open the doorway?

The disorientation did not fade, even as I sat there for many minutes and shook my head and slapped my cheeks a few times. Stumbling to my feet, a whole-body shake was my next option, followed by a cold shower. I closed my eyes first and shook my arms and legs out, tingles following each movement, like my limbs had been asleep for far longer than that dream had indicated.

Still, a shadowy second vision persisted, right in my peripheral vision. I kept catching sight of dark movement to the side, but when I turned, it wasn’t there. The dual sight made me nauseous as I ran to the bathroom, cranking the shower all the way to freezing as I jumped in fully clothed. Closing my eyes completely, I dropped my head against the wall.

The jolt of icy water did the trick, as the racing of my mind calmed, and when I finally reopened my eyes, the shadows had faded from view. Adjusting the water temperature, I sank down under the warmer stream, hugging my arms around my legs. My cheek rested against my knees as I contemplated the possibility that I’d touched the Shadow Realm in my dreams—and maybe had released more creatures somewhere.

After I finally calmed, my thoughts were centered on the stupidity of breaking the connection to the one place I needed to be above all others. I’d let fear grab hold of me and lost my opportunity. In the future, I had to do better than that, or I’d be stuck in this room for the