Page 14 of Rejected Alpha Mate

By the time we reach it, my patience has worn thin. I call out, voice sharp, “Dom.”

The tent door parts almost immediately, and Dominic emerges in shorts, his expression sharpening the moment he sees the blood seeping through the fabric clinging to my shoulder. Cecelia follows close behind, peeking out from behind his arm and gasping.

“What the hell happened, Nick?” Dominic asks, his tone calm but edged with worry as he steps forward.

But before I can answer, Donna steps between us to face me. “That’s what I want to know, too,” she snaps, crossing her arms and glancing at her brother. “You came out of the woods covered in blood. Tobias isn’t in his tent, and now you’re acting like—”

I cut her off. “I’m covered in blood because Tobias isn’t who he says he is.”

Deafening silence follows, and even the forest seems to freeze.

Dominic’s brows furrow. “What do you mean?”

“I mean”—I pause to take a deep breath, turning to face him fully—“your sister’s human friend just met with something cloaked in black out there in the woods—something that didn’t smell human. Nor did it smell like wolf, or anything we’ve ever faced before. Whatever it was, it told him to get closer to her. To seduce her.”

My eyes flit to Donna, and her face pales instantly, her lips parting, a tremor running through her frame. “That’s not—” she shivers. “No. You’re lying.”

I meet her eyes, innocent and untainted, still too naive to see anything but the good in others, and for a second, I wish it wasn’t true. I really do.

“I wish I were lying,” I murmur earnestly, then grab the torn hem of my shirt and rip it open, baring my shoulder and angling it in a way that allows the moonlight to illuminate it. The bite mark gleams moist and crimson beneath the moonlight, already darkening around the edges. “You see this? He did this. Right after his eyes turned black.”

Donna stumbles back, her hand flying to her mouth, a small, broken, muffled squeak escaping her. It’s a sound I’ve heard before, once, a year ago. The night I made the biggest mistake of my life.

And Goddess knows I hate that I’m the reason she’s tearing up again, staring at me in disbelief.

Dominic’s eyes widen, fury simmering beneath the surface of his hardened face. Cecelia’s hand tightens on his arm.

“Are you sure?” Dominic asks, voice steady but low. I know he’s only asking me for his sister’s sake, because Dominic trusts me. That much I’m sure of. We’ve had each other’s backs during our missions, our lives depending on each other’s skills and combat training at different points during those years.

And his trust is the very reason he doesn’t know about last summer.

“Positive,” I concur with a firm nod as we were back in a mission debriefing. “He’s a werewolf, and he shifted when I caught him conspiring with that…thing. He’d been masking his scent all this time to appear human. I chased him into the forest, but he disappeared.” I glance at Donna briefly just to gauge her reaction, noticing that she’s still gaping at me with pale disbelief.

“His scent disappeared, too,” I continue as I turn back to Dominic. “Just gone like it was wiped clean. He’s not an ordinary wolf, Dom. He was hiding something. And if he’s working with whatever that thing was, then Donna’s life is in danger.”

Donna shakes her head, tears spilling freely now. “No…he wouldn’t…he wouldn’t hurt me.”

I step closer, my voice rough. “He was planning on doing just that,” I tell her, staring deeply and determinedly into her eyes. “He lied to you, deceived you, and he was planning on doing much worse.”

Donna stares at me with tear-stricken eyes, brows furrowed as if she’s trying to hang on to some part of her that believes I’m lying. Dominic exhales sharply, running a hand down his face before wearing the expression of a man meaning business, glancing back toward the others’ tents. “We’ll wake the rest,” he mutters. “Everyone needs to hear this.”

Minutes later, we’re gathered around the dead fire pit as if it’s a makeshift meeting den. The familiar faces of our friends watch me, tension written in their eyes as I recount what I saw and heard.

When I’m done, only the sound of crickets fills the air while silence stretches over the group.

Tyler is the first to break it. “If Tobias masked his scent, he’s not working alone. No one werewolf can do that.”

“We don’t even know where he might be from,” Sean mutters grimly.

“Well, whether he’s from a pack or a lone wolf, he’s tied to some nasty things, and I have no idea what it was,” I add with a shiver.

“What if it was one of the bad witches?” Arianna suggests, eyes narrowing as she stares at Tyler contemplatively.

“Like the one that poisoned Gwen?” he considers, and she nods.

Dominic nods thoughtfully, too, the muscles in his jaw flexing. “But why would they come after my sister?”

Arianna shrugs diffidently. “It’s just a hunch. The dark lord is no fool. He knows we’re all linked. What if he’s targeting you and Donna for simply having anything to do with us?”