Page 83 of Rejected By the Winter Wolf

“Don’t listen to me pee.” She pokes me on her way into the first stall. “I mean it, wolf. That’s a line you should not cross.”

I shake my head. Bodily functions are pretty normal. And growing up surrounded by folks with extra-sensitive hearing, you get used to being unwittingly all up in everyone’s business.

Just outside the restroom, I scan the parking area. There are only trucks parked in a separate lot, separated by trees. Cars pass by the rest stop on the highway. Part of my attention is on Astra, but most of it is on the approaching car. The one that was following. It parks at the top of the row of spots, and the two shifters get out. They stop on the sidewalk and stare me down.

“Can I help you?” I ask softly, knowing they can hear me.

“We want the witch,” one says. “She’s got a bounty on her head.”

My wolf is silent, his deadly focus on the wolves in front of us. My senses are still stretched, waiting for any sign of something bad. For a tiny rest stop, it’s busy. New cars pull in. A large family piles out of a minivan, heading for the restrooms.

I want to tell them to stop, but that’s ridiculous. They’re human.

The family divides by gender and splits off with their designated parent, at the same time that the wolves start toward me.

“Who put a bounty on her?” I ask them.

The taller of the two tilts his head. “Alpha of the Mountain Creek Pack.”

Gage.

I’m going to kill him. I’m trying to be done with this blasted curse. He’ll thank me later, if he stops getting in my way. And then he’ll owe me for it. They all will.

“You’re not in his pack.” I narrow my eyes. “Leave. This doesn’t concern you.”

The other one nudges his companion. His eyes are wide. “Y-you’re the Winter Wolf?”

I bare my teeth. It doesn’t have the same reaction as it would in wolf form, but I’m about to snap their necks just for questioning me. Witnesses be damned.

They both back away, then turn around and hurry to their car.

I blow out a breath and return to the restroom door to wait. I can hear the females inside. Their noises all sort of run together in the echoing room. Footsteps approach the door, and I straighten.

The minivan family–a mother and two daughters–come out. Then another woman. My brow furrows.

Something’s wrong.

I push into the women’s restroom, as I did five fucking minutes ago, and find it the exact same way: empty. My body moves to high alert, and I hurry back out. She didn’t get by me this way. I cut through to the truck parking lot.

What sort of idiot am I? I focus on the bond, which ensures I’m going the right way.

“Winter Wolf,” a deep, booming voice calls behind me.

I jerk around. The bond tugs me in the opposite direction, but suddenly Gage’s right hand man is in front of me. He’s a huge guy, bald and taller than me by six inches. He probably outweighs me in muscle, too. He likes to show off his muscles by wearing ridiculous tank tops.

He crosses his trunk-like arms over his chest.

“Gerald,” I reply. I edge backwards. “A little bit outside your territory, are you not?”

He follows me. “My Alpha sent me.”

I scoff. “Yeah? Why’s that?”

He kicks off his shoes. “I challenge you, Kian.”

Chapter 20

Astra