Page 92 of Rejected By the Winter Wolf

He carries me upstairs. The fury rolling off him is new. His hair is messier, and it’s dark out. Like he rolled out of bed and came straight to me.

There’s a large deck off the sliding back doors. It overlooks the field where he’s been forcing me to replenish my magic, although there’s a thicker layer of snow across the boards and the grass. I barely remember being dropped in the snow yesterday. Those memories are lost in a haze of pain from Sonia’s draining.

“What’s happening?” I slur, exhaustion lingering in my voice.

He lets my feet touch the deck, but I’m not strong enough to stay standing. When he steps back, I crumple.

“The Winter Wolf has come to try and steal you.” He says it loud enough that his voice carries.

I drag myself up on my forearms and peer out through the railing slats. My breath catching at the sheer number of shifters who now fill the clearing.

Too many men, most of them shirtless and ready to shift, watch Gage like he’s a savior. Perhaps he is in a way. He could’ve saved them. But he’s going to try and kill Kian if the latter wants me, and he’s been killing witches—torturing witches—for who knows how long. Months? Years? Longer?

I run my finger over the cuffs, holding my breath. I want my magic back. There’s a disconnect that has made me realize just how fragile humans really are.

Human women, especially.

Gage drags me upright, propping my feet under me, and pushes me to the railing. I hold onto it so I don’t fall again. My legs tremble.

“The Winter Wolf has come with violent intent,” he says to his pack. “For this.”

He’s talking about me.

Seven weeks of grunge and filth cling to me, the bruised bite mark at my neck hidden by my hair. My shirt and jeans have dried blood stained into the fabric.

A lone howl breaks the uneasy silence.

My skin prickles. I rub the cuffs again, but they’re the vampire hybrid’s doing. I don’t know how they come off.

Something moves on the edge of the clearing, and I focus hard on it. Wolves, in their animal form. More than the human-shaped men who fill the clearing are tucked out of sight. On purpose? As a trap?

“He comes onto our territory, after killing our brother. And he wants to take something that doesn’t belong to him,” Gage yells.

The shifters in their human form jeer and shout.

I swallow.

Kian howls again, and I try not to show a reaction. But my eyes fill with tears anyway. There are too many conflicting emotions. Dread, hope, adrenaline. Fear. The fact that I even recognize his howl…

He shouldn’t have come. He should’ve cut his losses and found the blood witch to break the curse.

Maybe he’ll take Sonia. She’s a blood witch—she could help him if he survives.

A lump blocks my throat. My nails bite into the railing, hard enough that one of them cracks. The cold embeds in my skin. The feeling of death has been following me, and right now, it stands at my shoulder.

As if I summoned her, Sonia appears at my side. There’s a ghost of a smile on her lips. Does she know what’s coming? Has Gage told her all about his plans for us?

She reaches out and presses her finger into the bite wound on my neck. Blood coats her finger, and she sucks it into her mouth.

Gross.

Her smile widens.

“Don’t touch me,” I snap, a new edge in my voice.

It’s Kian, maybe. I’d believe it if I could feel the bond. But he’s far away, and it’s just us up on this porch. Gage and me and her.

“What happened to you?” I ask in a softer tone. “Why would you turn on your own kind?”