Page 23 of His Rejected Mate

“I will not order anyone to join us,” he said. “I’ll do my best to convince the citizens of Haven that this is an important and worthwhile objective. I’ll take volunteers who want to join the fight, but I willnot, under any circumstances, force them to help. They can fight, or they can hide. Haven is not a dictatorship or monarchy. Everyone here has their own volition and agency, and I won’t take that from them. Anyone who goes will be risking their lives, and that’s a decision they need to make for themselves.”

“That makes total sense,” I said, relief and happiness battling to be the strongest emotion. “It says a lot about you, and I respect the hell out of that.”

I had a suspicion that almost no one in Haven would turn down the chance to fight. They all looked up to Crew as an almost deific figure. Most would probably jump at the chance to both help Crewandget off the island.

“Eli?” Crew said. “Do you want to come with me? We’ll need to talk to everyone. Small groups, nothing big. I don’t want anyone to feel pressured by a group setting, so let’s do intimate meetings to lay this out. Give them the whole story so they can decide on their own.”

She nodded. “Yeah. Better sooner than later.”

She and Crew turned to leave, and I thought I saw Chelsey and Crew exchanging another loaded look. This one had less anger from Chelsey. Possibly a good sign? Who knew at this point?

All I could really think about was striking back at Simon, destroying his lab and his disgusting creations once and for all.Hundreds of thousands of people back home depended on us, and I was desperate to keep anyone else from getting hurt. My parents and Kolton were already struggling with fighting other packs. I’d be damned if I let Simon send more weapons back to the mainland to put my family in even more danger.

Chapter 6

Wyatt

I kept quiet during the meeting. The shock of what Kira said bounced through my head like a pinball, making it hard to add much to the conversation. Simon had developed the potion that put Kira into heat? None of the labs had been able to figure out the chemical component used in it. The fact that the same psycho who’d created that was on Bloodstone Island made my head spin.

Even worse was the fact that this guy had been the one to force her first shift all those years ago, and here he was again. Not content with ruining her life in childhood, he’d had his little fucking inventions following Kira through time and space, hellbent on destroying her. Unbidden, a flash of memory flooded my mind. Kira, sobbing and covered in blood. She’d spent her whole life thinking she was a killer. A murderer. Amonster. From what I could see, she was putting on a good front, but she couldn’t hide what she felt from me. There could be storms raging inside her, and she’d act like nothing was wrong. I wouldn’t pry into that. She’d give me answers in her own time. Until then, I wanted to make sure she wasphysicallyall right.

Once Crew and Eli had departed, I pulled Kira aside out of earshot of the others. “How are you doing? Any residual issues from yesterday? Weakness? Exhaustion? Anything?”

She gave me a faint smile. “I’m okay. Sleeping for eighteen-ish hours did the trick. Simon pumped me full of some sort of potion or drug or something that weakened me and made me tired and worn down, but other than that, nothing out of the ordinary. Whatever it was might have been a precursor to theactualchemical he was going to give me to finish the experiment or whatever. I think you guys got to me in the nick of time. I’m fine, really.”

“I know you,” I said. “You could be dying, and you’d pretend you were fine. All you need to do is tell me if you feel anything weird, okay? No judgment.”

Kira rolled her eyes and patted my chest. “You sound like you’re getting back to your old bossy and nagging self.”

“Forgive me for wanting you to be safe,” I said, my tone jovial and sarcastic, playing along with her. “The last thing I need is for you to get in troubleyet again. I’m still trying to get over the damn heart attack you gave me when you went missing in the first place.”

She quirked an eyebrow and grinned back at me. “Wow! Seriously? I didn’t realize Iplannedto get kidnapped, drugged, and terrified by a mad scientist.” She glanced down at her wrist like she was checking an invisible watch. “Oh, that’s right, I’d actually planned on that happening the day after tomorrow. Damn, I got my crises mixed up. My fault. Yesterday, I was supposed to get swallowed by a kraken. I really need to get a personal assistant to coordinate all these things.”

“Oh, it’s always been in the plan, then? Good to know,” I said, nodding along. “I was afraid that after all these years, you really were as clumsy as I thought. Whew, that’s a load off my mind.”

“I mean, planned or not, you can’t help but jump in to try and rescue me. Do you get off on it, Wyatt? Is it some sort of sexual kink? Do you get a boner when things get tense and dangerous?”

We bickered back and forth like we used to before coming to the island, but the dynamic had changed. Instead of irritation in her voice and frustration in mine, there was a softness, a playfulness to the banter that had never been there before. It was the fact that we loved each other. That’s what had changed. We no longer fought that or pushed back on the feelings we’d had for so long.

Kira was in the middle of making another dirty joke when I lunged forward, kissing her, cutting her off mid-sentence. After a moment, I pulled away and looked into her eyes, serious again. “I mean it. Tell me if and when you’re not a hundred percent. We need to be in top shape to take on Simon.”

A memory tickled the back of my mind. The scientist casting a spell at Kira in the hall, forcing her to shift. With everything that happened afterward, I’d pushed it away, but now it made me uneasy.

I mentioned it to Kira, but she waved it off. “It was a spell, Wyatt. If he’d cast it at you, the same thing probably would have happened.” She shuddered. “Itdidfreak me out, to be honest. You know how few times I’ve shifted. I’m still not used to the sensation, that’s all. We’ll need to watch out for that next time, though. If he can force me to shift into my wolf form, then that spell may work both ways.”

Her explanation made sense, but I’d never heard of a spell that could do that. Maybe this Simon guy had developed new magical abilities during his studies, or maybe he had more power, being a shifter-fae hybrid. Either way, it did little to ease my worries.

Kira put her hands on my cheeks and kissed me again, the warmth of her lips washing away my anxiety. “I promise, Wyatt.If anything is off, you’ll be the first to know. Now, can we go check on Leif? I can’t stop thinking about him. He looked miserable in the lab.”

“Yeah, okay,” I said. “I’d like to see him, too. Crew told me where his holding cell is.”

Kira remained silent on the trip through the tunnels and corridors. Shadows flickered in the light of the candles and fae lights along the walls. When we stepped into the chamber, both of us froze in our tracks. J.D. was sitting in front of Leif’s cell, gazing at the other alpha. The sadness on his face damn near broke my heart.

Leif paced back and forth in the cage in his wolf form. He snapped at the air madly, like he was biting things only he could see. He snarled and growled, pawed the ground, and even spun in place to bite his tail and legs. He had the textbook look and movements of a fully feral shifter.

Kira cleared her throat, and J.D. turned his head to us. Leif lunged at the cage, chuffing at our presence. J.D. got to his feet and walked over to meet us, wrapping his arms around Kira. He sank into the embrace, almost like he had trouble standing once Kira took hold of him.

She rubbed his back. “How are you doing?”

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