Page 34 of Rejected Mate's Baby for the Alpha King

Suddenly, a wolf broke through the woods. Opening my mouth, I screamed in horror, and it was just enough to stop the wolf from its rampage.

Unfortunately, his attention was all on me.

It was a wolf. Well, it had a wolf’s face and muzzle, and a wolf’s body. Except it was running on two legs and looked to be fifteen feet tall.

It was a monster.

With its attention focused on me, I grabbed a log from the fire and quickly moved to my left. “Hey there, handsome fella,” I said after a quick check, and desperately wished I could unsee the enormous dick dangling between his legs. “You looking to ask a girl for a dance?”

Opening his mouth, he roared. Tessa moved to stand protectively over Dante. My heart pounded in my chest. Where the hell were Rhyson and the others?

Dead?

“I don’t suppose you brought me some flowers? I’m a difficult girl to woo. I want moonlight. Sparkling diamonds. Picnics by serene lakes.”

His mouth curled into a snarl. Shadows shifted behind him. Wolves.

God, I hoped they were our wolves.

“Well? What are you waiting for? I’ve got a long list of suitors. Let’s see what you’ve got.”

He charged, and I waited until the last minute before I jumped to the side and struck him in the knee with the log. Claws raked against my arm as he fell, but I brought the log up again and hit him full in the face. Fire singed him, and he roared. Rhyson and Nash jumped him, and I turned my back.

I returned to the fire, and Tessa was back in human form, looking over Dante. “How is he?”

“A few broken bones and burns that’ll heal in a few hours. Since he’s not awake and telling me what hurts, I don’t know if there’s anything else.” She glanced up. “Your hands are burned and you’re bleeding. You should shift.”

“In a minute.”

“Not in a minute,” Rhyson snarled from behind me. “Now.”

He sounded weak. I wanted to turn around and check on him, but I just knelt down and started to shift. When my wolf finally came out, I wanted to bury myself inside of her and hide. Pain. God, I hated pain. Shuddering, I let the magic of the shift start to heal me.

“When you’re human again, you can tell me what the fuck you were thinking,” Rhyson snarled behind me. “Baiting a monster? Have you lost your fucking mind?”

“Rhyson,” Tessa screamed. “Behind you!”

I whipped my head around to see the monster rise and shake off Nash, Duke, and Juniper like they were gnats. With a roar, he jumped over Rhyson and scooped me up.

Shit.

Before I could blink, he was crashing through the woods with me in his arms, and Rhyson and his crew were left behind.

18

Rhyson

Desperately, I looked at Tessa. She and I were the only wolves still standing. If I went after Maya, I’d be leaving her, along with three wounded wolves. I couldn’t do that.

But I also couldn’t let that creature take Maya.

“I’ll get them conscious. Go. We’ll follow your tracks,” Tessa ordered. I was still torn. “Damn it, Rhyson, go. If he wanted her dead, he would have killed her immediately. He wants something else. You know that. Don’t let it happen. Bring her back. I can protect them here.”

Letting my wolf take over, I turned and raced after Maya. The monster was fucking bigger than it should have been, but it left a trail that was beyond easy to follow.

How had this creature managed to sneak up on us anyway?

We’d been tracking a wild boar when Juniper was plucked up and tossed into me like she was a bowling ball and I was the pin. Nash got in a few good licks, and then it started running straight to our camp. Dante managed to get ahead of it, for all the good it did.

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