Page 45 of Rejected Mate's Baby for the Alpha King

There were plenty of fish in the river, so it wasn’t hard to get some lunch. Most wolves didn’t love fish, but there weren’t any complaints as we took refuge in the shade, ate our lunch, and splashed in the river.

Maya shifted and started to apply the ointment to her knee. She’d spent most of the journey avoiding me. Paisley loped into the river and kept going. Maya sprang up from her spot after him, grabbed him by the scruff, and pulled him back. “Don’t kill yourself with the river,” she told him. “Water is way more violent than you think.”

With a moan, Paisley shifted. Naked and shaking, he stared up at her. “I need something,” he whispered. “I can’t keep this up.”

“You need food and sleep. You get one of those now. You get the other tonight. You’re a werewolf,” she told him as she reached into her bag and pulled out an energy bar. He’d eaten the fish. I’d seen him, but looking at him now, it looked like he might blow away like a leaf.

Weak, my wolf growled. He wanted to kill Paisley.

Struggling, I told him. At that word, my wolf gave pause. He understood and retreated. I watched Maya interact with the boy. She wasn’t kind to him. Not motherly or even caring, but on some level, she seemed to relate a little. I doubted Maya had a drug problem in her past, but I couldn’t figure out what it was.

Paisley nibbled on his energy bar, then immediately rolled over and vomited. When his stomach was empty, he came back to the bar and ate a little more. We stayed by the river longer than I wanted, but as soon as Paisley looked a little stronger, we started to move again. We’d gone far enough that I popped the amulet in my mouth and called out to the wolves.

Paisley jerked in surprise and immediately straightened and moved closer to us. I didn’t like expending power like this, but I wasn’t about to get him killed on the same day that I’d taken him. I was still regretting my decision when I felt the amulet warm in my mouth as the sun started to set.

Immediately, I stopped and shifted. If the humans were to be believed, we wouldn’t have any issues with rogue wolves. Paisley shifted as well. He had a little more color in his skin, but he still shook. “We can’t stay here,” he whispered. “There are ghosts.”

“Ghosts?”

“You’ll hear them at night. Something horrible happened here, and the magic…it raises the ghosts, and they are out for revenge.”

As if on cue, the trees behind us started to wail.

24

Maya

My wolf shivered at the mournful sound. Feeling her fear rising, I quickly wrested control and started the painful shift. Everybody gave me space expect Paisley. My slow shift seemed to temporarily distract him from his own pain and fear. Finally, I started to dress.

“I’m telling you man, we can’t go this way. Wolves come in here and never return,” Paisley insisted.

“We’ve got two things that are going to help us. One is the amulet, and the other is you.” Rhyson smiled grimly. “You can sense magic. Between the two of us, we’re going to navigate this place.”

“Fuck that,” Paisley retorted. “I’m not going to piss off some ghosts.”

The earth howled again, and I closed my eyes. There was a message in her wails, and it wasn’t the kind that appeared in horror films dripping in blood. This wasn’t trying to scare us off. This was…emotional pain. This was release.

“Maybe she’s lonely,” Dante muttered. “Nash can keep her warm at night.”

“I can keep anything warm at night,” Nash boasted before he paused. “Can you fuck a ghost? How would that work?”

“Knock it off,” Duke said in a low voice. “Rhyson? Are we making camp or are we forging ahead?”

“Forging ahead. We can make it a few hours. Stay close. No straying. Paisley, you’re with me.”

Paisley practically stumbled into me as Duke pushed him forward. “Watch it, old man,” the teenager grumbled. Duke just smirked, and we slowly made our way forward. There was a small bridge over the water that practically screamed do not cross, which we ignored. What I first thought was steam quickly turned into dense fog. Suddenly, I realized why the amulet was so important.

We were traveling blind.

The amulet started to warm in my hand. “Turning left,” I said in a low voice and turned, but Paisley made a keening noise. “Never mind, we’re turning right.”

We traveled this way for what seemed like an eternity until there was crunching under my feet. “Nash. Flashlight.”

It wouldn’t do us any good long-term, but he shined it right at our feet. “Shit,” Nash whispered, and I silently agreed.

We were walking on bones.

“Please tell me this is a graveyard that we wandered into,” he muttered.

---