Page 43 of Rejected Wolf

“I don’t?” I asked suspiciously, and when he shook his head, I asked, “Then why are we here?”

“This is Silas’s pack, where Brody lived before he came to us.”

I frowned, thinking about what I’d been told about this pack. Jude hadn’t wanted to ask them for help, but Shan and Brody had pushed for it. “And will they? Help, that is.”

Jude shrugged all casually, but I could see the tension in his body. “Maybe.”

We needed them to join us in protecting our forest. I was just one man, onehumanat that, and there was a good chance they would laugh at me, or worse, see meas part of the problem. But I was the only one who had really talked to Eric, besides Jude. I was a witness to his attempted kidnapping, to the guns, the trucks, the plan they had in place. My pack needed me to try. “I’ll come,” I said quietly, and Jude reached for me, sliding me off the seat and into his arms.

“Thank you,” he whispered into the crook of my neck as he held me tight. He was scared. I didn’t know how I knew, but I did, just as clearly as I knew my own emotions. It was like a piece of him was inside me, like we shared space, not with our bodies but with our souls.

“Come on, let’s get this over with,” I said, feeling more relaxed but still wary. I was really looking forward to the quiet time we could spend together once this was all over.

With Jude’s arm draped over my shoulders, I wrapped my arms protectively around my stomach. It was way too early to be showing, but I knew my baby was in there—and I had a sneaking suspicion that every other shifter here knew it too. Jude had been able to smell the change in my hormones. Would it protect me in some way, marking me as off-limits in whatever dispute these packs had? Or would it make me more vulnerable, like some kind of pawn to be used as a tool or bargaining chip?

The inside of the gas station smelled like grease and rubber, the gray tiled floor sticky with some unknownsubstance I didn’t want to think too hard about. The front was empty, but there were voices coming from an open door to the back.

When we stepped through the doorway into a kind of break room, all heads turned to look at us. There were maybe half a dozen strangers, all large and glaring. It made my skin crawl, and I instinctively tilted into my mate. His chest rumbled with a low growl of warning.

A man at the back of the room chuckled. “You’re letting humans into your pack now? This should be interesting.” He was leaning his hip on the counter, his arms crossed over his chest. He wasn’t much older than I was, but there was a certain air of authority that seemed to radiate off him. He had bright red hair and piercing green eyes, his freckled skin pale. Individually, his features were quick stunning, but when you added the row of jagged scars running down his cheek and neck, he lost any hint of innocence he might’ve had otherwise.

He pushed off the counter and crossed the room with a couple swaggering steps, his lean muscles obvious through his tight shirt that looked to be a child’s size small. “Silas,” he said, holding out a hand. “And you are?”

But when I went to shake his hand, Jude stopped me with a hand on my wrist, glaring at Silas. “You won’t speak to my mate.”

Silas withdrew his hand, laughing, but there was a glint in his eyes I didn’t like—it almost looked like jealousy, even though it made no sense to me. “Like I said… interesting.” He went back to the counter and hopped up, his boot heels thudding against the cabinet below. “All right, now that we’re all here, why don’t you go ahead and tell me what was so urgent. And why the hell couldn’t we discuss this over the radio?”

Shan glanced back at Jude, and my mate gave the go-ahead for his Alpha to take lead. “Hunters are coming. There’s a group of men who like to consider themselves scientists, performing experiments on shifters, and they’re in the market for new test subjects.”

An electric silence filled the small room. Silas narrowed his eyes, reading between the lines. “And how do you know this?”

When Shan didn’t answer right away, Jude spoke up. “Because I was born in their lab; I escaped a few years ago. The Grim Wilds pack took me in, gave me a home.”

“And I’m guessing they weren’t so glad to see you go. So, why don’t you go back to them? Once they get their precious toy back, maybe they’ll leave the rest of your pack alone.” Silas scoffed and waved a hand dismissively. “This sounds like a you problem. What does it have to do with me?”

Hot indignation burned through me. He would hand my mate over to those monsters? “How stupid can you be?” I snapped, stepping forward before Jude could stop me. “Or are you just a coward?”

Several of Silas’s wolves rounded on me, one even daring to take a snap with sharpened teeth, fur erupting from his neck. Jude’s arm clamped around my waist faster than I could blink, dragging me behind him, putting himself in front of me like a shifter shield.

“Now, now,” Silas purred, all charm, holding a hand up to call off his dogs. “I’d like to hear what the brave little human has to say.”

I set my hand on Jude’s back and could feel the skitter of his body as he teetered on the edge of a shift. “It’s okay, let me talk,” I whispered, tiptoeing around him but remaining close.

“And now do I get to know your name?” Silas asked, arching a brow at Jude as if daring him to get in the way again.

“My name is Morgan.” Jude wrapped his arms around me like a cage, which made it hard to move, but it was clearly the only concession he was willing to make.

“And why do you think I’m sostupid, Morgan?”

“You think that this isn’t your problem, but it is! First of all, the hunters don’t know exactly where we are, andthey might just as easily stumble on your pack as they would ours. Secondly, these guys have weapons—lots of ‘em—and they know enough about shifters to know how to take you all down. Every shifter in these woods is in danger.”

“And yet, here you are,human.” Silas spat out human like it was a bad word. His lip curled, revealing a pointed canine. “It sounds to me like you’ve led the threat right to our front door.” He narrowed his eyes, his extended claws digging into the counter and leaving gouges. “How do I know you aren’t working for them? How do I know you’re not their spy? Maybe we would be better off killing you right now before you can reveal our location to them.”

Before Silas or his men could make a move, my new packmates all stepped in front of me, creating a solid wall of vicious shifters around me, blocking me from view. Jude’s arms tightened, and I let out a high squeak. I was sure later I would be really flattered that they were protecting me without a second thought, but right now, all I could think was how I was about to get them all hurt or killed.

“Wait!” I shouted, and for a second I was worried I wasn’t loud enough to be heard over the snarling. “Stop!”

There was a pause, everyone crouched, waiting for someone to make the first move. “You haven’t heard ourplan yet,” I said. I was so proud of how steady my voice sounded.

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