Page 43 of The Alpha's Forced Rejected Mate

I sneered back at Moe while stepping forward. “Careful there, pal. You wouldn’t want to get on my bad side.”

“You couldn’t kill a fly if you sneezed hard enough.”

“And you won’t be in that host much longer to find out, Tally Boy.”

His eyes grew two sizes. “What the hell did you just say to me?”

Larry intercepted a hand. “Let’smove.”

“But he—” Moe pointed at me, showing some of the first signs of humanity in himself since I got here. “Heknows.”

My brows twitched with interest. “Knows what?”

Larry shoved me along the street, coaxing me to show him what I had in mind for the fight. I tried to disregard his jabs. Some of them were hard, but most of them were just annoying. I didn’t want to stroke his ego by engaging in fight foreplay. I wanted to face Bill, injure him enough to weaken him, and then shout out each of their names.

All the while, Robyn would be helping from the sidelines.

I dodged the last punch Larry attempted and stood solidly in front of Bill with my eyes on him but not reallyonhim. In truth, I was searching the area for that familiar golden gaze with reddish hair.

Bill grinned proudly and adjusted his eerily normal ballcap. He looked like any other guy in his white t-shirt, green letterman jacket, and thick blue jeans. His snow boots were probably overkill, but what did I know about demons and their temperature preferences? For all I knew, this Sostreth guy was freezing his ass off in there.

His black eyes rinsed clear. His features relaxed, the lines fading to three years ago when they were much less intrusive on his eyes. He blinked, swallowed hard, and then gasped as he gaped at me. “Baby Boy Spears.”

My heart felt like it caved into the ground. “Oh, you’re a jerk.”

“You remember that?” Bill stepped forward, shivered, and then took another step. “They called you Baby Boy Spears for damn near four days because they couldn’t decide if they wanted to call you Clifford or Clifton.” He laughed once, sardonically. “I thought I told you to save yourself, Boy Spears.”

This was downright dirty for this demon to do. I clenched my fists at my sides while the crowd around me grew restless. They came for a fight, and they were about to get one as soon as I channeled this rage into the right places.

Bill’s right eye twitched as he started to smile. His piercing green eyes lasered back to black. “Been a while since Adrian said hi. You should send him my regards.”

Skin ripped down the center of his face. The flesh peeled back in slimy spurts as an earthquaking growl resonated from his throat. Around me, the crowd ruffled with shocked anticipation. It would probably take an extra ten seconds for Bill to shift into his demonic wolf form. That gave me a small window to look for Robyn again.

My eyes flitted worriedly over the crowd, jumping from face to face with unfamiliar alarm. Too many black eyes glistened with the rising sun. Too many smiles were shimmering with murderous glee. Each time made it more difficult to turn to the next face that I knew would frighten me.

And all that was dizzying.

I spun around for a second in a strange haze, trying to sort out why the sky appeared to wear a copper filter. After rubbing my eyes, I checked the crowd again, searching the air for black licorice and pepper…

There!

My eyes snapped to the spot where Robyn stood with Sydney on her hip. She raised her hand high in the air, sending a tuft of sparks into an arch shape that reminded me of fireworks. Crackling energy danced from her side of the street to mine, where the ground solidified beneath my feet.

I focused on Bill with a smirk as my spine crunched. I stumbled forward and landed on my fists, which caused the paved road to crack. Paws soon sprouted in their place. My throat expanded as my mouth widened, my gums gruelingly sore with my newest set of sharpened teeth.

I tried to speak as my tongue lengthened, “Sostr—”

Gag.

Human words tasted like rotten syllables. I grunted and whimpered as I tried to repeat the sound. I had to say it before Robyn started chanting, before anyone caught on to what we had caught on last night.

Before me stood a lanky and sticky gray-blue creature that stood like a hyena with a wolfish face and elongated snout. Tufts of charcoal fur sprouted everywhere as it stomped its two massive forepaws. The audience scampered back toward their patios and porches, giving us a wider berth as the last of my shift concluded.

Shaggy, dirty blond fur covered the entirety of my body as I observed his weak points—his right leg had a limp, and he seemed cold. He nodded his head like he was preparing to start laughing. As I steadied my position, I noticed that the three henchmen of his were moving into a triangular placement around us.

Bill snarled at me with an abysmal maw made of rusty yellow wolf teeth and a thin, flat tongue that hung lazily to one side. When he snapped his jaws, the joints in his face clicked. It sounded like he was about to fall apart. I darted forward and bit his right paw, the weak one, and danced back as he swatted at me with a howl. Seconds after that, I launched for his belly, only to be met by the return swing of his paw.

That one’s on me, I thought. I got too cocky with that one.

---