Page 17 of The Alpha's Rejected Mate

The ethereal beast exchanged her white coat for skin, too. In a moment, a woman kneeled on the other side of the sandy wolf. Her long, silvery hair rippled to her waist. Judging by the lines about her eyes and mouth, she was around fifty.

Her silvery stare was earnest as she said, “I have just enough magic left to close up her wound. It’ll allow her to walk. But my magic is spent; she’ll need more healing after we get her somewhere safe.”

Astonishment thumped through me as I remembered that unicorn horns had healing abilities. Was that why the dragons had been after her? My heart leaped with relief, too, as my hazel stare fell to Billie’s wolf. I wasn’t a monster. I wanted to ensure she was safe and not suffering. I readily approved this new shapeshifter’s offer. “Then my pack will take you both safely back to Grandbay grounds, where our pack’s healer will tend to her,” I said. If the dragons had been fighting to get to this unicorn, I knew my pack and I needed to give her protection.

The woman stared into my eyes, and I had the sense that she was assessing something deep within me.

After a moment, she said, “Thank you. My name is Muriel Vale.”

“I’m Gavin Steele,” I replied, “Alpha of Grandbay.”

She laid a hand on the sandy wolf in front of her. “I don’t know your name, my dear,” she said, her eyes becoming gentler. “But thank you for protecting me.”

My throat tightened, and for some reason, I found it hard to push the words out. “This is Billie,” I shared.

Muriel smiled down at the sandy brown wolf, stroking her side. “Billie, we’re going to have you back on your feet.”

Muriel morphed back into her statuesque, pure-white beast, then dipped her horn to Billie’s side. Pure white light poured into Billie’s wound, and her sandy brown coat glimmered like moonlight. I watched as the wolf’s breathing evened out, her breaths deepening as the magic worked through her.

I blinked in astonishment as the wound stitched itself back together. When Billie started to get to her paws, I didn’t wait around. Instead, morphing back into my own wolf, I summoned the pack with a howl to me. Leading my wolves, we turned our step toward the trail, our pack presided over by Muriel’s unicorn like a sentinel. We went gently through the night because of Billie’s injury, but anticipation zipped through my veins as I wondered what fresh information Muriel could give me about the dragons hunting her.

Chapter 9

Billie

I felt weary to the bone when we finally got to Grandbay territory. On the journey here, I’d been keen not to slow the pack down, so I hadn’t stopped at all. The ache in my flank had started to burn again, reminding me that though Muriel had sealed my wound, the deep tissue was still torn and needed mending. A wave of relief hit me when a cluster of rooftops came into view.

As we descended toward them, the wide-flowing Gunnison River rested leftward. Mature pines and pinyons framed the log cabins, and my first glimpse of Grandbay stole my breath.

A hundred thoughts swept through my head, and curiosity gave me a second wind. The neat little log cabins were unassuming compared to Hexen Manor and the elaborate dwellings that David’s pack had erected. I’d never had reason to come into the other pack lands before. I admired how the cabins were so closely situated to the river. In Dalesbloom, Hexen Manor and the other packmates’ houses were separated by the meadow and the woods from the canyon and river.

In Dalesbloom, the steep cliffs of the canyon meant that getting down to the riverside was difficult. Whereas here, the canyon looked only ten feet from the bank to the riverbed. I instantly pictured the Grandbay wolves enjoying the cool currents of theriver far more frequently than the Dalesbloom wolves. A twinge twisted through my chest as the thought struck me that in a different life where Gavin hadn’t rejected me, this beautiful place might one day have been my home.

I smothered the thought. Such thinking wasn’t helpful. I reminded myself to be grateful for what had happened tonight—mainly, that I’d beenrescuedfrom those dragons. A shudder swept through me as I remembered those two terrifying beasts with their looming wings coming for me as I collapsed. Panic washed over me as I remembered thinking thatthatwas to be my final breath.

And yet, I couldn’t help wondering at how I’d been saved. By Vana, why couldn’t Colt have come instead? Why did my savior have to be the last wolf I wanted to see? The last time Gavin had seen me, he’d told me how I wasn’t enough. And he’d thought nothing of announcing it in front of my adoptive family, most of whom seemed to have made it their life’s mission to make me feel small.

Worry set in that I was in the clutches of the Grandbay wolves. What if they all treated me like that? Other than Gavin, I hadn’t really met any of them. I’d only spied Aislin from a distance on Dalesbloom land.

Speaking of whom, as we arrived before the main cabin, a reddy-brown wolf came back from the front of the pack, and I recognized her as Aislin. Her muzzle dipped to my shoulder, and I understood she wanted me to follow her.

We alighted up onto the veranda of one of the cabins, the rest of the females of the pack congregating with us. I realized that we were shifting separately from the males. Like the Dalesbloompack, where the males shifted by Hexen Manor, I noticed that the men had congregated by the main cabin, about forty feet away.

I shifted into my human form. But as my skin pebbled with the night air, my wandering gaze seemed to have a will of its own. Within a second, I’d clapped eyes on Gavin over on the veranda outside the main cabin.

I noticed that he held his right shoulder gingerly. Even from this distance, my keen vision took in the deep gash that was only just beginning to scab over and ran down from his shoulder and all the way to his elbow, exactly where I’d experienced the pain the other day. Butterflies fluttered through my stomach as I wondered whether that was how he’d found me tonight. Had he sensed the dragons tearing through my flank? Despite everything that had happened between us, a warmth spread through me at the thought of our telepathic connection. The sense that there was this invisible thread running out from me and tangling around the dark and gorgeously muscled man, standing tall and proud at the center of his pack, had my pulse spiking.

“By Vana, Billie, you did good, girl,” Aislin said. My gaze quickly darted to take in the very naked redhead standing in front of me.

But I was glad she’d distracted me because I’d already felt my cheeks heating in the cool night as my gaze had wandered over Gavin’s well-defined, sculpted chest and downward to his abs. I forced myself to concentrate on Aislin instead. After all, I’d already been accused by Catrina of ogling Gavin. Not to mention the fact that the Grandbay Alpha had made it perfectly clear hewasn’tinterested in me like that. I resolved to fight whatever irrational feelings bubbled up to the surface.

I blinked at Aislin’s warm-brown eyes, confused at her comment. My pulse hurried again. Did good? I’d been admiring Gavin. Had he told her that we were fated mates? Did she think that I’d scored with him in some way? “What do you mean?” I asked in confusion.

“You took on two dragons alone. Jeesh, that was some feat,” she said.

My racing heart finally calmed.

Okay, that makes a lot more sense.

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