Page 37 of Cursed by Death

And, yes, I believed in god. I believed in evil and the devil. How could I believe in that but not believe in god? I didn’t think you could have one without the other because balance.

I had always been a believer, even when I had been living with a monster who got off on hurting me in every way imaginable. There had been no bright side to that and still I had never once lost my faith.

The man's dark brown eyes slid my way and there was not one thing even remotely friendly in the way he looked at me. Since I had already decided I didn’t like him either I wasn’t offended by the hostile look on his face.

“Garth, bitch,” he snapped. “I wasn’t talking to you. Back the fuck off. Better yet, get your ass outta here. You don’t belong here and every single one of us knows it. No matter what Rally says, you're not one of us, you’ll never be one of us, and the fact he wants to claim you as his mate is downright laughable. No wonder he’s constantly being challenged. He can’t even pick the right bitch to mate with. What a fucking joke. He’s no prince of mine.”

He spit on the ground at my feet and the people closest to me gasped.

He’d called me a bitch twice now and I wasn’t going to let a third time slide.

Ginger huddled into my shoulder, attempting to hide behind my body. I didn’t see Hunter and I was glad for it, it meant the baby wasn’t anywhere near this degenerate of a man.

I wondered what happened to this being a safe place for children to be. It didn’t seem very safe if there were other people like this asshole and his anger here. Or maybe it just wasn’t safe for someone like me, an outsider and not a snifter. Rally should have known better than to invite me here to this if this was going to be the reaction of his people.

I really hoped he hadn’t known his people would verbally attack me and he’d let me walk in here without him because that would be most disappointing.

I haven’t believed in another person since the twins and I didn’t exactly believe in Rally now but I thought I would eventually be able to get there and we were certainly on the way towards building a friendship. I didn’t want to lose that so soon after finding it.

I was unsure as to how to handle this situation. Rally had really let me walk in here blind and now I was getting pissed about it. I never would have pressured Ginger into coming here if I knew people were going to be behaving this badly.

“What’s the matter with you, Garth?” a man said as he stepped away from the crowd and started walking towards us. “You don’t get to speak to Rally’s mate like that. It’s insulting to your Prince. And, seriously, what the fuck’s the matter with you that you’d ever talk to Ginger like that?”

He shook his head as he sneered at this Garth man. I thought perhaps I might actually like this one. I didn’t need him stickingup for me but I really appreciated him doing it for Ginger. I thought she needed all the help and support she could get.

He was a big man. Over six feet tall and he had to weigh at least two hundred and fifty pounds. His head was shaved bald but he had a really big, full, russet brown beard. He was dressed in worn blue jeans and a black pullover hoodie.

I looked around and noticed jeans and a hoodie seemed pretty much the dress code for the evening and even though I’d dressed casual for myself I was still overdressed. Good thing I was comfortable in my own skin and confident in myself or this might have bothered me.

“Mind your own fucking business, Thompson,” Garth snarled. “Rally’s gotten away with bullshit for far too long and you damn well know it. He does whatever the fuck he wants and we’re just supposed to eat his shit and go along with it. Well I’m sick of it and I’m not doing it.” He pointed his finger at me without looking in my direction. “This bitch is not my Princess and she never will be.”

That did it. I had had enough. “That’s the third time you’ve called me a bitch and it had better be the last.”

Garth sneered at me again but Thompson looked at me with wide eyes. He’d heard the threat in my voice and he was taking it seriously.

I’d had high hopes for this night, otherwise I never would have brought Ginger and the kid with me.

Now I wanted nothing more than for us to go home and pretend this night never happened.

And I knew it was only going to get worse from here on out.

Garth leaned forward in my direction and spat out, “Bitch.”

That’s when I felt it. Intense energy crawled along my skin. It raised the hair on my arms. It was so hot it almost burned and I half expected to find blisters everywhere the heat had touched me.

There weren’t any blisters though.

I fought the urge to rub my hands down my arms to soothe them, to soothe me, but I knew it would do me no good.

The crowd parted and Rally stood there. It was his blistering energy I was feeling.

The Prince had arrived and he was pissed.

Chapter 19

“What is the meaning of this?” Rally growled as he stalked up to our little group. He looked relaxed and at ease, completely at odds with his voice.

I felt Ginger relax behind me. I could tell that now that Rally had come to our rescue she immediately felt safe. I wasn’t going to take it as insulting, she didn’t really know me yet or what I was capable of. She, like everyone else, thought I was the only human here amongst the shifters.

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