Page 49 of Rejected Mate

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Icouldshiftagain.Nothing else mattered as I felt my human form morph into my wolf form once again.

Claws sprang from my fingers as my skin broke out into white fur. My clothes and shoes shredded into pieces that fluttered onto the lawn, yet the vampire’s metal cuff remained, changing its size. Bones creaked and twisted, but there was no pain during the transformation. Instead, there was a tingle of excitement and possibilities like before opening a much-anticipated present. My wolf form meant power, strength, and endurance. It meant control and focus. My worries melted away as I took my first steps as a wolf.

Damn, it felt good to be back. To be whole and not defenseless.

But I didn’t have time to revel in my new body. Others were shifting and starting towards the course, bulky wolf bodies rushing onto the first ramp. Silvia, now a caramel-colored wolf, took tentative steps on the planks, testing out her new weight. Others began to do the same. So careful, like they were afraid to break something.

I didn’t feel fear. I felt… ready.

Time to kick that ass I was talking about.

I tore forward, my paws slapping on the board that groaned under me, and I left Silvia and the others behind. The ramp led up to a suspended bridge of slats that rocked as I approached. The thin slats might not hold me, but the bridge was only about twelve feet off the ground. Doing this in my human form would have been very different, indeed.

Let it break, I thought as I stepped on the first board.I can take a fall from this height.

The rope creaked, barely holding only half my weight. My keen wolf senses heard the ropes straining. If I stood my whole weight on this thing for very long, it would certainly break.

But if I ran across…

I fixed my eyes on the goal and tore forward.

My feet found the boards, barely touching them as I ran across the swaying bridge. Having four points of contact sure came in handy in a situation like this, since I could keep two paws planted as I stepped swiftly and kept moving forward.

I was nearly there when a board beneath my back leg snapped. My body sagged, my front legs scrambling on the wood as I started to fall.

“Wren!” someone called from the ground. A male voice. Ares?

I didn’t have time to consider. If I fell, I would have to start over again. I had to keep going. There were other wolves behind me who wanted to take my place in the lead, and I wasn’t about to let them.

Yet, my body was slipping. My back legs dangled in open space as my front claws tried to dig into the wood, to no avail.

Teeth. Dammit, you have teeth!

Just in time, I twisted my head sideways and caught a piece of broken rope in my teeth. It stopped my fall and gave me time to yank myself up onto the boards that remained. Claws scraped on the wood, digging in and allowing me back up on my feet.

A hoot went up from the vamps at the end. Someone was definitely cheering for me.

I clambered over the last slats in the bridge, finding the solid support of a platform on the other side. One glance at the other identical obstacle course showed Laurel in the lead with her minions behind her. She was nearly across her bridge, taking a more careful approach of crouching down and stepping across. I looked over my shoulder to see Silvia taking her first steps on the bridge behind me. She was coming for me, too.

Wasting no time, I bounded from the platform to the next one ahead, which was higher still. There were five of them, built on telephone poles that went higher and higher into the sky. How the vamps built this in one day, I had no idea. It had to be magic, but that wasn’t my concern. What was concerning was the rope swing that waited at the top platform.

A rope was attached to a pillar on the side of the platform and then strung high above, waiting for me to swing across to the other side of an immense gap. One puny rope between me and the platform on the far side. That was it, and now I was thirty feet in the air. A fall would hurt and injure me severely.

A wolf wouldn’t stand a chance with that tiny rope.

But a human…

I’d have to shift. I would have to shift back and swing like a monkey.

Naked.

Shit.

Even Tarzan had a loincloth. I had nothing. Whyoh whyhad I gotten a Brazilian before coming here?! My lady parts would certainly feel the breeze, and the cameras would get alens full.

I glanced at Laurel. She was nearly there. I was sure she’d have no trouble showing off her body to God and everyone. But me? I had no desire for the entire supernatural community, and humans too, watching at home to see me in my birthday suit.

---