Page 78 of Rejected Moons (Rejected Moons 3)

And having a random element like Nate in the mix just makes the whole thing seem more unlikely.

Nate has shifted back to human form, but he’s pacing, rolling his shoulders, and I can tell that he’s itching to let the wolf come forward again.

“You two should wrap up that chat,” he calls over. “They’ll be here any minute.”

Emlyn nods. She stands on her toes and kisses me quickly, and when she pulls back, I take a small bit of satisfaction in the disgruntled look on Nate’s face.

You could have had her too. But you chose yourself.

Almost as if he can hear my thoughts, he rolls his eyes at me and shifts back. He begins to pace back and forth in front of the two of us.

I wonder if he can smell the threat now. They’ve got to be close.

“Stand over there,” I tell Emlyn, pointing to a spot several yards away from me. “We’ll have the best chance at defending ourselves if they have to pick one of us to attack.”

“It’ll be me,” she says.

“Probably. But if they do that, I can help defend you. Or they’ll have to split up and each try to take on one of us—and if it’s like that, Nate can help defend.”

If he’s planning to help at all.

I can smell them now. Even though I’m human, I can smell the foreign scent of shifters I don’t know. Wolves who are my enemies.

I thought they might smell like Emlyn. They don’t. They smell like sweat and dirt, and I can’t believe she comes from these people.

I brace myself for attack.

Chapter Fifty-one: NATE

EvenbeforeIseethem, I know we’re in trouble. The two I heard talking have joined up with two more. We thought we’d have the numbers on them, but we don’t. They’ve got the numbers on us.

It’s a damn good thing I’m here. There’s no way Em and Milo would have been able to handle this fight alone.

But they’re not alone. They’ve got me. And I’m the equal of any wolf I meet. I’m the best fighter of our generation. I’m sure of that, and now’s my chance to prove it.

I take the leader, hurling myself at him, not even waiting to see what Em and Milo are doing behind me.

In the split second before our bodies collide, I can see that he’s taken aback by me. The wolf pack called in reinforcements, but it never occurred to them that Em and Milo would have reinforcements of their own. They expected this fight to be against two, not three, and they expected to get the drop on them.

That gives me a surge of satisfaction. They might have gotten one up on us, showing up with these extra numbers. But we’ve got one up on them too.

This is still anybody’s fight.

The other wolf leaps at me, so the impact force is intense, and we both go to the ground snarling and snapping. I bring up my hind legs, kick him off, and roll over, slashing as I go. I feel his body beneath my claws.

First blood to me!

He backs away, wary of me now, as he should be.

I take the break to glance over at Em and Milo. They’re doing…something. I’m not sure what. I guess it must be magic.

Freaky Moon Caster shit. None of us would be in this situation if it wasn’t for that Moon Caster shit.

But I can’t worry about that now because the wolf I’m fighting is circling me, looking for weaknesses, looking for where he can get his next blow in.

He feints to the left. It’s a good ploy, and I get the feeling he was probably a strong fighter at some point in his life, but he’s slow, and I dodge away. He has gray fur on his face. This must be Bruce, the alpha, the old man who held Emlyn captive on the beach.

I ran from this fucker once. I won’t do it again. This time, I’m going to have his blood on my teeth.

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