Page 62 of Wolf's Rejected Mate

Abby

I’d barely stepped off the circular driveway toward the road when a flurry of movement caught my peripheral vision. Freezing, I looked again, but the motion was gone before I could identify it.

Someone was undoubtedly there, and I could feel the cold, cutting stare on my back as I turned full circle.

“Come out!” I snarled, ready to shift, my teeth showing.

The bushes encroaching on the hotel were still, but I was certain that was where my observer sat. I sprung forward, not giving myself a chance to reconsider my actions. I was the one doing wrong, after all. I shouldn’t have been there, at the hotel with Elijah. But I wasn’t going to stand for being spied on, either.

Even if it meant confronting Orson.

But when I jumped into the shrubbery, no one was there. However, the lingering scent of lavender and chamomile told me I was in the presence of someone I knew.

“Maisie!” I hissed. “I can smell you!”

The flutter of wings caught my attention, and I whirled around again, catching sight of her flittering past the far wall. I burst forward to race after her, but she was gone, disappearing into the night before I could contact her.

Dammit! Why is she here? Did she see me with Elijah?

I couldn’t imagine how. We hadn’t left the room. It had to be a coincidence… didn’t it?

Pressing my lips tightly, I looked back toward the hotel, debating whether to go and warn Elijah.

Warn him about what? For all I know, Maisie was here turning tricks.

I didn’t believe that, of course, but I needed something to ground me before I went completely crazy. My mind was working way overtime.

The Sandstone wasn’t part of anyone’s usual route. The hotel was far too classy to deal in tripe drugs like stow or churl. The odd spender might ask for a good cut of dredge or Caramine in these parts, but that was something that Orson would handle personally. Champagne tastes were far and few between in Pario City, and for those VIPs, Orson would surely do the runs himself. He wouldn’t send Maisie.

She could have been here for other reasons. Maybe that’s why she ran when she saw me. She was up to no good, too.

That made me feel a bit better, but only temporarily.

All the way home, I couldn’t shake the feeling that I was being watched, but no matter how many times I turned to look, I couldn’t see anyone watching.

I’m losing my mind.

A few blocks from my neighborhood, I paused on the boardwalk in the main strip and peered at my reflection in the window of a closed store. All the residents had headed indoors for the night, and usually, I would have, too, knowing the dangers that night held. But tonight, I valued the silence over the city.

“Are you really that stupid?”

Maisie appeared behind me in the reflection of the glass.

My blood ran cold as I realized that I had again been bettered by Maisie. Whipping back around, I moved to shift, but she held up her hands, shaking her head with a smirk.

“I’m not attacking you,” she barked. “You really want to come at me?”

I stopped myself from morphing, but my guard was fully up.

“Why were you watching me?”

Maisie snorted loudly and rolled her eyes. “Are you kidding me? You’re not exactly being discreet coming and going to see Elijah, are you?”

My knees buckled, and I started to shake my head in denial, but she scoffed again.

“I know he’s in town, Abigail. There’s no sense in denying it.”

A thousand questions popped into my mind, but they died there as I fought to keep my composure.

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