Page 98 of Escaping Rejection

Gavin was passed out when I found him in a bunk room. I let him sleep, glad to see that his injuries had been dealt with. Down the hall, echoes of laughter rang out along with J.D.’s voice. I hurried down to what looked like a makeshift cafeteria. J.D. sat at a table surrounded by others, all of them laughing along with him.

“So then, Wyatt goes full werewolf horror movie and rips Von’s throat out,” J.D. said gleefully.

The others around the table gaped at him. A woman reached forward and swatted J.D.’s arm. “No freaking way.”

“Yes freaking way. I saw it. Swear on my life, I saw the whole thing.” He paused, his eyes brightening as he spotted me hovering at the edge of the doorway. “Kira, come on in. Meet my new friends.”

Feeling out of place, I did as he asked, waving awkwardly at the others. “Hey. I’m Kira.”

J.D. pointed around the table at the others. “Doug, tiger shifter. Michelle, fae. Salvador, fallen angel. That big sack of muscle is Valurion, a demon, but he’s actually a good demon.”

“Have you met everyone in Haven already?” I asked, amused.

J.D. chuckled. “I got bored, so I walked around.”

The people at the table seemed to enjoy his presence. Not surprising—I couldn’t see how anyone wouldn’t like J.D. Hating him was like hating a puppy or kitten; it felt wrong. Being safe and sound with people to talk to had obviously lifted J.D.’s mood as well.

He stood and put a hand on my arm. “Can we talk for a second?”

“Sure. What’s up?”

J.D. looked at the others. “Excuse me, guys. I’ll be back in a minute.”

We moved back to the corridor out of earshot. He was still grinning, which meant he wasn’t planning to say anything really bad.

“Man, I’m glad we found this place,” he said. “It’s super cool.”

His happiness was rubbing off on me. “I’m glad you approve.”

He glanced around, making sure no one was around to hear. “They do have, like,reallystrict rules about going outside, though. Have you seen any way to sneak out without causing trouble?”

I furrowed my brow in confusion. J.D. wasn’t the type to buck the rules or be a troublemaker. “Why would you want to do that?” I asked, but even as the words slipped from my lips, I figured it out.

“Well, I want to see if Leif is out there. I mean, even if he’s feral, I want to know that he’s all right. And we could go look for Abel. We can’t be sure that he… well, you know. There’s no telling what actually happened to him.”

Once shifters went feral, there wasn’t much you could do. Those few who came back from it only did so before they fully changed. The only thing to do once they fully turned was to either kill them or heavily sedate them to be sent to this island. It should have meant there was no hope for Leif, but the fact that he’d turned feral so quickly, so violently… there had to be something unnatural causing it. Simon and his weird experiments came to mind first. If he’d been altered with some strange drug or potion, there might very well be a way to reverse it. Even Wyatt had said Leif seemed to be struggling with something internally, almost like he didn’twantto be feral and still tried to fight it. That was something I’d never heard of before. If we had even the slightest chance of saving him, he deserved our help.

“I’ll see what I can do. Okay?”

J.D.’s smile returned, lighting his face up like fireworks. “Really? You will?”

“Yeah. The next time I see Crew, I’ll tell him what’s going on. Maybe he’ll let us venture out to search or something.”

Before I knew what was happening, J.D. crushed me in a hug. “Thank you, thank you, thank you. Oh, man, that means more than you know. Kira, you’re the best.”

“Easy,” I said, prying his arms off me but unable to keep the grin off my face. “Get back to your new friends. I’m going to explore the place some more.”

“All right. See you later.” He headed back into the cafeteria.

As I wandered through the compound, I met a few more people, some working to build furniture with wood from the jungle, others using magic to purify water, and more repairing clothes and tending the underground farms. It really was like a tiny town tucked under the mountains.

Eventually, I made my way back to the original meeting room where we’d first met Crew. He was discussing some kind of plan with Eli and a few other fae residents.

“With the help of some fae magic, I think we can harvest it,” he said. “Yes, it’s a little dangerous since we’ll need to go above ground, but I think it’s worth it.”

“Are you guys planning a mission to go outside?” I asked, stepping into the room.

The fae flinched in surprise, but Crew and Eli glanced up at me lazily, obviously having sensed my approach. Crew eyed me warily. “Possibly. Are you looking to volunteer?”

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