Rejected And Claimed By Her Trio Alpha Mates

chapter 30

The hallway outside the bedroom is a little more run down. Paint peels from the walls, and the wooden floorboards are scratched and covered in years of sticky dirt and grime. We pass a ridiculously small kitchen that’s empty of appliances, and a living room with two ancient couches spilling stuffing onto the floor. The floor’s covered in takeout boxes and cups, and there are three sleeping nests of blankets.

I lengthen my stride to catch up with Malix. “You live here?”

Malix shrugs. “It’s where we’re living today.”

Well that clears that up. I roll my eyes, but don’t ask him to clarify. Clearly, they’re as nomadic as I am.

We reach the front door, and Kian opens it, spilling sunlight into the dim interior. The cabin has a shallow front porch with three narrow steps that lead down to a dusty lawn. Trees surround us on all sides and I can’t hear any hint of traffic, indicating we’re well off the beaten path.

As we cross the lawn, I speak to Malix again. “What are you?”

Before he can answer, Kian snorts under his breath. “Always asking that question, aren’t you?”

“I figure at some point, someone will actually give me a straight answer,” I retort.

He whirls on me suddenly, looming over me like a mountain. “You don’t even know what we are, and yet you’ve been hunting us.”

“I don’t actually give a f**k what you are,” I shoot back, my heart pounding at his proximity. Whiskey and woodsmoke surrounds me, drowns me, and all I can think about is his body on mine and the final moments of happiness I once knew before life f****d me up. “You could be my own damn mother, and I’d still hunt you because I know how dangerous you are.”

Frost and Malix exchange glances, but Kian’s glare remains fixed on me . “If you know how dangerous I am, why didn’t you kill me last night?”

“Oh, we’re just going to pretend I didn’t try?” I snap. “Or did you forget the fight in the woods? I seem to recall hitting you with a literal tree branch.”

Malix chokes on a laugh, and when Kian shoots him a glare, he slips behind Frost like that statue of a man will protect him.

Frost doesn’t react to Malix’s amusement or Kian’s anger, but he puts a hand on Kian’s arm. Their gazes meet, and something silent passes between them.

Kian’s agitation fades just a little. He growls, then stomps off across the grass.

Frost inclines his head for me to follow.

“We are wolves,” he says, falling into step beside me—close, but not close enough for my wolf to lose her mind.

“But not normal wolves,” I clarify.

Malix laughs from Frost’s other side. “What the hell is a ‘normal’ wolf?”

“Canis lupus,” Frost replies evenly. “Commonly known as the gray wolf, or the timber wolf. A member of the Canidae family that occupies much of the northern hemisphere.”

“Oh you’ve done it now,” Malix says, leaning around Frost to grin at me. “Turned on his encyclopedia brain.”

I roll my eyes. “You’re the one who asked the question, idiot.”

Malix’s violet eyes sparkle. “There’s kitty’s claws.”

“I will end you,” I shoot back in a falsely pleasant voice, and I’m legit bothered by how much I’m starting to like the asshole. I cannot—and will not—become friends with these men. Temporary truce, find the antidote, then kill them. My plan is stone.

Kian whirls around, interrupting our banter. “This show of bonding is very touching, but we are on a time limit.”

I turn my back on him to give Frost and Malix my attention. The way I directly ignore him sends Kian into a fury I can feel raging at my back.

Good. Let him seethe.

“So no one’s going to answer the question I so patiently keep asking?” I say. “What. Are. You? And don’t tell me ‘wolves,’ or so help me—”

Frost speaks up, interrupting me before I can ramp up into a full tirade. “Have you heard of the shadow realm?”

“No.”

He nods, as if he expected that response. “Our alpha has tasked us with bringing the shadow realm to earth.”

The shadow realm.

Something about the name makes fear spike in my heart. The only types of shadows I know, beyond literal shadows and the living creature Frost killed last night, are magical. The witches back in Montana… their magic was black and smoky, like shadows leaking from their fingertips. The idea of a shadow realm, where magic like that might exist unfettered, or where more living shadows exist that would try to kill me…

I shudder.

I’m ready to fire off more questions, to ask what the shadow realm has to do with the three of them, but I don’t get a chance.

“Enough chatting,” Kian snarls, then grabs my elbow and shoves me ahead of him.

Fury bursts to life like a flame inside me. I flip my arm around to break his hold, then slam my forearm against his to knock his hand away. Then I follow up with a punch to his face.

My knuckles c***k, and pain lances up my arm like I’ve slammed my fist into a brick wall. But it’s worth it when he grunts and leans forward, blood spurting from his nose.

“Do not ever touch me again,” I bite out, giving my aching knuckles a shake.

Malix makes a noise in his throat. “I told you kitty’s got claws, brother. You didn’t listen.”

I hold up my fist in his direction. “Call me kitty again and you’re next.”

Kian straightens, glaring daggers at me over a thin trickle of blood that seeps from his nose. A small, insane part of me wishes I could step forward, tiptoe against his hard chest, and lick that blood off him. The idea makes me hot from head to toe, and I struggle to keep my thoughts and pheromones to myself.

A moment of tension hangs in the air, so thick it’s hard to breathe. Then Kian breaks it, turning to stalk away into the trees.

Toward a grouping of motorcycles.

Three of them.

“You got a new bike?” I say with a mock pout, thankful for something to distract me from my tumultuous thoughts. “But that takes all the fun out of my p resent. I f****d up your Harley just for you.”