Rejected And Claimed By Her Trio Alpha Mates

chapter 39

I return to my burrito and shove the last of it in my mouth as something shatters in the sink area. My things are still in my backpack, so thankfully, I know it’s nothing I own. The tortilla’s gone as cold as the half-frozen beef, but I just chase it down with my water.

Behind me, the bed shudders as all three men roll into the frame.

I grew up in a pack. You get used to posturing, especially in the teenage years when all your friends are coming into puberty and gaining more strength as wolves. Pack men fight like little bitches, both in human form and in wolf form. So this doesn’t bother me. I figure, either they’re going to wear each other out and come to an eventual truce, or they’re going to kill each other.

I’m honestly hoping for the latter. Would save me so much trouble.

They’re on their feet now, trading blows and snide comments. I slide up on the tabletop and cross my legs to finish my drink, ready to wait out the testosterone.

I’ve got my head tilted back as I finish off my water, when the first man shifts.

I’ve seen their wolves. I hunted with them just last night and ate my meal sitting in a circle with them.

This…

This isn’t that.

Kian’s body elongates and distorts, growing much more mass than even seems possible. He looms taller than a horse, vaguely wolf-like but… different.

Black smoke dances over his fur, and his eyes glow like golden lanterns. It’s as if he’s an artist’s abstract rendition of a wolf formed of magic and shadows, with only the barest hints of his wolf showing through. The smoke that curls around him, seeming to be formed of his skin and fur, resembles the tattoos he possesses in his human forms.

A split second after Kian shifts, Frost and Malix do too.

My heart lurches as I see them all three standing there like wolf demons sent straight from hell. The already too-small motel room feels even tinier with three massive, snarling monsters about to attack each other.

This is the other side of them, I realize. This is what makes them separate from normal wolf shifters.

And now I’m worried.

I’m not dying today because some asshole didn’t tell his asshole buddies that he screwed me.

I drop my water bottle on the table, hardly paying it any mind when it clatters off the edge and rolls across the floor. Then I slither off the worn, scratched tabletop and lunge between the three beasts.

Throwing up my arms to both sides, I shout, “Stop! Calm the hell down!”

All three shadow wolves freeze. Well, their bodies do—the smoky shadows clinging to their fur do not. It continues to swirl and ebb like oceans of witch magic flowing over their tall, nightmarish forms. Limbs too long, too crooked, bodies bony, teeth like knives… god, they’re hell monsters.

“We’re two days from the antidote,” I snap, my gaze darting between the three of them. Their eyes glow behind the smoke, and in this form, their irises are all the same color—an icy, vibrant blue. “Pull yourselves together, you idiots.”

The room goes completely silent for a moment, and it occurs to me that I might’ve just made things worse. I’ve put myself in the middle of a fight between three brutal supernatural beings whose power I don’t even quite understand.

But then some of the tension bleeds from the air, and I let out a slow breath.

Kian shifts back to human form first, a scowl painted across his face. “We aren’t idiots.”

I very carefully ignore his nakedness and motion around the room. “Are you not?”

He notes the beds—both of them shifted from their normal positions—the television on its side, the lamp broken, and random crap scattered across the floor.

“All because we f****d?” I say, my heart beating fast in my chest.

Frost and Malix shift back into their human forms as I speak. Gray smoke filters away, like the trail of a smoker finishing their cigarette in a darkened room.

Then all three of them surround me.

Naked.

My heart races for reasons much, much more devastating than my initial fear over their strange shadow forms. I have to carefully keep my eyes up, focus on their hard expressions, their smooth chests rising and falling from their breaths.

If I look any further south, I have a feeling I won’t be able to handle it. Heat and desire already fill every corner of my body.

“Yeah,” I say, keeping my voice pointedly bland. “We f****d in a shitty hotel room in Montana. And we did it because I went to the bar looking to get laid. Kian came in for a drink, and he was exactly the candidate I was looking for.”

I look at the man in question then, holding his gaze as I continue. “We had s*x, and the mate bond presented itself. But the next day, we went our separate ways. I wasn’t looking for a mate, and neither was he. Just because fate says something has to happen doesn’t mean you have to go along with it. Because sometimes fate is f*****g wrong.”

Kian’s gold-ringed eyes glitter in the darkening room. I’m still holding his gaze, challenging him, looking him right in the eye so he knows without a doubt I’m not broken by what happened between us. Maybe I was back then, for a while, but that’s—in his words—ancient history.

I finish by echoing his earlier statement, forcing the words from my mouth. “It meant nothing.”

A long moment of silence settles over the room. The sun is almost gone outside the window, casting us in shadow. I want to turn on a lamp, shine some light in here to chase away the doom and gloom, but I don’t want to move either. As far as I know, I’m the only thing keeping them from shifting back to those horrific forms and tearing this place apart.

Malix stalks away toward his backpack in the corner and bends to dig around for some clothes. I steal a glance at his body, my breath hitching in my throat. His ass is tighter and rounder than the best Grecian god statue in the world. His cheeks taper into thick thighs and strong calves beneath, and his muscular torso above.

I feel an intense, deep-seated urge to sink my teeth into that expanse of dark brown skin.

The moment the thought fills my mind, I whirl away from the three of them and focus on taking a few deep breaths. The room was drenched in their scents just a while ago, but something about their shadow wolf forms made all scent vanish, leaving the air fresh. Filled with tension, but fresh.

I stand still, facing the window as I listen to the three of them moving about the room as they dress. The two men’s response to finding out about my night with Kian seems like an overreaction. I don’t understand it. Hell, I don’t understand anything about the lingering tension in the room or what’s really going on between the three of them. And quite frankly, I don’t want to. It’s none of my business.

My business is to make sure that before all of this is said and done, the three of them are six feet under.

It’s almost fully dark out by now, and I stare out the window with my arms crossed under my breasts. A twin pair of headlights passes by in the parking lot outside, illuminating the room. As the two beams drift across me, they light up the ceiling and the wall.

Except for a splotch of darkness in the corner that the light can’t seem to penetrate at all.

A shadow.

And not a natural one.

I barely manage to scream out, “Frost!” before the living shadow lunges right for me.