Rejected And Claimed By Her Trio Alpha Mates

chapter 67

I purse my lips at his dumb ass, then call up the shadow energy from inside me, shifting only my paws so that I have access to my sharp, powerful claws. “Are you a wolf or not?”

My brother frowns. None of us like doing a partial shift like this. It’s not easy to maintain, and it’s not something regular shifters can do. But it helps in situations like this. Ignoring his grimace, I turn away from him and slam my right claws into the stone. It chips beneath my strength, and I begin to haul myself upward.

Suddenly, a strong, citrusy scent swirls past me.

Orange and mango and tropical sunlight. Warm skin that looks and smells like s*x on the beach.

A scent I’d know anywhere.

Amora.

Fuck.

I rip my claws out of the stone and whirl around, exchanging glances with my brothers. From the stricken looks on their faces, I know they can smell her too.

Shift, I order. Shadow magic flows over me like cold water, elongating my limbs and morphing my body into my shadow wolf form.

I crouch against the wall between Frost and Malix, my senses trained on the narrow crevice overhead. I can sense her a few yards away in her wolf form, clearly backtracking in an attempt to track us down. She can’t find us in our shadow forms. We’re undetectable. Untraceable.

But we shifted to human above, at the edge of the crevice, in order to get down here.

Shit. We need to get out of here before she smells that. I don’t want to kill her. I just want her out of our f*****g lives so we can do what we need to do. What we were made to do.

I take stock of our surroundings, looking farther down the crevice away from the rift. To the right, it’s dark and gloomy, but to the left, I can see the barest hint of light.

Come on, I snarl in mind speak, then lope away down the narrow path.

The rocky path takes us upward at a forty-degree angle for several moments, then ends at a c***k on the edge of the rising cliff. It’s a tight fit, and the rocks scratch my skin through my smoky fur, but I burst out on the other side and fall into a steady run in the opposite direction from where I scented Amora. We race up the mountainside, putting distance between us and our onetime mate.

When I’m a good distance away, I halt on an outcropping of rocks that looks down over the crevice. Amora is in wolf form at the edge of the crevice, her nose to the ground, her hackles rippling, her tail wagging furiously. Her wolf is as beautiful as her human form: dark chocolate fur, those shrewd green eyes, a lithe and muscular body.

As I watch, she drops to her belly and peers into the darkness below. If she’s as good at tracking as I think she is, she’ll know that our scents end there without having to go down into the crevice. She’ll likely guess what happened, and she’ll be correct.

After a few moments, she stands. Magic ripples over her body, and she shifts to human form, dropping the large pack she’s been carrying as she walks away from the crevice. Sunlight dapples the clearing, glowing off her pale skin. Every beautiful inch of her body is on display—forbidden fruit that I can’t touch.

Her shoulders sag suddenly, and she rests a hand against the nearest tree before sinking down to the grass. Kneeling on the ground, she runs a hand through her long dark hair, brushing it over her shoulder as she gazes around. Her green eyes flash in the sunlight, and then she sits on her heels and bows her upper body forward, curling up and resting her face in her hands.

I don’t need the mate bond to sense her pain. It’s telegraphed in the very line of her body.

I’ve never seen Amora so vulnerable.

My chest aches. Something inside me responds to her pain, although it can’t be the mate bond. Empathy? Maybe. Not that I’ve ever thought I had that to begin with. Affection for her as a person? Sure. She’s impressive.

But it feels more than that.

The three of us stand there watching her, unseen, for much longer than we should. Finally, I brush off my conflicted feelings and shake out my fur, shooting a glance over at Frost and Malix.

Let’s go, I tell them. There’s nothing for us here.

Then I wheel around and take off into the wilderness, my brothers at my heels.