Page 53 of Rejecting his Mate

“What’s that?”

“They moved to Florida to seek the sun.”

I stare at him for a beat. “I can’t tell if you’re joking.”

“I wish. Mom wanted a house on the beach, even though wolves aren’t much for swimming. Dad would do anything for her, including leaving the mountains and having the freedom to run to drink cocktails overlooking the ocean.”

“You see them much?”

“No. Cade and I like the trees and the space to run. We’ve visited a few times, but they got on with their lives, and we got on with ours. The house was theirs, but they signed it over to us when they moved.”

“Did Wyatt and Jackson come with the house too?” I ask with a grin.

He snorts. “Wyatt is our cousin. Jackson, we kinda ran across without meaning to. He was lost, scared of his wolf, and his first shift was done alone.” I wince. Even though I never managed to shift, I’m aware of the dangers of doing so without the support of an alpha and beta. “His wolf was nearly feral when we found him. Took us a month to get him to calm down.”

“And then I crashed into your little family and turned everything upside down.”

“Yeah,” he says, his eyes bright. “I can’t say I don’t approve. Things were getting stale around here.”

He pokes me in the side, making me laugh. “You wouldn’t know what to do with yourself if things were normal, right?”

“Exactly.” His attention goes back to the window. “Shit.”

He grabs the door handle and quickly opens the door. My gaze follows his line of sight, and I see a wolf limping out of the trees.

Jackson.

There’s blood on his light fur, and I reach through the pack bond to him, feeling his pain.

I get out of the truck, rushing around the back of it to follow Sawyer as Jackson collapses. Sawyer and I reach him at the same time, his shift back to his human form taking less than a second. His body is covered in cuts and bite marks. Blood smears his skin, and my pulse flutters wildly in my throat.

“They’re… not far… behind me…” he gasps out the warning.

“Fuck.” Cade turns to his brother and Wyatt. “Get him up and in the truck now.”

Wyatt steps forward and drags Jackson onto his back with no help from Sawyer. Grabbing my arm, Cade shoves me in the truck’s direction as a howl resounds through the air.

A howl I recognize. My mating bond throbs to life suddenly, and cold heat pebbles my skin.

Dalton’s close.

“Move,” Cade hisses, urging us all back toward the car.

I don’t argue. The three of us run at full speed and pile inside. It’s a squeeze in the back, with Sawyer on one side, me on the other, and Jackson between us. Sawyer reaches over the back seat into the trunk and tugs a blanket free, draping it over Jackson’s naked body as Cade starts the engine.

“Fuck!” he exclaims.

My gaze snaps up to see six wolves standing in theroad in front of us. I recognize all of them, including the large gray one.

Dalton.

Klaus is there. Alaric too.

“Fuck this,” Cade mutters and slams the truck into reverse, hitting the gas. The vehicle screams as it moves backward at speed. I hold onto the window and the back of Wyatt’s seat, trying not to lose my grip.

The wolves run after us before the car spins a hundred and eighty degrees.

The motion stirs something inside me. It’s familiar like it's happened before, but I don’t remember a single incident like this one. The déjà vu is so strong I can’t ignore it.

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