Page 17 of Shifting Fate
Arias
I hadn’t seen or heard from Dallon in over a week. It hurt, but I had no one but myself to blame. This was probably why I didn’t have friends; I pushed everyone away when they got too close. I wanted to believe it was a form of self-preservation, but I was beginning to think I was just fucked up.
I’d hurt his feelings, but knowing Dallon as well as I did, I thought for sure he’d come around in a couple of days, even if only to pester me. After hanging out with him nearly every day for the past couple of months, suddenly his lack of presence in my life was like a black hole, sucking everything into its void.
Now that he was gone, I realized that I’d come to look forwards to his lighthearted teasing and endless flirting. I might’ve even enjoyed it, if we were being honest. It had felt…right, somehow, spending time with him.
And then I’d kicked him to the curb.
Damn. I truly was a monster. The beast in his castle of thorns, waiting for his Prince Charming to save his damned soul. Right.Thatwasn’t going to happen. It was better this way, at least that’s what I kept telling myself.
So why, then, did it feel likeIwas the one who’d been rejected?
As much as I missed Dallon’s company, I didn’t plan on doing anything about it. My inner-wolf and I didn’t see eye to eye on this one. He wanted to seek out our mate and beg his forgiveness. He didn’t understand why his human side had to be so goddamn stubborn, but that was the problem. He didn’t understand.
So I escaped into fiction, downloading endless books to my e-reader. I slept and I read and I ran through these woods, day after day, in an attempt to ignore the blistering ache in my chest. Longing. That’s what it was. I was longing for something I never even had in the first place. Something I probably would never get.
Frustrated at myself and the entire situation, I stripped naked and tore through the woods on four legs. I needed to feel the burn. My paws thumped over the ground as twilight descended all around me. For awhile, I stalked a rabbit, but it was aimless. I didn’t want to hunt. I wasn’t even hungry.
I was lonely.
Wait a moment… Panting, I tipped my face towards the sky and sniffed. There. That sweetly-tart flavor of Dallon’s apple scent filled my lungs. My wolf whined, wanting to go to our mate. The urge was so strong, I started off in the direction of the scent before even I realized I was moving.
Mate.
I wasn’t surprised to find Dallon’s sports car parked alongside his sister’s in her driveway. My ears perked up at the sound of laughter that leaked out from the partially-ajar window, but I kept my distance. I settled for hiding in the bushes like the stalker I was.
It didn’t take long to realize what they were talking about, coming from the shouts and squeals of excitement. The Halloween party. Of course. Dallon had only been chatting my ear off about it for weeks. He’d invited me to go along, proudly claiming that no one would have a sluttier costume than him. At the time, I’d thought it was a friendly gesture, but now I realized he was covertly asking me to go as his date.
Damn it.
I laid on my belly in the underbrush and listened in on their conversation, and with each passing minute, dread welled in my stomach. I knew I wouldn’t like what I was going to see when Dallon came out of that cottage, all dolled up for the party.
I should’ve turned around and gone home, should’ve pretended that I didn’t overhear my mate talking about boning the guy from Westwind tonight. My hackles went up. My wolf growled in my head so loudly that I had to clamp my jaws shut to keep it from rumbling free.
But I didn’t leave. I stayed where I was, and when Dallon came strutting down the front steps, dressed as a slutty werewolf, my heart plummeted. He wore the tiniest pair of black booty-shorts, clinging to his ass like a second skin, and thigh-high pleather boots with buckles all the way up the front. The corset-like top he wore was as purple as his hair, which had been spiked stiff with product.
Atop his head sat a pair of fuzzy wolf ears, the same sooty gray as his own pelt, and peeking out from the seam of his shorts was a matching tail. For a moment, I stared, trying to figure out how he’d attached it—and then it hit me.
He was wearing a buttplug. To a Halloween party. If that didn’t scream “fuck me” I didn’t know what did. Dallon would get laid tonight, and why wouldn’t he? He was sexy and in his prime, and tonight, he’d be too hot to resist.
My heart sank, but my wolf bristled with another furious snarl.Mine!The idea of another man—anotherwolf—touching his mate had him lit up like a livewire, snapping and growling as he yanked on my mental hold. I braced myself and held tight as Dallon pranced past the bushes in his chunky-heeled boots.
Tashi was dressed similarly-slutty, her breasts on display in a low-cut witch’s dress. When she passed the bushes, she looked right at me. I froze. Her gaze shot daggers straight into my soul. Oh, she knew I was here, alright. Of course she would. It wasn’t like I’d blocked my scent fromhermind.
They got into Dallon’s car and revved the engine, then drove down the drive in the direction of Northpoint. I tucked my muzzle to my chin and whined. Damn, damn, damn. My wolf growled at me, obviously pissed with my decision.
The last thing I needed was to follow them into town. The thought of Colby’s hands all over Dallon, touching and groping what didn’t belong to him… The idea of his scent covering my mate, as he tugged Dallon’s tail free and filled him with his seed. Taking him.Claiminghim.
I’d shred him.
This time, it was me who growled, loud and long in the woodland silence. My fur stood on end and my tail rose tall over my back. I surged to my paws with another snarl, my ears pinned and fangs bared. I probably looked like some sort of deranged beast, but it didn’t matter. Not anymore.
The only thing that mattered was claiming our mate.
My human inhibitions tossed aside like leaves on the wind, with a throaty howl, I took off at a gallop towards Northpoint.
