Page 28 of The Enforcer's Rejected Mate
He doesn’t stand a chance against the woman and her magazine.
“Humans have different rules. No ticket, you’re off the bus,” she says, waving her magazine at him, and he falls back another step. Score: 1 Magazine, 0 Keiran.
“Yeah, let’s go!” Another passenger yells. “You’re holding us up!”
The driver ushers Keiran back and points down the stairs. “Move it. You don’t go and I’ll call the authorities. I’m sure they’d love to haul one of you in for the night.”
One of you.
It’s easy to see that Keiran isn’t quite human. He’s too big. Too beautiful in the sharp way shifters have about them. I’m not surprised the humans locked on to it so quickly. Do they know I’m not human? I look around the bus nervously but no one is looking at me. The half dozen passengers are too focused on yelling at Keiran to move along to notice me.
“Get out of here!”
“I’ll call the cops on you.”
“A man hunting down a girl?Pathetic.”
The other bus riders don’t let up and miracle of all miracles, somehow, it works. I watch in awe from my spot on the floor on my hands and knees as Keiran, the Alpha’s son and heir to Frostclaw Pack, gives in to a bunch of humans and gets off the bus. I almost laugh at how absurd it is. Keiran, bullied by humans? If the pack knew about this he’d never live it down.Holy shit.If I wasn’t trying to hide, I’d laugh. I think I’m going to like life outside of Frostclaw Pack. I slide back up into my seat as the door slides shut and the bus roars to life. I sink down low, eyes on the window to make sure Keiran is well and truly gone.
“You okay?” I look away from the window and see the magazine wielding woman by my seat. She looks every bit as concerned as the driver did. “He was following you, wasn’t he?”
“Yeah.”
“I knew it. Can’t stand a bully of a man. Don’t you worry, he’s gone now. We made sure of that.”
I smile at her. “I-yes, thank you for what you did. You didn’t have to do that for me. I’m sorry that you had to. I never meant for any of this trouble to follow me.”
“You think that was trouble?” She flicks her magazine with a grin. “Oh that was nothing, honey. I know how men can be when I’ve had to scrape them off. Reminds me of my ex-husband. You get some rest back here and if you need anything you can come sit up front with me, okay? I’m Jenny.”
“Scrape that bitch off now.”
That’s what Alpha Ashford told Kieran to do before he rejected me. Is that really what I’m doing by running? Scraping Keiran off? I guess I am. Him and all of Frostclaw have had a hold on me for so long that I don’t even know what life could be like without either hanging around my neck like a weight.
“Thank you, Jenny.”
For the second time I’m overwhelmed by the kindness of strangers. It feels good, like I belong somewhere. Maybe Maud was right and I will be welcomed in a new pack. Maybe it’s okay to daydream about finding my happily-ever-after because out here in the real world it doesn’t have to be the fantasy I made up as a lonely child in a pack that didn’t want her.
Out here it could be real and I can finally be whoever I want.
Jenny gives me a kind smile and makes her way back to her seat but only after she makes me swear I’ll come up if I need company. I’m settling back in when the bus lurches forward. I look out the window and Keiran surprises me again.
He’s still there looking for me.
He’s standing with Maud in the rain. The pair of them watch the bus pull away. I know Keiran sees me when he jerks forward like he means to run after the bus but all that earns him is an elbow to the ribs from Maud. She practically drops the big Alpha. I laugh and press my hand to the glass in goodbye when Maud waves to me and that’s how I leave my old life behind. With Keiran gasping for air and the woman that raised me smiling at me.
Chapter
Twelve
CORDELIA
Istare at the map in my hand and turn it this way and that before I think I’ve figured out which way is North. I’m not the best with directions but I’ve never had to be on account of never being allowed to leave Frostclaw Territory.
“Shoot,” I whisper as I tilt the map close to the dying light shining in from the window. I’ve been on the road for five hours now. We just stopped at a little diner where I was able to buy the driver a cup of coffee and a donut as a thank you for sending Keiran packing. I learned his name is Gus and he’s been driving the route I’m on now for twenty years.
“Must have been big.”
“What was big?”
