Page 39 of Rejected Mate

His smile widened. "You're a gambling man, Husk. What's to say I don't kill you all and take what I want?"

"Because Fagua's father has a huge pack... an entire wolf town. And every single one of them will hunt you and your goons down until you're nothing but smoldering piles of ashes."

He steepled his fingers, looking over them at me. "I'd love to see that."

Alister's pupils dilated into black pools. It was hard to read what the hell he was thinking. But then he shrugged. "Bring me the vamp girl and it's a deal."

"I have your word that you won't harm her?"

He chuckled. "Of course. It's not every day a half-breed girl comes with the promise of wolves behaving themselves."

Fuck, I hated vampires. But what choice did I have? If I hadn't met Fagua, I'd give Mayia over to him and not think about her again for the rest of my life.

But I couldn't do that now.

I turned to the open door and was halfway out when he said, "And do not come to me again unless you have her and what you promised, wolf."

I glanced back into the limo and snarled, my wolf practically shaking with rage. "No one threatens me."

"We're not threatening, just telling," he said, and the two vampires by the door straightened and hurried out of my way.

Now all I had to do was track down Mayia and get her to pledge herself to Alister.

Yeah, right. This was going to be a bitch.

* * *

Ishifted and ran through the woods, letting pride fill me. Tonight I was gambling everything and hoped to God I was lucky enough to pull this off. If I got out of this unscathed, I was going to beat Sky's ass for making a deal with vamps that could get us all killed.

For a heartbeat, I felt someone following me. I spun with a growl. A black wolf crept forward, his head down.

Darkness? Yeah, that was his name. I howled a greeting and he returned it. Shit, I didn't have time for this. I couldn't go hunting with him or chitchat.

After a quick howl goodbye, I raced away. For a while, he chased after me until I pounded the ground and he couldn't keep up. Then I took a detour back to the city.

An hour later, I tracked Mayia down at the bar Fagua frequented. She was dancing with another wolf and I tapped him on the shoulder. "Go get her a drink."

Fuck knows she was going to need it.

"Husk?" She frowned, wiping a hand across her forehead. "What are you doing here?"

"We need to talk," I said in a low growl.

"Is it Fagua?" She winced, then looked at me with a hard expression. "Is she okay?"

"She's fine." The music of the place pounded against my skull. "Let's go outside."

For a moment, she stiffened, then she nodded and followed me out onto the sidewalk. Cars whizzed past and a few giggling women strolled by.

"All right, what's going on."

"Do you know Alister?" I shoved my hands into my pockets. If I couldn't get her to agree to this, I was going to have to haul her to him.

She paled. "The master vampire?"

"Yeah." I nodded. "He wants to see you."

"I can't." She backed away, looking like she was going to start running.

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