Rejected Wolf by Rae Foxx

12

“Get up,sunshine. It’s time to go.” The voice above me boomed in my head and caused an instant strike through my brain like white-hot lightning.

“Fuck, my head hurts.”

A hand with silky smooth skin covered mine. The chill of the touch weaved its way up my arm making me shudder, which, of course aggravated the headache even more. “It’s dehydration, goddess. But drink up fast, Titus here woke up on the wrong side of the bed.”

With my eyes still closed I sat up and let my feet swing at the side of the bed. I was dressed in the clothes Reginald gave me the night before, but they had that new clothes feeling, no give at all and scratchy as fuck. Kind of like Titus.

I blinked my eyes open. Someone had stuck sand into the corner of them while I was sleeping. I took the bottle of water and a couple of white pills that I downed without question. After all, what was a couple of pills when I was in a room full of vampires, and, for the unmeasurable future, reliant on them for being alive.

“Okay. She got water. Let’s get the fuck out of here.”

Reginald offered me his hand and for the rest of the walk to the bikes helped to keep me steady. I was healing at a faster rate than a human, but even for a shifter I had a little bit too much of that ‘just been hit by a truck’ feeling.

Which is probably why I zoned out on the back of the bike, half asleep.

“Where are we? What are we doing here?” I asked after the bikes zoomed to a stop later that day. For the past three hours I’d been holding onto Reginald’s waist, watching the world zoom by in swatches of color that only got brighter and more painful as the sun rose.

He patted my hands before getting off of the motorcycle with such ease. I, on the other hand, flopped over and nearly face-planted into the parking lot like some kind of drunk giraffe. “We are here to shop. A woman like you, with your beauty, well, I can’t stand to see you in such paltry clothing. It breaks my heart. Come on. Titus is getting you breakfast and Henry, well, Henry is doing his thing. He’s the paranoid one.”

Henry cleared his throat behind me. “Cautious, not paranoid. Paranoia is for teenagers who are fucking in their parents’ bedroom.”

Reginald cracked up at that while taking my hand and leading me inside. “It’s been a while since you were a teenager, Henry. I’m surprised you remember.”

I looked over my shoulder. Henry raised one eyebrow but winked the other eye at me. “It might’ve been a while, Reggie, but I remember.”

They both laughed at that, until the sound was cut off by the ring of a bell and the slam of a door.

“Can I call you Reggie?” I asked as he led me to the closest rack of clothes.

“You can call me whatever you like, Lizzie.” He gave me a smile before he walked away, already pulling clothes off the racks.

Living a life in hand me downs and cast offs I had no idea where to begin. So, I just followed behind him in a daze.

Titus walked in as Reggie went on a spree. This was clearly his element. Before I’d even downed the first breakfast sandwich Titus brought me, Reggie had conjured up six outfits and with his finger tapping on his chin was talking about which shoes would match each ensemble.

“Um, I’m usually just a tank top and jeans type of girl. And flip-flops would be fine.”

I knew the moment I said the words that I’d broken Reggie’s heart. Stomped on it like a roach. For some reason the last thing in the world I wanted to do was to break his heart.

Wait, vampires had hearts? No they didn’t. I clearly needed more water.

“I mean, that’s how I dressed when I was in the pack. I just don’t want you to spend a lot of money or go through all of this trouble.”

Gods, I hoped that fixed my salty blunder.

Reggie perked up. “Well, you are with us now. And as you can see, we all have our own style. I wouldn’t exactly call what Titus wears a style, but it matches his personality. And money is no issue. You’re not going to stop my fun, are you?”

I sighed. The outfits he had picked out were great. “No. I guess not. But I insist on paying you back when I can. When we all get out of this mess.”

Reggie waved me off. I noticed Henry had remained by the front windows. His arms were crossed over his chest while he paced back and forth, his stare fixed on the parking lot.

He did the same at the next shop where Reggie hand-picked shoes for me and seemed to get off on putting each pair of shoes on me. He was a strange one, a dangerously gorgeous and sexy vampire, but a strange one, even for his kind.

“We’re being watched. We need to move. I told you this was a bad idea,” Henry’s smooth yet thunderous voice broke through my thoughts. I hadn’t even noticed him come in.

Reggie and Titus sprang into action. Titus took the shoes Reggie had picked out and paid for them with cash, a few hundred-dollar bills fluttering to the surface as he told the cashier to keep the change. That was a fucking lot of change for her to keep.

“Back door,” Henry said, putting his hand on the small of my back and being not gentle at all about pushing me toward the exit. We all filed out and Henry surveyed the area.

He opened his mouth to say something, but it was another voice that bellowed through the alley. We were surrounded on both sides by vamps, by the smell of them. They were hissing, their irises red and dilated.

Hungry vampires. Perfect.

I was freaked out. My three traveling companions, however, relaxed. Now was not the time to relax!

“Brothers, we are one of you.” Titus called out to them conversationally, but they didn’t even seem to notice. They were all staring at me.

“We are here for the girl. We smelled her from miles away. We claim her as ours.” The thinnest one, a vampire straight out of the movies, stepped forward. While he spoke some spittle came from the corner of his mouth.

“She is ours to feed on. She belongs to us.” Titus said, stepping in front of me.

“Hey!” I called out but Henry pinched me so hard on the skin of my hip that I quickly shut up.

“She is ours. Move on. There are others to feed on.” Reggie added, stepping to the other side.

The lead vampire, the thin one, crept forward. “No, we will be taking this one from you. You are the ones who can find somewhere else to feed.”

“I don’t think so.” Those were the words Titus spoke before the alley became a fury of fighting. Hisses and screams rang out, bouncing off the brick walls. Henry kept me caged in, my back against the wall, his arms making a jail cell for me. His eyes bounced around, searching for his next offender. Reginald and Titus were on either side of us making sure no one got to me.

Why in the hell were these vampires risking their lives for some lowly shifters like me? I knew I was going to lead them to the pack but clearly, they were good at their jobs. They could find the pack without me.

So many questions, but at that moment I was more focused on the wall of teeth heading my way.

In what seemed like hours, but I knew it was only minutes, the fight was over. The nomadic vampires, not the ones I was with, ran away, their tails between their legs.

We had won.

A couple of days ago I would’ve died before saying that a group of vamps and me were we, but times change, I guessed.

“Reginald, we need to get you out of here.”

My cage was removed. Henry picked up Reginald while Titus threw me over his shoulder with the shopping bags in his other hands.

While Titus brought us to the motorcycles, I got a good look at Reggie. Blood poured from deep wounds and made puddles along our way.

My ruffled-shirt hero was in deep fucking shit.