Rejected Wolf by Rae Foxx

17

“Wake the fuck up.Can you fly? What?” This morning, instead of bitching about coffee and breakfast, I was up with the sun, wondering about this whole blood thing. I would feel for Titus’ heartbeat but we all know that would do no good.

“I wasn’t asleep. Anyway, what happened to respecting a female’s sleep? Don’t you need more beauty sleep or some shit?” He opened one eye and looked at me. “Yep, looks like that’s in order.”

Motherfucker.

I slapped his chest as hard as I could. “We need to see what you can do. You’re still alive so my blood doesn’t have some kind of vampire virus or some shit. Come on. Time’s a wastin’.”

Henry chuckled in the corner. “Time is all we have, Poppy. But I do agree with her Titus. We need to know what you’ve got.”

“Shut up, Henry. She doesn’t need any help. Shit.” He got up and looked around.

Reggie came out of the shower towel wrapped around his waist. When he caught me looking at him, he wagged his eyebrows. “Yeah, Titus. Show us your super skills.”

Titus grumbled something, probably vulgar and nonsensical. “Let’s go outside.”

We went to the area behind the motel where apparently they kept old, stained furniture. There was even a sad, disgusting mattress graveyard.

One of them had an enormous blood stain on it. I dry-heaved right there.

“Okay, now let’s see if you can fly.” I turned to him expectantly and Titus raised his arms like some cartoon hero before he pushed onto his tiptoes. “Not that I know of.”

He tried other things. Instead of breaking a tree in half, which was normal for him, he tried to pluck the entire thing out of the ground. No dice.

Over and over he tried things until with a stomp and a glare at me, he decided it wasn’t happening.

“Your blood did nothing.” He fussed like an insolent toddler, screwed up mouth and all.

“Whatever, maybe you didn’t drink it right.” I waved my hand to the side, which he seemed to think was an invitation.

A smile rose on one side of his mouth. “Oh, baby, I did it right.”

“Whatever. I’m going back inside.”

I whirled around, but one look at the piss-stained mattresses and god knew what kind of stains on the chairs and I gagged.

“Someone should burn…”

All at once, the entire pile of discarded motel furniture burst into flames. It wasn’t a trickle of a fire or even a slow-burning one, either, it was zero to bonfire in a split second.

Everyone turned to eyeball Titus.

Even he was surprised. His eyes were widened and he was stepping backward as though afraid of it.

“Did you do that? Did you set fire to all of that?” I asked, pointing to the now blazing, raging fire.

“I think I did. I started a fire.” His expression evolved into giddiness as he stood before us. “I can fucking start fire! I am the fire god! I am the all-consuming fire of the fucking world.”

Well, that progressed quickly.

“Now that we have that figured out,” Reggie said as he joined us in only a shirt. “We can move on. We can fight whatever comes after us.”

I cleared my throat, hating to be the bearer of bad news. “Except that one.”

Titus walked over to me, the flames danced in the mirror of his irises. “What are you talking about?”

I raised up my arm. “One got to me.”

Truth be told, in all the getting away not to mention the feeding Titus and that grand jerking off on the motorcycle, I’d forgotten about it until that moment.

“Fuck!” All of them said at one time.

“Yeah, so we don’t know what superpower he’s waking up to or vampires don’t sleep so...you know what I mean.”

We stood around in silence for a moment, the only sound the burning of fabric and the sporadic breaking of boards dissipating in the fire. “I think Henry should feed from you too,” Titus said, his fists balled at his sides. “That way three of us have powers to protect you. Three is better than two in any battle.”

“There’s more than drinking blood and superpowers here. I think Titus and I both know that now for sure. Henry?” Reggie asked. Gods, we were going to have that talk? Now? In front of the burning piss mattresses? Okay, then.

“There is a link between us and Lizzie. No denying it. I felt it since we first saw her. I’m sure that now since the both of you have drank from her, it is solidifying. Lizzie... Poppy, do you feel it, the tie to us?”

I did. I felt it the first time I saw them and I knew that the rush of feelings I had when they were feeding from me was more than shallow lust. They belonged to me and I to them.

“Yes,” I said, knowing the one word said it all.

“I didn’t know it was possible, vampires to shifters.”

I laughed and kicked at the dirt. “I didn’t know it was possible either. I mean, I have a mate or… had one. He rejected me in front of the pack.”

Way to truth vomit, Lizzie.

“When I fed from you, I felt the bond grow. It’s the vampire mating bond. It’s why we were so compelled to mate, to fuck. It’s inherent in the bonding.”

I nodded. It definitely made sense, and seeing as I was feeling that need right now… I shook my head, I had no desire to follow those impulses in a stinky alley.

“What do we do now?” I asked, trying to swallow away my arousal.

Titus finally took his eyes off the fire and stared me down. Gods, I loved being the target of his stare. “We find this Ruth person, protect you from whatever comes, and eventually, finish what we started.”