Rejected Wolf by Rae Foxx

9

These vampires weresomething straight out of a horror movie. Well, a horror movie mixed with a paranormal rendition of Magic Mike.

I backward crab-crawled away from them as I tried to figure out how in the fuck I was going to take these guys on. Because there wasn’t just one magic mike vampire, there were three of them.

The blood-sucking motherfucker closest to me was tall, almost twice my size. His head was shaved down, almost to the scalp. I’d never really seen a vampire up close before but the ones I had seen at a distance were thin like they were on the verge of starving to death. This one didn’t fit the profile at all. He was muscular, but almost on the chubby side. If his stench hadn’t warned me off, no way in hell I would think he was a vamp. More like a wrestler.

“What do we have here,” another vampire said, stepping closer to me in heavy boots. Although his feet made no noise against the shards of sand. Creepy. He was dressed like he should be standing on a cliff on a windy night instead of here in the desert. His long blonde hair blew in the wind making time seem to stand still.

The beefier one chuckled. “Didn’t think we’d snare lunch while we were out here in the wilderness, that’s for sure.”

“Fuck you,” I snarled, doing my best to sound like the badass I always fancied myself to be. “I’m not a catch and I sure as fuck am not lunch. Anyway, I’m half dead and tossed out like garbage. You didn’t exactly hunt me down or anything.”

I tried to laugh, but it turned into a hacking cough again. This desert air was sure doing a number on me.

“A meal with a little spice to her. I like it,” the beefy vamp said and tugged on his leather vest which barely fit him and his overworked biceps. “Doesn’t change the fact that you are a wolf though. Wolves are the tastiest. I bet I could suck you dry before you even registered a hint of pain.”

“You could try, I’m already half-dead out here. Besides, if you do, I will probably poison you.”

All three of them chuckled. The blonde-haired one stepped forward and crouched near me where I lay useless and pathetic on the ground. “Oh, don’t be too sure of that, little one. Wolves do taste the best after all. And you are ripe for the picking, aren’t you? Never been touched, never been fed off of.”

He licked his lips. Stereotypical vampires.

“Have I ever let a vampire suck my blood? That would be a big, fat no.” I kicked dirt at him, but he seemed unfazed by the protest.

The third vampire, with long black, slicked-back hair walked around me like we were involved in a sick rendition of duck-duck-goose. Or suck-suck-goose as they would probably have it. He had a suit on, perfectly tailored for his lean body as he tapped on his chin with his pointer finger. “She is a lovely one and I can smell the betrayal and pain in her veins. Who is it that hurt you, poppet?”

Gods above, he had a British accent, and every word he said caressed my skin like a velvet blanket. A lovely one. No one in my life had ever called me lovely.

Fuck. What? These were vampires. Get a hold of yourself, Lizzie. I was secretly blaming the vampire swooning on the head injuries. Yeah, that must be it.

“Yeah, well, that’s what happens when you are kicked out of your home and have no family.”

I felt my eyes widen in shock. I hadn’t meant to divulge that information, but my gut said it was fine. Anyway, they were probably going to kill me in seconds, might as well get it all off my chest.

“What pack would kick a goddess of a thing like you out of it, much less hurt you?”

“Vengeful Shadows. That’s my pack. I mean, it was my pack.” The three of them exchanged a look. They had heard the name before, but then again, who hadn’t. They were kinda notorious for all their warring. “You’ve heard of them, I see.”

The beefy one took a long, deep breath. I watched his chest move with the inhale. It was mesmerizing. Dehydration was weird. I was zoned out on the strangest things. “Vengeful Shadows is the pack we were sent to hunt.”

That was a lot of information to divulge so early in a conversation. Then again, I was one to talk. I’d just told them where I was from and who to bring me to finish me off.

Unless they finished me off first. Which was probably why they were telling me so much.

Black-slicked back hair stood over me. The third vampire stared down at me, his long, lean shadow gave my face a reprieve from the blaring sun, but I didn’t know which was worse, the sun or the cold shadow. “Maybe there is a way we can help each other out… What is your name, little one?”

His words may as well have been a stream from a glacier the way they cut through the heat burning my body and tamed all the fires. His question dripped from his lips like a song, a melody probably lulling me right to my death, but still, the loveliest song I’d ever heard in my short life.

A pale hand, cool to the touch, reached out and touched my forearm gently, like a whisper of what I knew vampires were capable of. “Your name, beautiful. What is it?”

Oh yeah, shit. With all the icy tingles in all the right places, I’d forgotten that he was searching for information from me. “Oh...Elizabeth...Lizzie.”

A soft smile played at one side of his mouth revealing a dimple near the corner of his eye. “Lizzie…” Closing his eyes, he swallowed as though I had gifted him my blood instead of my name. “Lizzie, beautiful name. You know, I have a thought… Perhaps we can work together.”

Work together with a vampire? Yeah...not in a million years. That was probably how long they had been alive. Still, now was a different predicament. My body teetered on the verge of death.

And it would serve those Vengeful Shadow fuckers right to lead the vamps right to their door.

“What did you have in mind?” I asked, sounding like a rabid toad, thirsty with sandpaper for a throat.

The beefier vampire lifted me slightly as their shadows made a deathly umbrella for me from the sun. I hissed in pain and something like empathy flashed in his mint green eyes though I knew better. Vampires didn’t have an ounce of empathy in them, especially for a wolf. “You will help us find the Vengeful Shadows and get us in.”

I swallowed against the pain, determined to stand up to him. This deal needed to be a two-way street. “Fine. But I get to kill the Alpha’s son. He’s mine. I want to see his blood spilled.”

The three bloodsuckers shared another look and I wondered if they could communicate like mated shifters.

The billowing shirt one shifted forward, his sandals scratching against the sand. “We have a deal, goddess. We have a deal.”

I laughed though it sounded more hyena than anything. “One problem. I’m barely alive. I need time to heal.”

Beefy picked me up, bringing all the agony to the front stage. “We might be able to help with that. In the meantime, let’s get out of here. You smell like death and I’m sure we’re not the only ones who senses it.”

They practically dragged me over to their bikes, placing me on the back of the closest one. I was on a motorcycle with a vamp after being beaten to death by my mate and his packmates. Yeah, my life had taken, not a turn, but a cutthroat corner I never saw coming.