Alpha Hell: A Dark Rejected Mates Romance (The Rejected Mate Series Book 1)

by G. Bailey

  Let’s put on a good fucking show for them.

  I take a run and jump toward the archway and pull myself over. My boots hit the concrete as I steady myself on the roof, pulling a dagger out from my holster. One of the demons charges toward me. I pivot to the side and toss my dagger, hitting the creature in the back before it can so much as turn around.

  Even over the blood pounding in my ears, I hear Aamon’s scathing voice mocking me.

  “How abysmal. She really ought to—”

  I slide an icy glare in their direction. Aamon flinches and looks back down at his book, but Conaeth continues drinking his beer with not a care in the world.

  “Continue,” he says calmly.

  “Only if that dickhead stops the running commentary!”

  Eziel chokes on his drink and leans forward in his throne in a fit of laughter. Damn, his laugh is sexy; even when he’s choking. His little advisor turns a brilliant shade of pink and flicks rapidly through the book. I’d like to shove that thing up his arse.

  Two demons whizz past me, lifting my braid over my shoulder.

  I bend down by the edge of the archway and press my hands flat against the concrete. With a deep breath in through my nose, I lunge off the roof and shapeshift in the air. My wolf’s huge paws slam into the earth, the force causing a wave of air to ripple the grass. She snaps her jaws in the direction of Aamon and then takes off after the demons. Now this is more like it. She catches a demon within sixty seconds. The instant she pins it down, the creature disappears into a puff of smoke.

  My wolf snarls at the lack of blood and takes off after the other demons. She misses them a few times due to timing her lunges incorrectly, but she doesn’t give up. We never do. By the time she’s caught the fourth and last demon, she’s panting and sweating.

  “You rely too much on your wolf,” Eziel says, walking toward her.

  My wolf takes offence and snarls at them, but the prince doesn’t even flinch when he stops right in front of her. He is an alpha, after all. It would take a lot to intimidate him. However, my wolf is having none of it; something that could result in a fight if she provokes his alpha side too much.

  He reaches out, and my wolf pulls back cautiously. “You need to stop fighting like a wolf and start fighting like a demon,” he says softly, gazing into her eyes. “I don’t want either of my girls getting hurt.”

  My girls…

  To my astonishment, that comment alone puts my wolf at ease and she stops growling.

  What the hell? She’s never given in that quickly.

  Or easily.

  Pausing for just a heartbeat, Conaeth presses a hand to the side of her head.

  She nudges him and leans into the caress. Okay. This is officially weird. I don’t think my wolf has ever reacted to an alpha in this way; she’s usually always trying to goad them into a fight, much to my family’s distress.

  “Next time, we’re doing things my way so I can be certain you won’t get hurt,” he says.

  Like we hadn’t been doing things his way already? He’s the one who summoned the demons.

  He pulls his hand back and lets it fall by his side. “Don’t be late, firewolf.”

  Chapter 16

  Lilith Thornblood

  “Out of the way, losers. Actual demon hunters are coming through,” Caspian growls, pushing himself right through the crowd.

  Several of them glare at him as he passes by. I gingerly walk behind him, trying not to attract attention like he is, but it doesn’t work. It’s not just him who gets these looks nowadays. Now that I’m training with the prince, all the hunters are staring at me like I’ve done something wrong.

  They want to kill me to take my place.

  But I’m not letting them.

  Dove and Caspian say I need to ignore them, but it just feels like my list of enemies is getting larger by the day. One of the rather beefy demon hunters is pushed out of the way, Caspian gets to the front of the group. He steps up in front of the board just as Alaric comes past me, his arm brushing against mine.

  “Morning, beautiful,” he tells me. Caspian shoots his head back, glaring at Alaric as he walks to his side. The two of them seem like night and day. The tension here is thick, and I feel like I should just leave.

  “Are you playing the silent game this morning, Autumn?” Alaric asks, teasing me with my fake name.

  “I prefer people to use my middle name. Lilith,” I reply with a smile to hide how frazzled I feel around this man.

  It’s not just his good looks, it’s him. He is overpowering in a way I don’t understand, and my wolf likes him. My wolf, who likes pretty much no one but me, likes this stranger who literally blackmailed me when we met. She has messed up tastes, that’s for sure. Not that I’m any better crushing on my brother’s best friend, a man who’s blackmailed me and the literal son of the alpha who rejected me and is trying to kill me. “And it’s too early for your flirting.”

  “Who said I was flirting?” he asks, turning back around and flashing me an innocent gaze. He strides right up to me, and I arch my neck to meet his gaze. He winks. “Flirting seems like it would be fun and not witnessed by a load of boring shithead wolves with nothing better to do.”

  I peek around, seeing we have quite the audience. “Maybe they’ve never seen flirting with an actual woman.”

  “They certainly aren’t as good at it as jackass over here,” Caspian grumbles. He walks around Alaric to me. “We have to go, partner.”

  “Sure, wait.” I catch Caspian’ arm. “Have you met Alaric? I mean, properly?”

  I certainly hope their first introduction wasn’t when Alaric knocked him out after saving my life.

  Caspian slowly rests his eyes on Alaric with a bored gaze. “I’m Caspian. Stay the fuck away from Lilith or I’ll kill you.”

  Alaric laughs when Caspian drags me away, and I glare at him.

  “What the hell was that for?”

  “You really shouldn’t make friends with that one.”

  “Why?” I ask.

  He doesn’t know about the blackmail thing, mostly because I knew it would freak him out. Caspian runs his hand through his hair.

  “Because I told you to,” he responds, like that makes everything clear.

  “You have a serious communication problem, Caspian,” I warn him.

  “And you have shit taste in men,” he counters, and my cheeks burn red as I pull my hand from his. “We are working on actually being partners now, so I will try to listen more to you. My thoughts on Alaric aren’t changing, though.”

  “If we are now working on being proper partners, you have to learn you can’t control everybody I’m friends with,” I respond.

  “I’m not controlling your friendships,” he replies with a sour tone. “But I’m just mentioning perhaps that guy isn’t a good idea for a friend.”

  “Duly noted.”

  “You’re not going to stop being friends with him, are you?” he asks around a groan.

  I want to tell him I’m being blackmailed into the friendship, and he did save my life, but the words don’t leave my lips. “Nope. Thanks for the advice, though. Now, where are we going?”

  He hands me the holographic card from the board out of his coat pocket.

  “A demon market. What is that?” I ask, popping the holographic card into my coat.

  There’s not much information on the card, which is likely the reason none of the other hunters took it. It’s a risk.

  “Demon markets are like big shopping centres for demons,” Caspian answers. “Imagine Tesco, but for illegal demon shit. Not many people take these, mostly because demon marketers are, in a way, boring. But if we can catch a few it will be more points to get us up the board.”

  Talking of the board, we walk past it, and I pause to look up for our names. Caspian and I are quite low down, somewhere near the bottom, but that’s only because at least thirty demon hunters are dead or left already.

  Alaric is somehow right at the very top.<
br />
  “How did he get so many points?”

  Caspian follows my line of sight. “That’s exactly why you shouldn’t be anywhere near him. He’s clearly dangerous.”

  “I wish I was as dangerous as he was. I could avenge my parents and fix my life,” I say.

  Caspian shakes his head. “Being trained by the prince is the best way you’re going to get better. Let’s go, songbird. We need to get to the portal.”

  I jog to his side, watching him closely. “So when did you start being trained by the prince?”

  “The first time I was here in the trials,” he finally answers.

  It’s rare for him to say anything about his own life, and I greedily listen as he finally talks, wanting to know everything about him. The man I live with, who is risking his life for me, I know nothing much about, and it bothers me.

  “I didn’t have a partner in my first trials because the one I was partnered with died early on. It wasn’t my fault, by the way, but he was dead thanks to taking on a mission he didn’t have a chance of winning. So it was just me, and I was determined to win.”

  “Sounds like you,” I say.

  “I kept going out every morning to train and doing absolutely everything I could do to win. The prince saw me, took pity on me, I guess, and trained me. We became fast friends through that.”

  “Sounds like both you and Eziel learnt from that,” I point out. “What did you do to get kicked out of the trials that first year?”

  He doesn’t answer me.

  “Come on, Caspian. You know I won’t judge you for anything.”

  “That’s the point. You would judge me, songbird,” he says, and I frown. No, I wouldn’t. “Trust me, it’s part of the secrets we have to keep staying friends.”

  “One day I’m going to figure out all these secrets about you. You know that, right?” I tell him.

  He looks back and laughs.

  “I have no doubt about it. I’m sure Leo will tell you that when we find him,” he suggests. “And I can run to another pack so you don’t have to face me.”

  “You think so badly about yourself.” I sigh. “I did ask about you once to Leo. Sometime last year when he came to visit me.”

  He looks down into my eyes, surprise coating his gaze. I don’t know why he is surprised. The last time we spoke before he left, I told him I had a big crush on him before throwing up in the sink. I’m sure that left some kind of memorable moments.

  “Really? I thought you forgot all about me once I left.”

  “No, I didn’t.”

  “What did you ask?”

  “About you. I wanted to know if you were a demon hunter and if not, what happened.”

  “Did he tell you anything?” he asks.

  “Nope,” I reply, making him smile.

  “That’s called having respect and being loyal. Respect is something that’s growing between us. So when we go out on this mission, can we try something different? Rather than working against each other, we’re going to work with each other. Okay?”

  “Okay,” I say with a smile. Take his hand, and he links our fingers, which seems like something he didn’t have to do, but I don’t comment on it as I kinda like it.

  We walk through the portal and out onto a wooden staircase. This one I’ve never been to before, and it’s in the middle of burning trees very close to the stairs. The wooden stairs must be magic of some kind to resist the flames that flicker against my skin. A few land on Caspian’ arm when we run up the steps, and he swears under his breath.

  “I hate this portal. Always get burned,” he says, just as a flame lands on my hand and nothing happens. He follows the movement and frowns in confusion. I wipe away the ash to reveal my clear skin. “Why didn’t that burn you?”

  “I don’t know,” I mutter. “When I first got here, the lava I fell into burnt me.”

  “You’re really peculiar, you know that?”

  “Are you just noticing?” I question, feeling a little breathless as we continue up the steps that never seem to end.

  Caspian looks around us and lowers his voice. “I have been wondering for a while about the alpha and why he thinks you’re his mate. Alphas don’t have fated mates, so to speak, as they can make any wolf their mate with their magic. So why you? What happened to make him think you are his?”

  “I only know he made some kind of trade-off with my mum when she was here when I was a baby. I don’t know why she was in Hell, anyway. Overall, I just don’t know enough, but I have a letter from her. I’ll show you when we get back… if you want,” I say.

  “I’d like that. Maybe I can read something under the lines that you haven’t seen,” he suggests. “If we can figure out why he is so hell-bent on your death, it might help us figure out a way to avoid it.”

  “He seemed so adamant I was his mate until he got close to me and he sort of scented my hair. The alpha made a snap decision at that moment that he didn’t want me. He called me weak.”

  Caspian scoffs. “You’re anything but weak, songbird. I’ve always known that. You won’t remember this, but when I was at the academy, I saw two beta wolves sons cornering you.”

  I frown, not remembering because it happened so often.

  “I was going to help you, but you kicked one of them in the balls,” he says with a grin, “and outran the other into the forest. I was impressed as they were twice the size of you.”

  “It wasn’t an unusual thing in that pack for me,” I reply. “But oddly, those two wolves looked like they got a beating and never went near me again. Was that you? I always assumed my brother had intervened.”

  “Maybe,” he replies.

  “Thank you,” I whisper. “I never knew you had my back.”

  “If it helps, those beta wolves cried like girls when I cornered them,” he tells me, and I laugh.

  We finally get to the portal. “Ready for a hunt, my little songbird?”

  “Always,” I reply, seeing Caspian in a new light.

  Maybe he has always been my protector, and I just didn’t know it.

  Caspian pulls me through the portal before I can even close my mouth, forcing me to take a deep breath of portal magic, which tastes like pure smoke. Tumbling out onto high stairs on the other side, the atmosphere is eerily silent. A dense, thick forest surrounds us, and a light drizzle of rain wets my cheeks. We walk down the steps into the forest where I can see an empty road nearby lit up by Catseyes.

  “Where are we exactly?” I ask.

  “Woburn Forest, England,” he tells me. “The market is nearby, I can sense the presence of many demons and wolves.”

  “How?” I ask, pushing out my senses and not finding anything.

  “I need to have about five or six demons or wolves gathered together for my senses to pick up on it,” he tells me. “It’s a half-breed trick.”

  “Do you know many half-breeds? I thought you guys were rare.”

  “We are, and that’s why most of us are friends,” he replies.

  “Interesting,” I tell him as we head into the forest and I let him lead the way.

  “Are you going stir crazy yet?” he questions. “Not being able to shift all the time?”

  “A little bit, but I can’t risk shifting. My wolf understands that after we nearly died. We are closer than ever before,” I explain to him.

  “I get that. I’m on the same level with my wolf.”

  “And your demon?”

  He darkly chuckles. “We are not exactly on the same level.”

  “I notice you just carefully avoided giving me a real answer,” I say.

  “Ask something else,” he suggests, his tone telling me to drop it. For now.

  “What exactly do they market here?” I ask.

  “Demon creatures from Hell. The kind of things that bounce around between Hell and Earth mostly unseen and unheard.”

  “Like the kelpies until they band together for a drunk fest?”

  “Yeah, kind of,” he replies. “But kelpies are not
worth a fortune like some of the ones we will see in there. Humans believe demon blood from certain creatures can cure them or make them live longer. It’s a load of bullshit, but demon marketers are happy to make them pay to find out it’s a lie.”

  “Awesome. Can I shoot them?” I ask, patting my gun strapped to my hip under my coat.

  “Sure, just no more jumping off buildings with daggers, please,” he sarcastically suggests.

  “Haha. I learnt my lesson last time. No more jumping off buildings for me.”

  “I have a sneaky feeling you’d jump off any building to get your hunt,” he says. “You’re crazy like that. Typical redhead.”

  “That’s insulting,” I mutter.

  “And true,” he replies before suddenly shooting his arm in front of me, stopping me from going anywhere.

  I stretch out my senses, and I don’t sense anything other than the usual forest scents. “There is no one here.”

  Caspian winks at me. “You just need a little demon help.” He places his hands together before very slowly heaving them apart, creating a red ball of energy in the middle of his hands. Demon Magic.

  I watch the mesmerising magic with interest and he swirls it around in his hands, turning it into a sphere shape and firing it right in front of us. It smashes into something almost like a veil.

  The veil shimmers when the demon magic makes a massive gap right in the middle and reveals an entire world that just looked like a forest before. My mouth drops open. Caspian grabs my hand in my shock and drags me through just as the veil shuts behind us. I stare around at the town that is incredible. It’s massive, full of tents of all different colours and people trading from stalls by small buildings. Stalls in lines spread in every direction, the multi-colours of the market are beautiful. Hundreds, if not thousands of people fill the spaces between the stalls. Everything from wolves to demons are here, mixing, buying things or just hiding. This might be a good place for me to hide if things go bad in Hell.

  “How the hell can you make demon magic like that? It’s meant to be impossible these days,” I whisper to Caspian.