Wild Girl: A Rejected Mate Romance

by C. R. Jane

  I awkwardly reached for my boot, hopping on one leg to do so, but my fingers thankfully gripped onto the hilt of Wilder’s blade.

  I was dragged faster, my feet barely keeping up while my stomach still hurt so bad.

  Anger and fear twisted my insides.

  I screamed for help, and I thrust the knife forward desperately, shoving it deep into his side. It went into his flesh so much easier than I expected.

  He bellowed, the back of his hands striking me across the face. His knuckles were like being struck by a bag of stones.

  I cried out, clasping the side of my face with trembling fingers as I stumbled backward. My vision blurred in and out, and terror surged forward at how much trouble I was in.

  “Fucking cunt!” The hunter yanked the blade from his side, snarling, his face tight.

  But I spun and tried to rush away. He looped an arm around my waist at the last second and wrenched me off my feet.

  A horrific desperation clung to me, and I punched and kicked my heels back into his legs, but nothing worked. He was a giant made of iron.

  "Get off me," I bellowed, but with it came a familiar feeling rushing down my arms. And I embraced it instantly, jutting my hands toward his side just as he tossed me at the water’s edge.

  A spark of white light shot out from my hands regardless, going haywire as I dropped to my ass after losing my footing. Power struck him in the arm, then zapped past him into thin air.

  He flinched, then raised his injured arm, the flesh burned like he had it in a fire. His face contorted, and he growled, the pain in his expression terrifying.

  Frantically, I scrambled up and sprinted down the river's edge, screaming for anyone to hear me.

  The heavy thump of my heart pounded in my ears.

  I tore across the land.

  But when a heavy hand snatched me by my hair and yanked me backward, I cried out, my world darkening, fear embracing me that I'd die here. And no one would be the wiser.

  Tripping over my own feet, I fell, my head smashing against the hard ground.

  The monster stood over me, staring down with ferocious anger. He set a foot on my chest, the weight overwhelming me; I could barely draw a breath into my lungs.

  "How did you do this?" He stared at his charred arm.

  Even from my position laying flat on the ground, I already saw the dark edges of his flesh fading away, replaced with perfectly smooth skin. Shit, he was healing that fast?

  How in the world were we meant to fight these hybrids?

  An unexpected growl pierced through the commotion, savagely ringing through the air.

  Next thing I knew, the hunter was ripped away from me, the weight of his foot lifted from my chest. I could breathe again, and I drew in deep gasps of air as I scrambled to my feet.

  The terrifying explosion of grunts and screeches came from the fight in front of me. I couldn't even see at first who attacked the Hunter, but I welcomed it. Please Moon Goddess, keep me safe.

  I almost cried out loud at the joy streaming across my chest that someone had come to my rescue.

  Fear and relief collided inside me, and my entire body shuddered as I watched the battle nervously. I wanted that monster taken out, to see him take his last breath.

  In an instant, the bastard was flying across the lawn and crashed in a heap. All I saw at first were twisted limbs, and so much blood pouring from the open gash at his throat that he had to be dead. But he couldn’t be dead... not when he groaned and started to get up.

  Shit! How can he move after that?

  That was when my sights swung to the man who saved me.

  North!

  The man who worked as a mechanic at Dentworks with Daxon. Everything I'd seen of this man had been scary-as-hell, including the last time Daxon got physical with him to keep him locked up before he lost control of his wolf from the full moon.

  He was a Fenrir, another breed of wolf, just like Wilder was a Lycan, and Daxon a Bitten. But Fenrir were more feral from what I could tell. His kind carried the blood of the berserkers and were aggressive beasts, but they didn't fully transform, just their eyes. They were dominated by their wolf more than their human side, which explained why I rarely saw him in town mingling with others.

  But who gave a shit when he was my savior. He towered over me with his 6'6 size and was a formidable opponent against the hunter. Wild, brown hair frayed around his face, streaked with grey. He was wearing grease streaked grey overalls over a white tee in desperate need of a wash.

  He looked my way quickly. “Get to safety, I’ll take care of this mongrel.”

  He heaved for breath, his chest pumping in and out. Everything about it was huge. His height. His muscles. His aggression.

  Blood was smeared across his cheek and brow, more dripping from the side of his mouth.

  I trembled at the hulking warrior.

  Tilting his head back, he unleashed an ungodly sound that sent shivers down my spine.

  Then he lunged toward the hunter, leaping forward on all fours like in one of those horror movies.

  The hunter cried out a brutal scream, dragging himself backward while clutching his bleeding neck with a hand. In the other, he gripped a blade.

  I was locked in place, unable to move if I tried.

  But he didn't stand a chance, I saw that now.

  North collided into the man, shoving him flat to the ground, and ripped into him savagely. Screams and the slashing sound of flesh tearing rang through the air, the blood splattering the grass around them.

  Every punch and slash of the blade the hunter delivered was useless. North felt nothing.

  He tore the hunter apart with his bare hands. It was the only way to describe what I was watching. He bit into the hunter’s neck and seconds later came back up with the man’s jugular dangling from his mouth.

  Sickness stuck to the back of my throat at the sight of blood, flesh, and bits of sinew.

  I was going to be sick.

  People were streaming out from the Inn, others showing up from the street, their shocked whispers growing louder. I was surprised it took them this long to finally come after all the screams and commotion.

  Everyone stayed back, in shock mostly by their wide eyes and gaping mouths, but how could I blame them? North was a fucking beast and tearing a person limb from limb. Hopefully they figured out soon that North was doing everyone a huge favor.

  North suddenly paused and twisted his head back around to the gathering crowd. Blood painted his face. His upper lips peeled back over fangs dripping with blood, and a threatening growl erupted from his throat for everyone to stay away.

  Without hesitation, he whipped back to his victim, snatched the dead, limp man into his arms and sprinted out of there in a disturbing, hunched run.

  My heart rattled in my chest in utter shock as I watched him vanish behind the homes in the distance. Screams followed him everywhere he went, and I could only guess he was looking for a place to devour the hunter.

  I gagged, and that time I couldn't hold it back any further. I bent at the waist and hurled the contents of my stomach onto the lawn. It hurt right in the solar plexus with how quick everything came rushing out.

  Terror gripped me from knowing that a hunter had been watching me long enough to know what I looked like even with my scent cloaked.

  That shook me down to my bones.

  "Rune, dear, are you alright?" Jim asked, his voice shaken.

  I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand and straightened, turning to face him. But he was blurry behind my tears.

  A true fear ripped through me that I would never be safe ever again. I couldn't find the words to respond, but tears rolled down my cheeks. Unable to stand all the eyes on me, I ran right into the Inn and up to my room, locking the door behind me.

  My heart seized, and I slid my ass to the floor, the door at my back, I couldn't stop quivering at how much trouble I was in. Heaviness pressed in on me, and everything was just too overwhelming.

 
I couldn’t keep doing this.

  Couldn’t keep running.

  Couldn’t keep being terrified.

  Something had to change.

  14

  Rune

  “I have one of my men outside, keeping watch,” Wilder reassured me, his huge, sexy-as-hell frame filling the doorway to his cabin.

  My chest tightened as I knew he was about to leave me alone at his place, and I hated it.

  After the hunter attacked me in broad daylight in town, every sound now had me jumping. Talk about paranoia, but there was only so much one could take. And apparently a hybrid trying to murder me again had been my breaking point.

  Wilder gave me a wan grin, clear he knew exactly how unsettled I felt. Without another word he collected me into his embrace, and I laid my cheek against his rock-hard chest, looping my arms around his middle, a sense of calmness radiating from him. I listened to the thumping of his heartbeat, and he gently rubbed my back.

  “I miss you already,” I murmured.

  When I glanced up, a painfully desperate ache flashed across his face, and I watched the battle behind his eyes as if he was dying to say, fuck it, I’m staying.

  “Rune, this kills me, but I promise I’ll try not to be long. I just can’t sit around while there are fucking hunters around. We never found the serial killer in the woods, so he’s still out there too. Daxon and I are striking hard tonight and hunting down every last son of a bitch.” He stroked my cheek and raked his fingers through my hair.

  I trembled, thinking of the figure I had spotted in the woods, staring at me, stepping toward me. How close had I been to him that he could have attacked if Daxon and Wilder hadn’t shown up. And he was still out there on the loose.

  Wilder tilted my head back. His mouth was on mine, and I softened against him, inhaling his musky, wolf scent, loving the way he tasted. My hands pressed flush to his chest, and I fisted his shirt. My life had completely flipped from feeling alone to having two possessive men, and I loved it all so much.

  For the first time since I ran from Alistair, I found myself with these two guys whom I craved deliriously. I always fought to survive for a chance at normal life. Now I had two more reasons to make sure I stayed alive.

  Wilder broke away from my lips and the cold settled over them quickly. He held me close as he glanced over his shoulder into the night outside, then nodded to one of his men who stood in the yard.

  “Keep the doors locked. I left you a treat in the fridge,” he said with a wink.

  A quick kiss, and I leaned toward him even as he retreated from me, his hand sliding out of my grasp.

  “Be in my bed when I return,” he reminded me with that wicked, gravelly voice that drove me crazy with need.

  His grin was the last thing I saw before he shut the door. I hit the dead-bolt and shut myself inside.

  Then I turned to his empty home.

  “Well, it’s just you and me then,” I said to no one in particular, but it made me feel less alone.

  His place was huge… two story, modern and simplistic, and it had a grand staircase just off the entry. It had the bare essentials like any bachelor pad. When I first came here, he didn’t even own a television, but he’d borrowed one from a friend just for me.

  Yep, he was a keeper.

  Of course the first thing I did was track down the fridge in a kitchen that had barely any appliances. Just the counter with a long table and benches running down the middle of the room.

  I opened the fridge. Aside from half a dozen bottles of water and a huge raw steak, in the middle of the top shelf sat a plate with an oversized slice of cheesecake. My mouth salivated, and I grabbed it, the whipped cream from the shelf on the door, and one of his bottles of water.

  I flopped down on the black leather couch in the living room and started searching for a movie to watch. Something funny and completely distracting. I settled on The Hitman's Bodyguard as I'd heard some amazing things. With cake in hand topped with a mountain of cream, I settled on the couch, folded my legs and forgot everything else.

  I hadn’t laughed so loud in ages. I don’t even know how long I’d been watching but my cake was done, and part of me was toying with the idea of doing some snooping to see what secrets Wilder held.

  Setting the empty plate on the table near the couch, a picture in a simple, black frame caught my attention. It shone under the lights like it had been recently polished. I reached over and picked it up.

  It showed a much younger Wilder, a child maybe five or six. He wore a goofy smile and was adorable, while he stood next to an older woman who had the same eyes and mouth as him. It had to be his mother. It was strange how they stood next to each other but they weren’t hugging, rather standing there like strangers for a photo. Something in my chest tightened at the sight.

  I set the frame back down and took the dirty plate back to the kitchen, switching on every light in the cabin. It gave me a sense of security to eliminate all the shadows.

  Rinsing the plate in the sink, I glanced outside the window when out of the blue, movement caught my attention in the yard. I froze and leaned forward, trying to make sense of what I saw... but there was nothing there.

  "Stop being so paranoid," I murmured to myself. There's a guard in the yard, and that was what I'd seen.

  I finished washing the plate when another blur had me snapping my head up to the yard. Why were the guards running around anyway? That single thought had my heart racing, and I recoiled from the kitchen, needing to find out.

  A sickly sweet smell of gasoline filled my nostrils. It was faint, but definitely hadn’t been there earlier.

  “Where’s that coming from?” Maybe someone was using gas heating in the neighborhood?

  Just to be on the safe side, I double checked the locks. But when the smell of gasoline intensified, I was convinced it was coming from somewhere in the house. A surge of panic struck. And I hastily unlocked the door, then tugged at the handle.

  But it refused to open.

  “What the fuck?”

  Would Wilder have locked me inside? I didn't remember hearing him do so. I checked the locks again, clicking them on and off, and the sound was there as if it was doing its job. But the harder I yanked at the handle, the more I realized it was stuck.

  When the gas smell deepened, I did a quick check of the kitchen just in case something had been switched on. I was about to take off to the back door again when suddenly, movement caught my attention again from the kitchen window.

  And for a split second, I locked eyes with Arcadia who hovered in the yard.

  My stomach dropped.

  Then she was gone.

  "You've got to be fucking kidding me." I sprinted to the back door and unlocked it, but it wasn't opening either. It felt like the door had been glued to the doorframe.

  I might have just half cried, half screamed.

  The gasoline smell grew, and after seeing Arcadia who’d promised to get me back...well, I wasn't an idiot. I lunged for the phone sitting on the wall, but the reception was dead. Not a sound.

  Fucking bitch.

  I darted to the windows in the living room, shoving aside the curtains. No sign of the guard. The windows were jammed shut too.

  Of course they were.

  "Shit. Shit. Shit."

  Doing a small turn on the spot, I decided there was no way in Hell I'd be letting Arcadia kill me.

  I sprinted upstairs, going from room to room, checking the windows for any sign of the guard to get his attention so he could at least break down the door or something. But only when I got to the spare room and looked outside did I find him.

  He was sprawled on the yard, arms outward, legs twisted, and he looked knocked out cold. Fuck!

  If Arcadia could lock up this house, then hell, she could easily knock him out.

  Bile hit the back of my throat, and I shivered, feeling the terror of being trapped in the house swallowing me.

  A tremendous explosion came from downstairs, and I jumped
in my skin.

  "What the hell now?"

  Halfway down the stairs, my worst nightmare came to life.

  Dark smoke curled in from under the front door, the smell acrid, stinging my nostrils.

  She was going to burn me alive.

  I scrambled down the stairs and raced into the kitchen where I grabbed a chair and rushed with it to a window. I ripped back the curtains only to be greeted by a wall of flames.

  "Oh, crap. Please no!"

  Dread pulsed in my ears, my heart pounding. I had to get out. Dumping the chair, I raced to every window again. There had to be a way to get out of here.

  Except, fire blazed in every direction. The cabin was engulfed by a circle of flames.

  I was trembling. That psycho was serious about taking me out.

  Where the hybrids failed, an insane ghost might just succeed.

  “You’re not going to kill me,” I yelled. “Do you hear me, Arcadia?”

  I sucked in heavy, smoky breaths that left me choking. I stumbled to the front door, smashing my fists against it. When that did nothing but increase my frustration, I slapped a hand across my mouth and nose as the acrid stench grew worse.

  Frantically, I ran from window to window for any opportunity to escape. There was no basement in this house that I could find. Finally, I decided to drag the chair upstairs and try smashing open a window there. The height might give me enough space to jump over the fire.

  There was no way I'd die today. Not when I had so much to look forward to.

  In Wilder’s bedroom, I raised the chair and flung it at the window. It smashed through, glass shattering and spewing outward. I cried with relief, but the flood of fresh air was snatched away almost instantly.

  In its place, a wall of flames burst upward, blocking the entire window like someone knew I was attempting to escape.

  I reeled from the intense heat, the licking of fire that already caught on the curtains spreading through the room.