Wild Girl: A Rejected Mate Romance

by C. R. Jane

  Scratch us. It was like they wanted Rune alive.

  This wasn’t happening.

  “Baby. You’re going to take the wheel now, okay?”

  “Okay,” she said breathlessly, practically shoving the gun at me like it had burned her. She grabbed the wheel, leaning awkwardly over the middle console as she tried to keep the car on the road while I continued to push on the gas pedal. Like we’d learned already, there wasn’t really a way for her to fit in front of me to drive.

  They shot at us again, this time firing at the bumper. It was only a matter of time before they tired of whatever game they were trying to play and shot out a tire. I turned and fired over and over again as they tried to swerve out of the way.

  “Yes,” I hissed when I saw the driver of the truck rock back and then the truck veered off the road as one of the other occupants of the vehicle leapt over him and tried to grab the wheel.

  I shook my fist in the air as their truck ran straight into a tree, the sound of metal crunching viciously like music to my ear.

  I turned back around and took the wheel back as we sped away.

  “Rune, you did good, baby,” I told her, as I squeezed her against me.

  She was shivering, a mix of fear and adrenaline I was sure. And fuck...now that I was paying attention I realized that the scent of her arousal was starting to become suffocating again, which meant that my nose had healed.

  Son of a bitch.

  “Take the wheel again,” I asked her, and she looked up at me questioningly before grabbing it again.

  I picked up the gun and smashed it against my nose again, blood splattering everywhere as I let out a loud expletive.

  Rune yelped in surprise as I took huge gulps of scent free air.

  “Okay, I’ve got it,” I said after a minute, while simultaneously grabbing my phone and dialing Daxon’s number through watery eyes.

  “A little busy here,” he growled when he picked up, and Rune winced next to me when a man cried out in the background. I could only imagine what Daxon was doing to the guy.

  “I found Rune,” I told him.

  There was a loud crash. “Where are you? I’m coming right now!”

  “Just meet us at your cabin.”

  “You already have her? How long? You’re a piece of shit, Wilder.”

  I couldn’t help but grin even though my face felt like I’d been hit by a truck.

  “Just meet us there,” I told him.

  “Bring her to my place.” And he cursed again. I heard a shot fired and assumed he’d finished off whoever he’d just been torturing.

  “And Daxon. Be prepared.”

  “I’ll kill every last one of those motherfuckers,” he growled, assuming I was about to tell him something terrible had been done to Rune.

  “She’s in some sort of mega heat. I’ve had to literally break my fucking nose twice just to be able to drive.”

  There was a long silence. “Oh,” he murmured, obviously shocked.

  Rune chose to moan at that point, her heat building again. The sound of a vehicle firing up came through the phone and I knew Daxon was on his way already.

  “And there’s something else,” I told him, dread snaking down my spine as I thought about what we’d just escaped.

  “The hybrid hunters scented Rune. They’re after us.”

  “Fuck,” Daxon seethed.

  Fuck indeed.

  I hung up and sped off into the fading light as Rune let out another sound that was like sex incarnate.

  It was going to be a long drive.

  6

  Rune

  I was shaking in the seat, hugging my legs tightly. I couldn’t stop myself from glancing back, convinced more hunters would appear at any moment and gun us down.

  Combine that with the raging lust throbbing through my body, and I was a mess.

  Wolf hunters actually existed.

  Because life wasn’t brutal enough, there were also hybrids out there, hunting down wolf shifters. Just when I thought life couldn’t get harder...

  I’d managed to bandage up the knife wound in my thigh with an old shirt Wilder had in the back seat, but it still stung badly. Thankfully, Wilder hadn’t stabbed too deeply into my leg, but it had bled profusely. The seat I was in was covered. The wound diffused part of the arousal that had overtaken me… the shock and pain clearing the insane fog in my head almost instantly. But it wasn’t permanent. I was already starting to heal. I could feel the desire deep in my body, curling, waiting for the chance to push forward. The intense heat in the pit of my belly refused to go away, and every time Wilder touched me, I was convinced I’d die if he didn’t fuck me.

  It was terrifying to feel so out of control, yet I couldn’t stop myself.

  Wilder looked over at me from the driver’s seat with a serious expression. For a second, I had hoped what we just experienced was some kind of mad joke, maybe a hallucination. But of course, that was me just being foolish.

  I needed a distraction from how my body was reacting just from looking at the gorgeous guy next to me in the driver’s seat. He looked beautiful even with the blood splattered all over his face from where he’d smashed his nose.

  An insane burst of lust flowed through me and I took a deep breath, trying to center myself.

  “How do hybrids even exist?” I swallowed hard, picturing in my mind what a half-wolf, half-vampire monster would actually look like, and trying to remain calm while doing so. What I wanted to do was scream and cry and let everything out because I was so fucking tired of bad things happening to me. It was killing me inside to have lost my mother...right after finding out she wasn’t my real mom, and to have just escaped Alistair’s grip. I wasn’t sure I could deal with anything else.

  The world passed us outside the car, and Wilder was silent as he pushed loose strands of hair behind my ear that had fallen in my face.

  “I have no idea about their origin. I've tried to find out and failed every time.”

  “But now that they’ve picked up my scent, they’re coming for me. Of course. Have you encountered them before? I’m guessing you have.” I heard myself rambling, but I couldn’t stop as anxiety knotted up in my shoulders.

  “Rune, babe, calm down. Yeah, I’ve run across them before. But for now, I want you to take a deep breath.”

  Pieces of my life had been scattered...broken, and I had no idea how to begin bringing them together again.

  I shook my head, not wanting this to be another hurdle for me to overcome. Fear was clawing at my chest, but that wasn’t anything new. Fear had been my constant companion for years. I was so sick of it. Even with all the changes lately, I’d always been running for my life. Part of me had forgotten what calm felt like, forgotten the sensation of not always looking over my shoulder, and forgotten how to enjoy life without expecting the worst.

  Wilder kept driving, sneaking looks at me ever so often, letting me know he was there for me. If it wasn't for him right now, I'd be a complete mess. So, to stop holding onto all the anxiety, I ended up telling him everything from the moment Alistair kidnapped me from town, to my mother, and even what went down in the bar. He didn't respond at first, which of course, worried me.

  "I'm really broken, aren't I?"

  "No. Don’t say shit like that," he reassured me, his hold on my knee squeezing. "There's so much about you we don't understand, but we're going to find out." He paused, glancing at me quickly, and smiled, the look on his face softening. Then he asked, "Was there anything strange you felt before you struck that man with your power?"

  "Honestly, the fear that he'd touch me. I'd just run from Alistair, and to have another man coming at me...it terrified me. Something just snapped inside, and next thing I knew, I’d somehow zapped him. I don't even know where it came from.” A thought came to me then. “But I did notice that the power was the same color as the footprints I leave behind when I'm in my wolf form,” I mused.

  "Hmm. It makes sense actually as you’re drawing on the same sou
rce of power from within you. We'll figure out what this means, I give you my word." His voice was firm, and I desperately wanted to believe him.

  My mind was spiralling out of control, and I didn't want to talk about myself anymore, so I asked him, "Tell me more about these hybrid hunters. When did you encounter one?"

  He didn’t answer right away, but stared straight ahead at the road. "More times than I want to recall. Those bastards are relentless and see wolf shifters like us as the evil upon this world that needs eliminating."

  "But they’re half shifters, that thought process doesn’t even make sense.”

  Wilder just shrugged, obviously in agreement with me.

  “It seems dumb to even say it, but I didn’t even believe in vampires until now." That part still swirled in my mind. I told myself if wolf shifters existed then of course other supernaturals would, but for some reason it still felt shocking.

  Wilder overtook someone in the lane ahead of us, then began talking. "There was one time I couldn’t forget if I wanted to. I’d been traveling out of town with two other pack members, going to rescue a female wolf shifter on the run from another pack wanting her as their broodmare."

  I swallowed the thickness in my throat, honestly detesting the ugliness in this world; how females were treated as nothing was revolting. I could almost hear the screams of the women Alistair used to bring to his mansion, the haunting sound of their pain, his cruelty seeing no end.

  "The girl rang for help through another pack, who contacted me about her situation. But I was younger and dumber then, going out there without backup aside from the two men with me...without taking a closer look at the situation."

  "And, what happened?" I asked, hanging on every word he said.

  A painful growl rolled over his throat before he responded. "We arrived, and the girl was strung from a tree by her ankles, her throat slashed. They bled her to death. She was never meant to be saved. They used the poor girl as bait to draw out more wolves. The contact at the other pack had done a deal with the hunters… To save his pack, he needed to lure out other werewolves. And the suckers of course were me and my two men. We were ambushed. My men ended up brutally killed, and I barely escaped, bloodied with broken bones." He pulled back his ear where a healed scar ran from within his hairline to the base of his ear.

  I thought I knew every inch of him by now, evidently I’d missed a few spots.

  "The only reason I didn't die that day was due to the kindness of a human driving past as I was stumbling along the freeway. He took me away from the hunters."

  I gasped, imagining it all.

  "I learned my lesson, and the next time I crossed paths with them, I repaid the favor, taking a couple of them out." The tone of his voice grew darker, and I could tell the topic touched a nerve. His knuckles were white with how hard he was gripping the steering wheel too.

  "That's terrifying." I didn't recall Alistair ever mentioning these hunters, but of course I wasn't privy to all his conversations either.

  We fell quiet after that and the silence was deafening. Was that my fate too, just like that poor wolf girl? Here I thought there couldn't be anyone crueler than Alistair. I needed a vacation before I went crazy, even if it was just for a short time.

  "How safe are we in Amarok from them?"

  "We've never been breached by hunters, so we’re all safe for now. But I’ll increase the guards the moment we arrive back." He’d fallen serious, and it was like I could almost hear the thoughts ticking in his mind as he went over everything he needed to get done.

  The more I sensed his stress, the more my heart sped up, harsh breaths beating in and out of my lungs. While my panic actually helped with the lust, pushing it out of the forefront of my mind didn’t aid me in feeling calm when I saw the burden Wilder carried.

  I reached over and placed a hand on his strong forearm, needing him to know that I was there for him as much as he was for me. “We’ll sort out all this crap together.”

  “You’re so damn beautiful, inside and out.” When he glanced my way, a smile curled his lips, and he leaned over to kiss the back of my hand. “Maybe try to sleep, gorgeous. We’ve got a bit of a drive.”

  I nodded and pressed my back into my seat, then turned to the window where storm clouds gathered overhead, stealing the moonlight. My heartrate refused to calm down. All I could think about was returning to town and feeling a sense of normalcy, a sense of being home. It's strange how the place I had stumbled across was more my home than the house where I’d grown up...even with the terrible reception I’d been given from most of the townspeople.

  I must have fallen asleep because when I opened my eyes, we were driving into Amarok. Night cloaked the land, and excitement built in my stomach thinking about seeing the town again. There had been a few moments , when I was with Alistair, where I’d believed I’d never set eyes on the place. I was actually smiling just thinking about seeing everything again.

  We followed the curve of the road toward Daxon’s house, and I tensed, waiting for Wilder to say something about dropping me off with Daxon. He never said a word though, just watched me with serious eyes.

  A low keen sprang from my throat as desire threatened to overtake me. Looking down at my leg, I could see that it was almost healed. I’d probably lose my mind soon.

  “I would give you the world if you asked for it,” Wilder said suddenly as Daxon’s house came into view. There was a strain to his words, an almost painful heartache. His point was made, and as much as I wanted to lean over and kiss him, I wouldn't risk losing control. He must have understood as he never tried to kiss me farewell either before we reached Daxon’s place.

  “You and Daxon...you’re becoming everything to me.” I didn’t push it any further as I was aware that this was a touchy topic for both of them. I’d seen the fights between them, and still recalled the way they both stared at me during Miyu’s wedding, imploring me to choose one of them.

  That was like asking me to tear my heart in half, then choose which part to keep.

  The weight of such a decision would crush my soul.

  Wilder parked outside Daxon’s wooden cabin, the motor of the car still running. The lights were on inside, and I could see a figure moving behind the curtains. Daxon was home. My desire increased at the thought of seeing him in just a minute.

  “If you want me to come and get you anytime, use his phone and call me. I’ll come immediately.” Wilder sounded anxious, like he was hoping I would tell him I wanted to leave right now.

  “I know.” Unbuckling my seat belt, I leaned and pressed my forehead against his, trying to restrain myself from jumping him.

  “I thought I was never going to see you again,” he whispered hoarsely.

  “Me too,” I replied.

  There was something almost shattering about the fact that he wasn’t coming in with me. But I knew what would happen as soon as I stepped foot into Daxon’s cabin, and I knew none of us were even close to being okay with that becoming a group activity.

  “Okay, you better go.” He smirked, trying to lighten the mood, and Moon Goddess, he was captivating.

  A bright light beamed outside the house from the outdoor lights being switched on. I looked out and found Daxon standing in the doorway, holding the door wide open. Even in the dim lighting I could see the shadows beneath his eyes, and in his gaze itself, I saw his heart-wrenching ache at seeing me. He needed me as much as I did him.

  I climbed out of the car and blew a kiss to Wilder, then I partly limped to Daxon who ushered me inside, before shutting the door behind us.

  He sniffed the air instantly and groaned, his jaw clenching at the sight of me.

  “Daxon, you need to know something.” The words slipped from my lips, and a rambling rush of explanations followed about my scent, about losing control, about the blade wound in my leg and why Wilder stabbed me.

  A snarl ripped from Daxon's throat, a raw, primal sound that rumbled through his powerful chest. I had no idea if he even und
erstood what I had just told him.

  But hearing his animalistic side did something to me. It flicked on a switch that made me forget everything but him. He came at me, and I couldn't move, wouldn't move. I wanted everything those eyes promised.

  "No taking it slowly. I hurt thinking I’d lost you. And now, I want you hard and my way," he growled. One hand moves to the back of my head, fisting my hair, tilting it back, the other on a breast, squeezing, burning me alive with need.

  His mouth was on my neck, licking me in long strokes, and my lustful flood gates I’d fought to keep shut burst wide open.

  "Fuck, I missed your smell. Your taste. Those adorable sounds you make when you're so turned on, you lose all control. I want it all."

  My pulse hammered in my ears, my entire body tingling with the growing arousal from his words, from the way he started to claim me like we were animals in pure heat...which I guess we were.

  I murmured words that made little sense in my head between gasping breaths. He released me just as quick, and his hard grip on my arm tugged me to spin on my heels and face away from him.

  "I was so fucking worried. I was going insane."

  I gasped at being under the control of this powerful, gorgeous man. And I fought the hunger that consumed me, made me lose my mind, but it slipped through my fingers like sand.

  I'd always thought that the kind of man I wanted would be tender and soft, but I couldn't be more wrong. When I was near Daxon and Wilder, I lost all control and craved to be dominated by them. To have them spank me, fuck me, make me ache for so much more. What we had between us was animalistic and dirty. And I loved it.

  He shoved me forward, pinning me against the wall, and tore at my dress, ripping it off my body. It fell away in shredded pieces. I stood naked, trembling with unbearable need.

  Everything about the way he treated me, the way he tore the clothes off my body was rough, manly, and I shivered all over, drowning in desire.

  "Daxon," I begged.

  The sound of his zipper and the smack of clothes on the floor followed. Burning heat pressed against me as he came up behind me. What felt like a charge of electricity raced up directly between my legs, his simple touch causing such a deep ache, that I quietly moaned at how much I needed him... needed this.