Total pages in book: 24
Estimated words: 21858 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 109(@200wpm)___ 87(@250wpm)___ 73(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 21858 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 109(@200wpm)___ 87(@250wpm)___ 73(@300wpm)
Her eyes widened at my confession, and she let out a low whistle. “Why is there always something super wrong with all the hot ones? Such a shame.”
It was probably a good thing that she didn’t believe me since she didn’t seem like the kind of person who could be trusted with the secret of my kind. If she was, I’d shift into my animal form so I could prove that I was telling the truth. But it was useless since she wasn’t going to budge. She didn’t care about me or fate. Only money.
“So you’re rejecting me?” I asked, needing her to say the words that would sever our connection.
“If you want to call it that, then yes…I am rejecting you.”
I felt as though someone had reached inside my chest and torn my heart out. I didn’t know what to do. Where to go. How to live with the knowledge that I’d never have a mate.
I knew my family would support me in every way possible, but they couldn’t do anything to help me. There was no fixing the situation I’d found myself in. The only thing I could think to do was leave. Become a loner.
1
CRESSIDA
Life could be lonely when there weren’t many of your kind in the world. Especially if you had to hide in plain sight because the animal you shared your body with was a mythical creature with magical powers that would be coveted by a decent portion of the supernatural population if they knew you were real. Not to mention any human who so much as suspected my species wasn’t just a fairy tale.
No matter how often my parents told me that I was special, I would’ve given just about anything when I was younger to be a normal shifter breed. Or even a human.
My childhood was different from other shifters. I didn’t just have to keep my existence from humans…I couldn’t let any supernatural creatures know my closely held secret either.
The only exception was my fated mate, but I had to find the man I would spend the rest of my long life with first. Which was more complicated than it was for other shifters, another unique aspect of my kind.
My parents and I parted ways shortly after my eighteenth birthday almost two years ago. Although my dad was a leopard shifter, my mom’s animal was the same as mine. When trouble came calling, we thought it best to split up to confuse the people who were after us.
Two trails to follow meant they had to split up, which increased our odds of evading them. It turned out to be the right decision because they had not managed to catch my mom or me in all that time. Although there had been no indication they were on our tail any longer, we had decided to remain apart for the time being. Better safe than sorry, as my parents had drilled into my head growing up.
I had spent my time moving from place to place since we parted ways, never staying anywhere longer than a month or two. Until I arrived in Lake Park almost five months ago.
I kept to myself, living on the outskirts of town, away from the wolf pack that claimed this territory. I kept to myself and never had visitors, so the knock on my door when the sun was barely up wasn’t a welcome surprise. Peering through the peephole to see the alpha of the local wolf pack only made it worse.
I’d only spoken to him three times, including when I arrived in town and approached him to request permission to remain on pack land. Having him show up like this couldn’t be good.
“Alpha,” I whispered after opening the door.
“Sorry to show up on your doorstep unannounced bright and early,” he greeted with a grimace. “But I didn’t think this news could wait.“
“What happened?” I asked as I gestured for him to come inside my rental home.
His inner wolf must have been close to the surface because he flashed in his eyes as he walked past me. “When you arrived in my territory, you warned me that you had a spot of trouble a couple of years ago and couldn’t guarantee that it wouldn’t find you while you were here.”
I swallowed the sudden lump in my throat as I nodded. “Yes?”
“I wasn’t sure about having you stay here if danger was at your heels.” Scrubbing his hands down his face, he added, “But my wolf insisted it was the right call, and I learned the hard way not to ignore my beast’s instincts.”
I had always wondered why he had agreed with my request, but I hadn’t wanted to ask because the last thing I wanted was for him to second-guess his decision. Knowing that his inner wolf had insisted on it, I couldn’t help but wonder how dominant his animal was. My mom had told me tales growing up of alphas who would fight to the death to protect our kind, even when they weren’t part of their pack.