Page 37 of Rejected By My Shifter Billionaire

T he lights in the warehouse suddenly blazed into life one by one, and his mind took in the faces that came with the scents.

The Lyccan, Rocco, he considered an unpredictable target, his innate weakness making him dangerous because people like him would do anything to survive, even sell their own mothers.

Kimberley Dresden, he dismissed. Women like her were never as cunning or powerful as they liked to think they were, and it was their arrogance that often proved their downfall.

The human male...Alessandro assessed him as his likely opponent. The way he looked at Alessandro made him realize the human considered the two of them equal. It only meant one thing. He had found a way to neutralize a Lyccan’s strength over humans, but how ?

“No need to play cool, Your Highness,” the human taunted. “We know you’ve come for her. We’ll give you a moment to see for yourself how your girlfriend is.”

Slowly, Alessandro’s gaze turned to Kassia.

She was bound in a chair, her lip swelling and bruised.

Fifty-seven, fifty-eight, fifty-nine...

Alessandro breathed deeply. “Who did that to you, Kassia?”

But Kassia didn’t answer.

Her mother stepped forward. “Will you beat me if I said it was me?” Kimberley knew she was playing with fire by drawing the werewolf prince’s attention to her, but she simply couldn’t help it.

She wanted Alessandro Moretti to look at her and find out that a mousy little girl like Kassia could never compare to a full-fledged woman like her.

But then Alessandro Moretti’s gaze did slide towards her, and Kimberley almost stumbled a step back at the murderous intent that glinted in his emerald green eyes.

No one had ever looked at her with such revulsion, and that it was someone as beautiful and virile as the prince made Kimberley feel old and ugly.

Her blood boiled, and before she could stop herself, she slapped Kassia, knowing that by hurting her daughter, she was hurting the cocky wolf in front of her.

Alessandro growled. One moment he was a dozen feet away, the next moment he was right beside Kassia, shoving Kimberley away with enough force to have her flying and her back hitting the wall with a scream.

Kassia screamed, too, but it wasn’t fear for herself. As Alessandro had reached for her, a seemingly invisible force shoved the professor away at the same time the man called Mel shot him in the chest.

“The next silver bullet will be to your heart, prince,” Mel gritted out.

Things were happening too fast and spinning out of control, and he didn’t like it.

Every assassination he carried out had always been meticulously organized and normally, Kimberley was a big help to him in those instances.

He should have known this time would be different, with the stupid slut too caught up with her infantile jealousies over her own daughter to be her usual sensible self.

“I’ll make it simple for you, Moretti. You tell us what we need to know about the Lyccan Council, and we’ll set you and the girl free.”

Alessandro only stared at him, his cold green eyes giving nothing away.

Mel shot the prince’s other leg and was rewarded by a brief spasm of pain crossing the younger man’s face. But that was it.

A Faerie, Alessandro was thinking grimly. No wonder this man considered himself equal to a Lyccan. He had a fucking Faerie working for him, the only race in this world capable of turning invisible... for a time.

If he had a Faerie on his side, and of course a rogue Lyccan, too, did he have other races working for him? If he did, Alessandro’s plan would fail.

The sound of something heavy hitting the ground caught Alessandro’s attention, and when he looked up, it was to see Kassia trying to get to him, tears running down her cheeks.

“I’m sorry, Professor,” she sobbed. “I didn’t know how much was at stake when you told me.

..but then Domenico told me and I’m s-sorry. ”

Mel rolled his eyes. “Are we really having a fucking lover’s reconciliation right now?” Annoyed, he shot the prince again, this time on his knee to ensure that Alessandro would have a more difficult time moving.

Kassia screamed. “Stop it!” If she could have swapped places with the professor, she would have at that moment.

She didn’t think she could bear seeing him in so much pain.

She tried to wriggle closer towards him, but it was a slow journey, with Kassia still bound to the chair.

Her helplessness chafed at her, and more tears ran down her cheeks.

“Oh, Professor, why did you come here alone?” Kassia didn’t know which was worse, having the professor die because she had been too hard or having the professor die in his attempt to rescue her.

Eighty-seven, eighty-eight, eighty-nine...

Alessandro looked at Kassia. “I didn’t.”

At the exact minute and a half mark, Caros crashed into the warehouse from every direction, bursting through overhead windows, blasting through holes they had made on the roof, and surging inside the entrance.

Although the blood-drinking race and Alessandro’s kind used to be ancient rivals, Domenico’s efforts in disposing of their common enemy had allowed the two races to forge an alliance.

Today, that alliance had stood true.

He heard Kimberley Dresden screaming while the rogue Lyccan cried out his surrender.

In the periphery of his vision, Alessandro saw Mel disappearing and knew that the Faerie the human commanded had taken him away.

I’ll see you again, bastard, Alessandro promised to himself.

But for now, something else was more important to him.

Ignoring the agonizing pain caused by silver mixing in with his bloodstream, Alessandro made his way to Kassia as swiftly as he could.

She started crying harder as soon as he reached her.

The moment he set her free from her restraints, she threw herself at him, causing him to topple backwards and for Kassia to fall on top of him.

“I thought you were going to die,” she told him tremulously.

“I don’t die that easily, little chick.” He wanted to sound teasing, but his voice came out hoarse with pain.

Kassia noticed the graying pallor of his skin. “Alessandro, what’s wrong?”

“I just need...” His eyes closed with pain. “Call...Domenico.”

She did more than that. She screamed his brother’s name, loud enough to have most of the Caro warriors turning towards her, startled, loud enough to wake the almost dead, which was the professor himself.

As she placed the professor’s head on her lap, Domenico appeared next to her, causing her to jerk in surprise as the older man knelt beside his brother.

“How many bullets?” he asked Kassia grimly.

She hastened to answer him and pointed out where the bullets had landed.

“Thank you.” And then just like that, he dug into the holes in Alessandro’s body.

Kassia screamed. “What do you think you’re doing?” She would have screamed again if not for seeing the professor wince.

“He can’t heal if I don’t get the bullets out,” Domenico answered without looking at her. His face was a mask of concentration as one by one he tore out the blood-soaked bullets from his brother’s body.

Kassia expected Alessandro to heave his last dying breath after it, but to her shock, she saw his color gradually improving. When Domenico ripped Alessandro’s shirt open to check his wounds, Kassia felt close to fainting at the sight of his ruptured skin closing in...and healing itself.

She crossed herself, unable to help it. “Oh God. Thank You God.” She mumbled her prayers in a mixture of fear and gratitude. But then the professor’s eyes drifted open slowly, and suddenly her heart felt fit to exploding. “Y-you’re alive,” she whispered.

The professor’s lips curved. “Not for long,” he said gravely, “if the Lyccan Council has anything to say about it.”

She paled, having forgotten completely about the other threat to the professor’s life. Biting her lip, she asked, “But is it safe for you?”

“I suppose so?” Alessandro was bemused. Did Kassia consider herself a danger to him because of what had happened?

Kassia’s gaze returned to his wounds – or where his wounds used to be – and saw he was completely healed. Even so, she pointed out uneasily, “But what about them?” There were so many people around them!

Alessandro was impressed at the way she had somehow figured out the men with them weren’t all Lyccans. “Don’t be afraid, little chick. These Caros are on our side.”

“C-caros?”

He nodded. “That’s what they’re called. They drink blood to survive, but they’re not vampires.

When we learned that Rocco, a rogue Lyccan, was involved, we figured that whoever was holding you captive was also using Rocco to detect our presence.

If I had come here accompanied by other Lyccans, it wouldn’t matter if they hid themselves.

Rocco would have known what and where they were by their scent. So we took a calculated risk—-”

Kassia’s eyes darkened when she remembered just how much of a risk that was. “You almost died,” she half accused.

The professor’s face softened. “I’m sorry for making you think that. But Domenico was nearby and I knew if I needed help, I only had to call him. The only reason he wasn’t with the Caros was because his Lyccan scent would have alerted Rocco.”

“But Rocco can’t smell Caros?” she asked, confused.

“That was the risk we took. We’ve gathered as much information as we could about him, and we gambled on the fact that since none of his records showed any encounter with a Caro, it meant he wouldn’t have any idea what a Caro’s scent was.”

“And that’s why they were able to come undetected,” Kassia realized.

“I would never have been able to rescue you if not for them,” Alessandro said quietly.

Kassia couldn’t stop herself from reaching for the professor’s hand, saying shakily, “I’ll forever be grateful to them for saving us.”