Page 43 of Rejected By My Shifter Billionaire

I was fine, I told myself the next day.

Just fine.

Awesome even.

Really.

So what if I’d spent the last hour rotating between fuming, cringing, and silently begging the floor to open up and swallow me whole?

That was normal. That was healthy. That was textbook damage control for someone whose stepbrother had just scientifically proven they were perfect for each other and then walked away like it meant nothing.

I sipped my second mug of Fae-brew coffee and tried to pretend the testing room didn’t still smell like him.

The room still held traces of Nicolo’s scent.

Clean mountain air mixed with something darker, something that made my pulse skip in ways I absolutely refused to acknowledge.

I’d cracked a window to help air it out, but the breeze only made it worse.

Now it smelled like Nicolo and pine needles, a combination designed specifically to ruin my concentration.

I should’ve felt smug about the 98.7% compatibility score. That was elite-level matchmaking. A headline result. A client’s dream.

Instead, I just felt like a desperate little idiot with no shirt and too many feelings.

Knock, knock.

I quickly checked my face on my window’s reflections. No tears? No tears. Phew.

Ada poked her head in. “Ready to go?”

“Absolutely.”

Anything—even facing Death, I mean Prince Alexei himself—was better than moping around about my stepbrother.

Ada was still having trouble with her seatbelt by the time I slipped into the driver seat. “Everything okay?”

“Absolutely.”

Both of us were lying with the same word.

Perfect.

The drive to Prince Alexei’s fortress took us up into the Colorado Rockies, following roads that seemed to exist only when you were supposed to find them. One minute we were on a normal highway, the next we were winding through a forest that felt older than civilization itself.

“Are you sure this is right?” Ada asked, gripping the passenger door handle as we rounded another impossible curve. “Because I feel like we’ve been driving uphill for like an hour, and physics says that’s not possible.”

“Prince Alexei’s territory doesn’t follow human physics,” I said, trying to project more confidence than I felt. “It works similar to how the old Fae territories protected itself. The place exists in a pocket dimension anchored to the mountain. Space gets...flexible.”

“Flexible,” she repeated. “Right. That’s totally normal.”

The trees began to thin, and suddenly we were driving through what looked like the entrance to a fairy tale.

Massive stone pillars carved with intricate runes rose on either side of the road, each one humming with barely contained magic.

Between them, the air shimmered like heat waves, but it was the middle of winter.

“Whoa,” Ada breathed.

The headquarters itself came into view as we crested the final hill, and even though I’d seen pictures, nothing had prepared me for the reality.

It was a fortress made of glass and granite, carved directly into the mountainside like some ancient civilization had decided to build a palace for gods.

Towers spiraled impossibly high, their surfaces reflecting the sky so perfectly they seemed to disappear into the clouds.

Bridges of what looked like crystallized moonlight connected different sections, and the entire structure pulsed with a soft, otherworldly glow.

“This is where we’re going?” Ada squeaked.

“This is where we’re going.”

The parking area was a simple stone platform that materialized as we approached, complete with discrete markers that definitely hadn’t been there a second ago. I pulled into a spot marked “VISITORS” in letters that seemed to write themselves as I watched.

“Okay,” I said, turning off the engine. “Remember what we talked about. Be polite, be respectful, and please don’t compare anyone to fictional characters.”

“Got it. No personality assessments.”

“And don’t mention the Spring Equinox disaster.”

“The goats weren’t even my fault! The venue coordinator said they needed ‘kid-friendly entertainment’ and I thought—”

“Ada.”

“Right. No goats.”

The entrance to the building was a massive archway that seemed to be carved from a single piece of black stone.

As we approached, runes along the sides began to glow, and the air itself seemed to take our measure.

I felt a gentle tingle as some kind of scanning magic washed over us, checking for weapons, hostile intent, or probably a dozen other things I couldn’t imagine.

“Welcome,” a voice said from everywhere and nowhere. “Please state your business.”

“Maryah Gray and Ada Bones to see Prince Alexei Lykaios,” I said to the empty air. “We have an appointment.”

There was a pause, then the stone archway dissolved like mist, revealing a lobby that belonged in a luxury hotel crossed with an art museum.

The floors were polished marble that seemed to have starlight embedded in it, and the walls were lined with portraits of supernatural leaders throughout history.

A fountain in the center played music instead of water, filling the space with hauntingly beautiful melodies.

“Proceed to the Alpha Wing,” the voice instructed. “His Highness will see you now.”

The elevator was a work of art in itself, all crystal and silver, with buttons that appeared when you needed them and disappeared when you didn’t.

As we rose through the building, the windows offered views of landscapes that definitely weren’t Colorado.

I caught glimpses of silver cities, rolling purple hills, and what might have been an ocean made of liquid starlight.

“This is so not helping my anxiety,” Ada whispered.

The elevator opened onto a corridor that screamed power and authority. The walls were a deep midnight blue, lined with what looked like constellation maps but definitely weren’t showing Earth’s sky. Everything was designed to make visitors feel small and insignificant, and it was working.

“Miss Gray.” The voice came from behind us, smooth and cultured and carrying just enough edge to make me straighten my spine.

I turned to find myself face to face with Prince Alexei Lykaios, and every rumor about him being impossibly beautiful turned out to be underselling it.

He was tall and lean, with the kind of aristocratic bone structure that belonged on ancient coins.

His hair was blue-black, like a raven’s wing, and his eyes were the same color but somehow colder, like winter nights in the depths of Atlantis where his bloodline originated.

His suit was perfectly tailored, midnight blue to match the walls, and he moved with the fluid grace that marked him as royalty from the oldest shifter lines—the Atlantis stallions, first children of the deep realm, heirs to King Thaddeus himself.

There was something predatory about his stillness, the way he seemed to evaluate everything around him as either useful or disposable. This was a man who could destroy lives with a word, topple governments with a gesture, and he looked like he knew it.

“Your Highness,” I said, offering what I hoped was an appropriate bow. Human etiquette for supernatural royalty was not something they’d covered in business school.

His gaze shifted to Ada, who was staring at him with the expression of someone witnessing their first glimpse of a mythical creature. Which, technically, she was.

“Miss Bones." The prince's tone was enough to have both Ada and me gulp. Simultaneously. “I understand we have you to thank for this meeting.”

Ada squeaked.

“She didn’t mean any harm,” I said quickly. “It was an honest mistake.”

“I’m sure it was.” He gestured toward a door that definitely hadn’t been there a moment ago. “Shall we?”

His office was exactly what I’d expected from a Prince of Atlantis.

Floor-to-ceiling windows offered a view of snow-capped peaks that stretched to the horizon, and the furniture was the kind of understated luxury that probably cost more than my car.

Everything was designed to remind visitors exactly who they were dealing with.

“Please, sit,” he said, settling behind a desk that looked carved from a single piece of obsidian.

I took the chair across from him. Ada perched on the edge of hers like she was ready to bolt.

Prince Alexei folded his hands and studied us both with those unsettling pale eyes. Prior to That Day, no human or preter alike even suspected someone like him existed. Shifter royalty, from the legendary kingdom of Atlantis.

There might be more of them, or there might be none, and he was the last of his kind. Only Prince Alexei himself knew, and he was obviously not the type to show and tell.

The silence stretched until I was sure one of us was going to crack under the pressure.

“You didn’t register your agency with L’Alliance,” he said without preamble.

“Technically, we’re still in trial mode,” I offered. “And our soft launch was supposed to be invite-only, but there was a clerical error.”

“Ah yes. Miss Bones and her... colorful history.” His attention shifted to Ada, who somehow managed to sink even lower in her chair. “Wasn’t she responsible for the Moonlight Masquerade Incident last spring?”

My cheeks burned. “That was a misunderstanding involving invitation protocols—”

“The one where she accidentally invited a pack of feral werewolves to a formal vampire gathering?” His tone was conversational, but there was steel underneath. “I believe the cleanup required three separate Council interventions.”

“In her defense, the guest list formatting was very confusing—”

“And then there was the Valentine’s Day Catastrophe,” he continued relentlessly. “Something about serving a room full of vampire delegates...what was it again, Miss Bones?”

Ada made a sound like a dying mouse.

“Silvered champagne flutes and garlic-infused canapés,” I said quickly. “But that was a catering mix-up that could have happened to anyone—”