Page 17 of The Enforcer’s Rejected Mate (Red River Rejected Mates #1)

Chapter

Eleven

CORDELIA

“ D o you have the map?” Maud asks me. We’re standing at the bus station.

I’ve just bought my one way ticket as far as the line goes, which is the Oak Fast bus station.

I’m very lucky with the route. It’ll almost take me straight to Bloodstone Territory.

It won’t be much of a hike from there from the looks of it.

I hold up my newly purchased map to appease Maud. “Right here.”

Maud nods approvingly. “Keep that ticket close to you. Don’t talk to humans. When they let you off at rest stops do not be late, you hear? They will leave you there.”

“I won’t be late. I swear.”

“If you get into trouble in Oak Fast, remember to ask around for Jazzy right away.”

I don’t ask how Jazzy will find me. If she’s Maud’s sister she’ll have her ways of finding me.

“I will.”

Maud opens her mouth like she wants to say more but she doesn’t, she just steps in close and hugs me tight. “I love you,” she says simply and my eyes fill with tears. I blink them back but it's no use. I cry as we hug.

“I love you too,” I whisper through my tears.

“You are going to have an amazing, beautiful life, do you hear me?” Maud steps back and smooths my hair over my shoulders. “Now promise me one thing. Swear it to me.”

“What? Anything.”

“When things get hard, and trust me, they will get hard because anything worth having is worth sacrificing for, promise me that you’ll fight for it.”

My brow knits in confusion.“Fight? Fight for what?”

“Yes, fight. You’ll fight for what’s yours. Promise me you’ll know what belongs to you, who belongs to you . If you decide that right now, everything will fall in line. You can’t run from fate, Cordelia. It will always find you, even if you lock the door on it. So don’t even try.”

Maud’s words land like a weight around my neck.

I don’t understand them, not wholly but at the same time I do.

I’ve lived my whole life not having much and never fighting for myself because there was no use but that was the old me’s life.

The life where I was trapped in Frostclaw Pack.

No more of that, I tell myself. My wolf thumps her tail in agreement. She’s keen on the idea of a fight.

No more letting what belongs to us slip away. From now on we fight for what we are owed.

“I-yes, I promise, I’ll fight for what’s mine,” I promise Maud.

She smiles and pats me on the shoulder. The bus pulls up then and we walk towards it together.

There’s not many people boarding the bus out of town this morning.

Only a half dozen or so. I scan their faces and wonder where they’re going.

Some of them look excited, but most look sleepy or anxious to be out of the rain.

It’s coming down heavily now. The easy drizzle shifted to a steady downpour, but even in the rain I can tell I’m the only shifter getting on the bus out of Winthrop.

“I’m going to miss you,” Maud tells me. She dabs at her eyes with a handkerchief and I give her a watery smile.

“I think you’ll miss me chopping wood the most.”

She laughs. “Clearly.”

To anyone that doesn’t know us, we look like a grandmother and granddaughter bidding each other a tearful goodbye. If I had a grandmother I know she would have been like Maud. I hug her once more.

“I’ll write.”

“Only once you’re settled and only to the PO Box.” Maud has a box in town at the post office. I don’t know who she writes to or why, but now I’m glad for it.

“I will. I promise.”

I take a deep breath and turn to face the bus.

Even in the gloomy morning light the chrome of it shines.

The lights are turned on and cast a warm glow out into the morning.

I can see people through the windows storing their luggage and taking their seats.

The paper ticket in my hoodie pocket feels like a firebrand.

I press my hand to it and run a finger along the edge to convince myself it’s there and I haven’t lost it by accident.

This is it. I’m really leaving Frostclaw.

I look over my shoulder at Maud and wave. “Goodbye, Maud.”

“Goodbye, sweet girl.”

I move towards the bus and climb the three steps up into the bus. The driver is standing in the aisle. He’s an older man with salt and pepper hair and kind blue eyes. When he smiles at me I’m grateful and the tightness in my chest at leaving Frostclaw loosens. I smile back. I can do this.

“Ticket, please.” He’s got a hole punch in one hand and holds out a hand to take my ticket.

“Sure, it’s right here.” I reach into my hoodie but fumble the ticket and drop it. The ticket flutters away and lands in the aisle. “Shoot, sorry,” I tell them and bend down to grab it. It’s when I’m half bent over that I hear Keiran.

“Where is she?” I freeze and drop into a squat. What the hell is he doing here? I shuffle over to the side, into the aisle with the driver.

“Miss, what are you doing?” I can hear the ‘what the fuck?’ in his voice and my cheeks burn hot with embarrassment. I know I look like a freak scuttling around on the ground like I am.

“Ah, the ticket,” I explain, “It went um, under here somewhere,” I say and start patting around like I’m searching for my ticket even though I’ve got it in my hand. I move further into the aisle and away from the door. “Just a second. So sorry!”

I crawl forward and peek around the edge of the aisle and see Maud squaring off with Keiran. Surprisingly, he’s alone. No Bella in sight. Interesting.

“None of your business,” Maud tells him and moves past him to walk back to her truck but Keiran gets in her way.

“She’s on that bus, isn’t she?” he asks and turns to look up at where I’m hiding. I fall back so fast that I land on my ass and onto the driver’s foot.

“Miss, are you okay? Should I get the woman you were with to help you?” The driver asks. He moves to call out to Maud but I stop him.

I grab his pant leg. “No!” I wince when I almost yell and hold my breath, praying that Keiran didn’t just hear that.

I look up at him and swallow hard. “I-ah, look, come here,” I whisper and motion for him to lean down.

When he leans down towards me I clear my throat.

“There’s a man out there looking for me.

He’s talking to my grandma and I don’t want him to know I’m leaving.

I-I just, if there was a way you could not tell him I’m here?

” I hold up my ticket. “You can punch this now if you want. Just please don’t tell him I’m on the bus. ”

The man’s eyes cut to the left. “The big blond fella talking to your grandma?” he asks. “Don’t look like she likes him too much.”

I bite my lip and nod. “Yeah, that’s the one. I’m sorry about all of this. I just want to leave town. That’s all. I swear I don’t want any trouble.”

“He hurt you?”

His question surprises me almost as much as the concern in his eyes does. He genuinely cares. A lump grows in my throat at the driver’s kindness. I don’t know how to answer that to a human I just met so I just shrug and duck my head.

“Something like that,” I mumble.

The man nods and stands. “Right then. Hand over that ticket and go on and take a seat. He won’t be getting on this bus. Go on to the back, the tint is darker there, he won’t be able to see you,” he says and flicks a switch that turns off the overhead interior lights in the bus.

I stand on shaky legs and hand him my ticket. “Thank you. I don’t know how to repay you.”

He waves a hand at me and snags my ticket. “Nothing to it. We gotta look out for each other. The good folks that is. Now go get some rest.”

I almost burst into tears when he says that. No one but Maud has ever looked out for me a day in my life. How is it that humans are already treating me better than the pack I grew up in? Is this how life outside of Frostclaw is?

“We do. You’re right.”

I hurry towards the back when I hear Keiran’s first heavy footstep on the bottom step. I’m halfway down the aisle when I hear the driver say. “Bus is full. No more passengers, sir.”

“It’s not full,” Keiran snaps. “Plenty of seats from where I’m standing.”

I throw myself down into the last seat with my backpack still on and slide down as far as I can go and lean over to get a peak around the edge of the seat in front of me.

It’s empty back here which is nice. I use my shifter hearing to tune in to what Keiran and the driver are saying but even with human ears I’d be able to hear on account of all the passengers going silent the second Keiran raises his voice.

“My woman is on this bus. Where is she?”

I gasp. Keiran’s head snaps in my direction and I nearly break my neck getting myself back into the corner to hide.

His woman? What in the ever loving Luna fuck is he talking about?

He’s lost his mind. I know it. I’ve heard of shifters losing their minds in the process of wasting away but that doesn’t make sense when he has Bella.

His new bond should be purging the effects of bondrot.

I’m the one that should be losing it. He shouldn’t be here right now.

Maybe what I’ve studied about bondrot is wrong and a chosen mate doesn’t fix it.

What if that’s why Keiran is here now? What if the bondrot is slowly driving him insane?

I curl in on myself, will myself to be smaller while I hear Keiran and the bus driver talking.

“Your woman isn’t here. Get off the bus now.” There’s steel in the driver’s voice. My appreciation for him soars. He doesn’t have to do this for me. There’s no reason for him to get in between Keiran and me but here he is, defending a complete stranger. Humans are amazing. The bravest of souls.

“Cordelia!” Keiran thunders and I slide down off my seat and onto the floor. I drop down and wedge myself between the seats and cover my head with my arms. There’s no way I’m getting out of this. He’s going to drag me back to Frostclaw and then what?

“If you were good enough to keep my son coming back to you, then you’re good enough for the rest of the pack.”