Page 18 of The Enforcer’s Rejected Mate (Red River Rejected Mates #1)

Nausea rolls over me like a tidal wave. If Keiran forces me back with him I know exactly what’s going to happen when Alpha Ashford gets his hands on me.

“I’d say your first heat is enough to repay the debt you owe the pack for supporting you all these years, wouldn’t you?”

Oh gods, what will he do when he realizes that I’m not in heat anymore? He’ll know it was Maud. What if he does something to her? All of this will have been for nothing if Keiran finds me.

I hear Keiran’s heavy footfall. “Step aside. I know she’s here.” I’m shaking like a leaf when I hear a commotion up at the front.

“What’s going on up there? I’ve got places to be!

” A woman calls out. I hear a few murmurs of agreement sound off through the bus.

I didn’t expect to hear this. I work up the nerve to crawl toward the aisle and look around the seat in front of me to see what’s going on.

I watch as the woman gets up out of her seat.

“This isn’t the time or the place, mister. ”

“We’re going to be late.” A man joins her and leans out of the aisle to point at Keiran. “I’m not paying my ticket if we’re late. Are you gonna pay for my ticket? I only take cash.”

Keiran looks confused. He holds up his hands. “All I want to do is find my woman. We have things we need to discuss.”

“Your woman ain’t here. You’re from that wolf cult out in the woods, I know you are.

Just because y’all think you run things out there don’t mean you do here in town,” the woman that spoke up earlier snaps.

She’s out in the aisle now with a rolled up magazine in her hands and I’m half convinced she’s gonna smack him with it when Keiran tries to come down the aisle.

“Even if she was here, I’d say she doesn’t want to talk to you, and I understand why!” She advances into the aisle and punctuates the end of her sentence with a snap of her magazine on the seat in front of her. Keiran takes an uncertain step back and I know I was right about humans being brave.

He doesn’t stand a chance against the woman and her magazine.

“Humans have different rules. No ticket, you’re off the bus,” she says, waving her magazine at him, and he falls back another step. Score: 1 Magazine, 0 Keiran.

“Yeah, let’s go!” Another passenger yells. “You’re holding us up!”

The driver ushers Keiran back and points down the stairs. “Move it. You don’t go and I’ll call the authorities. I’m sure they’d love to haul one of you in for the night.”

One of you.

It’s easy to see that Keiran isn’t quite human.

He’s too big. Too beautiful in the sharp way shifters have about them.

I’m not surprised the humans locked on to it so quickly.

Do they know I’m not human? I look around the bus nervously but no one is looking at me.

The half dozen passengers are too focused on yelling at Keiran to move along to notice me.

“Get out of here!”

“I’ll call the cops on you.”

“A man hunting down a girl? Pathetic. ”

The other bus riders don’t let up and miracle of all miracles, somehow, it works.

I watch in awe from my spot on the floor on my hands and knees as Keiran, the Alpha’s son and heir to Frostclaw Pack, gives in to a bunch of humans and gets off the bus.

I almost laugh at how absurd it is. Keiran, bullied by humans?

If the pack knew about this he’d never live it down.

Holy shit. If I wasn’t trying to hide, I’d laugh.

I think I’m going to like life outside of Frostclaw Pack.

I slide back up into my seat as the door slides shut and the bus roars to life.

I sink down low, eyes on the window to make sure Keiran is well and truly gone.

“You okay?” I look away from the window and see the magazine wielding woman by my seat. She looks every bit as concerned as the driver did. “He was following you, wasn’t he?”

“Yeah.”

“I knew it. Can’t stand a bully of a man. Don’t you worry, he’s gone now. We made sure of that.”

I smile at her. “I-yes, thank you for what you did. You didn’t have to do that for me. I’m sorry that you had to. I never meant for any of this trouble to follow me.”

“You think that was trouble?” She flicks her magazine with a grin. “Oh that was nothing, honey. I know how men can be when I’ve had to scrape them off. Reminds me of my ex-husband. You get some rest back here and if you need anything you can come sit up front with me, okay? I’m Jenny.”

“Scrape that bitch off now.”

That’s what Alpha Ashford told Kieran to do before he rejected me.

Is that really what I’m doing by running?

Scraping Keiran off? I guess I am. Him and all of Frostclaw have had a hold on me for so long that I don’t even know what life could be like without either hanging around my neck like a weight.

“Thank you, Jenny.”

For the second time I’m overwhelmed by the kindness of strangers.

It feels good, like I belong somewhere. Maybe Maud was right and I will be welcomed in a new pack.

Maybe it’s okay to daydream about finding my happily-ever-after because out here in the real world it doesn’t have to be the fantasy I made up as a lonely child in a pack that didn’t want her.

Out here it could be real and I can finally be whoever I want.

Jenny gives me a kind smile and makes her way back to her seat but only after she makes me swear I’ll come up if I need company. I’m settling back in when the bus lurches forward. I look out the window and Keiran surprises me again.

He’s still there looking for me.

He’s standing with Maud in the rain. The pair of them watch the bus pull away.

I know Keiran sees me when he jerks forward like he means to run after the bus but all that earns him is an elbow to the ribs from Maud.

She practically drops the big Alpha. I laugh and press my hand to the glass in goodbye when Maud waves to me and that’s how I leave my old life behind.

With Keiran gasping for air and the woman that raised me smiling at me.