Rejected: Shadow Beast Shifters book 1 Read online

  Rejected

  Shadow Beast Shifters book 1

  Jaymin Eve

  Contents

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  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Chapter 42

  Chapter 43

  Chapter 44

  Chapter 45

  Chapter 46

  Chapter 47

  Chapter 48

  Chapter 49

  Chapter 50

  Chapter 51

  Chapter 52

  Chapter 53

  Chapter 54

  Chapter 55

  Chapter 56

  Chapter 57

  Chapter 58

  Stay connected

  Afterword

  Also by Jaymin Eve

  Jaymin Eve

  Rejected: Shadow Beast Shifters #1

  Copyright © Jaymin Eve 2020

  All rights reserved

  First published in 2020

  Eve, Jaymin

  Rejected: Shadow Beast Shifters #1

  No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition, including this condition, being imposed on the subsequent purchaser. All characters in this publication other than those clearly in the public domain are fictitious, and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

  Cover: Tamara K

  Editing: Amy McNulty

  Proofing: HolmesEdits

  To everyone who dreamed of being kidnapped by the devil. Because we’re fucked up like that.

  Embrace your darkness.

  Join the group. You know you want to ;)

  The best way to stay up to date with the Shadow Beast Shifters world and all new releases, is to join my Facebook group here:

  www.facebook/groups/jayminevenerdherd

  We share lots of book releases, fun posts, sexy dudes, and generally it’s a happy place to exist.

  1

  From the ashes, the phoenix will rise.

  I reread that line from my college assignment. English Lit had hit us with our first big task of the year: we’d been asked to discuss in detail a novel that was not without some serious flaws. Firstly, its constant use of allegory to instill “meaning” into the story all but drove me insane. Not to mention the prose. Oh, man, don’t get me wrong—in the right story, I was all over a stunning usage of words with sentences flowing in a circle of emotions and light, making my heart soar and brain flutter. Other times, though, I wanted to scream for the author to just “get to the fucking point.”

  My mom always said I couldn’t possibly be her child because she’d been born of stars and moonbeams and I’d been born of facts and figures. Whatever the fuck that meant. Probably meant she would have enjoyed this English Lit story—if she wasn’t drunk, that was.

  As for me, I hadn’t gotten to choose the tale, and the report had to be written. I wrote better with a connection, so I’d searched for one and found it in that line. It ran over and over in my head, consuming my thoughts and dominating my day.

  All because I would love nothing more than to rise from my own ashes.

  Twenty-two years old; senior in college; born into the most powerful shifter pack in the world. Life should have been roses and chocolates. Or stars and moonbeams… if I wanted to twist the knife a little harder. And maybe it would have been if Dear Old Dad—a.k.a. Lockhart Callahan—hadn’t decided to die via challenging the alpha, making my family persona non grata. We were lower than shit in this pack, and the only reason we were still here, according to my mom, was because the enemy you knew was better than trying to make it out there as lone wolves. A fact I had my doubts about.

  “Mera!”

  Mom’s drunken holler reminded me that I was avoiding her this morning. She wanted money and my hard-earned cash was hidden away for a reason: the moment I shifted for the first time and had control over my wolf, I was getting the hell out of here.

  Just a few more weeks.

  All shifters turned for the first time, under the winter solstice full moon, in the year of their twenty-second birthday. It was already November, I had quietly turned twenty-two last month, and very soon, I’d be able to escape from this fucking mess of a town.

  Throwing my barely-holding-on tablet into my ratty old bag, I slid one strap over my shoulder and jumped out the window, landing gracefully on the ground below. Our apartment was a two-bedroom POS in the middle of Torma, a town on the edge of the Santa Cruz Mountains in California. The town was owned by the pack. Our alpha was the alpha of all American packs, and that made us the best.

  According to that sanctimonious asshole anyway.

  Personally, Torma was my own version of hell on Earth, and I couldn’t wait to be rid of it.

  Heading toward school, I tightened my hold on my backpack and lowered my head to keep from drawing attention. The pack’s punching bag would do well not to advertise herself. Stay low. Stay alive. Survive one more month.

  And rise from the ashes.

  2

  There was one school in Torma. Pack school. Ranging from Pre-K all the way to college. I’d never left this town—getting permission to leave was a mission in and of itself—and had attended pack school since the first grade.

  I had exactly one friend to show for my many years stuck here.

  “Hey, girl,” Simone called as I walked through the front gate, making my way up the garden-lined path.

  “Hey, Sim,” I said, reaching her side in a second. “Still working on that braid, I see.”

  Simone had fantastic hair; it was dead straight to her waist, thick, and so black, it almost looked blue in the sunlight. She loved to experiment with hairstyles, and for the last few weeks had been attempting to fishtail braid it. Attempting being the operative word.

  Her expressive face screwed up into a tight knot of annoyance. “Why the fuck is it so hard?” She gestured to where most of the strands had already fallen loose. “I watch the videos online and those bitches braid to their ass in like five seconds, one-handed while filming it, for shifter’s sake. Bullshit, if you ask me.”

  I snorted out some laughter, elegant as always. “Keep working at it. I definitely think you’re getting better.” White lies kept the world spinning, right?

  She shot me an I know what you’re doing but thanks for being a great friend stare as we continued into the school. Whoever had built this monstrosity of a brick building in 1847, hadn’t thought much outside o f practicality, because no one would design anything to be this ugly, squat, and depressing, unless it had just been the easiest style at the time. The only redeeming character was the wood-lined gardens, filled with flowers and herbs, that surrounded the perimeter.

  Poor attempt to cover up the fact that it needed to be bulldozed and started again.

  “I’m not sure I can stay here for another year.” Simone sighed, her dark brown eyes dropping dramatically. “I mean, is it even legal to stop us from traveling and meeting new people? I’m sick of all these assholes.”

  She wasn’t the only one, but legal or not, we weren’t allowed to step foot outside Torma without permission. Leaving us stuck here, with the same shifters whom we’d grown up with. Shifters I hated.

  “I wouldn’t get your hopes up about leaving until you’ve shifted and learned to control the beast,” I said, repeating the cardinal rule while holding open the glass doors to the building for us to enter.

  Personally, I wouldn’t be asking for permission, but Simone, unlike me, had good standing here thanks to her parents’ place in the pack: enforcers for the alpha.

  She let out another exaggerated sigh. “True. But the moment that happens, we’re heading on an epic road trip. I already have it all planned out.”

  I didn’t have the heart to tell her I would be long gone before that. Simone’s birthday wasn’t until January, so that meant she still had over a year until her first shift, missing this year’s winter solstice.

  I couldn’t wait for her, and I wouldn’t ask her to be a lone wolf… Most of them turned mutt in the first few years, losing control of their beasts completely. Mutts were always put down by the packs, but it was a risk worth taking for me.

  One way or another, I’d be put down whether I was mutt or not. It was just a matter of time, so why not give myself at least a fighting chance out in the real world?

  “So,” Simone said, changing the subject rapidly, “your hair… I mean, we’re going to talk about it, right?”

  Reaching up, I attempted to run a hand through the bird’s nest I had going on up top. “Shit, I forgot to brush it. Had to get out of the dumpster-house in a rush this morning.”

  She examined me closer. “Look, normally, I don’t blink an eye, what with my own…” She waved a hand toward her “braid.” “But today is a new kind of interesting you’ve got going on.”

  Dammit. There was a bathroom nearby, so I ducked inside with Simone following.

  My hair was long and wavy, a stupid wave that wasn’t quite a curl but had enough definition to make it look constantly unruly. And it was red—the only redhead in the pack, to make blending in so freaking easy.

  “You should let me cut it? Or Daphne,” Simone suggested unhelpfully.

  Gritting my teeth, I shook my head. “You know I can’t waste fifty bucks on a cut.”

  Pulling out the tie, I ran my fingers through it a few times. Simone stepped in to help as well, and eventually, we tamed it.

  “The color is still the most stunning shade I’ve ever seen,” she said wistfully, tracing her fingers through a few loose strands.

  It was an unusual color, that was for sure. A deep burgundy at the scalp, it lightened in an ombre effect to end up strawberry blonde on the tips. Subtle and natural—and weird as fuck.

  Story of my life, really, being the freakshow of the pack. Thanks, Dad.

  The sound of students filtered under the door, and as soon as a few juniors entered the bathroom, we bailed. I couldn’t stay in any enclosed space for too long or I’d end up with the crap beat out of me.

  The hall was busy, so I put my head down and hugged the strap of my bag closer. “Did you get the assignment done?” I asked Simone, who was partially blocking me so we could maneuver through the shifter students.

  She nodded and sighed simultaneously. “I want the twenty hours of my life back that I spent reading that shit, though,” she stated. “Like, it was worse than that one on the island where all the kids turned into feral assholes.”

  I shuddered. “Hated that one, too. I’m starting to think I’m just not into anything with too much realism.”

  She blinked at me. “You think that was realistic?”

  “Kinda reminds me of how our pack is run,” I said, trying—and failing—to sound blasé.

  Simone side-eyed me closely before giving a shake of her head. “I can’t even argue with you. It’s a dictatorship, but that’s how shifters don’t turn mutt. Wolves need a powerful alpha or we go rogue and our beasts take over.” Her face fell. “Not that I’d know, having to wait another damn year to shift.”

  To say Simone was pissed about our first shift not being together was an understatement, but the Rule of First Shift had been passed from the original creator of our kind. The dark deity we worshipped.

  Shadow Beast.

  He’d set the shifter command and it couldn’t be overruled. Wolves had tried in the past, but no one had been successful in bringing on the change early. Call it wolf puberty, set in stone.

  Maybe it was because we aged slowly and could live for a couple hundred years longer than humans. Or maybe the beast just liked the age of twenty-two.

  No one had met the demon of our kind to ask him.

  “I want it so bad,” Simone continued. “But I’m also freaking out about the pain. You know how bad it is when I break a nail, and this is like…”

  “Breaking every bone?”

  She shuddered. “Girl, could you at least attempt to sugarcoat it for me?”

  I shrugged. “Pain doesn’t bother me like it used to. What I’m afraid of is not being able to bond with the wolf. What if she rejects me?”

  Like every other person in my life. Yeah, I know, sob sob, we all had a sad story.

  “She won’t,” Simone said forcefully. “She’s going to love you, and you’ll hunt rabbits, and it’ll be like having your second-best friend built in for life.”

  No one was replacing Simone in best friend numero uno spot, apparently… not even an entity I shared a soul with.

  “I’m almost positive I’ll have control by the third shift,” Simone added, shaking her shoulders in a confident little dance. “I’ve so got this.”

  “I have no doubts at all,” I said, meaning every word.

  The first two shifts were always a complete loss as the beast took over, our human side barely remembering anything at all. The majority had control by shift four or five, but I wouldn’t put it past Simone to have hers down by shift number three. She was that determined.

  Either way for me, the second I had control of my wolf, I was escaping this fuck of a town.

  And never looking back.

  Just as we passed the main run of lockers for the seniors, a familiar group came into sight, easy to spot as students parted along the hallway for them like they were royalty.

  I supposed they pretty much were.

  Simone saw them at the same time as me. “Run!” she whispered harshly, shoving me toward the nearest exit. It was too late, though. They’d seen me, and I couldn’t outrun them. Especially not the two who had already turned: Torin Wolfe and Jaxson Heathcliffe.

  Why the fuck were they even at college at all? They’d graduated last year, but for some insane reason, would not leave.

  “Stay!”

  The command came from Torin, future alpha of the Torma pack. His father, Victor, had ruled us for fifty years now with no sign of retiring. I mean, the fact that he’d changed their last name to Wolfe pretty much said everything one needed to know about how highly he regarded himself and his standing in the shifter world.

  And Torin, the precious only son, was the future alpha. With this power, he could command wolves in the pack. Not that he generally needed any help in controlling them, especially the female shifters, thanks to his bright green eyes, chocolatey dark hair, and the sort of chiseled jaw that love stories were written about.

  For me, though, he was a horror novel—my worst nightmare.

  Two of the three approached now, and my stomach swirled as I prepared myself for what was to come. Torin’s command had been the one to stop me in my tracks, but today he hung back to let his friends have their fun. In truth, Torin had never really hurt me, but he didn’t stop the others either, and that was just as bad in my opinion.

  Sisily Longeran, the alpha chick of my year, started to circle me. “Mera Callahan,” she drawled, “the redheaded bitch of our pack.”

  She took great pleasure in pointing out on the regular that no one else had my shade of hair color. The rest of the pack fell somewhere between honey blond to the darkest of raven locks, with all shades of skin color included. I had tanned skin and hazel eyes, the same as many others, but my hair…

  A giant fucking stop sign announcing my presence.

  “Sisily Longeran,” I shot back, “the next alpha-mate. You and Torin are going to make such beautiful babies.”

  Beautiful, evil little shits, but I refrained from mentioning that.

  Sisily’s smile spread as she drifted closer to Torin. They did look great together, with her perfect mahogany mane and bright azure eyes so striking against his coloring.