Rejected Shifter King: Book One: Collars and Knives Read online

  "Everyone." As he speaks, his wolf yips.

  The shifter's eyes all snap to their alpha. He put power in his words so his people fall silent, and the witches follow suit. I want to hear whatever it is he has to say, so I turn off my Sight and pay attention.

  First he just gives platitudes about how he's sorry about how difficult it was to get here. I look him over while he talks. He's a big guy - not towering, but broad. He's built like a bull. He has black hair that's gray near his temples, and a boxy beard that doesn't look trimmed. He's wearing a cheap white undershirt, black cotton pants, and no shoes. Shifters go through clothes like pigeons go through popcorn. Everyone I've seen is wearing similarly disposable garments, and almost none of them are wearing shoes.

  "You're not all going to live in the compound forever. This is just temporary, until you get your footing." Temporary until I teleport back to the train station and buy a ticket. "But for now, I have to ask that all our newcomers don't leave the compound."

  "Why not?" asks Kayden.

  "My understanding is that your magister may have failed to prepare you for integrating with my pack. I think it would be best for all of us you get your footing before you run amok in my town."

  "Is it dangerous?" Kayden asks.

  "Of course not."

  "What do we do if there's a fight?"

  Shifters have a poor reputation among most Malgatians. Popular opinions consider them to have three emotions: hungry, horny, and angry. I don't know how much of that is leftover wartime propaganda, and how worried we really need to be about outbursts of violence.

  "Nobody is going to fight you."

  Kayden glances around until his eyes fall on me. His eyes are glowing - he hasn't bothered to Mask whatever ability he's using; I presume it's his Sight. I conjure a feeling of reassurance in my mind and project into my aura so he can see it. He gives me a slight nod. When I look up, Joseph is looking at me - and he doesn't look pleased.

  I look away. The last time I stood up and made a big scene in a community meeting, Felix tried to ruin my life. From time to time, I do learn from my mistakes.

  "We all want you to be happy here," Joseph says. "We all want to do what we can for you."

  That night my familiar visits me in my dreams. She tells me to help the witches fit in and be happy. It's not a lucid dream, and I can't ask her any questions of my own. But when I wake up the next morning, I still feel better. I like to have something to work towards.

  I take a deep breath in front of my bedroom door before I shake out my hair and go downstairs.

  I find almost all the witches crowding the small cafeteria. I see Sahar in the kitchen and wave to her as I serve myself, then I go sit next to Lilitta and Nalini.

  "You're up late," Lilitta says.

  "I guess, yeah." I look around - most people have already finished eating. "Why is everyone just sitting around?"

  "We don't know what to do," Nalini says. "I mean, are we allowed to just… walk around?"

  "I don't see why not."

  "But what are we supposed to do all day?" she presses.

  "We could practice magic. Or maybe they have books." I shrug and start eating.

  Lilitta scrunches her face. "Boring."

  "I'll ask my new friend," I say, nodding my head towards the kitchen. "She offered to show us around."

  After a minute, Lilitta decides to go back to the dormitory. Nalini uses the opportunity to slide closer to me. "Did you see how big Alpha's wolf is? Avalon's too."

  "You don't have to call him that. And yeah."

  "Nobody else is like that."

  "They both must be Shields. Avalon told me she's one of them."

  "It's kind of scary. Does that mean their wolves are super-sized?"

  "I don't know. I'm sure they'd show you, if you asked."

  Nalili purses her lips and shakes her head. "So if they're both Shields, that means one of us will have to…"

  "None of us have to do anything."

  She looks away.

  "I mean it, Nalini."

  "I was there at the meeting, I heard what you told Felix."

  I exhale through my teeth. I don't want Nalini to be panicked because of me. "These people seem… nice. I've only met a few so far. But they don't seem the type to hit you on the head with a club and drag you to a cave by your hair, right?"

  She gives me a weak smile. "I do know bolts," she says. She raises a finger and draws a small triangle in the air. A puff of flame flickers in the air and dies out the next second.

  "Hey, nice." Combat magic is a sport these days - few people learn it for its own sake.

  "Now that we're stuck here with you, maybe we can learn some of your Silverlight skills."

  "That would be fun. Who's we?"

  "Everyone from Combat Club is here, actually."

  My eyebrows shoot up. "Really? How many of you are there?"

  "Twelve."

  "Weird. What are the chances?"

  She shrugs. "Maybe they thought it would be better if we knew self-defense?"

  I frown. It doesn't sound very likely to me, but I don't have any other explanation.

  After I eat, I wait for Sahar to make another appearance and ask after that tour she offered. She goes back to the kitchen and I overhear a hurried conversation as her shift duties are redistributed.

  "I didn't mean to pull you off the line," I say when she comes back out.

  "Not at all! We're excited that you want to look around."

  Kayden shouts at me from across the room. "What're you doing?"

  "Sahar is showing us around."

  The room breaks into chatter as a crowd of witches get to their feet. "Do you mind, Sahar?"

  She glances over the small crowd and hesitates. "Of course not!"

  Sahar rises with grace to her impromptu role as tour guide. She shows us around the large compound, taking us around the long road that encircles the walls and tells us about it's history. The compound started in the 1920s as prefab trailers in the forest to foster the pups of a small new pack. A lot of packs bloom and die out in a generation - or only a few years. But the Cedar pack was successful. They grew rapidly through immigration and birth, and in the fifties a lot of new construction happened.

  Sahar fails to mention that this corresponded with the start of the Witch War. I figure it's mostly a gesture of politeness. We're surrounded by a forty-foot wall, for God's sake. This is obviously a military encampment.

  "Most of the pack lives in Cedar City now, outside the compound." Sahar nods to big gates topped with barbed wire, fit with a guard station. I saw part of Cedar City when we came in on the bus. It's quaint - there were wooden homes and businesses tucked in-between trees, with power lines stretching alongside the gravel road. It's a hell of a lot more modernization than a lot of packs have. They even had a diner with a neon sign.

  "What do you use the compound for, then?" Nalini asks.

  "The storage units." Sahar gestures towards the ancient prefab trailers. "The cafeteria too, we feed anyone who can't hunt, or afford extra food. And the rec hall, of course." She nods towards another stubby building caddy-corner in the compound from the dormitories. "It used to be a med center but we built a newer one outside. And Alpha lives up there." She gestures to the top of the hill.

  In another corner of the compound, across from our dormitory, is a small but steep hill dusted with trees. When I squint through the tree canopy at the hill's crest I catch glimpses of a wood-paneled house with big glass windows.

  I look around. There are only a few shifters walking around, and all of them look like they're working. "But no one is here. Are the gates always closed?"

  Sahar looks away from all of us. "No, not usually. Let me show you all the rec hall!"

  "What's that for?" I ask, nodding towards the big cement rectangle that dominates the middle of the compound.

  "We call it the arena. Fighters do a lot of practice there." It's currently abandoned. No fighters allowed through the gates today, it seems.

  When we near the recreation hall I hear a thud, then a whine. I stop. I've been in enough trouble that I know what an ass-kicking sounds like from a hundred yards away. It seems like some of the witches either notice my reaction or heard the scuffle, because they stop too.

  "That's nothing to worry about," Sahar says. "The rec hall -"

  I step away. I'm curious. I want to know what a shifter fight looks like. I've heard stories about them all my life, after all.

  "Brinja."

  I ignore Sahar.

  The sound is coming from inbetween the rec hall and the exterior wall. I hear another thud accompanied by a yelp. From the sound of it, the winner of the fight is taking more than their fair share.

  I walk to investigate, with about five witches trailing after me. I clear the corner to see Joseph holding one of his pack members against the side of the rec hall, saying something close to the smaller man's ear. Closer to us, Avalon is watching the display with folded arms. When we come up behind her, she turns and frowns.

  "You should go."

  I do not go.

  I'm not going to get involved - I understand shifter hierarchy is enforced through pain. But I'm curious.

  "What did he do?" I ask.

  "This is none of your concern."

  I don't know whether or not Joseph knows he has an audience, but he says something else to his hapless subject before he slams his fist into his gut. The poor guy retches and gags, then Joseph drops him and takes a step back. I'm startled when he looks towards us. His eyes are solid gold, with black dots in the middle. Interesting - his wolf must be at least partially in control. Or maybe this is how he gets some of his beast's power without having to fully shift. I turn my Sight on.

  He steps towards us. His knuckles are smeared in red, and his wolf is focused on me - or all us witches - with a laser-like intensity. The shifter he had pinned to the wall doubles over and turns away. His small tan wolf has its tail tucked between its legs.

  Joseph's eyes meet mine. I don't look away. He starts walking towards me.

  "Brinja," Avalon snaps.

  I look at her. Joseph pauses.

  "Stop looking at him, please. All of you should go."

  I shrug and turn my back on the both of them. The witches and I go back to Sahar, who's biting her nails and glancing around. She awards us with an over-confident smile when we rejoin the group.

  I hear Avalon behind me, and I glance over my shoulder. She's standing between us and Joseph, her palms towards him in a "stop" gesture and her head bent far to the side, exposing her neck. He's staring past her, straight at us.

  I look away, and Sahar shoos us into the air-conditioned rec hall.

  "What was that?" Kayden hisses in my ear next to a card table.

  "Pecking order," I say.

  "That seemed kinda fucked up. Was he coming for us, just then?"

  I clear my throat and raise my voice. "Of course not. He's a Shield. All he wants to do is keep us safe."

  Sahar gives me a slow smile. She shouldn't - I don't know if believe my own words. But panic helps nothing, and the witches I'm here with are young. Some of them are barely out of high school. Making them think their new leader is out for their blood would be cruelty, even if I have my concerns. I don't believe in that negative stuff about shifters, but that doesn't mean shifter culture is all sunshine and rainbows, either.

  We explore their meager collection of card games and books before going back outside. The air is hot and sticky out here, and I'm glad shifters have an appreciation for keeping the indoors cold.

  "Can we go up the hill?" Nalini asks.

  "Sure, of course," Sahar says.

  The witches start chatting. They sound happy, and little groups break off and start walking away. I figure I'll go back to the dorms and re-read an old book. I set off in that direction.

  "You."

  I turn my head. Joseph is leaning against the rec hall. He still has blood on his hands. I wonder if any of it is his, or if his skin doesn't break like a human's would. He smiles at me, and it doesn't feel friendly.

  He nods back towards the rec hall. "Let's talk."

  6. Just a Conversation

  Brinja Sol

  There are two shifters in the rec hall.

  "Out," he says. I don't feel power in his voice, but they both jump to obey. When the door closes behind them, he drags a folding metal chair out from a card table.

  "Sit."

  Rude. But I do sit. It seems pointless to argue about something as trivial as that.

  He pulls out another chair a couple of feet away from me, and sits so we're facing in the same direction.

  "You need to stop staring me down."

  I cross my legs and don't say anything. This is absolutely not the first "please comply" speech I've ever gotten in my life. At the end when he asks me to be a team player I'll say yes and go about my life.

  "Are you listening to me?" His voice is ringing and deep.

  "How long ago did you know we were coming here?"

  He turns his head towards me, but doesn't say anything. I stare straight ahead and resist the urge to ask him if he's listening to me.

  "Two years," he finally says.

  I press my teeth together.

  "I understand that your magister didn't tell you."

  "You understand? Wow, thank you."

  "I mean that I found out he didn't tell you when you got here."

  I cross my arms and look at the ceiling.

  "He told us you were all volunteers."

  "There were only two."

  "I know."

  "Why wouldn't he tell us?"

  He shrugs and his back engulfs the spindly metal chair. "Hell if I know. He won't call me back."

  I find this to be somewhat pathetic. I have my doubts that Joseph is the sort of person to nibble his fingernails while he stares at a silent phone. Nothing's stopping him from getting in a car and driving across the border to find out for himself. But he's not going to, because he doesn't care. Or if he does, maybe the answer would stop us from being here - so there would be no reason for him to pursue it.

  "You're one of those Shields," I say.

  "Hmm. You're changing the subject."

  "Oh, right. You don't want me to look at you."

  "That's not what I said. I said you need to stop staring me down."

  "I'll do my best to be a team player." I stand up.

  "No. Sit down."

  I can feel power in his voice. But that's all it is - a feeling. He's not my alpha, he can't use his commands on me. I bet that I have Words that would work on him, though. I do not sit down.

  "It fucks with us when you stare us in the eye."

  "You mean us like, shifters?"

  "No, I mean us." He taps his chest. He must mean that golden-eyed animal just underneath his skin.

  "I don't stare. You don't like eye contact?"

  "Oh, I adore it. But my pack knows when it's inappropriate."

  "When is it inappropriate?"

  "Well, for example, just after you threaten one of my pack. Or insult me. Or when he's already in a mood."

  My mind is already a million miles away, and I'm barely listening to him. I want to go back to my room and think about Felix. The alpha's precious social rules are hardly my concern, especially considering I don't plan to be around for very long.

  "I already said okay."

  "Sit down."

  There's no power in his voice this time. I figure I'm not out of this conversation yet - and I remind myself what happened when I shit all over Felix's last big talk - so I do sit.

  "He can be difficult to control. He - we - have a compulsion to come down on people who challenge us." His tone is factual.

  "Like you came down on that man out there?"

  "Yes. Exactly."

  "What did he do?"

  "He was overheard making a comment about your kind."

  "I see."

  I feel his eyes on me. "You should be pleased. It was for your benefit."

  "I can take care of myself, thank you."

  "Is that why you're not afraid of me?"

  "You want me to be afraid of you?"

  He smiles. "No. But I'm surprised that you're not."

  All in all, I suspect he's being honest with me. Maybe I should be honest with him - as honest as I can be. Maybe he'll leave me alone if he knows I won't be a factor in his plans for very long. After all, I don't want to be his enemy. "I'm not staying."

  He raises his eyebrows at me. "You're not?"

  "I don't believe I stuttered."

  He smiles. "You're not leaving."

  "You can't stop me."

  "Is that so? I didn't realize." He grins. "Care to wager?"

  I glare at him. I haven't threatened or insulted him, after all, so according to his rules this is fine. "Wager on what?"

  "That you can leave whenever you want."

  "I hardly have a reason to go now."

  He stands up, so I do too.

  "So you're going to stay here until it suits you to fly off into the night?"

  I shrug.

  "Eat my food and sleep in my bed until you're done with us?"

  "My bed."

  "No. It's mine. Everything here is mine. I'm loaning it to you, as a gift."

  I tilt my chin up. "I don't need your charity."

  "If you don't, then leave."

  Asshole. Maybe he needs to see what I can do, so it'll help him understand we're going with my plan regardless.

  I meet his eyes and gather up a handful of memory, capturing it inside of my fist - the diner in Cedar City and its neon slice of cherry pie.

  Then I say the Word.

  I feel everything slide around me as I start to leave, but the feeling drains away as fast as it comes, and I'm still standing where I was. What the fuck?

  His eyes are laughing at me while worry bites my stomach. "How?"

  He winks at me. "You lost."

  I narrow my eyes. "Tell me how."

  "No. Are you ready to find out what you have to do?"

  I step back from him. "What are you talking about?"

  "You lost your bet."

  "I didn't bet on anything."

  He shrugs. "Oh, well. You're going to have to do it anyway."

  He takes a step towards me. I stand my ground and level my eyes at him. "Be careful what you say next."