The Sixteenth Moon: A Rejected Mates Romance

Chapter 21: Borrowed Time

"What the fuck do you mean you can't find them? How do you lose five highly-skilled killing machines?" she shrieked into the cell, her rage overflowing. Her wolf paced within her, agitated and angry—though the bitch was angry at Ingrid and not the asshole on the phone telling her that the men she sent to get rid of her little problem have fucking vanished.

"I don't know what happened, Ms. Magnusen. They checked in at 10, just after they received the go signal from Mr. Brewer. The last thing I knew was they were infiltrating, planning to take the creature captive."

Ingrid snorted. Creature. That was exactly right. That bitch had no business calling herself a shifter, she was nothing like the supernatural beings who could proudly proclaim themselves children of Ailune. That little fat, freak bitch didn't even have a scent, and from what the monthly reports stated, she was so weak, she had no shifter healing, speed, or senses—she was basically human.

So, she'd intended for the humans to deal with her. Humans who hated shifters.

"Mr. Brewer hasn't checked in, either. This isn't normal for him. He's usually very dependable."

Cole Brewer. The man was a whore who also happened to love killing shifters. He was one of the hundreds of anti-shifter humans who were willing to do whatever—or in his case, whoever—it took to make sure all "shifter scum" were eradicated.

They were mercenaries. As was she. And she wasn't above using the terroristic hate group for her own ends, especially when she needed the people in her way to...disappear. That bitch wasn't the first one she'd "disappeared" using The Human First Coalition. Those blood thirsty bigots were so very easy to manipulate. One phone call about a shifter posing as a human, interacting with humans, and they were slavering like dogs.

Ingrid huffed. It had cost a fortune to fund their exploits, but what was the point of being the sole heir of her father's billions if she didn't spend a few hundred million here or there?

"Go," she ordered. "Find out what the fuck happened. If Kana Yamamoto is still free and breathing, then they have some fucking explaining to do. Either they captured her, or they failed—there's no in between."

"Yes, ma'am," the man on the other end of the line replied before disconnecting.

Ingrid tossed her cell onto her desk and glowered out the floor to ceiling windows of her home office. The home office in the home she'd shared with her mate for more than two years. Years that she'd spent cultivating the persona of Ingrid Magnusen, Alpha's daughter, the happy, contented consort mate to Alpha Rueger Laarsen. The mate she'd been promised. The mate she'd earned.

But her mate was gone—off searching for that mutt. He would keep searching until he found her, he was like a wolf with a bone, determined to find his supposed fated mate. Fated mate? What a load of bullshit. Fate didn't give a fuck about shifters—they made their own fate. And her fate said she was meant to be the official Luna of the Great Northern Territories Pack.

And she wasn't going to fucking let some weak, nothing bitch take what was rightfully hers.

Ingrid's wolf huffed, her annoyance at Ingrid nothing new; the spirit was frustrated with Ingrid's continued stubborn ignorance. But Ingrid didn't give a shit. She was the one who decided--and her wolf just had to fucking deal.

Kana Yamamoto was living on borrowed time. Ingrid was done watching the female, it was time to eliminate the threat permanently.