Rejected

Chapter 1

Amber's POV

"You are nothing! You'll never amount to anything!" The voices echo in my ear as I run from home and away from the only family I've ever known. I can't remember how long I've been running, maybe a week or two, but I do know that if I stop they will catch up to me. That is if they care enough to notice I'm gone, but if they catch me they'll take me back to that hell hole and beat me. They'll make me wish I was dead.

"You honestly think I would mate with a runt? I wouldn't be caught dead with you. You're nothing, worthless, just a punching bag for your dad, a weak link in the pack. You can't shift, therefore you can't fight, and if you can't fight then you can't protect this pack. I Farris Stone, reject you. Why don't you go and die in a ditch somewhere so I can find a mate worthy of the alpha title." The voice of my mate came through next. He had rejected me as if I were nothing but a waste of breath and wished me dead. I was nothing to him, nothing to everyone in the pack.

"Keep running... Keep running." I chanted to myself when I faltered in my strides. If only I could shift, then I would be fine. They wouldn't come after me if I could shift. They wouldn't have treated me the way they did if I could shift. I know that being a runt means I'll never fit in with the humans and I'll never be accepted by the shifters, but I hoped that because both my father and my brother were a part of the current and future Top Triad of the pack that maybe I would be accepted, or even tolerated. After all, Human mates were welcomed, why was I any different?

*SNAP*

Someone was coming up behind me, and fast. It had to be a shifter, I was too far into the woods to grab the attention of any humans who might be around, and I was moving too fast for a human to be gaining on me. I heard footsteps behind me and on both my left and right. I know wolves hunt in packs and patrol in groups of two or more. My panic set in when I caught sight of the one on my left. I must have crossed someone's territory without knowing. I pushed my legs faster, hoping to make it to the other side of the territory without being caught, maybe if I made it to unclaimed land I could rest for a while.

My plan to make it out of their territory didn't factor in that there would be another wolf appearing in front of me as if by magic. I tried to stop my forward motion and turn around fast, but the grass was slick with morning due and I slipped, falling on my butt. I scrambled to stand up and run back the way I came, trying to get away from the beast that stood about 5'5" on four paws. When I turned around to continue running I was encircled by three more wolves who were well built and at least five feet tall. My chest heaved as my lungs begged for air, my legs ache and my knees shook while I watched each wolf carefully as they circled me. The biggest wolf was completely black, not a speck of any other color on him. His eyes were a melted gold as the sun shone in them. The second largest wolf was gray with a white face, he had a little black coloring in the fur on his back, and his eyes were a light brown. The other two were both brown with gray speckled through their whole coat. As I watched the wolves I saw one of them leave a gap just big enough for me to dash through, I sent a quiet prayer up to whatever god was listening and bolted. As I passed them the wolves howled angrily, but one in particular stood out. It was deeper than the rest, and filled with authority. Shit, I've pissed off someone in the Top Triad... I'm totally screwed.

I looked behind me - something every wolf knows will do more harm than good, especially in a territory you don't know - to see how close they were. The largest one was in front, his black fur running wild in the wind created by his speed. I only saw him for a moment before I tripped and tumbled down a hill. As I rolled I hit my head a few times on rocks and tree roots, the impact causing me to feel light headed and dizzy.

When I finally stopped tumbling I was lying flat on my back, looking up at the morning sky. My vision became blurry and I watched as a wolf's head came into my line of sight, the same black wolf that had been chasing me. This was it, I'm going to die. I was taken by surprise when the wolf shifted, showing a blurry but seemingly handsome young man with blonde hair with a five o'clock shadow.

"Shit!" the blond haired man cursed under his breath, "Myles, she's bleeding, give me your shirt." Another man's face came into view, this one with light almost golden brown hair, and no shirt, must have been Myles. I didn't have the energy to do anything but lay there as the man who had just been chasing me worked to keep me conscious. While the man with the blond hair pressed Myles' shirt to my temple another man, who looked younger than the first two snapped his fingers in my face.

"Keep your eyes open." Mr. Snappy fingers told me. But I'm tired, I've been running for so long.

"Don't fall asleep. What's your name?" I'm seeing double now, two of Mr. Snappy fingers, but they're on different sides of me... and they're arguing with each other? Brothers? No, twins? Both had the same facial structure, sharp cheekbones and crooked noses, even the cut of their short dark brown hair was the same, I couldn't tell the two apart.

"What the hell Zack?" Mr. Snappy frowned after his duplicate smacked his hand out of my face.

"Quit snapping your fingers in her face, it's distracting." The duplicate, Zack, said. He was right, the snapping was keeping me awake and making my headache worse.

"Well how else are we going to keep her conscious and alert smarty pants?" Mr. Snappy smirked.

"God Tyler, we ask her questions dipshit." Zack said as he smacked Mr. Snappy in the back of the head. No, no questions. Questions mean I have to answer, and I'm so tired.

"What's your name?" Blondie, who was still applying pressure to my bleeding temple, asked. My eyes started getting heavy, and my train of thought slipped from my grasp, my head spun while my body felt like it was sinking into the ground.

"Shit, Tab, she's fading fast." One of the men said, I didn't see which, but I didn't have the energy to care. The man pressing the shirt to my temple tried to get my eyes open again, trying to keep me awake, but failed. I slipped into darkness, my mind going free while my body stayed trapped and in the hands of the strangers who had been trying to kill me.