Rejection

EVERETT

My wolf lives up to his name; he’s the chaos to my composure. I have to think logically, whereas he’s thinking with the mate bond.

Yes, I already feel as though I can’t live without her. And yes, she’s beautiful, even covered in blood. And yes, she means the world to me and I don’t even know her.

But she’s human, and she’s breakable. She can’t be my luna.

“Yes, she can!” Chaos screams.

“She’s a weak little human. No one in this pack will take her seriously, let alone other packs,” I argue.

“We’ll make them respect her. We are the alpha. We can do what we want. They all respect us, and we’ll demand respect for her.”

“We can’t tell them what to think. They will openly respect her but talk behind our backs.”

“She belongs with us. She’s not going anywhere, and they’ll say what they want to say. She is our mate. Rejecting her would kill me. I won’t allow it,” Chaos states stubbornly, and I sigh in frustration.

After a while, my mate is all cleaned up, her beauty even more profound to me.

Her soft porcelain skin makes her look fragile, like she could break at the faintest touch, her tiny figure stirring under the sheets of her hospital bed, a cute pink tint to her cheeks.

She’s stunning. And she’s mine.

Mine for now, at least.

Lucius and Ace walk in with furrowed, contemplative brows and slight frowns, glancing over at my mate.

“You have a human mate,” Lucius remarks, a hint of disgust in his tone, which causes me to instantly growl before I can even think.

He steps back a little, noticing my protectiveness of her.

She may be human, but she’s still my mate.

“What did the doctors say?” I ask them.

“It’s her blood that was all over her, but they have no idea where it came from. Aside from bruises around her neck and covering parts of her body, she’s unharmed. She’s just tired,” Ace informs me.

How could she have that much blood from no wounds on her body? That doesn’t make sense, but it doesn’t matter. At least she will be alright.

Not that I can say the same for my aunt in the other room. I remembered her curious stare. She’d find out what was going on eventually.

The girl’s eyes flutter open, her breath suddenly becoming heavy as her eyes dart around the room to see where she is.

When her eyes catch mine, they lock in place. Beautiful emerald eyes that glisten with confusion. Confusion and not fear.

Interesting.

“What’s your name?” I ask a little coldly.

“Rory,” she answers.

RORY

“What’s your name?” the man before me asks in a flat tone.

This man called me ‘mate.’ Or maybe I was dreaming that. I was delirious after my time in rogue territory.

But I feel a pull to him—his eyes are like blue crystals, eyes that have haunted me in my dreams.

How is that possible?

I dreamed of him, his wolf, and now he is here. He’s clearly an alpha—his dominant aura filling the entire room and instilling in me a control no stranger could ever have over me.

He’s an alpha. Does he hate humans like Nick? Will he try to kill me too?

“Rory,” I reply, and his frown grows—those eyes continuing to pierce me as if he could see my soul, as if, as an alpha, he possessed that ability.

Maybe I should play innocent and act like I don’t know about werewolves. Maybe then he’ll let me go, even though that very idea pains me as it crosses my mind.

I don’t want to go. I can’t leave him.

But why?

If he is my mate, it’s the mate bond I’ve heard so much about—an indescribable connection pulling mates together, creating the feeling as if they can’t live without one another.

“Your name’s Rory?” he asks as if confirming that I’m telling the truth.

“Well, Aurora. But people call me Rory,” I respond shyly as his unwavering stare continues. “Where am I?”

This question makes him frown even more. I believe he’s contemplating his answer. He doesn’t know I know about wolves. Or he’s not sure.

“You’re in a hospital,” another man answers for him.

This man gives me a hard disgusted glare—the frustration clear in his expression. If I could guess the cause, I would say it’s because I am human.

This man must be his beta; the sheer force of his brutal personality hits me hard.

Another man beside him just holds curiosity with a mix of frustration in his eyes, looking at me as if he didn’t know what a human was.

The alpha gives his beta a nod to go ahead.

“Why were you out in the woods?”

It appears as though the questioning has been passed off to the second in command—perhaps because the alpha wants to carry on creepily watching me as if he were a stalker or some private investigator.

How should I answer these questions? Should I lie? Would there be any point?

If the alpha is my mate, he’ll keep me around, I think. And lying to him would be unwise from what I know of alpha tempers.

But I can’t tell them the name of my old pack, or that I died and came back from the dead. My mama told me to share the existence of my ‘gift’ with no one.

They could exploit it, and dying is awful.

It feels as though everything is being sucked out of me, and when they slit my throat, I wanted to claw my neck and eyes out just from the sheer pain.

Dying is definitely not on the agenda again.

“I was banished from my pack. They tried to kill me,” I answer with a slight frown at the memory.

They didn’t try, they did. And they smiled about it.

“Pack? You’re not a wolf,” the beta states a little harshly.

“My mom was an omega wolf in the pack. She found me in the woods and raised me as her own,” I reply, seemingly unfazed by his interrogation, but panicked on the inside.

This beta doesn’t seem to like me, and he doesn’t even know me.

“When can I leave?” The alpha’s head snaps up and he stalks over to the side of my bed, looming over me.

“What did you say?” he demands.

I shrink back into the hospital bed, terrified.

“I-I’m a human,” I stutter. “I don’t belong with wolves. I almost died because of that.” ~Did die, actually.~

I glance at the beta who hates me, and I see that he’s nodding to himself.

The alpha growls, pure fury in the sound. The beta freezes, as does everyone else in the room.

“Leave us. Now.” His words leave no room for argument.

Everyone in the room leaves, and I’m alone with the terrifying, but strangely comforting alpha. It’s really confusing. His angry gaze scares me, but I also feel like I belong at his side. Like I’m totally safe.

Sure doesn’t feel that way with the way he’s glaring at me though.

“Why did they try to kill you?” he demanded.

“They thought I would tell people about wolves if they let me leave.”

“Will you?”

“No!” I frown, angry that they would think I would betray my mama like that. “Never.”

He stares at me, silently fuming. His fists are clenched at his sides, his knuckles white. I get the sudden urge to reach out and hold his hand, to smooth out his fingers. I blush. Am I crazy?

“Do you ~want~ ~to leave?” he asks, his voice quiet. His voice shakes, and I try to figure out what he wants. He sounds conflicted, like he’s having a silent argument with himself. Or with his wolf.~

I think about his question. I imagine myself stumbling around in the dark, afraid and alone in rogue territory. A cold chill of terror rolls through me.

“No,” I whisper. “I want to stay.” ~I want to stay with you.~ ~But there’s no way I’m saying that out loud.~

“Give me one good reason,” he growls. “One good reason why we should keep you. What can you do? How can a human make herself useful to the pack?”

I open my mouth to reply, but no words come out. What ~can~ ~I do? I’m weak. I’m slow. I can barely walk down the hallway without tripping.~

~Tell him about your power,~ ~a small voice in my head says. I thought about the dying baby fawn. ~I can heal things…

But I can’t tell him! Mama told me not to. They will take advantage of me. They’ll test for themselves and kill me over and over for fun.

But if I don’t, I’ll be abandoned in the rogue forest again, and I don’t think I’ll be so lucky to survive again…

“Speak,” he demanded. “I won’t repeat myself.”

I stare into his sapphire eyes, conflicted. Can I tell him? A part of me wants to trust him. I can feel the mate bond between us, but I can’t reveal my secret to him just because of that. He’s still a stranger. He can reject me.

I bite my lip. Trust him and risk becoming a tortured science experiment, or take my chances in the dark forest and get torn to shreds by rogues…?

I take a deep breath.

“I-I can heal…”