Filed to story: The Tyrant Alphas Rejected Mate
“My wolf does, too,” I add like that’ll help.
I stare at his feet and the rough wood planks beneath them.
“Una. Look at me.”
My name on his lips stokes the strange excitement in my chest, and it doesn’t make sense. I’m hurt. Bristling. And awake and aware in a way I’ve never been before, not even on a full moon.
I jerk my head no.
He sighs in exasperation and paces a few feet away. “You gotta tell me what’s going on in your head. I’m not a mind reader.”
It comes out so easily. He’s definitely said this to a female before. My wolf growls and tosses her head. I’m with her.
“No, I don’t,” I say to the weathered porch boards. “I didn’t come to your house. I didn’t howl outside your window. I didn’t start any of this, and I-” My voice breaks just a little. “I don’t have any problem leaving.”
I turn toward the door so quickly that I catch Mari’s wide eyes as the curtain falls back into place.
I stop mid-stride and take a deep breath. I’m not going to run away like I’m scared. I force myself to look him in the eye. “I’m not your mate. You said so yourself, and you’re the alpha. And I don’t want a ‘with benefits’ kind of thing. Or any kind of thing with you.”
“What’s ‘with benefits?'” he asks.
“And you’re not in my system.”
“Hold up. Go back. What benefits?”
“There aren’t any. That’s what I’m saying. You do your thing, and I’ll do mine, and just, just-get off my damn porch.”
I fumble with the door knob, and when I get it open, it slams into the wall. My insides are sparking. I carefully shut the door so it doesn’t seem like I’m upset, and I drive the deadbolt home.
Mari, Annie, and Kennedy huddle in the hall, gawking.
“H-He can break down that door,” Annie says.
“We should put the couch in front of it.” Kennedy’s already pushing up the sleeves of her sweatshirt.
“We can’t take him just the three of us,” Mari says, her sweet voice quavering. “I’m gonna call Abertha.”
And whoosh, the temper drops out of me like a row in Tetris. I’m not accustomed to anger. Big feelings aren’t my register. I’m calm, cool, and collected.
And my roomies are the best. I’ve done okay with them, I think. We’re taught every day to bend and show our necks, but all three are making to move the couch. They’ve got my back.
“You don’t have to. The kitchen door’s right there.” I hike a thumb over my shoulder. “And I don’t think he’s going to bust in.”
Mari peeks outside. “He’s sitting on the edge of the porch again.”
“Wolf or man?” Annie asks.
“Man.”
“What’s he doing?” Kennedy elbows Mari away so she can see for herself.
“Staring at the moon.”
They’re all looking to me, but I don’t know what to say. “I think he’s guarding us. He’ll probably go home in a little bit.”
They seem skeptical.
“What do we do?” Annie asks.
“Go to bed. I’m sure everything will go back to normal in the morning.”
From the looks on their faces, none of them believe me. I offer what I hope is a reassuring smile, and head back to my room.
I glance quickly out the window as I pull the curtains closed. Killian is still there, his shoulders curved, a sprig of lavender in his hand. He’s popping the flowers off, one by one.
His posture isn’t defeated or upset. If I had to say, I’d call it contemplative.
I touch my lips. They feel the same as they always have.
I let my mind skim the place where the mate bond used to be. No difference there. Tender but healing. No pain.
But there’s a new rawness in me, beneath the confusion and hurt. My wolf is so confident in Killian’s wolf. She’s snoozing now, perfectly happy and assured that he’s miserable.
Killian’s rejected me a handful of times at this point.
But he’s sitting in human form on my porch.
I turned him down, but he didn’t get angry. He didn’t force the issue.
And he didn’t stick us out here in this cabin because we don’t belong. He did it to protect us.
I do remember what it was like, even though the memory feels much longer ago than it actually was. I remember the Butlers and the Campbells forbidding me to walk anywhere alone.
I remember Eileen Campbell hurrying me past the commissary one afternoon. She hissed at me to look down. There was a circle of males out back by the picnic table. A female was sobbing.
There was always a feeling of dread anytime the pack met-at meals or bonfires or full moon runs. That’s where I learned to be small. And quiet.
If anyone was trying to change things, they were doing it in secret, and I was too young to know.
Then Killian came to power, and overnight, the rules were different. He burned the picnic table behind the commissary. The unprotected females were moved to this cabin.
Why did he change things?
I’d like to know, but I can’t imagine asking.
Even after tonight.
The kissing.
He’s alpha. I’m a lone female. We’re never going to talk like equals. On the most primal level, we aren’t.
I crawl under the covers, certain that it’ll take forever to fall asleep, but I drift off right away. I have strange dreams, and I wake often and steal to the window.
Each time, Killian’s there, staring at the moon, and then later, laying on his side, sleeping on a bent arm, my shawl bunched around his middle.
When the sun rises, he’s gone, a pile of plucked lavender next to where he sat.
I sweep them into the flower bed before the others wake up, and I can’t stop my lips from curving.
The alpha of Quarry Pack slept on my porch. And he took my shawl when he left.
New Book: Veiled Desires of the Alpha King Novel
Dayson was the alpha of the largest pack in North America. Powerful figures from other packs sought to offer gorgeous girls as potential mates for Dayson. He steadfastly rejected these advances, he was not a pawn to be manipulated. But eventually there came a mysterious girl he could hardly say No. Who was she?