The Rejected Mate's Revenge

Chapter Three.

I was starving.

Booker knew the way out the forest. He gave me the thick coat he was wearing and it swallowed me up. He was intensely gruff, when he got tired of answering my questions he ignored me. But I was oddly enjoying his company.

He took me to a restaurant in a nearby town and I ordered everything I possibly could. I didn't know if I should, but Booker just nodded when I looked up at him in question.

"How did you know where to find me?"

He grunted, broke the hot bread into two and shoved one at me. "You were making a hell of a lot of noise. Crying' and snifflin'."

I frowned, embarrassed. "Well thanks, anyways for saving me."

"I didn't save you, girl." He said. "I'm using you to get to Xavier. You wouldn't last a day in the real world, if you keep on thinking like that."

"Like what?"

"Like everyone has a good heart." He leaned in closer, the sharp green of his eye catching the low light. "I've lived long enough and I've seen enough to know that the world and the people in it are cruel. There's no kind heartedness and no good people."

I didn't say anything in response. I'd known that. It's not as if anyone was remotely kind to me when I was living at the pack house. But I still chose to have fate in our kind, that we were not just ruthless beasts who killed without mercy. I shrugged, dipping my end of the bread into warm butter. I tossed it into my mouth and chewed with bliss.

Booker raised a brow but he definitely didn't want to watch me eat. Because after a few bites, he slammed a hand on the table. "Tell me everything you know about Xavier Storm."

I swallowed furtively. "I don't know much."

"Tell me what you do know."

I tried to remember everything. Because of our ranks, I never knew Xavier except for the occasional rumor with his name hushed. "His father was a nice man, I remember that much. When my dad died, he came to tell me himself. I always thought it was sweet, the thought of it. But I never saw him again after that."

"Why?"

"Well, when you're an Omega and an orphan at that, no one really wants you around. I usually spent my time in the kitchen or with the handmaids, they were always sending me on one errand or the other."

"And you never once spoke to Xavier?"

I was starting to get irritated by his questions but I tried to remember. Anything. My eyes closed out of their own will and I sunk deep into a memory.

Daya had sent me to do the wash with another girl, slightly older than me. I was a little bit nervous because I liked Kleo and I wanted to impress her. So when she snuck off to hang out with a friend, I resolve to finish up.

I was supposed to take these towels back to the upper bedroom. I gathered them all up, neatly folded and pristine and made my way up the stairs. I wasn't that tall so I couldn't see over the stack of towels. Pushing open the door with my foot, I placed the towels on the cushion and sat back on the plush carpet, momentarily exhausted.

The room was beautiful. Mahogany floors, ceiling, even the bed frame was the prettiest brown. Red and gold curtains, and gold bed linen. It was a room meant for royalty, and I was a little intimidated by it. My attic room was nowhere close to this.

The soft jingle of keys in the door snapped me up to my feet. Someone was coming in, and I don't think I was supposed to be here. I ran into the closet and hid, slapping my hands against my mouth so I wouldn't make any noise. The door opened and I didn't hear anything as it closed again.

I didn't think anyone was inside. Probably just someone dropping off something like I did. I slowly opened the closet door, and peeked outside. All of a sudden, a hand banded around my throat.

Xavier Storm. With eyes as dark as a thunder cloud. I'd never seen him up close before, only really heard of him from the girls in the kitchen. They all had a crush on him. I didn't blame them either. He was really good looking, with black ink hair and a sharp jaw. His jaw now however was purpling with bruises, he even had a black eye to join.

He glared at me, although his hold on my throat loosened. "What are you doing in here?"

"I—" I inhaled as best as I could. My hand clawed at his wrist and his head tilted. As if he'd caught an insect in his palm and he was curious as to how it died. Slowly and without fuss? Or putting up a fight? "Please—"

I thought I was going to die. Until Xavier stepped back, releasing me in one whole movement. I spluttered and coughed, my hand rubbing my throat in soothing circles. "I dropped those off." I pointed to the towels.

He was a couple years older than me and it showed. Towering over me, my gaze ran down when it was impossible to strain my neck any further. "Then why were you hiding?"

I didn't say anything. Couldn't. Because I knew it wouldn't make sense.

"Did my father put you up to this?"

My brows crinkled and I shook my head vehemently.

"Do you know how to clean a cut?" He asked.

I nodded. I was privy to all the nasty gashes and wounds the Warriors brought back everyday, so it was like a second skill.

That was when I noticed he was limping. The hand he had used to choke me was hanging loosely by his side but the other was clutching his abdomen. And as he moved to an armchair by the bed, he winced.

I was still standing by the closet, wringing my hands in front of me when he said. "Antiseptic's in there."

I rushed to where he pointed, and got a bottle of antiseptic, wool and some bandages. Xavier took off his shirt. This wasn't my first time seeing a boy's chest, but Xavier was way more matured than any fourteen year old I'd known. I ducked my head as I settled on the carpet beside him so he wouldn't see my insanely red cheeks.

He winced as I dabbed at it, and I could tell that he'd let it stay long without treating already. His hands were shaking, and a slight sweat developed on his temple. The cut wasn't that big but I could tell it was deep. "It might be infected."

He hissed as I dabbed at it again. "Stupid Onyx." He raised a shaking hand and pressed it on mine, which was holding the cloth to his wound. "Don't go easy on me." He said with a pained groan.

I froze, my movements coming to a still. His hand was still on mine, a steady weight, unlike the rapid movement my heart was making inside my chest. "S—sorry."

Xavier opened his clenched eyes and looked at me. Really looked at me. "What's your name?"

It was like his hand was still on my throat. I couldn't speak, even answer a question as easy as my name. He was a force, even at that young age, he had the makings of an Alpha. It was intimidating and wild to be on the receiving end of his attention.

He raised a smooth brow, those thunderous eyes blazing into me. "Your name."

"Aira." I finally said.

"I'm going to pass out, Aira." He said calmly, meanwhile my brows shot up in alarm. "I need you to get Damien for me. You know Damien?"

I nodded. Everyone knew Damien. He was the golden child, if there was ever one. Everyone liked him and he knew how to charm his way out of anything, hence he never got in trouble. You could always see him coming from a glimpse of his golden hair.

Xavier let go off my hand and I finished up, then gestured for him to sit up so I could wrap his midsection with the bandages. He did just that and when he lay back down, passed out. Just like he said he would. I almost burst out laughing.

I ran to find Damien and tell him, and he was a little surprised to see me bearing this kind of news. But he believed me.

"Thanks, kid." He said and loped off to find his friend.

I snapped out of my reverie, finding Booker waiting patiently, one scruffy brow raised. Clearing my throat, I said. "He was very calm. Composed, even. Even as a kid. When his father died, he didn't even mourn him." I remembered the day clearly. Two years ago, the whole house was in tears. Yet eighteen years old Xavier just went to his father's office and right back to the work he had been doing.

Our food had arrived. Booker began spearing into a bloody red meat. "You said was?"

"Well, was, yes. Until today." I remember the rage and feeling in his eyes. I remember it like it was my own. "He wasn't so calm and composed today."

Booker mulled this over, almost like he had tiny little gears tinkling away in that head of his. A slight glint appeared in his green eye and he turned back to me. "Any love interests? Except you."

I scoffed. I was barely an interest. "He was close with Onyx, a counselor's daughter. They were childhood friends. And Damien too, his Beta. Um, I heard he was planning on mating with Kaylea, a girl from another pack."

"Until you."

"Well, I'm out of the picture now. Even if I was never really in the picture to begin with." I shrugged. It didn't hurt as much as it did before, just a slight tinge where my pride took a hit. "What does this matter anyways?"

"You have to know your enemy to destroy them. What makes them tick, what keeps them up at night." He lifted a shoulder. "Basic information."

"Destroy him?" I was still stuck on the word. "Xavier is— he's dangerous. Really, really dangerous. And we're just—well, pardon me if I'm being rude. But I'm me, not dangerous at all. And you might be fairly dangerous but not as dangerous if he took your eye. I don't think we should be planning on taking on an Alpha as strong as Xavier."

I'm scared for a while that Booker might get mad. Until he grins that malicious smile, the smile that doesn't really look like a smile but more like a gash in his mouth. "You're funny."

That's a first. I shrug, taking a large bite of my sandwich.

"Except we're not going to Xavier alone. He has influence, and sure, man power. But there's one thing he doesn't have."

"What's that?"

Booker leans in close, as if sharing a juicy secret. The clinks of the plates around us leave him to whisper sort of loudly in my ear. "A mate."

"An Alpha without a mate tends to be more volatile. All that wolf rage left unchecked. People don't trust Alphas without mates." He chews, talks with his mouth full. "It's patience really. He's going to try to mate with someone else, in the meantime he's getting weaker. So we train."

"We?"

"Yes, we." He spears me a hard glance. "You wanted revenge, I'm handing it to you on a silver plate. But you can't take on anybody with you shivering and shaking like a leaf."

I raised my gaze to Booker's, who still had that amused smile on his face. "Ok, I'm in."