Chapter 4: I Reject You
1689 Words
Avery’s POV
The sun rose slowly across the meadow, casting golden light over the grass.
It should’ve felt peaceful. Safe.
But my body ached. My heart was shattered.
I blinked up at the sky. For a second, I let myself believe it was all a dream.
Then I turned—and saw him.
Michael Damire.
Sleeping beside me.
“No… no, no,” I whispered, crawling backward.
Panic built in my chest like fire. My eyes dropped down. Blood, scratches, wounds. All over, between my legs. The mark on my shoulder.
Tears flooded my face.
I had slept next to the monster who destroyed everything. Like nothing happened.
I sobbed quietly into my hands, rocking myself.
Then I heard him stir.
I froze.
My hand wrapped around the knife in the grass. I stood. My legs shook.
Just one stab.
One cut and it would be over.
But when I looked down at him… I couldn’t do it.
“Why can’t I do it?” I whispered. “Why?!”
My grip loosened. The knife fell. I turned and ran—through the trees, through the pain.
Back home.
Or… what used to be home.
Screams.
Smoke.
Flames.
I stepped out of the woods—and saw hell.
Children running. Bodies everywhere. The sky was full of fire. And the earth was soaked in blood.
My legs went numb. My mouth hung open.
“No,” I whispered. “Please no…”
I walked through it like a ghost. I saw faces I knew—faces I loved. The gatekeeper, Mr. Oak. The butcher. All dead. Torn apart.
Then I saw her.
“Alina…” I whispered.
Her body was ripped open. Her eyes wide.
I collapsed and vomited.
Tears blurred my vision as I crawled away. Then I saw him.
My father.
Face up. Lifeless. Cold.
“Dad?” I dropped beside him. “Dad, please…”
I pressed my ear to his chest.
No heartbeat.
“No… no, please…” I sobbed, clutching him close.
“Wake up. Please just—wake up…”
But he didn’t move.
Michael’s POV
When I woke, she was gone.
“Avery?”
I sat up, heart racing. The spot beside me was still warm. My hand pressed into the grass like I could hold onto her.
Last night—she’d been mine. We were so exhausted all I could do was hold her, and..kiss her. Kiss her?
“Why did I kiss that damn girl” and why did I say that with a smile on my face. Not, a sly one. A goofy smile. Who smiles this way?
Nothing was ever mine unless I clawed my way to get it. And yet last night, everything felt so simple. Like a divine gift. Maybe I too could partake in this thing so many others do. Who would have thought Chase Cawthorne's daughter, a simple, silly girl could dull the pain of the curse.
“Goddess, she was beautiful.” I said out loud. She was like the sun. “Hōcne est modus tuus, dea, mē placandī propter omnia quae mihi peccāstī?” I asked the goddess if this was a peace offering. I communicated with her often. Determined to get everything I was owed. Who knew I didn’t want much, because,
“When I kiss her goddess, when I’m around her,” I said, only too loudly to the clouds to the sky, “she’s enough!”
But now she was gone.
And I knew where she’d gone.
Back to the pack.
I walked through the forest. I didn’t stop. When I reached the edge of her lands, I saw the smoke. The screams.
My men were still at it.
Then I saw her.
Kneeling beside a body.
Crying.
I stepped closer.
“Stand down!” I shouted.
My voice rang through the chaos like thunder. Everyone stopped. They knew better than to let me speak an order twice.
I didn’t care about the battle. I didn’t care about the bloodshed.
I only cared about her.
“Avery…”
She didn’t even look up.
My throat tightened. I reached out, gently.
She shoved me.
I blinked, stunned. “Avery…”
She turned, eyes filled with fire and tears. “Stay away from me!”
Her voice cut through me like a blade.
“You must understand,” I said softly. “We’re fated. You’re my mate.”
“No!” she screamed. “You don’t get to say that. You don’t get to say my name!”
I flinched.
Her voice shook, but she didn’t stop.
“I reject you.”
My whole world tilted.
“What…?”
She raised her voice, loud and clear.
“I reject you, Michael Damire. As my mate. I want nothing to do with you.”
Pain tore through my chest.
I dropped to one knee, gasping. Like something inside me snapped.
The bond—burned away.
She staggered too. I could see it hurt her.
But she didn’t stop.
“You’re a monster,” she spat.
I stared at her. My vision blurred.
My chest rose and fell fast. My fists clenched. My wolf stirred.
I stood slowly.
Something inside me… cracked.
“You don’t mean that,” I said, voice trembling. “Last night—”
“Last night was a mistake!” she yelled.
Tears fell from her eyes, but her voice was sharp. “You killed my people. My father!”
I took a step forward. “Avery, I can fix this. I can—”
“You can’t fix death!” she cried. “You can’t undo what you are!”
I froze.
“You want to be feared?” she asked. “Fine. I’m afraid of you. I hate you.”
My wolf roared.
The rage I’d held back exploded.
“People, don’t talk to me like that Avery, ” I growled. Failing to keep my composure. This girl made the air soft, when it usually felt like knives.
“I will give you the world Avery Cawthorne”
“I don’t want it, I never asked for it!” she screamed back. ”You’re a monster.”
Everything in me broke.
I looked up to the sky “Cūr mihi omnia tam difficilia esse dēbent?”
Why must everything be so difficult for me? And then at her.
We stared at each other.
A scream echoed from the trees.
We both turned.
A woman stumbled into the clearing. Blood covering her chest.
She looked straight at Avery.
“Run,” she gasped. “They’re coming.”
Who dares interrupt? My wolf growled
A shadow moved behind her—fast.
A spear shot through the woman’s back. She dropped.
Avery screamed.
I turned, my wolf rising fully in me.
a new enemy.
But this time… they were coming for her.
And I wasn’t going to let that happen.
Smoke still clung to the sky like a ghost refusing to leave.
My eyes were locked on Avery.
She was on her knees, shaking beside her father’s corpse. Her tears kept falling, and she didn’t look up at me once.
It didn’t even after I told her she was mine.
She rejected me.
Rejected me.
“I reject you, Michael Damire,” she had said. Her words were knives.
And now, all I could hear was the blood rushing in my ears. My wolf stirred, restless, angry.
Then I heard another voice.
It came from the smoke behind us. Deep. Cocky.
“Well, well. I thought I smelled something sweet.”
I turned slowly.
A man stepped through the haze. He was tall, shirtless, covered in dirt and blood. Scars slashed across his body like trophies. His yellow eyes flicked from the fire to Avery, and then to me.
“I’m Jillian,” he said, flashing a savage grin. “Sorry to interrupt your little heartbreak. The smell of blood… and a female in heat? Couldn’t resist. My men couldn’t either.”
Behind him, a pack of filthy warriors appeared. All of them were grinning, hungry, and high on the scent of death.
Jillian pointed. “That one’s pretty.” His men laughed.
One lunged at Avery.
She screamed.
Before I could think, before I could breathe—I shifted.
The change ripped through me like lightning.
My wolf exploded forward, black and monstrous.
I sank my teeth into the first man’s neck and tore it out. Blood sprayed across the ground. Another tried to run—I crushed his skull with a snap of my jaw.
“You’re a monster” echoed over and over in Zeus’s head.
Avery had fallen to the ground, her hands over her head, shaking.
One of the men reached for her again.
I roared.
I grabbed him by the throat, lifted him off the ground, and slammed him down so hard the earth cracked beneath his skull. He didn’t move again.
When I turned, only Jillian remained.
His legs gave out. He dropped to his knees, his voice shaking.
“Wait—please—I didn’t know… I didn’t know it was you. Michael Damire. The Alpha of blood. Forgive me, I—I was only following the scent—”
“Wrong scent,” I said quietly.
He tried to crawl away.
I shifted again, just my hands, claws still out—and ripped his spine straight from his back.
Silence.
Only smoke and the wind remained.
Then I turned back.
Avery looked up at me from the dirt. Her eyes wide. Wet. Scared.
I smiled.
I walked slowly toward her.
She didn’t move. Her mouth opened like she was about to say something.
“Michael?” she whispered.
I knelt beside her gently. She flinched.
My hand reached out—not to help her. Not to comfort her.
But to wrap around her throat.
Her soft, slender neck trembled beneath my fingers.
Her breath caught.
I leaned in close, my lips almost touching her ear.
“You’re mine,” I whispered. “Whether you want it or not.”
My eyes burned red.
She wasn’t safe.
Not from me.
Not anymore.
- Writer
