The Alpha Regrets Rejecting Me

Chapter 5: A Familiar Voice

Ash killed the fire in seconds, plunging the cave into darkness. I held my breath, straining to hear past the sound of my own heartbeat.

"Lira."

The voice came again, closer now, carried faint on the wind outside. My whole body went cold, because I did recognize it, and it wasn't who I expected.

"That's Priya," I whispered.

Ash looked at me sharply. "Who?"

"She's pack. She's— she was my friend, before everyone decided I wasn't worth being friends with anymore." I was already moving toward the mouth of the cave before I finished the sentence.

Ash grabbed my arm. "It could be a trap. They could have taken her, made her call for you."

"Priya wouldn't do that. Not even if they hurt her."

"You don't know that for certain."

"I know her," I said, pulling free. "Better than I know you."

He didn't stop me a second time, but he stayed close behind as I climbed out of the cave and into the cold night air. The sky had started to lighten at the edges, just barely, the first hint of morning pushing back the dark.

"Priya," I called, quiet enough not to carry too far.

A shape moved between the rocks below, and a second later she stumbled into view, breathless, her clothes torn at the sleeve, dried blood on her cheek. When she saw me she froze, and for a second neither of us said anything.

"You're alive," she finally said, her voice cracking. "I heard what happened in the woods. I heard there was a fight, and I thought—" She stopped, pressing a hand over her mouth.

"How did you find me," I asked.

"I've been tracking your scent since yesterday. It's faint, but I know it. I've known it since we were kids." She glanced at Ash, wary, then back at me. "Who is that."

"Someone who saved my life. Twice now." I stepped closer to her. "Priya, why did you come. Do you know what happens to you if the pack finds out you left to look for me?"

"I don't care what happens to me." Her jaw tightened, and for a moment she looked more like the girl I remembered from before everything fell apart between us. "What they did to you in that field was wrong. Everyone knew it was wrong. Nobody said anything because everyone's too scared of what Kael would do if they did."

Hearing his name out loud made something twist in my chest.

"Is that why you came," I asked. "To tell me everyone secretly felt bad?"

"No." She hesitated. "I came because of what's happening to him."

Ash went very still beside me.

"What do you mean," I said slowly. "What's happening to him."

"He hasn't been the same since he rejected you," Priya said. "At first everyone thought it was guilt. Alphas feel that sometimes, when they reject a mate, especially in public like that. But it's gotten worse every day. He can barely hold pack meetings. He collapsed during training two days ago, in front of half the warriors. Nobody knows why. The healers can't find anything wrong with him, not physically, but something is happening to him, and it started the same night he rejected you."

I thought about what Ash had told me the night before, in the cave. A bond like that doesn't just disappear because he said four words. It festers.

"He's not sick," I said quietly. "He's paying for what he did."

"Maybe," Priya said. "But whatever it is, it's getting worse, and the pack is starting to panic. An Alpha who can't lead is a target. Ironfang's already circling. Selene's been sending scouts along the border every night this week."

Ash finally spoke. "Selene Draven."

Priya looked at him properly for the first time. "You know her?"

"I know of her," Ash said. "If she's already testing Moonfang's borders, that means she already suspects your Alpha is weakened. That's not a coincidence. That's someone watching closely, waiting for the right moment."

"There's more," Priya said, turning back to me. "Two nights ago, someone attacked a border patrol near the eastern ridge. Rogues, they said, but stronger than any rogues anyone's seen before. Three warriors didn't come back." She swallowed hard. "I think it's connected to whatever happened to you out here."

I exchanged a look with Ash. He gave a small, grim nod.

"It is," I said. "They came for me first. I don't know if they're the same group, but whoever's hunting me isn't going to stop just because I ran."

Priya's eyes went wide. "Hunting you? Why would anyone—"

"It's a long story," I said. "Longer than we have time for right now."

She studied me for a moment, taking in the state of me — the torn clothes, the exhaustion, whatever was left showing on my skin from the fight the night before. Something in her expression shifted, like she was seeing me differently than she had a few minutes ago.

"You're different," she said quietly. "Since the last time I saw you. What happened to you out here?"

"I'm still figuring that out myself."

She nodded slowly, like she'd decided not to push, at least for now. "I can't stay long. If they notice I'm gone, it'll raise questions I can't answer. But I needed you to know. About Kael. About the border. I thought—" She hesitated again. "I thought you deserved to know what your rejection did to him, even if you don't care."

"I don't," I said, too fast.

Priya gave me a look that said she didn't quite believe me, but she let it go.

"Be careful," she said instead. "Whatever's happening to you, whatever this is—" she glanced at the fading marks still visible along my wrist, "—it's bigger than anything Moonfang's dealt with before. I don't think anyone back home understands what's coming."

"Neither do I," I admitted.

She hugged me quickly, fiercely, the way she used to before everything changed, and then she was gone, disappearing back down the rocky slope the way she'd come, moving fast to make it back before anyone noticed she'd left.

I stood there for a long moment after she left, staring at the spot where she'd disappeared into the trees.

"You trust her," Ash said.

"With my life," I said. "She's the only person in that whole pack who ever treated me like I mattered."

"Then we should move quickly," he said. "If Ironfang is already testing the borders, and your bloodline is already active enough to draw the kind of attention that killed three warriors on patrol, we don't have as much time as I thought."

I wrapped my arms around myself, thinking about Kael collapsing in front of his own warriors, about a bond festering somewhere I couldn't see it, eating away at the man who'd called me weak in front of everyone I'd ever known.

Part of me wanted to feel nothing about that. Part of me almost did.

But a smaller, quieter part of me, one I hated for even existing, wondered exactly how bad it was going to get for him before this was over.

"Ash," I said. "If the bond doesn't break on its own — if it just keeps getting worse the longer we're apart — what happens to him? What happens to me, since I'm carrying half of it too?"

Ash's expression darkened, and for the first time since I'd met him, he looked like he was choosing his next words very carefully.

"That," he said, "is something I was hoping we wouldn't have to find out."