The Alpha's Stubborn Rejected Mate

Chapter 2 - Michael - 1 Year Ago

I was so f*****g sick of this pack. My father wanted me to be someone I wasn’t, and all of my so-called friends only hung around with me because they thought it would increase their own social standing. If I could just go somewhere else and leave the whole lot of them behind, then I would be much happier, but I would also never become this pack’s alpha, and this pack would never get any better.

My father was planning to hand over the pack to me once I reached my twenties, and then I could make all of the changes I had been hoping to make for so long. First on my list was to improve the treatment of Omegas. I had seen the way they were treated in this pack first-hand, and it was completely appalling.

It wasn’t going to be easy. Most of the influential people in the pack liked things the way things were, but what kind of alpha would I be if I gave in when things got tough?

“Mick, what are we going to do?” George asked. He was standing in the hallway of my father’s mansion as though he owned it, surrounded by a group of my close friends.

“Yeah. It’s the weekend, we can’t hang around here all day.” Madison added, fluttering her eyelashes at me.

She already had a mate with whom she had completed the bonding process, but she still wanted the boost in social standing that being close to the Alpha gave her. Many of her family members were mated to Omegas, and many people in the pack believed she was too. I didn’t know if that speculation had proved true, but she was careful to hide her mark and never be seen with her mate in public. She was so desperate to appear available that I had a hard time believing that she was happy with her mate.

I often wondered what she would do if I took her up on that offer. Would she put up with the pain of betraying her mate and risk destroying her relationship with him completely, just for a short-term boost in pack rankings? Her attitude and behaviour made me feel sick, and the sad thing was that she wasn’t the only one of my so-called friends who made me feel that way.

“You know, you could always just go somewhere without me?” I suggested.

They knew I had a full day of work planned out today between my studies and my Alpha training. I had only emerged from my office so I could grab some lunch for myself when I found them all standing here.

They didn’t look as though they had just arrived, which made me wonder how long they had been standing here waiting for me to show up and give them some direction. It was almost as though, without my presence, they didn’t have a single brain cell between them.

“Don’t be like that. I know that you haven’t been happy recently, but we can cheer you up.” Madison told me as she tried to loop her arm through mine. I let my arm drop to my side and took a step away from her. If that wasn’t a clear sign of my disinterest, then I didn’t know what it would take to get rid of her.

“Come on, man, we all know that your father has been giving you a hard time. Let us cheer you up. After all, what are friends for?” Spencer told me.

Out of all my friends, he was the only one with whom I had a genuine friendship. It was probably because his family didn’t have strong ties to any of the ranked families, so he didn’t have any of their arrogance or sense of entitlement. If I had any say over who would become my Beta, I would have chosen him over George a thousand times over.

“Fine. If you give me ten minutes to get changed, then we can go into the human town and try out that new fancy coffee place.”

I didn’t stick around to listen to their victory cheers. The faster I could get changed, the faster I could get this over and done with, and the sooner I could get back to my books. If I wanted to complete this degree in three years and take over the pack before I turned twenty-two, then I couldn’t afford to waste too much time.

A few short minutes later, I had slipped out of my jogging bottoms and into something a little more respectable. I could hear the sounds of a commotion from downstairs before I had even fully left my room. I was about to groan in frustration when her scent hit me. Sweet, feminine, and utterly divine.

My wolf lurched forward in my mind as he picked up on my mate’s delicious scent. He wanted to jump the stairs to claim her, and he didn’t give a damn about who might be around to see it. Fortunately, I was strong enough to hold him back. I didn’t know anything about her yet, and the last thing I wanted to do was scare her away by being too forward. Even though I was just as desperate to taste her as my wolf was.

As I got a little bit closer, I realised what was causing so much commotion. My mate was an Omega from one of the nearby packs. She must have been sent here on some kind of errand, and my so-called friends were all crowded around her, giving her a hard time.

“Leave her alone. I think she is here to see my father.” I shouted as I came down the stairs.

My friends looked at me as though I had lost my mind, but they still did as I asked. They stopped taunting her and even took a few steps back to give her a bit of space. My wolf was incredibly grateful for the last part. He didn’t like seeing anyone getting close enough to touch her. Especially given that all of the males in the group were currently unmated.

I closed the distance between us slowly, being careful not to frighten her. As I approached her, all that I was thinking about was how much I wanted to wrap my arms around her and kiss her. But as I got closer, I realised that there was something wrong with her scent.

It smelt as though another man had been all over her. There was a musky undertone to the scent, which was distinctively Alpha, and I knew exactly who that scent belonged to. Jasper Hartford.

Jasper was the future alpha of the next pack over, and he had a reputation for sleeping with any woman who would open their legs to him. It was well known that he preferred his partners to be easy so they didn’t get too clingy after he slept with them. He was a nasty piece of work, and I hated that his scent was all over my mate.

It wasn’t as though I expected my mate to stay innocent until she met me. Her history wasn’t important, but why the f**k did she have to sleep with that asshole? I dreaded to think how he would react when I went to his father’s pack to request her transfer to my pack. Knowing his reputation, he would probably use it as an excuse to rub their intimate history in my face. Making me stand there while he bragged about having her first.

Shit.

It felt as though my mind was trying to torture me. It kept providing me with images of the two of them together, and no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t seem to shake those images. Did she enjoy being with him? Would she rather be with him than with me?

‘No, she wants us. Hold her, kiss her, claim her.’ My wolf begged within my mind. His desperation was creeping into my chest and mixing with my already confused mess of emotions.

I wanted to give him what he wanted so badly, even though it was hard for me to get past what she had done. Everyone was looking at me and waiting for me to say something, but all the words were getting caught in my throat.

“I’m sorry to disturb you, Alpha. Alpha Hartford wanted me to bring over these documents.” She stuttered, not making eye contact with me.

Maybe the shy girl act worked for Jasper, but it wasn’t going to work on me. She had given herself to him, and yet she wouldn’t even look me in the eyes. A fresh wave of anger flowed through me. I couldn’t shake the feeling that she wanted to reject me in order to be with Jasper.

Well, I wasn’t going to give her the chance to humiliate me in front of all my friends. If she wanted a rejection, I would give her a rejection.

“You’re not worthy of being my Luna. There are so many other women who are much prettier and stronger than you are. One of them will be my mate.” I glanced over towards where my friends were standing and smiled in Madison’s direction. Not because I wanted Madison, but because I wanted to hurt my mate as much as she had hurt me, and Madison was a convenient tool.

Once I knew my words had their mark, I turned back towards my mate and added. “I, Alpha Michael Graves, reject you, Omega, from the Hartford pack as my mate and Luna.”

I knew that it couldn’t be a complete rejection without using her full name, but that was the idea. I was angry with her now, but I knew that feeling wouldn’t last forever. Once the anger had faded, I would want her back. Then I would track her down, take back my rejection, and make her forgive me so that we could look after this pack together.

“I, Sasha Evans, accept your rejection.”

My heart shattered, and pain radiated all the way through my chest. I had never expected that she would accept my rejection. She was meant to walk away and give us both a chance to cool down before talking about our future privately at a later date.

It was going to be so much harder for us to come back from this after her acceptance. Harder, but certainly not impossible.