The Alpha's Stubborn Rejected Mate

Chapter 8 - Sasha

This was the reason I hated Alphas. They never took anyone else’s opinions into account. I told him I didn’t want to give him a second chance, but instead of leaving me alone, he decided I was wrong, and he wouldn’t stop until I had changed my mind and accepted him. To make things worse, now that he had decided that he wanted to be mine, he wouldn’t leave me alone for even a second.

I had already tried to get away from him a couple of times, but each time I tried, he would make a huge deal out of it. It was almost as though he thought I was going to try running away from the pack as well as him. To be completely honest, if I thought it wouldn’t get me into more trouble, then I would have run away. But even I wasn’t stupid enough to run from an Alpha twice in one day, especially when I didn’t even know where I would go. If I was going to leave, then I needed to bide my time, and I needed some kind of plan.

In the meantime, I needed to find some way of letting Dante know what was going on, because at the moment, that situation was like a ticking time bomb. Alphas were notoriously possessive over their mates. So, he wasn’t going to be too impressed with another man messaging and calling me, and he would like it even less when he found out that we were dating.

If he found out about that, it would be a challenge for me to stop him from hunting Dante down and killing him. I would probably have to make some kind of commitment to him just to save Dante’s life.

“So now that you officially have the rest of the day off, what would you like to do together?” Michael asked, turning me around to face him like I was a doll he could manipulate.

“I would like to go home alone and spend the afternoon reading.”

“That isn’t possible, but I could take you to a bookstore and buy you any books that you want.”

I have had dreams about this moment, although of course, when I had daydreamed about this situation, it was with a man whom I was actually interested in. I know it probably wasn’t most people’s idea of a dream date, but I had spent pretty much all of my life with very little access to money. Sometimes one of the ranked members of the pack would give me a small tip, but other than that, I had to rely on handouts and things that I had managed to salvage.

The ranked pack members were incredibly wasteful, so I always had more clothes and technology than I needed. But the book selection had always been terrible, and there wasn’t even any kind of library within our pack.

I couldn’t deny that it would be nice to have my pick of books to read for once. The only problem was that I wasn’t sure if it was worth the risk. Michael would probably view it as some kind of date, and that might make him think he stood a chance.

‘Just make it clear to him that you don’t see this as a date.’ My wolf suggested. Her voice was still rough from lack of use, but I had already noticed her presence was a lot stronger within my mind since Michael had rescinded his rejection.

‘I know that you are not sure about our mate, but I think you should give him a chance, and if I am wrong about him, then at least we will get lots of books out of this trip.’

My wolf would have said just about anything to make me spend time with my mate, I knew that, and yet I was still considering the idea. Mainly because I knew that I wasn’t going to be able to get rid of him for a while, so I figured that I may as well get something out of it.

“Fine, but this isn’t a date or anything,” I told him.

Michael’s whole face brightened, and even though he nodded his head in agreement, I had a feeling that in his mind, this was 100% a date. He took hold of my hand and started leading me back towards the Alpha’s house, but I pulled my hand away from him and shook my head.

“I need to get changed first.”

“There is nothing wrong with the way you are dressed, you look perfect.” He replied, looking puzzled.

“It’s not that. It’s just that I have been working all morning and I stink.”

It wasn’t something that bothered me so much. I worked hard, so sweating was only natural. If you heard the non-Omega members of our pack speak, then you wouldn’t believe that was the case. They acted as though sweating was a heinous crime that should be punishable by death.

The unranked members were bad enough. They would talk about other Omegas and me behind our backs at a distance where they knew we would be able to overhear them. But the ranked members of this pack were a whole other level of bullshit. They would have no problem coming up to an Omega in the street and publicly shaming them. Most of the ranked members of this pack had never done any kind of physical work in their lives, so they had no clue what they were talking about.

If only their lack of knowledge would be enough to keep them quiet, but I wasn’t that lucky. In the end, it was usually easier just to comply with their expectations to save myself the embarrassment of yet another public shaming. Going home might also give me a chance to secretly message Dante and tell him not to call me for a couple of days.

“Don’t be so ridiculous, you smell amazing.” He put his arms around me and pulled me close so that he could bury his face in my neck.

Why the heck did I have to be mated to such a fricking i***t, of course I smelled amazing to him. That was literally how the bond worked. The rest of the pack wouldn’t have the same feelings about my sweat, though. To them, I would smell disgusting.

“To you I smell amazing, but that is only because I am your mate. Trust me, everyone else will thank you if you let me have a shower,” I replied.

“Please don’t cover your scent, it is comforting my wolf. I think it might be the only thing preventing him from trying to mark you at the moment.”

Michael’s response made me shudder. My wolf might have been ready to give into the bond, but I sure as hell wasn’t. Unfortunately, that left me with no other option than to do as he wished and hope for the best. Besides, even ranked pack members wouldn’t be brave enough to do too much to me if I had an Alpha by my side.

Michael drove me into the centre of town to the pack’s only bookstore. The store was run by an unranked pack member who was a couple of years older than me. We went to school together for a while, and she had always seemed nice.

I had still never dared to set foot in her shop. I might not have been expressly forbidden from entering shops, but I wasn’t usually welcome in them either. It probably had something to do with everyone knowing that Omegas didn’t have any money. Most of the pack saw us as freeloaders at best.

As soon as I walked through the door to the shop, the woman behind the counter eyed me with suspicion. I tried to ignore her critical gaze and follow Michael as he went further into the shop, but the woman stepped between the two of us, cutting me off.

“This isn’t a place for browsing Omega, you should go find a public library or something. You aren’t welcome here.” The woman growled, looking down on me with such disgust, even though I was a good couple of inches taller than she was.

There was something about the way she spoke to me that really grated on me. I didn’t normally speak out against people like her, but there was something different this time, and I wasn’t willing to let it go. I puffed out my chest and opened my mouth to speak, but Michael was on her before I had a chance.

“Is there some kind of problem here?”

“Of course there is Alpha. This filthy Omega thinks that she can come in here and read all the books without paying. I am not allowed to physically throw anyone out of the shop, but I would appreciate it if you would help me get her out.”

The shopkeeper was fluttering her eyelashes at Michael as she spoke, and although I had absolutely no interest in keeping him as my mate, it irritated me. She was openly flirting with my mate in front of me, and there was a primal part of me that wanted to claw her eyes out for doing it.

“That Omega, whom you were just insulting, happens to be my mate, but even if she weren’t, she would have every right to be here. I am visiting this pack from one of the neighbouring packs, and I have to say that so far I am pretty disappointed by what I have seen.”

The woman stepped away from me, apologising profusely as she tried to justify the way that she had spoken to me. She even tried grabbing onto Michael’s arm to beg for his forgiveness, but he quickly shook her off and slipped his arms around me instead.

“I don’t want to have to ruin our afternoon by dealing with you, so maybe I should just tell your Alpha about this incident. I am sure he would be very interested to hear how Omegas are treated within his pack.” Michael growled.

“No, please don’t do that. I only said that because we have a problem with Omegas coming into the shop to read the books without paying.”

“That is because we aren’t allowed to earn money,” I practically screamed in her face.

Normally, I was pretty good at holding my tongue when people around me were insulting Omegas, but there was something about this woman that was really getting to me, and it had absolutely nothing to do with the fact that she had tried to flirt with my mate.

It probably had more to do with my wolf’s anxiety. She thought that this woman was trying to turn our mate against us. I didn’t care about Michael, but I cared about my wolf. If she were uncomfortable, then I would do what I could to make her feel better, even if that meant letting Michael hold me for a short while.

However, if I didn’t get away from this woman soon, then I would seriously lose my temper with her.