Chosen, just to be Rejected

16

Parker

Parker finally opened the file before him and turned the pages one at a time, going through it as he was supposed to as the Alpha. Belladonna had signed everything as expected.

Though in there were things he’d not expected, she had made print-outs of things she thought he needed to know. Lists of things of upcoming pack events that were part of the Luna’s duties to maintain. All from her Luna’s diary he realised, and for the next three months, not just one month, but three, so the pack would continue to run smoothly without her here.

She’d printed out a list of all the pregnant she-wolves in the pack's due dates, not just the ones still due this week, but for every pregnant one. There was a list of teens turning 16 and due to get their wolves on the next full moon as well. A list of the jobs they wanted in the pack which he needed to sign off so they could have the job and be paid. A list of the runners to be moved to AIN positions in the hospital over the next three months, their assessment dates included.

A list of the Mating balls that had been organised by her, for their wolves to attend, including the list of wolves she had signed up to go to each of them. A list of the packs due to come here for a mating ball in two months' time. There was a note attached to one that he was supposed to attend next month that stated 'I’ve pulled the pack from this mating ball today, via email. Due to Luna Ceremony for Carina due here.'

He stared at those very words, she’d even gone so far as to pencil in the Luna Ceremony for her replacement. He didn’t think she would have done that, didn’t actually think any Luna being replaced would do that. But his Belladonna, she was considerate, it seemed, even of her replacement.

And once again he was back to not understanding her. Who would do that? It was akin to a human bride planning her ex’s wedding to the woman that stole him from her…

“Where is Carina?” Parked asked.

“In a room upstairs, though she was very unhappy, she wasn’t put in the Luna Suite. I informed her that was where Belladonna lived and got snarled at instantly, about it being her suite and not, and I quote her, ‘That she-wolfs’.”

Parker sighed “And?”

“And nothing. I told her simply that, as a chosen mate, Luna Belladonna did not ever once grace the Alpha’s bed in the Alpha Suite, where she herself would be once marked and mated. That seemed to settle her, and she went willingly to the room next to the Luna’s Suite.”

“Alright.” Parker nodded as he looked at Belladonna's pack file photograph, one last time. She was smiling in it, and her hair was out, looked happy, he thought, though now he wondered if she had ever actually been happy here. He closed that file on her lovely face, he’d not look at it again. “File this in the archives, please. Where I don’t have to look at it anymore.”

He watched Kane take it and the man stared at him. “So, you’re really just going to let her go then? Not go out there and bring her back?”

“Yes, it’s what she wants.” Parker stated simply, she was inside her mind just something sold to him, even after eight years together. Was to him in her mind something just to be used by him, tossed away by him, when he was done with it.

She’d now been released from him to finally go and live her life as she chose to. He would let her, regardless of the fact that he loved her, she wasn’t his Goddess-Gifted, and she had the right to be free of him.

He’d never actually seen her unhappy here inside his pack, so he’d believed she was happy staying here with him, only now did he realise it was all because that Mating Alliance meant he owned her, and she had to be here. She’d always been indifferent to him but never said no to him.

Again, now he realised that was going to be due to the wording of the mating alliance. He doubted she cared at all about leaving, was likely out there in the human world now, smiling away, truly happy to be free of him and her life, which she considered to be one of enforced s*****y.

His pack was going to be shocked and likely upset about their Luna, not being their Luna anymore, that she was not even here within the pack to be a pack doctor either. That she had just up and left the moment she could, in the middle of the night while they all slept, without even saying goodbye to any of them.

She had left him, left his pack, as quietly as she’d been brought into it, only now there was a deficit to his pack and he knew it. She’d been an amazing Luna, she just hadn’t wanted to be that, had no choice about it, forced to be here by not only her father, but himself as well.

He wondered what she thought about his reasons for choosing her over her sisters or did she think he had no choice in the matter? Her father had not really had a choice in it, he'd had to present all of his children, he wouldn’t be taking just any wolf from that pack. Only one of the Alpha’s children could see a full deal that was reliable to be struck by that man.

Though he had seen her two sisters, and technically the eldest daughter should have been attached to that mating alliance, he'd rejected her and her sister, asked where his third daughter was and had made that man present her. He'd not wanted to, or didn't appear to want to, so she was likely to be the best option for a mating alliance. Then laying eyes upon her, her sisters were pretty, but they were nothing like Belladonna standing there quietly next to them, she’d been lovely to look at. To him, much more beautiful than her two sisters, she’d not been wearing any make-up, and he didn’t think it was because she’d scrubbed it off.

It had taken nearly 40 minutes for her to arrive. She'd followed the Luna into the Alpha's office, she’d come from the pack hospital and had been wearing a set of scrubs, been at work even on their first meeting.

Her father had told him his eldest was the one that needed to go on the mating alliance, but the Luna had stated if he wanted the youngest, then that was what he would get. The Alpha and Luna had been at odds over it, and it had been the Luna that had gone and gotten Belladonna and presented her to him.

Stated she was the best option if he expected the Mating alliance to be held up. That she aspired to be a pack doctor, was completing a residency and, despite being the Alpha's youngest daughter and not the oldest, as it would sometimes normally be, she was the most promising of his daughters. So the one that was the most fitting for a pack dealing.

It may have been her father that suggested a mating alliance to stop the s*******r he’d seen coming, but Parker had only agreed to it, if those wolves he'd been hunting for and found were in that pack of his, forced to be there a long time ago, were released to him as well, and to make that man stick to the deal he would also get to choose the she-wolf to be mated off to him.

He’d actually chosen Belladonna to be his Mate and Luna, because she’d been beautiful and clearly intelligent, would be an asset to his pack, and likely the only one of his daughters that mand had't wanted to give up.

Now all he could do was set her free and hope he would come across her one day and see her happy, healthy, and doing what she loved to do. That she would find her Goddess-Gifted and get to be all loved up, have a family of her own. Though he didn’t relish seeing her with a child or children of her own, not when he’d wanted pups with her, and she’d not with him.

Parker stood and headed for his suite. He’d had a long and painful day; his chest still ached from their rejection, and he knew Belladonna was right in her statement of if he went and Marked and Mated his Goddess-Gifted Mate, Carina. That his pain would vanish instantly. Though the memories would still be there, the love he felt, that wouldn’t vanish overnight. No, it would just see the pain of their bond being severed would go away; that was all.

His new Mate, would be all consuming for him and his beast as well, so this would help with getting over Belladonna. He sighed as he walked up the stairs. Perhaps it was time to go and do that. Maybe he just needed to accept Carina in order to get over what was no longer his. Had he now realised, never been his; not for a single second of the time she was here, marked and mated by him.