Rejected

Chapter Three

Matteo POV

"Please" Sophia begged as the whip landed on her open back. Alpha Sebastian watched on with a stoic expression as she bled all over the floor. "You deserve none of the mercy you plead for you b***h " He screamed into her face as she sobbed harder. "Now clean this mess up and get back to your chores before I return" He ordered and stormed out. I watched as Sophia stumbled to her feet please Matteo she whispered stretching her hand out for support. I glared at her "Don't touch me " I snapped and stormed out too.

That was 6 years ago. And Sophia was 14 by then. There were many more instances after that but that day was when Sophia had seemed to lose hope in me,her twin ever coming to her rescue.

Now as I sat on her beat up excuse of a mattress reading the letter she had left behind, I couldn't help but wonder was really happened to my parents that day?

Earlier that day

Everyone was tired after the birthday celebration yesterday. I had just turned twenty and everyone as usual made it a big deal. The house however was not clean like we'd expected and there was no breakfast. Go down and bring me that mutt. Elias my older brother and now beta growled. (They had gotten their positions handed to them before my birthday. )

Why me? I started to whine but the lift of an eyebrow from Kaiden shut me up. I stomped down angrily to grab her and was met with an empty room. I looked around angrily at the empty room and turned around to leave when something on her "bed" got my attention. My wolf stirred worriedly and I rolled my eyes. Relax.

The paper was thin, cheap, stolen from the kitchen ledger. She’d written it in pencil, the letters smudged where her hand had dragged through graphite. I could smell her on it. Jasmine and rain and the salt of tears she hadn’t let anyone see. Not for years.

I read it again. And again. Until the words stopped being words and became something I felt instead of understood.

You were born two minutes before me, she’d written. You came out fighting, the midwife said. I came out quiet. But when we were four, you found me crying in the den because I’d scraped my knee and it hurt. You gave me your favorite stone. The blue one you’d found by the creek and you said, “No one will ever hurt you while I’m here, Soph. I promise.”

I kept that stone. It’s in my pocket now. I’m taking it with me because I need to remember that the boy who gave it to me existed. Even if he doesn’t anymore.

My throat closed. I remembered the stone. I’d forgotten it until this moment, but now I could feel its weight in my palm, cool and smooth, the color of the sky just before dawn. I’d given it to her because it was the only thing I had that was mine, and she’d been shaking so hard.

I didn’t kill them, Elias. The handwriting grew jagged here, pressed deep into the paper. I know you think I did. I know the pack thinks I did.i know Elias thinks I did. I know Sebastian told you he found me covered in their blood and that I confessed. But I didn’t. We were six Elias. I woke up and they were already gone. I was screaming when you found me. Not because I was guilty.Because I was six years old and my parents were in pieces on the forest floor and I didn’t understand why.

But you looked at me like I was a monster. Like I was something that had crawled out of the woods wearing your sister’s skin. And then you stepped back. You let them put the collar on me. You let them call me feral. You held me down when I tried to run to their bodies, and you told me I didn’t deserve to grieve them.

I waited for you to come back. Every night for thirteen years, I waited. Even after that day in the dungeon six years ago when you told me not to touch you. I told myself you were just angry. That you’d remember who I was. That you’d look at me one day and see your sister instead of your parents’ killer.

But you never did.

The paper was damp now. I hadn’t realized I was crying until I tasted salt. My wolf was making a sound I’d never heard before. A low, broken whine that didn’t belong to an animal, didn’t belong to a man. Something in between. Something lost.

I’m not running away because I’m guilty, the letter ended. I’m running away because I’m tired of being innocent in a pack that needs me to be a monster. I’m tired of bleeding for a crime I didn’t commit so that you can all feel like justice was done. I’m tired of waiting for a brother who died six years ago and left a stranger wearing his face. And I don't wanna see the face of the man, my mate who was supposed to love me no matter what after he rejected me.

I love you, Elias. I hate that I still do. But you're no longer my brother and I can’t stay here and keep dying for your peace of mind.

—S

There was no postscript. No clue to where she was going. No hidden message or code. Just the truth, laid out in smudged pencil, and the crushing weight of not knowing.

I folded the letter carefully along its creases and slid it into my pocket, next to my heart. The room was empty now. Really empty. I could smell where she’d slept, where she’d cried, where she’d bled into the mattress springs after punishments I’d watched in silence. But the scent was fading. She’d been gone for hours. The trail was cold.

My wolf urged me to shift, to run, to track her. But I didn’t move. What would I say if I found her? I’m sorry ? I believe you ? I didn’t believe her. I didn’t disbelieve her. I didn’t know anything except that she was gone and I’d helped drive her there.

Sebastian had told me she was guilty. The pack had told me she was guilty. My own grief had told me she was guilty. But now, sitting in the dark with her words in my hand, I realized I’d never asked her. Not once. Not in fourteen years.

I’d been so afraid of the truth that I’d accepted a lie without ever checking what shape it took.

The house was quiet as a lot of pack members still slept. Elias and Kaiden would come down soon to look for me. I knew that but I couldn't move.

I pressed my face into my hands and breathed in the scent of her letter until my lungs ached.

I didn’t know what the truth was. I didn’t know if my parents had died by her hand or by someone else’s. I didn’t know if I’d spent fourteen years protecting a killer or torturing a victim.

I only knew that she’d left, and she’d taken the boy I used to be with her.

And I didn’t know how to get him back.

Sure enough Kaiden and Elias made their way downstairs. "What is keeping you down here so long?"

Elias snapped and I just stared at them with my teary face. "Where's that b***h?"

Kaiden asked and I shrugged.

"Answer the que..." Elias started and I snapped.

I don't know okay?! She's gone She's f*****g gone!!!!

Here ! She left this behind for me"

Wha... Kaiden started and snatched the paper from me. Once he was done, he stormed up and ordered us to follow him. "Find her" He screamed at the pack warriors "