REJECTED MATE IS CLAIMED BY THE ALPHA’S BROTHER

Chapter 3

I know that Caleb grinds his teeth feeling an unfamiliar aggravation rise within him, it’s not just about finding a random match it’s about finding love and happiness.

He feels foolish once the words are out, Annie is looking at him as if he’s grown a second head, she’s assessing his expression as if trying to guess what he wants to hear and it kind of breaks his heart.

Because he realizes she’s always done so, I don’t know what you want me to say, she confesses in a small fragile voice.

Do you think you could grow to love him, he asked.

Annie hesitated a moment but the. She averts her eyes and replies in the firmest tone.

He’d never heard her use my heart has always belonged to another and it always will.

Caleb’s heart sinks at the words. It’s a foreign feeling all these new feelings are strange and uncomfortable and he doesn’t understand where they’re coming from but don’t worry, Annie adds placing her small hand on his arm not someone I stand a chance with.

“ I’ll mate with Corbin. I promise I would never let you down”, she said to Caleb with a fake smile trying to hold her balance.

The date for Annie and Corbin’s meeting ceremony has been set and it’s everything Caleb should have hoped for yet for some reason the faster the day approaches the more anxious he becomes it’s driving him insane to the point where he’s loosing focus on sleep and appetite.

He just cannot stand the idea of Annie leaving with a wolf she doesn’t truly want. Just because she believes she cannot do better, just because Caleb has ensured she wouldn’t do better, he’s ruined her happiness. She says she loves another who would never have her, except Caleb knows the man she loves would have and had taken her for a mate and given her the happiness she deserves.

“How about I train Annie”,Caleb asked his brother, if she becomes stronger, we could find her a better match.

Rowan doesn’t object to his care for Annie and would like nothing more than to see her happy.

So Caleb starts spending time with her, hunting in their wolf forms, practicing her fighting skills, and trying to attune her senses and control her abilities and he can see how hard Annie tries to improve.

How much she’s hoping to become stronger, except he realizes not for herself or the chance to find a better mate.

Annie’s just doing it because she’s trying to please him maybe that’s your problem, he snaps at her in a fit of anger. You’re always thinking of other people and what they want, what do you want Annie?

Do you even want to be stronger, her kind smile breaks, and tears prick her eyes making Caleb feel like the lowest of the low.

It doesn’t matter what I want, Annie says with resolve because I won’t ever have it, I know that and I’ve made peace with that.

But if I can bring a smile to someone else’s face then at least, it won’t have been a waste.

You are not a waste, Caleb protects, feeling it in his heart to be true, it’s not because Annie isn’t strong, can’t fight or defend them that she doesn’t play a role within the pack.

She’s calm collected and understanding, she reads people easily and always finds a way to help them even to her own detriment, that’s not nothing.

Caleb can’t believe he ever thought it was nothing, please don’t be angry with me Annie says, taking his hand, I just want you to be happy Caleb.

I always have.

Caleb is back at our shop not long after that event, I’m upstairs making dinner when he arrives because I’ve realized that if I don’t cook, Adrien tends to forget to feed himself, and since he’s the one putting a roof over my head and paying for my school tuition, I’d best make sure he stays alive, all this to say he’s the one putting a roof over my head and paying for my school tuition.

I’d best make sure he stays alive, all this to say he’s the one who greets Caleb into the shop and I only become aware of his presence once I heard yelling from below.

Curiosity gets the better of me, and I hurry to the entrance of the shop to discover our shifter client yelling at Adrien in a tone that makes me freeze in fear.

Adrien had told me Caleb wasn’t human he’d left the shop after making his wish and I now realize he was right. He’s frankly terrifying, Like a beast about to pounce.

I’ll pay whatever you want or do whatever you want, I don’t care but you have to cancel my wish, he’s ordering backing Adrien into a corner. The ladder is perfectly indifferent to his plight or the perilous situation he is in though.

I couldn’t cancel your wish even if I wanted to, he explained as one would discuss the weather once it’s done, it cannot be undone until the day I die.

Caleb looks like he’s seriously considering making that happen so I jump in my heart beating against my rib cage, what if he makes a second chance wish, would that work?

Adrienne’s eyes snap up to me and he’s suddenly looking displeased, go back upstairs Iris. But I insist what if one wish per person no refunds.

Adrienne declares giving Caleb a cold intransigent look. Caleb’s anger deflated before my eyes were replaced with a sharp heartbreaking sadness. Please he begs in a silent defeated tone, if not for me then for her.

Annie’s a good person the best and she’s about to mate with someone who doesn’t even see that. Who doesn’t even see the beautiful soul she has, but Rowan did, he would have made her happy.

What I did to her was unfair, life is unfair Adrien interrupts.

In a bored tone, now leave us shifter, you’re scarring my assistant and she doesn’t easily get scared, I won’t have it. Caleb leaves our shop looking like his entire world has just ended.

We never see him again,but a week after Caleb’s departure another shifter comes into the shop a frail pale-looking girl with very light blonde curly freckles and earnest brown eyes who wouldn’t look powerful or impressive, even if she tried. But she doesn’t try, she greets us with a warm hopeful smile.

It’s Annie I heard that you grant wishes, she tells Adrien with peaceful resolve. So I’ve come to make one I wonder if Caleb can what he’s done to her, it must be why she is here after all he can’t make a second wish but Annie could very well make one for herself to anel Caleb’s and be reunited with Rowan her Alpha mate.

All right Adrienne says giving her an assessing look what is it you desire? Annie’s expression becomes resolute, there’s someone in our pack who’s so worried about us being vulnerable that he focuses his entire life on making sure we’re safe.

Instead of thinking about his own happiness, I don’t think he even knows how to be happy, you understand she frowns sadly. It’s because when he was little his mother died protecting him, he feels guilty and he’s afraid that if he starts thinking with his heart rather than his head he’ll lose everything again.

But he deserves better than that, he’s a good man and he deserves to be happy. I just want him to be happy.

Is this your wish, Adrien asks not unkindly, yes sir I wish for the man I love to be happy.

I became anxious and nervous, Adrienne hadn’t even told Annie about the consequences of making a wish and she’d already lost everything once, because of his magic it didn’t seem fair that she should face the consequences again for wanting someone to be happy. I opened my mouth to tell her so but Adrienne snapped me a warning look and replied very well tonight.

The man you love will ask something of you, agree to it and you’ll ensure his happiness forever. A bright relieved expression spreads across Annie’s features. I will, she immediately agrees with heartwarming enthusiasm, it really will make him happy I guarantee it, Adrienne replies with a small smile. oh thank you Annie exclaims, thank you sir.