The Alpha She Rejects But Can't Escape

Love From Afar

Daniel dismissed Eric and Joshua with a brief wave, the silent gesture enough to send them from his office. The heavy doors clicked shut behind them. At last, he was alone. Or as alone as a man with a wolf could ever be.

He reached for the half-empty bottle on his desk and took a long swallow, welcoming the familiar burn as it slid down his throat. Leaning back in his chair, he let his head rest against the leather, fatigue settling deep into his bones.

'Hunter...' His voice drifted inward. 'Why doesn't her rejection work?' The office was silent now, save for the steady crackle of the fire, he closed his eyes. The massive grey wolf stirred within the depths of his consciousness, slowly lifting his head.

You ask this every time.

Daniel let out a weary laugh that held no amusement.

'This was the twenty-eighth rejection.' His fingers rolled the neck of the bottle absently against his palm. 'I'm beginning to wonder if there's some magic number she has to reach before the Moon Goddess finally decides to break the bond.' He rolled the bottle's neck against his palm. The thought had haunted him for months. Every rejection echoed through the mate bond like a blade. He felt every word, every ounce of hatred and every look of disgust she directed at him. Yet the bond remained stubbornly intact, ying their souls together, as though it refused to acknowledge Alexandra's wishes.

Hunter was silent for a long while before finally answering.

I'm not entirely sure either but she hates us.

Daniel stared into the dancing flames.

'That is a giving, she watched us killed the one she loved.' Daniel said quietly. Hunter almost looked offended.

How could I stand by and watch our mate belong to someone else?

Daniel lowered his gaze. 'I know.'

He remembered Elias's face. The horror in Alexandra's eyes and the sound of her screaming his name. There wasn't a day that memory didn't return to haunt him. Hunter watched him quietly.

'Would you change it?'

The question lingered. Long enough for Hunter to wonder if there was any answer that wouldn't condemn him.

Finally, he spoke. If I said yes...I'd be lying. I regret hurting her.

Hunter's voice was barely a whisper.

I regret giving her memories she'll never forget.

Daniel's hands slowly clenched.

But I don't regret stopping another man from taking what was always meant to be ours.

His confession hung heavily in the room.

They both understood. To a wolf, a mate wasn't simply someone to love. A mate was the other half of their soul, the very idea of willingly watching that soul belong to another was incomprehensible. And they had lost one mate before, finding a second chance is pretty rare and now that they found her, how could they just let her go?

Daniel closed his eyes.

'Can you still not reach her wolf?' He asked.

If I could...you would have known the moment it happened.

Daniel sighed heavily, he had faced armies without fear, stood against rival Alphas and walked away victorious. Yet nothing had ever left him feeling as helpless as the woman who occupied the room at the end of the corridor.

He knew how to win wars. He knew how to conquer territories. But he had no idea how to win the heart of a mate who hated him with every beat of hers.

And somehow...That frightened him far more than any battlefield ever had.

***

A gentle knock echoed through Alexandra's room.

"Luna?"

Alexandra didn't even bother looking at the door.

"Go away."

"It's me, Mia," one of the maids assigned to her answered softly. "I've brought your lunch."

"I'm not hungry."

The maid sighed, clearly accustomed to the response.

"I've also brought fresh clothes, your favorite berry pastries, and the new novels the Alpha ordered from the human town."

"I don't want anything from him." There was a brief silence.

"Very well, Luna. I'll leave everything outside the door."

A few moments later, the sound of retreating footsteps faded down the hallway.

Alexandra waited another minute before cautiously opening the door just enough to peek outside.

As always, a neatly folded stack of dresses rested inside a hand woven basket beside a silver tray filled with lunch, fresh fruit, pastries, and a flask of hot chocolate drink.

Beside it sat three brand-new novels. She frowned.

"...That idiot."

Onyx stirred, a low vibration behind her ribs. Hungry now?

"I'm not. But it's here. Wasting it would be stupid." She hauled everything inside, letting the door slam. "We need strength."

For what? Another week of sulking?

Alexandra's jaw tightened. "For surviving. He's a monster. The farther we stay from him, the less likely he is to..."

Kill us? Onyx's amusement felt like claws kneading, gentle but insistent. He cannot and you know this, that alpha adores us too much to harm us. We are his mate.

"Then why?" Alexandra whirled, as if the empty room held answers. "Other wolves speak the rejection and the bond shatters immediately. I've said the words more times than I can count yet nothing, why?"

Onyx went still. That particular stillness that meant she was choosing what to share.

...Perhaps, she said slowly, the bond does not break because some part of you does not wish it broken. That is why your words bounce off him like stones off water.

Alexandra's breath caught. She looked at the novels on her table, at the pastries, at the careful, stupid, relentless proof that someone was still trying.

"That's not true," she whispered.

But she did not throw the tray into the hall. And Onyx, coiled warm and watchful in her chest, did not call her on the lie.

...

This had become their routine. Daniel never got too close. He never cornered her. He never even demanded her attention.

Instead, he sent meals, books, warm blankets during winter. Flowers she told herself she would throw away but kept them pressed between the pages of her novels.

New clothes appeared before she could ask and whenever she ran out of something, it was replaced before she noticed.

His care for her from a distance was infuriating. The entire Blood Moon Pack knew their Luna wanted absolutely nothing to do with their Alpha.

They also knew she had attempted to escape more times than anyone could count. Every few weeks, someone would spot their Luna sprinting through the gates, climbing over walls or squeezing through windows.

Every time she was brought back kicking, punching, scratching, and loudly informing everyone within earshot exactly what she thought of Daniel Morris.

The younger wolves had even started taking bets on how long each escape would last.

Her twelfth escape remained her greatest achievement. She had vanished for two whole days, during which Daniel Morris nearly lost his mind.

He barely slept, barely ate. Entire patrols were dispatched in every direction. Search parties crossed territory after territory, while neighboring Alphas received unmistakable warnings.

When they finally found her, exhausted and curled beneath the roots of an ancient oak tree, Daniel had arrived moments later.

Everyone expected him to explode. Instead...He simply wrapped his coat around her trembling shoulders and carried her home. He hadn't said a single word. That silence had frightened his Beta and Gamma far more than any fit of rage ever could.

After that incident, Daniel quietly stationed hidden guards to watch over her. Not to imprison her but to protect her. Alexandra still managed to escape, somehow.

No one, not even Eric, understood how she continued slipping past wolves specifically assigned to guard her. Sometimes she made it into neighboring pack territories.

Twice she reached the human towns and once, she somehow spent an entire afternoon hiding in a traveling group before one of Daniel's guards nearly had a heart attack finding her.

She never made it farther than two territories away. Daniel always found her.

Always.

Six months had passed, six months of chasing. Six months of believing that one day, Alexandra would stop running and choose him of her own free will.

Eric had suggested marking her. Joshua had suggested locking the gates permanently. Several elders had advised asserting his Alpha authority over her. But Daniel refused every suggestion. He could force her body to remain beside him. He could never force her heart.

And a Luna whose spirit had been broken into submission wasn't the kind of mate he wanted. Daniel loved her fire, her stubbornness and her refusal to bow, even when facing the strongest Alpha on the continent.

One day, he believed, that fire would burn for him instead of against him and until then...He would wait, however long it took.