Chapter 12: Rejection That Failed
978 Words
“He beat you?”
I finished the sentence for her.
Mara moved her head slightly, confirming it.
“Who?”
“Cal,” she whispered. “Beta Cal Rowan.”
My wolf surged beneath my ribs, but I forced him back.
“How did you know he was your mate?”
“I don’t know. I could scent him.”
Her brow tightened as she searched through the memory.
“He was the first person I had scented since I was a child. I don’t know how or why, but I knew.” She wrapped her arms around herself. “He was so angry. So disgusted.”
Her eyes moved toward the ceiling.
“He hated me, and I paid for it.”
She could scent him? My wolf demanded. How, if she was bound?
I’m getting to that.
“How old were you?”
“It was my eighteenth birthday.”
“And he was the one who did this to you?”
Mara looked down at the stitches beneath her sweatshirt.
“Rafe’s mate,” she said slowly. “I think.”
Her fingers brushed the edge of the fabric.
“Did she make the wound worse?”
“Raven had to widen it to sever the tie,” I explained. “The infection has been treated. It will heal properly this time.”
Mara’s shoulders eased by a fraction.
I rose from the chair, but the question continued pressing against my mind.
“Why could you scent Cal?”
“I don’t know. I swear.”
She shook her head.
“They bound me a second time after he rejected me. I haven’t been able to heal since.”
I wanted to push for more answers.
I wanted to know exactly what Cal had done, who had helped him, and why Rafe had strengthened the binding afterward.
But Mara was exhausted. Her face had gone pale, and the hand resting over her stitches trembled.
“Get some sleep,” I said. “I’ll be back in the morning.”
I left the room and found Eric waiting outside, exactly where I had asked him to remain.
“She’s awake?” he asked.
“For a short time.”
“What did she tell you?”
“That Cal Rowan was her mate. He rejected her when she turned eighteen.”
Eric’s expression hardened.
“And the blood tie?”
“She didn’t know about it. She said the rejection was forced, and Rafe bound her wolf again afterward.”
Eric glanced through the glass at Mara.
“She was bound twice?”
“Yes.”
“Are you certain?”
“I heard it from her myself.”
He looked toward the hospital room again.
“She must carry powerful Alpha blood if they believed one binding wasn’t enough.”
“She may be stronger than Rafe.”
Eric turned toward me.
“What other reason would they have to treat her like that? Why blame her for the deaths of her parents? Why keep her weak, isolated, and hidden?”
“Fear,” Eric said quietly.
I looked through the glass.
Mara had curled onto her side, one hand tucked beneath her cheek.
“Someone feared what she might become.”
Eric’s jaw tightened.
“Then we need to find out what they knew.”
“We will.”
I didn’t sleep that night.
I had only known Mara for a short time, but the estate already felt wrong without her presence in it. Her room was across the hall from mine, yet I kept finding myself listening for movement behind the door.
At six in the morning, I returned to the hospital.
Mara was still asleep.
I sat beside her bed and waited.
She groaned first, shifting beneath the blankets before opening her eyes.
Panic flashed across her face.
Then she remembered where she was.
“Hospital?” she whispered.
“Yes.”
She pushed herself upright, ignoring the pain that crossed her features.
I wondered how many times she had done that in Silver Hollow. How many injuries she had hidden because stopping meant giving someone another reason to hurt her.
Mara pulled up her sweatshirt and studied the stitches with a frown.
“Raven made the wound bigger.”
“She had to widen it to sever the tie.”
Mara looked at me.
“Cal blood-tied himself to you.”
Her confusion deepened.
“He what?”
“A blood tie is a magical connection. It can occur between mates, but it can also be created deliberately.”
“Why would he do that?”
“I don’t know yet.”
She lowered her eyes.
“I… I accepted the rejection.”
Her voice shook.
“He wanted me to accept it. I did.”
“I believe you.”
Mara looked up.
“But because your wolf was already bound, the rejection may not have completed properly,” I continued. “You spoke the words, but the bond may have remained beneath the binding.”
Her fingers tightened around the blanket.
“So I’m still connected to him?”
“Not in the way he wants you to be.”
She swallowed.
The answer clearly frightened her.
My wolf pressed against the back of my mind.
She’s our mate.
I know.
He isn’t keeping her.
He won’t.
My wolf growled.
I will kill the entire Silver Hollow Pack if they try to take her back.
Trust me, I told him. There is no chance she is going back to them.I looked at Mara.
Cal had forced her to accept a rejection.
Rafe had bound her wolf to hide what she was.
And someone had created a blood tie strong enough to survive both.
Whatever Mara was, Silver Hollow had feared her long before Kieran Drax ever found her.
- Writer
