XI
1023 Words
The years passed in a blur as I watched my brother and his friends graduate, find their Mates, and push forward with the power and energy of furry bulldozers. Jake and I became closer than I thought possible, and he started calling me his brother from another mother.
In the two and a half years since my brother found and fought for my place in his life, I’d become just another son to the Grand Alpha. A chosen child.
Hunter had woken up, finally, and we watched as Maria and the others held a handfasting ceremony. Logan jumped at the chance to bind himself to Selene, the girl I would eventually call my sister and Luna. Hunt and Maria got married the same night, just months before I turned sixteen, and I was again faced with Andrast’s bratty behaviour.
Unfortunately, my wolf refused to awaken for another year after my Sweet Sixteenth. Then, one week after my first shift, nearly two months after my seventeenth birthday, I caught her scent. Frigid. Cold. Like ice and peppermint. I knew it was my Mate, so I followed the trail until I found her. Hiding where she couldn’t see me, I listened as she talked to her friends.
“To think he actually believes he belongs here? What a joke!” One girl I recognized as Ambra Holdt said.
“Right? I’m totally rejecting him. I mean, why would I want a murderer's son when I can have my pick of any man in the world?” Andrast laughed.
I covered my mouth, trying hard not to cry at the obvious cruelty. The tree bark bit into my back through the cotton shirt I was wearing, grounding me in reality. My Mate didn’t want me.
Yet another thing being related to Ausin ruined.
Moving with a stealth learned over the years, I walked closer to them. “Andrast?”
“Oh em gee, girl,” Becky Hart giggled. “Don’t look now, but the Grand Alpha’s charity case is here.”
“Look, I just want to talk,” I tried to say, but they laughed.
Andrast shook her head. “No, you listen to me. I don’t want a deadbeat’s brat with emotional baggage as a Mate. I, Andrast Valencia, reject you, Valik Pierce, as my fated Mate.”
The pain that seared my heart and soul rooted me to the spot. Tears burned my eyes, but I held on long enough to say one last thing to her. “You’re going to regret this.”
Heading to the office, I told the secretary I wasn’t feeling well and wanted to go home. Home was no longer the old packhouse where I’d first been brought, but an older one that now belonged to my brother.
She looked me over, noting the sickly way I looked, and handed me a slip. Her desk smelled faintly of coffee and lemon cleaner, and the soft clack of her keyboard filled the silence. “Feel better, sweet.”
“Thanks,” I said. That’s when I realized I’d forgotten to return the rejection.
That’s fine. I would wait until I was mentally stable so that my wolf and I could handle it together.
Grabbing my stuff, I sent a mind-link message to Jacob. ‘I have to leave.’
‘You good? Need me?’
‘No, I’m not,’ I sent back. ‘I… I got rejected.’
There was a silent static, then, ‘Who?’
‘I can’t… I’m not ready to talk about it. I’m… I think I’m going to leave for a while,’ I said.
His reply was edged with concern, but he was as understanding as always. ‘Focus on you for a bit, Val. I’ll be here when you need me.’
Once I reached the Howler packhouse, I bolted into the building and up to the office level. That’s where I knew I would find Logan, likely snowed in with paperwork. The hallway smelled faintly of old coffee and pine cleaner, and the muffled sound of printers and distant voices echoed from behind closed doors. I didn’t realize I was crying until I touched my face as I stepped over the threshold of his office.
“I can’t do this…” was the first thing I got out.
He coaxed me, pulling the information out with gentle precision. Then he dropped a bomb – he’d gotten a request from Prince Blaze of the royal Vampire army. A request to send me halfway around the world to train and heal far from the complexities of pack life and a Mate that didn’t want me.
I wanted to fight it, but by the end of our conversation, the pros outweighed the cons of such a move. “I’ll go pack.”
Getting to my room, I only took the basics. Logan had told me I would receive all new clothes and everything else I needed. Including finishing high school, but in a foreign land over the internet. My duffel bag was half full when I turned and came face-to-face with Jacob. “Hey.”
“Were you leaving without telling me?” he asked, humour lighting his eyes.
I shook my head. “No. I just needed Logan’s advice first.”
“Alpha’s good like that,” he agreed. “It was her, wasn’t it?”
“I meant it when I said I didn’t want to talk about it, but yes. It was her,” I answered, letting him know that the Mate who rejected me was the girl I’d been inexplicably drawn to.
He scowled. “That’s an asshole move. Where’s he sending you?”
“Russia,” I told Jake.
“Will you visit?”
“If that’s what you want.” I commented.
He grinned, “I’ll get Lo-lo to make it a monthly thing. Hell, I’ll talk Hunter into lending us the family jet so I can ride in style to see my bestie.”
Blinking, I turned to look at him. “Your bestie?”
“You, obviously. I don’t call anyone else my best friend,” he replied with a snorted laugh.
- Writer
