Page 44 of Alpha's Rejected Warrior
“Wow,” he says.
“You like it here?”
“It’s amazing.”
I lead him along the waterline to a single spot on the grass that glows with moonlight. Tall trees stand guard around us with little white flowers blooming at their roots. I enter the clearing and sit, looking up at the moon and stars above me. Ethan follows suit, sitting by my side.
Moonlight illuminates his profile. I’ve studied his features so many times — the line of his jaw, the way the light glints off the brown in his hair, and how his green eyes sparkle like emeralds. My wolf practically purrs inside me. She savors every angle of him, every line and shadow. Even the parts that infuriate me.
The grass is cool against my back as I lie down and absorb the stars above. A million spinning galaxies shine down on us.
“It’s beautiful here,” Ethan says beside me. “It reminds me of when I used to camp out in the woods as a kid, though Creek Falls was never this warm at night. Not even in summer.”
I turn my head to study him. “You sound like you miss it, your home.”
“Parts of it. Definitely not all of it.” He’s quiet for a long moment, just staring at the stars.
“How do you read people?” I ask.
“I don’t know.” A slight smile crosses his face. “I just do. If I knew, I’d be a millionaire by now.”
“A millionaire?”
“I mean, if I could harness it better, maybe even teach others how, I would have made lots of...um...coin.”
“Oh, that makes sense. I bet your skill is very valuable in the Outer Lands.”
“Maybe.” Ethan shifts beside me in the darkness. “For me, it’s purely survival instinct. Every overlooked signal could have cost me blood. I had to pay attention to the details others miss.”
“What do you mean?”
“I didn’t have the easiest childhood. My dad was a real ‘spare the rod, spoil the child’ kind of guy. Thought that the best way to keep your kids in line was to beat the shit out of them.”
His casual tone doesn’t match his words, and I prop up on my elbow to see his face better. “Your father beat you?”
“Yeah, and he beat my mother too. In fact, I’m pretty sure that’s how he solved all his problems.” He laughs, but there’s no joy behind it.
Ethan stares at the water, lost in thought, wrestling with memory.
“I spent years learning every micro-expression, every slight change in his patterns. When his voice dropped a particular half-octave, it meant we had maybe twenty minutes before he exploded. I’d try to warn my mom, but she never listened.”
The words seem to stick in his throat. Before I realize it, I’m sitting up and reaching out to touch his arm, encouraging him to continue.
“Whenever he hurt her, I just stood there, frozen. Couldn’t even help her up. Sometimes I still feel like I’m back there again — completely useless when it matters most. Like I’m still that scared kid who can’t protect anyone.”
“You were just a whelp. You couldn’t be expected to protect your mother from your own father.” When he doesn’t respond, I ask, “What happened to them? Are they still in Creek Falls?”
He shakes his head. “My mother died of cancer when I was thirteen. Can you believe that I was relieved? Even happy for her? She was finally safe from my father. After she passed, he threw himself into work, and drinking. I focused on football. That was going to be my ticket out of Creek Falls.”
He glances at me, realizing that I probably don’t know what football is.
“It’s a sport we play in the Outer Lands. If you’re good enough, you can make it your career and earn lots of coin. Anyway, I actually got into college on a football scholarship. Then, during a game my first year, I got tackled. Badly. I tore my ACL and all the tendons around my kneecap.” His hand goes to his right knee. “The doctors fixed me up, but my football career was over. And just like that, my ticket out of Creek Falls was gone.”
His voice dies off and he goes quiet with old disappointment mixed with resignation. “My father died around then too. Heart attack.” He shrugs. “So, I went back to Creek Falls. I ended up living in my childhood home again, but alone that time, like some cosmic joke.”
My wolf aches to comfort him. I reach for his hand, twining my fingers through his as my thumb brushes across his palm. The connection sends an unexpected jolt up my arm.
His gaze stays fixed on the water. “The worst part is, I could have sold the house for what little money it was worth and left. But, after a while, I convinced myself that maybe Creek Falls was all I deserved. Once I started working at Cid’s with Thea, things got a little better,” Ethan continues, his voice dropping. “I just got caught up in the routine. Stopped hoping for anything more.” His eyes finally meet mine.
