Page 122 of Rejected By the Alpha

I didn’t know why, but I expected him to take it back, to show remorse, to give me a half-hearted apology. I’d take it. I needed it. I didn’t want to be that much of a nuisance to him.

Did Cade feel the same way, but didn’t want to hurt my feelings?

“You don’t mean that,” I whispered, grasping on to any ounce of hope. “Davix, you don’t⁠—”

“Yes, I do,” he said, stalking toward me.

I scurried backward until I hit a tree, the bark digging into my bare shoulders.

“No,” I whispered, tears now flowing down my cheeks. “You … you don’t …” The words hardly made it out of my mouth. Hell, I could barely hear them.

If he hated me that much, if he wanted me gone, then why had he hunted down Pumpkin’s attacker and killed him when I asked? Pumpkin was a fox, and wolves hunted foxes. Not other wolves.

“You don’t mean that,” I said again, this time louder, trying to make sense of this all.

“You’re weak,” he snarled. “Not a woman to be proud of.”

My eyes stung, and I bit back a hiccup. I knew I was weak, all the tests made me frail, but why …

Why is he being so mean about it?

Why’d he have to tell me?

Why does he have to rub it in like he doesn’t know it’s hurting me?

“And?” I whimpered. “So what?”

He paused for a moment, as if my response surprised him, but his expression didn’t change, so maybe that was me making that up. Maybe I was trying to find something that wasn’t there. Maybe I hoped that he had some kind of compassion.

“So what if I’m weak?” I whispered. “I am weak. The tests do that to me.”

But it wasn’t the tests. It was my own body. My own sick, dying body.

Davix took another step toward me, trapping me between him and the tree. I pressed my back even harder against it and stared up at the towering alpha. All my life … I had hated guys like him, but maybe it was because they didn’t hold back. They told the truth, even when it hurt.

“You are making my packmates weak. You’re putting a fucking target on everyone,” he snarled. “You are not the type of woman who could ever lead a pack of strong warriors alongside me. You’re nothing.”

I dug my nails into the wood behind me, so deep that I could feel myself start to bleed.

“Fine, I’ll go, and I’ll never come back,” I said, a sob escaping my mouth. “Just stop.”

“You will come back,” he snarled. “You don’t have any self-control not to.”

“I promise that I won’t.” I cowered down in front of him, my knees buckling, and the only thing keeping me standing was how hard I pressed myself into the tree. “I won’t ever talk to you again. I won’t see your sister or anyone else in your pack. Just please … stop being so mean.”

“You deserve it,” he said.

Tears poured down my cheeks, and I swore I could see his irises change color for the briefest moment, but my eyes were too blurry. I was seeing things again, making things up, hoping for things that weren’t there.

“I need to make sure you won’t ever come back,” he growled.

“How? How will you do that? Kill me?”

He snatched my chin in his hand and forced me to stare up into his blazing eyes. “I …”

“If you’re going to kill me …” I started, my throat tight. I squeezed my eyes closed, desperate for this to be over. My life was coming to an end anyway, so it didn’t matter. I didn’t matter. “Make it quick. Please.”

“Ember,” he said, voice eerily calm, so calm that I opened my eyes, “I reject you.”