Page 127 of Rejected By the Alpha

“No,” she said, placing the knife down. “Just … trying to see how easy it is to cut.”

“Mmhmm,” I hummed, one brow raised. “Sure.”

“What?!” She threw her arms up, smirking at me.

“Nothing,” I said, attempting to bite back a smile at how cute she was.

She had been through so fucking much—just today—her eyes still a bit teary. “I am!”

After trapping her between me and the counter, I swiped some more frosting from the cake, this time on my forefinger, and gently popped it into her mouth. “Don’t worry. This will be our little secret. We’ll just say that I’m so shit at making cake that there are finger scoops taken out of it.”

Ember sucked the frosting off my finger and giggled. “They’d believe it too.”

“Oh, you’d better watch that mouth.” I chuckled. “It’s gonna get you in trouble.”

She batted her lashes up at me. “You think?”

Goddess, she was so fucking pretty.

All I wanted was for her birthday to be special. I didn’t know how many more she had left. If the doctors couldn’t find a cure, then this one was it, and that fucking asshole had ruined it by kidnapping those from either side of the war.

I tucked some hair behind her ear and blew out a low breath. “I’m sorry this wasn’t the best birthday you could’ve had. I wanted it to be better, but I … this war … Davix …” I stopped myself before I could shit-talk about him more.

I was sure Ember didn’t want to hear his name.

Ember stood on her toes, grasped my face, and kissed me. “It’s okay.”

“No, it’s not.”

“Yes,” she said, nodding. “It is. I couldn’t have asked for someone better than you.”

“Ember, you don’t have to⁠—”

Her hands drifted down my chest, and she stared up at me like I meant the fucking world to her. I curled my hands around her waist and pulled her closer to me. I knew why Davix had done it, but I didn’t know how.

He hadn’t put up a fight with Alaric. He hadn’t tried to get out of it.

If Lilliana were still alive, I couldn’t even fathom breaking the mate bond with her.

“I mean it, Cade,” she said, smiling even though there had been heavy tears in her eyes since she had gotten home this afternoon. “You’ve cared for me, even at my lowest. You’ve made me confident enough about my art. And you don’t stop showing up.”

Warmth spread through my chest, and I stared at the moon reflecting in her eyes.

Dear Moon Goddess, please give me a second chance with Ember. Let me have a mate again, let me show her how she should be loved, let me protect her from all the dangers Black Hollows holds.

“Stay here,” I said. “I’m going to grab your present from the other room.”

“What happened to waiting after cake?” she teased. “Pavel isn’t here yet.”

“Well, I want to give it to you now,” I said, planting one last kiss on her mouth.

I knew as soon as I left the room, she was going to dig into that cake, but I took my chances anyway and slipped into the other room to grab the present that I had gotten Ember weeks ago, before she even moved into town.

Wrapped in wrapping paper and a pink bow, it sat in the back of the closet. As soon as I grabbed it, the sweetest scent filled my nostrils, and suddenly, my wolf was alert, standing on edge, waiting for something. For someone.

My lips curled into a small smile, and I grasped Ember’s birthday gift tighter. That scent … the way my wolf was reacting to it … it was like turning eighteen and meeting my mate all over again. Was this it?

Was the Moon Goddess finally giving me a second chance after all these years?