Page 12 of Rejected By the Alpha

“You must’ve dropped it at the front door,” Pavel said with a slight laugh. “I’m surprised you didn’t eat it on the walk over here.”

“What’s with the look?” I asked.

“What look?” she asked.

“That look.”

“I don’t have a look.”

“You look shocked.”

“No,” she said. After staring down at it with furrowed brows, Ember hesitantly looked inside the bag and pulled out a piece of banana bread. She sniffed it, then took a bite, eyes rolling back inside her head, like they always did when she had the first taste. “So good.”

With half a piece of banana bread in her mouth, she set the other piece on the counter and grabbed another box. Pavel yanked it out of her hands, then handed it to me.

“Go rest, Ember. You promised me you would once we got home.”

“I’m feeling fine,” she said.

“I don’t care.”

“Of course you don’t. All you want to do is boss me around.”

“I’m not bossing you around. Your doctor told you⁠—”

“I don’t need anyone to take me to my appointments,” Ember snapped, crossing her arms. “Besides, I’m not going to those stupid appointments anymore.” She lowered her voice. “At least not as often as they want.”

Pavel mirrored her stance. “Yes, you are.”

After taking a peek at her arguing with her brother, I grabbed another box and headed up to her bedroom with it, the house already drenched in her sweet honeysuckle scent. If this was what I had to come home to every single night …

Screw it, I wouldn’t be able to stay away. Not when she smelled this good.

I set the box on the floor, eyed her art supplies, and then continued back downstairs. Ember stormed past me on the way up with her banana bread and a pissed expression all over her face, bumping her shoulder into mine.

Life must’ve been so hard for her.

“Goddess, why can’t she just accept the fact that she’s sick?” Pavel asked, walking out the front door and onto the porch. He sat down in a chair out front and stared out into the forest. “All we’re trying to do is help her.”

“She knows she has to go,” I said through the screen. I listened to her door slam, blew out a sigh, then ran a hand through my hair and stepped outside. “She just doesn’t want you bossing her around.”

Sure, Ember didn’t mind it when I did it in the bedroom, but I doubted she wanted her brother parenting her. She had been an adult for years now, yet Pavel sometimes still treated her like she was an adolescent.

“You think it’s a good idea, being so close to Davix’s pack?” I asked, eyeing the woods.

I’d kick that guy’s ass if he tried to harm Ember, but I would rather prevent it from happening. Davix was a no-good piece of shit who should’ve been thrown out of his alpha position as soon as he came of age. But his father was a selfish dickhead too.

“You heard what the doctors said,” he said. “She has less than nine full moons left if she doesn’t get this treatment. I don’t give a fuck who lives around these parts. This place is the closest we can get to Silver Moon Medical Center.”

“That’s not what I’m saying. Davix is⁠—”

“I’m not going to let my sister die,” he snapped.

“Settle the fuck down, dude,” I said. “I don’t want Ember to die either.”

That was the last thing I wanted, especially after getting so close to her.

“Besides, Davix won’t attack us,” Pavel said, almost sure of it. “They don’t even know the connections we have with you. He’ll be too busy anyway. Rumor has it that his pack will be attacked by others before the full moon.”