Page 14 of Rejected By the Alpha

I couldn’t let my wolf lose control like that anymore.

“That’s enough for today!” I shouted to my warriors. “Rest up!”

The warriors dispersed into the woods, heading back home.

Linda jogged up to me, wiping sweat from between her breasts with a towel. “I’m going to run home and shower, but I’ll be at the Junction later,” Linda offered. “Meet me there?”

“Yeah, maybe,” I said, cursing at myself for bringing that banana bread to that girl’s doorstep. If I hadn’t, maybe she would’ve shown up later at Java to get some more, and I could’ve seen⁠—

No. That wasn’t what I wanted.

I wouldn’t mate her, nor would I put her in harm’s way by sleeping with her and hanging with her. Not while the River Pride Pack was closing in on my borders, trying to take control of my pack and kill me.

If they found out she was my mate, they’d kill her themselves.

“Good job today, Linda,” I said. “I’ll see you later.”

She beamed at me. “Thanks, alpha. See you!”

When Linda was still in earshot, Hazel walked over and scrunched her nose. “Ew.”

I decided to ignore her and forced a smile. “Linda’s getting stronger.”

Hazel hummed in annoyance and grabbed the gauze from her bag. “I don’t like her.”

“You’d better start,” I said. “Before the second full moon, she’ll be your luna.”

“She is not your mate,” Hazel argued.

“That doesn’t matter.”

“Yes, it does!” She furrowed her brows. “What don’t you understand about that?!”

“What don’t you understand about drop it?”

“You followed that girl out into the woods,” Hazel commented while wrapping a bandage around my bicep. “And then you disappeared for hours afterward, which leads me to believe that you were with her.”

“Hazel,” I warned. “Don’t.”

“How did she feel?” she asked, a soft smile on her face. “Is she everything the stories say?”

“Hazel, enough,” I growled.

“Please, Davix,” she whispered, pausing. “I just wanna know if it’s as amazing as everyone has always said it is. I’ll never get to experience it now that my mate is dead, so please … give this to me. Tell me how it felt to be with her.”

My gaze dropped to the almost-invisible X scar on her neck. I didn’t want to hurt Hazel. It was our father’s fault she would never experience being mated. I didn’t want her to think she was missing out on anything. It was a wolf’s fate to be with their mate. But not hers.

Never hers.

“It wasn’t great,” I said, lying straight through my canines. “Overhyped.”

“But I saw the way you both reacted to each other at Java Junction,” she said with a soft smile. “Don’t lie to me. The passion between you both. The tension. Your reaction when you touched her …”

“I didn’t react when I touched her.”

“Your eyes were a blazing gold,” she said. “I had never seen them so bright.”

“Drop it,” I growled, ripping my arm away from her. “Even if my wolf reacted that way to her, nothing can ever happen between us. He fucking knows that, and you should too. I’m not going to be a selfish prick like Dad was.”