Page 52 of Rejected By the Alpha

“I don’t give a fuck about Braveclaw.”

Cade stepped toe to toe to me, matching my glare. “Braveclaw owns you.”

“You guys should just fuck already,” Ember said from the bed with Hazel now sitting right beside her, underneath the blankets, as if they were best fucking friends.

They giggled to themselves, watching our spat.

“By all means,” Hazel said, “don’t stop.”

“Alpha, we have visitors,” Beta Matt said through our mindlink. “Rogues at our borders. We need you now.”

Out of all the fucking times that they could come, why now?!

I grabbed Hazel by the upper arm because she wasn’t staying here alone and yanked her to the door. She tugged on my arm, not wanting to leave Ember, but I continued out the door and through the hallway without so much as a goodbye.

“This isn’t over, Reaper,” I growled under my breath.

No, this was far from fucking over.

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Ember

Pavel sat across from me at Java Junction after Cade dumped me with him for the day. I leaned back in the seat, kicking my legs back and forth underneath the table and continuing my commission painting, but the paint wasn’t mixing the way I wanted it to.

It was quieter than usual here today, and everyone seemed to be tense.

I didn’t know why because this place was usually popping with people from all over, chatting with each other over coffee, doughnuts, and of course, the best type of sweet to ever be created—banana bread.

“How long are you going to be?” Pavel asked.

“Why? Have a hot date?”

“No. I have something I need to take care of.”

My lips curled into a smirk. “So, a hot date?”

Pavel playfully glared at me from across the table. “No.”

“Mmhmm. What’s her name?”

“Janice.”

I scrunched my nose. “Janice?! Nurse Janice?!”

He peeled a piece away from my banana bread and chuckled. I side-eyed him because I couldn’t tell if he was actually kidding or if he was actually sleeping with cute, little, old lady Janice who had been tending to me extra well lately.

“One, if you want some bread, you should’ve gotten your own,” I started, smacking his hand away before he could take another piece of the best-tasting food in the entire world. “Two, I think I’m going to hurl.”

This asshole chuckled again. “What? I can’t be a cougar hunter?”

“Oh my God. Please, don’t ever say that again.”

After collecting all his crumbs, he dropped them onto my napkin because there wasn’t anything stopping him from being the annoying big brother that he always was. Then he cleared his throat. “Don’t wait for me here. I’m going to be there awhile.”

“If you leave me alone, Cade’s gonna kill you.”

“Why?”