Page 60 of Rejected By the Alpha

“If I mate with Ember, she’s going to die.”

“Ember is going to⁠—”

“Just fucking stop it, Hazel!” I snapped. “Aren’t you pissed at Dad for mating with Mom? Doesn’t it piss you off that you don’t have a mate anymore because of him?! Don’t you fucking wish that he’d had enough self-control so your mate wouldn’t have died?”

For once in her life, Hazel stayed quiet and looked away from me, her lips pursed together and tears filling her eyes. She continued wrapping my wound in a bandage, not meeting my gaze once more.

My chest tightened, and I furrowed my brows, glaring at my thighs. “I didn’t mean⁠—”

“Don’t apologize,” she said. “You meant it.”

A long silence stretched between us, until she finally finished healing and bandaging what she could after the grueling attack from the River Pride Pack today. I slid off the hospital bed and grabbed my shit, heading straight for the door.

Before I could pull it open, Hazel cleared her throat. “Don’t you wanna know what Ember’s hospital charts said today?”

Grasping the handle in my fist, I froze. I had nearly begged to hear about it earlier.

But now? If I asked her to tell me … it’d be obvious to even myself the real reason why I refused to mate with Linda. It already was, but acting like I didn’t care about Ember was easier, and it’d be easier for me to accept when I rejected her.

Because I had to reject her.

Soon.

“No,” I said underneath my breath, but I didn’t move from the spot.

“It will change your mind,” she said from behind me. “I know it will.”

“I don’t give a fuck about Ember!” I shouted, twirling around to face my sister. “Why can’t you get it through your head that I don’t fucking care about her in any sense?! I fucked her, and that’s all that’s between us!”

Before she could convince me otherwise, I stormed out of the pack hospital and headed straight for the packhouse. I focused on the path in front of me, forcing myself to take one step at a time and refusing to take back what I’d said.

I didn’t care about Ember.

I didn’t care about Ember.

I didn’t fucking care about Ember.

So, why couldn’t Hazel just fucking drop it?! Why couldn’t she shut the fuck up about it?!

“Dav!” Linda said from the packhouse’s back door, waving at me.

I cursed underneath my breath and continued. What is she doing here?!

She opened the door for me to enter. “How’re you feeling?”

“I’m not in the mood right now, Linda,” I said. “Go home.”

Instead of listening to my orders, she followed me to my bedroom. “But⁠—”

“I said to go home,” I growled, slamming the door in her face.

I didn’t have the time or the patience right now to deal with Linda. It had been fourteen fucking hours of fighting those assholes off, and I was exhausted.

They’d be back tomorrow, and I would finish the rest of them off.

Once I finally heard her depart, I blew a breath out of my nose. Why does she think⁠—

Someone had been in here. I sniffed the air and tensed. And not just anyone.