Page 8 of Alpha's Rejected Mate

Silver nodded his head.

“I don’t want to go with him,” Harper said. “He banished me. Isn’t there, like, a law, I don’t know, where it says no take-backs?”

He chuckled. “No, there’s no law, but I also value your opinion and if you don’t want to leave this pack, then you don’t leave.”

“I don’t want to leave.”

“I do want to warn you, though, that I cannot force Mateo to leave either.”

“What? This is your pack. This is your life. Your rules.”

“And getting between a mated couple is not ideal,” Silver said. “Until you and Mateo, I had never heard of a mated couple even living separately like you two.”

“Yeah, I know it is messed up,” she said, sighing. “But we’re not mates.”

“You are mates, you’re just going through a difficult time.”

This made her laugh. There was no way they were going through a difficult time.

“So, what you’re saying is, you’re not going to force me out of the pack, but Mateo gets to stay.”

“Yes, unless he … causes trouble, there is nothing I can do.”

“You do know this sucks, don’t you?” she asked.

Silver smiled. “Is there any part of you that might still love him?”

She opened her mouth and closed it. “I don’t know.”

He sighed. “That is … sad. Being with a mate is the most wondrous feeling in the world.”

“Then take that feeling of finding your mate, and imagine she crushed your heart within the next second. That’s what Mateo did to me. He hated me.”

“I don’t think he hates you.”

“He certainly doesn’t love me.”

“I think you’ve got that wrong.”

She wasn’t in the mood to argue with him.

Mateo was going to stay, and she couldn’t stop him, but that didn’t mean she would make this easy for him. He’d crushed her heart, dampened her spirit, and darkened her soul with his rejection.

She was not going to fall into his arms without a second thought.

****

Franny didn’t like him. They sat outside a coffee shop, and she continued to glare at him.

He wasn’t used to being on the angry side of a woman. Apart from Harper’s mother. She’d not liked what he’d done to her daughter, and she refused to be respectful to him. He’d been able to avoid the woman at most situations but it had been difficult.

“So, you’re back,” Franny said.

He noticed they were gaining some attention.

“Yes, I’m back, and I want to thank you for taking care of Harper—”

“Don’t.”