Page 6 of Rejected Wolf

I took my skin, but I waited to tell him when I saw light spill from another doorway, Tristan trotting over to join us. “Hey, we talked about this. You can’t have a pack meeting without me.” He smiled grimly, but his joke fell flat. He nodded for me to spill.

“I just got back from Vesta’s.” Tristan tensed up. He had a special bond with the shaman that went far deeper than I would ever understand. She was like his second grandmother, and it was because of her that he’d met his mate. I sighed, bracing myself for a tough conversation. “I don’t think she’s doing very well. She was confused and really tired, and it didn’t look like she’d eaten anything today. I think…” I paused, wondering if I was stepping out of line by suggesting this. “I think maybe we should think about moving her here. She can have the cabin you built me, since I’m not using it. She can still have her own space, beindependent, but that way, we can make sure she’s eating, help her out with anything she might need.”

Shan frowned, and I could practically feel the guilt coming off him. “We should’ve been keeping a better eye on her. We knew this was a possibility, ever since…” He trailed off, but his eyes flicked over to Tristan.

Our Beta was staring down at his feet, his shoulders hunched, fists clenched. “Ever since Pax was born. I know. You don’t have to tiptoe around me.”

“I’m sorry,” Shan said softly, reaching out to squeeze Tristan’s shoulder, but he sidestepped the contact.

“Nothing we can do about it. She knew it was coming and said she was ready,” he said gruffly, turning back toward the cabin. “I agree with Jude. We’ll go get her in the morning, bring as much of her stuff as we can carry. We’ll make her comfortable here, keep her safe. We’ll treat her like a queen for as long as we have her.” His words cut off as he stalked back to his cabin, almost like his throat was too tight.

Shan and I stood there for a long moment, just listening to the nightlife resume its song after the interruption. Crickets chirped, bats swooped overhead, and even a few fireflies flickered their mating beacon.

Eventually, Shan turned to me, his eyes reflecting moonlight at me in the dark. “Thank you for checking on her.”I grunted in reply, but he wasn’t done. “Did you get the answer you were looking for?”

I huffed, nostrils flaring. “No. It wasn’t the time to ask.”

“Fair enough.” He nodded. “Did you wanna talk about it?”

I respected that he wasn’t outright prying. I considered it for a moment, telling him about my past, where I came from, everything I went through at the hands of humans. I could tell him about how I’d been waiting to find my fated mate this whole time, only to discover that he was human and that he represented all of my greatest fears.

In the end, I shook my head. “No. But thanks.”

We had enough on our plates for one day. My own problems could wait.

Chapter 4

Morgan

“I haven’t found himyet, but… he’s miiiine,” I slurred, blinking to bring the two copies of the bartender into one. I’d lost count of how many drinks I’d had.

He nodded, but I could tell he wasn’t really listening. He was eyeing up the woman leaning over the end of the bar, her boobs barely contained in her top. She gave him a wink and a come-hither crook of her finger, and the bartender slopped my drink across the counter in his hurry to leave.

“Uh, yeah. He’s yours,” he said distractedly while he mopped up the spilled alcohol. But then he seemed to absorb what I’d been saying. “I gotta say, man. At some point you have to give it up as a lost cause. How long have you been trying to find him?”

“Three months,” I groaned, dropping my forehead onto the counter and thunking it a few times as if it would shake something loose.

“Did you try that missed-connections website?” he asked, peeking back at the woman, trying to play it cool.

I huffed. “Trust me, I’ve tried it all. I put a flyer up in this small-town gas station near where I saw him, but all I got were a bunch of dick pics from strangers. I even thought about hiring a skywriter, but he might not see it through the trees.”

“Well, I think you should consider the possibility that it’s not meant to be. Maybe he doesn’t want to be found. You’re probably better off without him, wolf or not.” He seemed to think “wolf” was a metaphor, like how bear meant a certain kind of man or something.

I scoffed, spittle flying from my lips, and the bartender leaned back to avoid the spray. “What do you know?” I sneered. “It’s true love, I can feel it.”

“Uh-huh,” he said. “And I think I might’ve just found my own true love down there at the end of the bar. I’ve gotta go meet my future wife. Here, this one’s on me.” He grabbed a bottle from behind the counter and tipped the amber liquid into a shot glass. “Good luck finding your man.”

Frowning, I watched him go. Idiot. How could he mistake hormone-fueled lust for the ground-shifting all-encompassing love I’d experienced? They weren’t even in the same galaxy.

I propped my elbow on the bar and cradled my chin in my hand, sighing. I hadn’t been the same since I saw my wolf. Six—that was the number of times I’d gone back out to the woods over the past three months. I was getting better at it, too. I’d bought brand-new fancy gear, and it only took me like 20 minutes to set up a tent now. The last time, I’d spent an entire week camping in the spot where I’d seen him, hoping that maybe he would come back, looking for me. I’d missed so much work, in fact, that my boss had finally pulled me aside and told me if I missed another day this year, I would be fired. I hadn’t bothered to go in the next morning, because what was a job compared to true love? I could find another job, but there was only one Rumpy.

Except the longer this wait dragged on, the lower I felt. That first eager excitement I’d felt had faded into something… ugly. I rubbed at my chest where an ache had moved in permanently. It felt like a piece of my very soul was missing.

This was a test, that had to be it. My loyalty and devotion were being tested, and when I proved that I would be his forever, we would be together at last. Together forever…

I pinched the shot glass between my fingers—carefully because it felt like my hands weren’t actually attached to my body anymore—and tipped it up to my mouth. I choked and sputtered as the drink burned its way down like liquid fire, but I had to say, I quite liked the warmth that radiated all the way to my fingertips after it hit my belly.

Even though I hadn’t eaten since breakfast, I felt nicely full… of booze. I giggled, which made me hiccup, which led to an acidic burp, and I winced, wondering if that last drink might’ve been a mistake after all.