CHAPTER 4: DON’T REJECT ME, ALPHA!

Sebastian's POV

I nestled the pregnant beauty in my arms and cupped her cheek softly while the doctor and his team quickly ministered her with medicine-carrying drips and rubbing her hands and feet profusely.

Any kind of warmth was welcome and, hence, I kept her close to my chest. Werewolves were high warmth-radiating species but lycans were even more so. They were the powerhouses of warmth and ran hot at all times, may or may not be applicable to their tempers too.

'Like Theodore's,' Titan helpfully supplied.

I inwardly rolled my eyes and ignored my lycan for burying my face in my nameless savior's neck and scenting it with small butterfly kisses. My savior. My angel. My baby.

"She's the one," I finally said, and Zane, who was rubbing my mate’s right foot, immediately understood what I meant.

"The one who saved your sorry ass at the waterfall? The girl you conjured?" He blurted out and the next second he wished that he had thought before he spoke. The glare that I sent his way was murderous, to put it mildly. 

My eyes narrowed and glowed as if they were on fire.

"No way!" Zane exclaimed when he saw how serious I was. He looked back at the female doctor-turned-patient and continued, "But she is an omega!! That too with...you know...less flattering physical attributes!" He whispered.

This time Titan growled as a thunderstorm broke out at the same time, making everyone jump at the explosive combo of the two. The nurses were quick to pack their things and run out of the cave as if they were being chased by hell. Only the head doctor, my beta and I were left with the regal beauty whose condition had been stabilized.

“Don’t disparage our mate!” Titan gruffly ordered.

Zane put his hands up in the air and surrendered.

“Cool down, it’s just hard to believe, but I believe you, ok? What are you going to do now?” He asked as I walked out in the rain and looked up at the highest cliff.

The palace was burning and the fires could be seen from the river bank itself. They were as ferocious as the torrential downpour of rain.

It was a miracle that we found a cave and let the doctor’s personal team rush my mate to the site.

I sighed and took the boldest decision of my life. It was going to break my heart, but, I had no other choice. I had to play my moves strategically to keep everyone safe.

“I can’t take her to the palace.”

“WHAT?!” Titan and Zane shouted together, catching the implied meaning of my statement and looking at me as if I had summoned the devil himself.

“I am sorry. What language are you speaking? Sounds like bullshit to me,” Titan growled.

“With all due respect, Your Highness, but are you out of your mind?” Zane shouted. “My ears won’t stop bleeding from hearing the praises of ‘the one’ and now that the goddess sent her your way, you are leaving her? Are you insane?”

I looked back at the cave and then looked at the blazing fires upward. It felt like those fires were burning my heart. Looking back in the cave, I summoned the doctor and ordered, “Run away with her, doctor. Take her to a place where even I can’t find her.”

“You are going to reject her?” The doctor asked in shock. “Don’t reject her, Alpha! She is already in immense pain. She won’t be able to handle the trauma of a first-time rejection.”

“Second rejection,” I corrected.

“What?” They shrieked.

“She already had a mate. It is clear from the burn marks on her neck. She definitely fled away from his pack to protect her baby, no matter the risk. She was always the courageous one,” I fondly smiled, remembering how she had jumped into the waterfall without a single thought and had thrown her knives at me. For a moment, I had thought that she was going to kill me!

“Why are you making her go through the same pain again, then?” Zane asked, enraged. He was already drawn to protecting his Luna, even if it meant standing against his Alpha.

“I am not rejecting her. I never said I would,” I frowned.

“Then?”

“The palace is unsafe. The foundations of royalty are symbolically weak and compromised," as if to bring home my point, a minaret fell down sideways with a huge crash at the same time, the supersonic boom resounding in the silence of the forest. "We have a lot of cleansing to do," I added, my fingers curling into fists on remembering the traitors in the royal advisory council. Not everyone was happy with the King and Queen handing over the most powerful title to their adopted son over their own blood, even though the throne was my right. “We have to keep her away from danger. Away from ME!” I strongly said while my heart was crumbling and soul shattering.

“Why can’t she secretly stay away from the palace? You can meet her secretly,” Zane replied. “I will personally guard her,” he added with a thump on his chest and a slight bow.

“No, you will not. I will not risk my mate’s life or my pup’s. They deserve to liv－”

“Your pup? What a joke! The last time I checked, the child was only her’s and you were unwilling to keep the mother. Your own damn mate－”

“ENOUGH!!” I thundered. My beta and the doctor looked at me with widened eyes, shaken to their core. “Say another vitriolic word and I will forget your rank or who you are. Her children are my children now. You hear me? They are only mine. Do you think this is easy for me? All I want to do is to keep her in my arms and never let her out of my sight, but I can’t do so when I know there are enemies in the guise of friends and well-wishers waiting to hit at my most vulnerable spot! Can you even fathom what those hyenas will do when they find out about my mate – a rejected omega and pregnant one nonetheless? Have you forgotten about the social evil that we call the ‘rank system’ here? No, she is not staying anywhere near me right now. I AM DANGER,” I resolutely said, more to myself than my beta. I had to convince myself before I convinced others and that was getting harder and harder by the second.

However, I had to be the stronger one here. For my angel and the beautiful life that was developing inside her.

“What in the world?! Is Titan ok with this? Why are you silent, Titan? Does your silence mean consent?” Zane egged my lycan on.

“My silence doesn’t mean that I agree with him. It just means that his level of stupidity has rendered me speechless,” Titan replied.

Oh god, did this lycan never take a break? 

“I am NOT stupid! It's ok if you disagree with me. I can't force you to be right,” I retorted.

“Your ass must be so proud of your mouth for helping it spew shit,” Titan growled back. “We need mate!” He stubbornly added.

I wanted to pull my hair but that was not how royals behaved. They were classier and stayed calm even in the face of a storm. Even if that storm was called ‘Stubborn Titan.’

I sighed and replied, “Yes, we do, but we are doing this for her. For our mate,” I softly said. “Doesn’t she deserve a better life? Doesn’t the pup deserve to grow in better conditions and in peace? Won’t the child want their freedom out of the dangers of the palace? At least think about them for a moment. I promise that we will claim her back the moment everything settles down back at the royal lycan fort,” I sincerely swore.

“Promise?” Titan hesitantly asked.

“On my life,” I assured him, and that silenced him, but not before having the last word. “I am sorry that I hurt your feelings when I called you stupid. I really thought that you already knew.”

This infuriating lycan, ugh!

“How long?” Zane resignedly asked, accepting my decision as time was running out for us. My people needed me.

“Five.”

“Months?” He asked.

“No, years.”

“No way!”

I nodded sadly, and looked at the doctor who softly asked, “Won’t you see her for the last time?”

At the same time, another boom resounded and shrieks accompanied it this time. My people!

I shook my head and nixed, “No. I can not make this goodbye any harder. This is not our last time. I know we will see each other soon. Take care of her for me and don’t try to find me before the agreed upon time. Tell her she has someone who loves her more than the Moon Goddess herself whenever you can,” and with that I ran away from the place.

My heart lurched as I said a silent goodbye to my mate. This was for her and our pup. Another sacrifice.

With a loud howl, I shifted and Titan tore into the warring enemy crowd like a savage beast who had lost his mate. Unfortunately for the enemy, they bore the brunt of Titan’s anger to the highest degree.

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