When he realized…

Sage

The training grounds were quiet in that hollow way large open spaces get at dusk, the air filled only with the muted clatter of Alex’s arrows striking the target. He had been shooting nonstop since we arrived, moving with that rigid determination people have when they’re trying to silence something in their head. I didn’t interrupt him. He needed the distraction, and, if I was being honest, I needed my own.

My phone vibrated in my pocket. I didn’t expect anything that mattered, so I checked it with half my attention until I saw her name. Eve. She actually replied.

I opened the message, expecting at least something that made sense. Instead, she told me she wasn’t interested anymore, that she’d already picked another man, and that we should forget everything like it never happened. She ended it with a clean, cold goodbye, the kind people use when they want a door to stay shut forever.

For a moment, everything around me sank into that quiet, icy stillness I only ever feel when someone steps on a nerve they have no business touching.

Nobody rejects me. Nobody walks away after begging me to say yes. Nobody tells me they’ve chosen someone else as if I’m some leftover option. My jaw tightened as I stared down at her message, the calmness of her words somehow worse than anything else she could have said.

Alex must have noticed the drop in my breathing because he finally lowered his bow and looked over. “You good?” he asked, dragging a hand through his hair.

“I’m fine,” I answered, even though the phone was still in my hand. “Keep going.”

He nodded and drew another arrow, returning to his target, but I didn’t move. My eyes stayed on her message, replaying each word she sent, every lie she thought she could slip past me. Another man? As if she even had the guts to look someone else in the eye about something like this. She couldn’t even say it to me in person.

I closed my hand around the phone and stepped forward, the irritation simmering hot under my skin. Alex fired again, but this time his shot was off-center, his thoughts clearly drifting toward his own problems. It looked like I wasn’t the only one barely holding onto patience today.

I drew my sword and swung once, cleaving a training dummy straight down the middle. The sharp crack of impact echoed across the field, but it didn’t cool the heat in my chest. Eve actually thought she could cut me out. She thought she could simply decide without me. As if her choices could exist without my involvement.

I wasn’t raised to accept rejection. I wasn’t built to tolerate it either.

Alex sent another arrow flying and let out a breath. “You’re awfully tense,” he muttered, glancing at me.

“Someone said something stupid,” I replied.

He gave a tired, humourless laugh. “Join the club.”

I didn’t answer. My thoughts were still circling her message, her ease, her confidence, and her belief that she could shut me out with a few lines of text. She actually believed she could walk away from me. Me. The Alpha.

She had no idea what she’d just set in motion. And I hated that it bothered me this much. Maybe it was her audacity. Maybe it was the fact that I finally agreed—after all her begging—and she chose that exact moment to switch up. Or maybe it was that kiss yesterday, that stupid moment I let myself act like someone I’m not, just to prove that I could make the contract work.

Sweetness doesn’t fit me. Warmth doesn’t fit me. I know exactly who I am and what I’m good at, and none of it includes being gentle.

But rejection? That’s something I refuse to wear.

My grip tightened on the sword as I stepped forward again, the irritation steady and deep, settling into something colder. She wasn’t getting away with this, not with that message, not with that tone, not with the idea that she could dismiss me like I was nothing. Not even for a single moment.

I sheathed my sword and walked toward the metal bench at the side of the grounds, needing a moment to steady the irritation crawling under my skin. The air was still, too quiet, the kind of quiet that made every emotion feel louder than it should. I sat down, dragged a hand through my hair, and unlocked my phone again, the urge to put an end to this nonsense settling into something hard and uncompromising.

I started typing.

“Let’s meet tonight.”

My thumb hovered for a breath before I added the part I actually meant.

“If you don’t come, I’ll fucking force you out myself.”

That was it. It was clear and direct. She wanted to play games, but I didn’t. I pressed send.

Nothing happened.

The screen didn’t shift. The message didn’t appear. Instead, a small red symbol popped up at the top of the screen—the kind I never see, because no one ever blocks me.

For a second, I just stared, not quite processing it. Then it sank in.

She blocked me.

Blocked me?

Wait! Eve really blocked me?

My hand tightened around the phone as something sharp and electric shot through my chest. The anger that followed wasn’t loud. It wasn’t explosive. It was the cold kind that felt like it came from somewhere deep and old. My fingers curled harder, tightening around the device until the glass cracked under the pressure, the sound sharp enough to slice through the silence around me.

A low growl rolled out of my throat before I could stop it, my fangs sliding out as instinct flared through my blood. I didn’t even try to calm it down. I pulled my arm back and hurled the phone across the ground. It hit the concrete, splintering into pieces that scattered like broken ice.

Alex heard the growl and the crash. He spun around, eyes widening, and he jogged toward me. “Sage? What happened?”

I didn’t answer. I didn’t even look at him. I stood up slowly, jaw clenched, fists tight enough that the bones in my hands ached. I walked past him without a word, the anger still thick in my throat.

“Sage,” Alex called after me, breath uneven from running, “are you leaving?”

Still no reply.

I pushed through the door leading into the changing area, the heavy metal slamming shut behind me. I stripped out of the training clothes and pulled on my regular ones, each movement stiff with irritation I didn’t bother hiding. The moment I was dressed, I grabbed my jacket, stepped into the hallway, and walked straight out of the building.