I accept your rejection

TRINITY POV

I wasn’t alone.

I yelped, staring at the figure lying beside me. My eyes traced the broad, tattooed shoulders. His back.

I couldn’t see his face—he was lying face down.

D…did we? I glanced down at myself and froze. There was blood between my legs.

“By the goddess, Trinity!” I hissed, scrambling to my feet.

I winced at the sharp pain between my thighs. What the hell did I just do?!

Right on cue, memories from last night flooded my head all at once. From the moment I stumbled into the room thinking it was a bathroom, to drunkenly making a move on him.

“Oh goddess,” I shoved my hands through my hair. “Okay. A drunken mistake.”

I assured myself. It was a terrible drunken mistake. I quickly hurried into the bathroom, cleaned myself up, and put on my outfit, which luckily was still intact.

I slipped out of the room and immediately ran into the bartender from last night. I cast my gaze down, too embarrassed to look at him.

When I stepped outside, I took the fastest route possible back to the pack. Thankfully, it was still slightly dark. But Marisol was already waiting at the entrance.

“Where did you go?!” Marisol screeched.

I winced, eyes flickering around. We were the only ones here, but with how loudly she was screaming, she’d wake the rest of the pack.

“I asked you a bloody question, bitch!” she barked.

“Out,” I simply said.

I was exhausted. I needed sleep. I needed to clean myself properly, to wash off the remnants of the stranger and the booze that still lingered on my skin.

Marisol tilted her head and sniffed the air. She walked closer, circling me like a predator. She grabbed a lock of my hair and sniffed again.

Then she stopped in front of me, eyes twinkling deviously. “You had sex. Didn’t you, piggy?”

My cheeks burned with shame. But I didn’t confirm her words.

“Answer me!” she demanded.

“No,” I lied, lifting my face to meet her eyes. “Why?”

“Stop giving me that clueless look,” Marisol said. “I know what sex smells like. Of course I know you’ve been fucked.”

Sure, she was an expert in the art of sex. I rolled my eyes inwardly.

“Who’s the unfortunate omega who decided to fuck you?”

I ignored her. I couldn’t stand her questions anymore. I began walking toward the door. However, Marisol gripped my hair, halting me in my tracks. I winced as she yanked hard.

“No one walks away from me when I’m speaking!”

She wasn’t even saying anything meaningful.

“Or would you rather I tell Mother and Father the disgraceful thing you went to do while everyone was asleep?”

I stilled at the threat in her voice.

“So, who did you give your virginity to?”

I didn’t get the chance to answer. A choked voice cut through the air.

“What?”

I blinked twice, glancing at my mother standing at the entrance. She was wearing a white robe, her raven-black hair floating around her, making her look almost ghostly.

My stomach turned as my mother gripped the door’s wooden frame to steady herself. She swayed slightly, mouth opening and closing.

Marisol, you bitch.

I pulled away from her grip, and she let me go easily.

“It’s okay, Mom,” Marisol said in that nauseatingly sweet voice. “Trinity always said she wanted to experience what sex was like. Although I told her it would be best to keep herself for her mate.”

Marisol shrugged as she continued spinning her well-crafted lies. “I thought being a virgin myself would be a good example for her.”

I scoffed. But my mother believed her.

She stormed toward me, gripped my arm forcefully, and dragged me to my room. As soon as we were inside, she let go and struck me hard across the face. Right where Alpha Jericho had hit me earlier.

“You foolish brat!” she screeched. “Who’s going to want a ruined girl now?!”

I clutched my burning cheek, staring at her.

Her eyes blazed with fury. “Do you even know the gravity of what you’ve done?!”

“I did nothing,” I whispered. It was a mistake. It wasn’t as if I had willingly wanted to give myself away.

“What did you just say?” my mother bellowed.

“I didn’t do anything,” I said a little louder, holding her gaze.

She looked at me with disbelief. I couldn’t recall the last time I had ever spoken back to my mother. Perhaps when I was eight.

I let out a bitter laugh. “Did you even ask me what happened before you hit me?” I said. “You believe her words over your own flesh and blood—”

The rest of the words died on my tongue as a second slap landed hard on my cheek. Tears I couldn’t control rolled down my face.

“I wished she was my flesh and blood!” my mother growled. “At least she wouldn’t have done something as disgraceful as that.”

Marisol smirked at me when Mother wasn’t watching. As soon as she turned back, Marisol put on an innocent expression. “I’m sure Trinity learned her lesson. And she’s lucky Father is an Alpha. He can match her with one of the omegas in the barracks.”

My mother shot me a disdainful look. “If she’s lucky enough to attract them. Look at her. Who would want someone as obese as she is?”

I bit down hard on my lower lip as my jaw wobbled.

“Maybe no one,” Marisol whispered to agree.

Mother huffed in annoyance and stalked out of the room, leaving me alone with Marisol.

“Now,” she sauntered toward me, her devious smile returning. “Are you going to tell me who did it, or do you want me to go to Father? You understand his punishment would be far more severe.”

My vision blurred with tears. “Why are you doing this?” My voice broke. “I’ve done nothing but be civil to you. Why do you hate me so much?”

“Hate?” Marisol snorted a short mocking laugh. “Hating you is like admitting that someone like you even exists around me.”

She pressed her lips together, eyes filled with undiluted hatred. “You are nothing, and I’m treating you exactly like that.”

My hands tightened into fists at my sides as Marisol walked toward the door. She paused at the threshold.

“If I were you, I’d erase my existence from the world. No one wants you, fatty. You stink. You’re ugly. Disgusting. Ugh…” She gagged dramatically.

“I can’t even get over the fact that I have to pretend I know you in public. Just do me a favor and drown yourself in the lake.”

Marisol walked out after her hateful words.

I crumbled to the ground, wrapping my arms around myself and began to sob.

It only lasted for a few seconds as the door swung open. I grimaced, staring at it believing it was Marisol but it was Theo.

I startled, then quickly pushed myself into a sitting position. His eyes swept around my room. Disgust flickered across his face.

My gaze instinctively followed him.

My room was barely bigger than a storage closet. A narrow bed was pushed against one wall, a battered wardrobe leaned beside the tiny window, and two cardboard boxes held everything I owned.

Once, I had lived in the Alpha family’s wing. Now, this.

“This is where you’ve been hiding?”

Before I could respond, Theo suddenly loomed over me, his hand clamped around my throat.

“Fat bitch,” he snarled. “You kept me waiting all day.”

I gasped, clawing at his wrist as his fingers tightened around my neck.

“Now,” he hissed. “Accept my rejection.”

“N-No…” I whimpered, shaking my head. “Please… don’t make me…”

“Trinity!” he barked, his eyes blazing with fury.

“I thought…” My voice cracked. “I thought you loved me.”

“Shut up!” he roared. “I don’t want you. The sight of you makes me sick.”

Goddess… How could someone who once held me so gently, regarded me as a living being become this cruel?

“You’ll accept it willingly,” he growled, tightening his grip, “or I’ll force it out of you.”

I searched his face one last time. Those icy blue eyes I’d fallen in love with, there was nothing left.

“Don’t fucking keep me waiting!”

A sob escaped my lips. I had no choice. “I… accept your rejection, Theo Armstrong.”

The moment the words left my mouth, something inside me tore apart. Agony ripped through every inch of my body.

I screamed as unbearable pain seared beneath my ribs, racing through my veins and into every nerve ending. It felt as though someone had reached inside my chest and torn away a piece of my soul.

I collapsed onto the floor, trembling violently as wave after wave of anguish crashed over me. Even without an awakened wolf, every instinct inside me mourned the bond that had just been severed.

“Good.” Theo released me and without another glance, he turned and walked out.

“Just kill me already, goddess Selene,” I whispered.

Then the pain would stop. The unwarranted hatred too. And I’d finally be free. There was nothing left worth living for. The only thing I’d ever looked forward to was gone.

But death never came. By the third week, I was already living in my worst hell.