LOGIN(Jenna POV)I won’t lie.I was nervous about answering the door and seeing Nick. As in, very, very, very nervous.Ashley wasn’t wrong. I had definitely wondered more than once recently whether Nick could be my second chance mate.It was sort of funny, actually.Two years earlier, I didn’t even think I was worthy of having a beta as a mate. Now I was seriously debating whether I could be mated to the Alpha King.Things really had changed.But… what if he wasn’t?“And what if he is?” Willow asked, sounding both tired and anxious.“I don’t know if I want to know. Not now. Not tonight,” I linked Willow back.“Well, I do,” she complained. “Answer the door, Jenna.”I closed my eyes and let out a breath.Fine.I could do this.No matter what the answer was, I was going to be okay.I heard more knocking.Finally, with my heart pounding fast in my chest, I forced myself to walk over and answer the door.And there he was.Nick.Looking handsome as always, with a worried look on his face.
(Jenna POV)No one prepares you for what a rejection will feel like.It hurts… a lot.Worse, it feels like a part of your soul is being forced out of your body.And your body –not understanding why it is happening—tries desperately to cling to whatever lingering strands of the bond that it can reach.A part of you wonders …even briefly… if you have made a mistake. If you should have tried harder. Fought harder. Done something different.Those feelings pass, thankfully.But when they do, you are filled with a weird combination of sadness and emptiness. Not the “Hey, my stomach is empty” kind of emptiness, but rather the “Oops; I just fell down a well and there is no bottom,” kind.In other words, rejection sucks. I would not recommend it.When it was over, Danny hugged me one last time. I let him.He also kissed me goodbye. I also let him do that.And when he walked towards the door …pausing just before he left to look at me… I forced myself not to stop him.Once he was gone, I
(Danny POV)My mother stood up.“I’m not doing this right now. Go back to the packhouse. We will talk tomorrow.”“No, Mother. We talk now.”My father stood up too.“Your mother is right. This whole conversation is pointless. What’s done is done. We can talk later.”I stayed sitting.“I’m not done,” I said coldly.“You are acting like we did something wrong,” my mother complained. “We did nothing but try to teach you right from wrong.”“No, Mother. You taught me to ignore my own heart, my own feelings, my own instincts. You taught me that I had to have blind trust in a mate bond no matter how messed up it seemed or felt.”“Goddess!!!” my mother answered, throwing her hands up in the air as she turned to my father. “John, I figured it out. This is about that girl – Jenna. I knew the second she came back to the pack that she was going to be nothing but trouble.”“This is about Jenna,” I confirmed. No reason to hide it.“She left the pack right after the funeral,” she told my
(Danny POV)I rang the doorbell.When my parents didn’t answer, I rang it again.And again. And again.I didn’t care how late it was. Some things couldn’t wait.Jenna had taught me that lesson.Eventually, on the 5th ring, my parents answered the door. They were together, both wearing bath robes and rumpled hair, both looking disoriented from the unexpected interruption.“Danny?” my mother gasped as soon as she saw me, her voice a mixture of concern and confusion.“Mother,” I acknowledged her, with an unmistakable sharpness in my tone.My father leaned into the doorway.“What the hell, Son? Do you have any idea what time it is?” he growled.I ignored him, choosing to simply push my way inside.“We need to talk,” I informed them.“It is two o’clock in the morning,” my father protested. He was getting angrier by the second.“If you are tired, brew a pot of coffee,” I said coldly.“Danny, what’s going on?” my mother asked, concern written all over her face.She approached me with b
(Jenna’s POV)Danny’s last sentence landed, and it landed hard.“You didn’t want to destroy Beth’s relationship with her family,” I repeated.“Yes. I was… I was trying to be responsible and understanding.”I laughed.I actually laughed. The sound surprised both of us.“Because Beth’s family was important.”“Yes.” Danny’s face looked relieved, as though he appreciated that I understood his position.And I did.Just not the way he thought.As my heart broke, my mind was piecing things together very fast.Beth’s family mattered.Beth’s legacy mattered.Her career mattered.Her reputation, too.Anything connected to Beth mattered.“But my reputation… my career… my relationship with my family, those things didn’t matter as much to you.”Danny had the audacity to flinch.“That’s not true.”“You let my mother believe that I failed out of law school. You let the pack believe that I was a maid. You let your mother call me a b&stard.”I paused.“And you burned the letters that my father w
(Jenna POV)I stared at Danny.No.No.This wasn’t… that wasn’t… that wasn’t possible.I knew every loop of handwriting on the letters.Every ink stain.Every crossed out word and sentence.The letters even smelled faintly like him.“Those letters… after everything that happened… those letters were everything that I had.”Danny’s face crumpled.“Baby –”“Don’t.”“Say it again,” I demanded.Danny didn’t say anything.“Tell me again,” I repeated, more forcefully this time.Danny hesitated.But then, finally, he said it.“I didn’t write those letters.”Upon hearing the words for the second time, I felt my heart break into little pieces, which shocked me almost as much as the revelation about the letters.How was it that I had any pieces left when it came to my relationship with Danny?My legs buckled underneath me and I collapsed on the floor.Danny sat down next to me and grabbed my hands.I was too shocked and hurt to pull them back.“But they were in your handwriting,” I protested, tr
(Danny POV)I can’t help but feel annoyed when Kade and I get back to the alpha suite and find Jenna and Ashley drunk off their a&&es.We need to have a serious conversation. The alpha king is coming in five days to see Jenna, and we don’t know why.Despite this fact, Kade doesn’t seem the slighte
(Jenna POV)When Mr. McMahon told me about the trouble that his investigators were having with Blue River Mountain Pack, I thought the problem was that Alpha Rivers had something to hide.Now, after three weeks and thirteen missed appointments, I was convinced that the problem was that Alpha Rivers
(Danny POV)It was late in the day on a Friday afternoon, and I was going through a never-ending pile of paperwork on my desk. I was exhausted, but I had at least another 3-4 hours of work before I could call it a day.Frustrated with the constant stream of interruptions today and my inability to
(Jenna POV)The day that Mr. McMahon returned, I began our meeting by going over the retainer agreement with him.“What the f&&k is this?” he asked as he looked over the contract terms.I leaned back in my chair and smiled.“Which part bothers you? I believe it is all pretty standard.”“$650 per h







