THE REJECTED MATE - 006

ELENA'S POV

The house was quiet at night.

I lay in bed, staring at the ceiling. Sleep wouldn't come. It hadn't come easy since the slap. Since Caden grabbed Serena's wrist. Since everything shifted.

My cheek had healed. The redness faded after two days. But the memory stayed.

He defended me.

I didn't ask for it. Didn't want it. Didn't need it.

But he did it anyway.

I touched my face in the dark. Lily's face. Elena's face. Sometimes I forgot which was real.

Footsteps in the hall. Soft. Careful.

I froze.

They stopped. Right outside my door.

I didn't move. Didn't breathe. Just listened.

Silence.

Then breathing. Light. Someone standing there.

I knew who it was. Felt him through the door. Through the walls. Through the bond that shouldn't exist.

Caden.

He didn't knock. Didn't speak. Just stood.

Minutes passed. Five. Ten. I lost count.

My hand reached for the door handle. Stopped.

What would I say? What could I say?

I stayed in bed. Stared at the door. Waited.

Then footsteps again. Walking away.

I let out a breath I didn't know I'd been holding.

What was he doing? What did he want?

I didn't sleep that night.

Across the house, Caden couldn't sleep either.

I didn't see it. But I felt it. The bond worked both ways. His confusion. His need. His desperate search for something he couldn't name.

He lay in his room. Alone. Serena slept down the hall. They'd barely spoken since the fight.

His mind kept going back to her. Elena. The assistant.

Something about her.

The way she moved. Quiet. Careful. Like someone used to hiding.

The way she looked at him. Not the way others looked. Not respect. Not fear. Something else. Something that felt like... recognition.

The way she smelled. Underneath the nothing. Underneath the careful blankness. A hint of something familiar. Something that pulled at him.

He closed his eyes.

And then he saw her.

Not Elena. Someone else. A ghost.

Lily.

She came to him in memories. Small. Plain. With eyes that trusted him completely.

He'd met her five years ago. A small pack. Poor. Desperate. He'd gone to negotiate trade. Seen her across a field. Felt the bond snap into place.

His mate.

For three days, he was happy. For three days, he thought he'd found something real.

Then his father found out.

"You can't be serious." His father's voice. Cold. Cruel. "She's ugly. Her pack is nothing. You need someone better. Someone who helps the pack, not drags it down."

"But she's my mate."

"Fated mates are rare. But they're not law. You can reject. Find someone useful."

He argued. Fought. Begged.

His father gave him an ultimatum. "Reject her, or I'll kill her myself. And her whole pack."

So he did it.

He found Lily. Looked at her face. Saw the love there. The trust.

And he said the words.

"I reject you."

She crumbled. Fell to the ground. The pain of rejection was physical. He felt it too. A piece of himself ripping away.

He walked away. Never looked back.

Weeks later, he heard her pack was destroyed. Rogues, they said.

He always wondered.

He looked through old records that night. Searched for any mention of Lily. Any sign she survived.

Nothing.

Her pack was gone. Her family was gone. She was gone.

Probably dead. Like everyone else he'd failed.

He closed the records. Sat in the dark.

Why was he thinking about her now? After five years? After moving on? After building a life?

Because of Elena.

Because something about Elena reminded him of Lily. The way she moved. The way she looked at him. The way she made him feel like he'd lost something important and only just noticed.

It didn't make sense. They looked nothing alike. Lily was plain. Elena was... also plain. But different. Different face. Different eyes. Different everything.

So why?

He stood. Walked. Didn't plan where.

His feet took him to the third floor. Staff quarters. Small rooms. Small doors.

He stopped outside hers.

Elena. The one who haunted him.

He didn't knock. Didn't speak. Just stood.

Listening.

Was she awake? Could she feel him the way he felt her?

Minutes passed. No sound.

But somehow, he knew she knew he was there.

He stayed until he couldn't. Then walked away.

Back to his empty room. Back to his empty marriage. Back to the life he'd built on someone else's broken heart.

In my room, I lay frozen for an hour after he left.

He came. He stood. He left.

But why?

I replayed every moment since I arrived. Every look. Every question. Every time he touched me and felt something he didn't understand.

He was searching. For something he'd lost. For someone he'd hurt.

For Lily.

He was remembering. Finally remembering.

I should have felt triumph. Satisfaction. The plan was working.

Instead, I felt sick.

Because he wasn't the monster I'd built in my head. He wasn't the cruel Alpha who rejected me for fun. He was a man haunted by something he did years ago. A man who couldn't sleep because a ghost was pulling at his mind.

A man who stood outside my door at 2 AM because something in him knew I was important.

I hated that I felt sorry for him.

I hated that part of me wanted to open the door.

I hated that after everything, some small, stupid piece of me still remembered being his mate. Still wanted to be held by him. Still wanted to hear him say he was sorry.

I pressed my hands to my face.

"You're Elena," I whispered. "Lily is dead. Remember why you're here."

But Lily wasn't dead. She was right here. Trapped behind a stranger's face, watching the man who broke her try to find her.

And she didn't know what to do.

Morning came. I hadn't slept.

I dressed. Went to work. Acted normal.

Serena was cold. Silent. She didn't look at me. Didn't speak. Just pointed at tasks and watched me do them.

Caden wasn't at breakfast. Wasn't at lunch.

By dinner, I heard why.

He'd left. Gone to the eastern mountains. To the place where Lily's pack used to be.

Someone told me. A guard. Mentioned it casually.

"Alpha went to check old territory. Said he needed to see something."

My blood went cold.

He was looking for her. For Lily. For answers.

And when he didn't find her, when he found nothing but ruins and ghosts, where would he look next?

At me.

I went to my room. Sat on the bed. Waited.

He'd be back in a few days. Maybe a week.

And when he returned, he'd have questions. Questions I couldn't answer without revealing everything.

I needed to move faster. Finish the plan before he figured it out.

But what was the plan now?

Destroy him? Make him hurt?

He was already hurting. Had been for years. I saw it in his eyes. Felt it in the bond.

Maybe the best revenge wasn't making him suffer.

Maybe it was making him know.

Know that I survived. Know that I came back. Know that I saw everything.

And then walk away. Leave him with that. Forever.

I touched my face in the mirror.

"Wait until he comes back," I told the stranger. "Then decide."