༺ I AM REJECTING Y'ALL

~AURORA ~

༺༺♡♡༻༻

Dawn broke bright and very early, shining through the window along the far walls.

I got up from the bed, my whole body aching painfully which made me wince as I tried to get up.

It is another day.

Another day as the rejected mate, without my child and the mate of the three rogue brothers.

The absurdity as usual, made me laugh in my head.

What exactly is today going to hold, I wonder?

My head was aching slightly with the rest of my body and it only got worse when I tried to get out of the bed, so I just gave in and sat back, closing my eyes.

And I tried to think - of anything. Perhaps a way out, what's next for me, what I'm supposed to do next.

But no matter how hard I tried to concentrate, I could not form a coherent thought.

I was just…confused and frustrated at everything.

What is it that I'm supposed to do?

I have nowhere left to go, I have no one left to run to.

Maybe staying here isn't bad…

I shook my head defiantly.

No!

Not with three men who claimed me when I was unaware.

Love, mate bull shit was what put me in this situation. How on earth am I supposed to look at a man and not remember how stupid I was over Cage and what he did to me suddenly?

How?

The door opened and I opened my eyes, groaning when I saw Mindy walking in with a cheerful smile, her brother Xander right behind her.

“Good morning, Aurora.”

Her smile was warm and her eyes were concerned as she walked over to me. Xander on the other end just lurked by the door, staring- no, glaring hard at me with a cold unreadable expression.

What exactly is his problem or was this his natural demeanour?

“How are you feeling today?”

I wanted to ignore Mindy, but no matter what, I wasn't that stupid.

She saved my life - even though I'm not all happy over it, she saved my life.

I should act a little more grateful.

“I'm fine,” I said with a curt nod.

“Are you feeling any pain? Ache? Discomfort?”

“Yes…” I murmured after hesitating for a while, “yes, I am. I ache all over my body.”

“Well that's expected considering what you went through. It should be over by tomorrow, trust me. I prepared some portions for you which the helps will bring over after breakfast.”

I gave her a faint smile, “thank you.”

“You are welcome. And Aurora,” her hand grabbed mine, “I need you to know that my heart bleeds for you. It must not be easy losing a child before you get a chance to know em. I'm sorry you have to go through that, I'm sorry you are going through that.”

I smiled again, this time more tightly but she wasn't done - “I need you to know that you are very safe here. I don't know exactly what happened and I'm not going to press, but just in case you do not have anywhere else to go, feel free to see this place as your home because technically it's yours too. Just take your sweet time healing.”

I wish they could stop offering me these condolences.

“I'm fine,” I snapped my voice coming out harsher than I intended, “I'm okay. Thanks for your concern and thanks for saving my life too. I'm grateful. But that does not suddenly make you a family. It also doesn't mean that you understand me.”

“You know you could be a little more grateful,’’ the growl was from Xander and I looked up to see him glaring at me

“I am grateful, I really am. But please I just want to be left alone. Why's that so hard to understand? I do not want to be here. It's not really pleasant waking up on a very new day to find out that your life, the perfect life you had, has gone completely upside down. That you are now mated to three brutal bastards.”

“Watch your words, Red! Or I'm gonna make you. You are in our lands, you are in our territory. You will give us some damn respect or I'll bend you over and show you just how brutal bastards tend to punish silly mates.”

His threat was meant to scare me, I know. But as I met his glare, it wasn't fear that I felt. It was a rush of excitement- as I imagined just how he would punish me.

He must have either read my thoughts or he felt something because he smirked sardonically.

“Exactly.”

“That's enough Xander,” Mindy cut in, giving her brother a glare, “you are not helping matters you know? It's natural for her to feel the way she does.”

“She's being a weakling and that's pathetic.”

A weakling?

How dare he?

What would he have me do? Forget everything that happened?

“You are being too rude, even for you and it isn't fair. No one deserves to go through whatever she went through and we do not know the half of it. It's been just a day. She's allowed to mourn, she's allowed to be weak.”

Mindy gave me another smile, “besides she's your mate. Try to be nicer.”

His expression looked like she had just slapped him with the word, “I didn't ask for a mate.”

Not like I asked for one either. Yet he was among those who claimed me while I was unconscious.

“Unfortunately you don't have a say in the matter. Now, if you have nothing better to say to the poor soul, please come let's leave her be.”

He grumbled but followed her sister out of the room.

I laid down again when the door closed, feeling pretty useless.

This is your home now…. Mindy had said and I have no idea how to feel about that.

I was almost drifting off to sleep again when I heard a commotion outside. I could have ignored it, but then a sudden wave of rage swept through me in such a rush and with so much intensity, it would have brought me to my knees if I wasn't lying down.

I got up, ignoring the aches in my bones as I dragged myself to the door and threw it open.

Indeed, just like I suspected, it was the three brothers shouting on top of their voices- well it was mostly Zephyr doing the shouting, but regardless.

Xander was standing by the wall, his arms folded across his chest and his appearance deceitful because even though he looked calm I could sense the tension, and anger oozing off of him.

“What the fuck is wrong with you and why are you always so selfish you bastard!!” Zephyr yelled, his face contorted in fury.

I winced. What on earth could the problem be?

“I suggest you watch your tongue Zephyr.” Xander said in a very cool tone that was deadly enough to give me the shivers.

“To hell with that. She's not just yours! She is also MINE, and I can come see her whenever the fuck I want. You cannot stop me.”

Wait ... .were they fighting over me?

Holy cow

“Mindy is treating her. And the treatment is going on in MY manor. As long as she's here, as long as she is in my territory, she's off limits to you two fuckers. I do not care what your demented brain is telling you but it's MY YARD, and it's MY MATE!!”

I trembled, my eyes wide. They can't be serious. He doesn't even like me so surely he's only doing this to spite his brothers.

I caught Ryder's eyes where he was just standing watching the exchange and he gave me a wink which I ignored.

“Xander, you need to calm down and…”

“I don't give a fuck if he calms down,” Zephyr yelled cutting Ryder shut, “I have no idea what I was expecting but this is so like him so I'm not fucking surprised. He's always been nothing but a pathetic, greedy and selfish BASTARD!! And….”

“Kneel!”

The words left his clenched teeth in a low hiss. His voice was so deep, so dangerously deep in a tone that demanded instant respect - that even I felt the urge to actually kneel down and obey that primal command.

I saw Zephyr freeze, his eyes widened and I saw him trying to struggle but it was a losing battle. With a curse, he fell on his knees.

“Xander…don't do this!”

But Xander cut Ryder off with just a glare and turned back to Zephyr who was just unmoving, glaring at him.

“Pick up your dagger and give yourself a nice cut on your cheek.”

What the fuck is he doing?

How can…

But his eyes were cold, no feelings and I gasped in horror when Zephyr drew his dagger from his belt, hand shaking from what I imagined was him trying to fight the command.

But you can't.

A primal wolf's words are almost like compulsion. You can't break that compulsion.

Zephyr drew out his dagger from its sheath and held it with both hands

“Xander stop this right now, don't fucking tempt me…” there was a dark threat in Ryder's eyes but that didn't seem to bother Xander.

“What I'm gonna do is break you limb to limb if you say a word again.”

And that shut Ryder up.

What on earth was he doing?

The moment Zephyr drew the knife to his face, something within me snapped. Intense protectiveness, the need to protect because I couldn't stand the thought of him getting hurt.

The aches in my body were instantly forgotten. I ran and stood between him and Xander, widening my hands as if to break the compulsion with my body.

“Stop it this instant!”

Xander smirked, “Get out of my way, red.”

“Or what? You are going to make me kill myself. Go ahead you bastard! I dare you.”

His frown deepened, but he backed away slowly. Heart still thudding, I turned to Zephyr but I was too late. Before I could get the dagger away from him he was already digging into his flesh and hissing in pain as he dragged it down from the corner of his eyes to the side of his lip in one sharp motion.

The scream that left my lips came out of nowhere, and shocked even me, as I fell on my knees and grabbed the blood stained dagger from him.

“Are you fucking happy now? Hurting your brother this way?”

“They are no brothers of mine,” Xanders Said cooly, “and I'd hurt them again if they don't get the fuck out of my manor.”

“I'm not living without her!”

“Enough!” I snapped. This is so unbelievable.

“Listen to me you three, I didn't ask for this. To be caught between three enemies so there's one thing that's going to end all of this, right now. I want to reject all three of you as my mates.”

“What?”

“Yes! Look, you three have been rivals for years and hey, it's none of my business if you three decide to kill each other. But, I do not want to be another thing caught in between your struggles. I'm not asking for permission,” I murmured and looked at Zephyr who was already healing, but the horror in his eyes was another pain, “I am rejecting all three of you.”