Rejection

As we reach them, one guard inclines his head before exiting back to the alcove. The other gestures to the room he holds the door open to, and I glance inside a large office, the desk a simplistic modern design of black stone, the walls painted in a stark white to contrast.

“Alpha Weavers will be here momentarily,” the guard says, bowing deeply. I give him a sharp nod in thanks, and he retreats further down the hall, not taking his eyes off of us. Be grudgingly, I step into the room, wishing the guard hadn’t been so vigilant and had given us some time to snoop around the hallway. Perhaps not the best impression if we were caught, but any information I could get on this man beforehand can only help. I will not hesitate to break this alliance if I find any reason whatsoever not to trust him.

we both situate ourselves on the far side of the room so that if anyone were to come in shooting, they would need to open the door fully, giving us a head start to retrieve our own weapons. Two chairs are in front of the stone desk, but we don’t dare take a seat. There’s no way I would put either of us at a disadvantage by sitting before I’ve even met this alpha. Ryan positions himself in front of me, the first round of defense. I grit my teeth, wanting to push him aside and assure him I can handle myself, but I remind myself he’s only doing his job: Protecting his alpha at all costs.

My chest tightens, and tendrils of fear crawl up my spine. This will be the first time I need to prove myself in my new role. All the feelings and thoughts filled with self-doubt come rushing to my mind, and my lips part as I greedily suck in air in an attempt to calm myself.

I will my breaths to come in steady, not wanting to betray my nerves to the keen hearing of the wolves. Ryan’s muscles bunch beneath his suit jacket, registering my uneasy inhales, but he relaxes a moment later as I get myself under control.

Footsteps echo off the halls. They’re all I need as a reminder to myself that my ability to handle this meeting as an alpha could determine our pack’s fate. A shadow passes by the frosted glass to the left of the door, the figure large and imposing, his feet thumping on the black carpet to the rapid beat of my heart. Tension builds in my chest as he pulls the door open, and something pulls taught, as though a string stretches from my heart to his.

My nostrils flare, and the intoxicating smell of pine and leather hits my nose, causing my wolf to rear to the surface.

No—no, this cannot be happening.

I stare up at the man’s towering form filling the doorway, his look of shock mirroring my own. His blond medium-length hair is pulled back into a man bun—a look I’m not usually into, but on him ... Coupled with his choppy beard, he looks every ounce the alpha he is. He’s rough, wild, and dominant, with a savage gleam to his ice-blue eyes. I can’t help but drag my bottom lip through my teeth, desperate for some sort of friction on them to keep me grounded. Otherwise, I might just let my wolf have her way and pounce on top of him.

His gaze flicks down to the movement, darkening with hunger as he clenches his hands at his side, barely restraining himself. The strain on his face is evident. We’re both fighting against our wolves rising up inside of us, begging to be free and claim. A burning sensation blooms in the center of my chest, as though a beam of scorching light connects us. I push back the urge to claw at it, knowing it will do no good because there isn’t a string tying us to one another— it’s the mate bond. It stretches into place, connecting our souls to one another, the invisible tether linking us, marking him as my mate as thoroughly as my wolf’s senses had with his intoxicating smell.

“What the hell did you do to her?” Ryan growls, backing me up against the wall just as the alpha prowls forward. Ryan’s words jolt us both from our fixed stares, my thoughts slipping from the single minded focus as Whitlock’s eyes rove between the two of us, assessing the protective way he stands before me. More than a beta with their alpha.

Panic grips my chest, my mind running through a million thoughts all at once. I had never thought about my mates, had never wanted to allow myself to wish, hope, or dream of finding them because a female alpha always has more than one. Seeing what happened to my father, how my mother’s death ripped away a part of his soul, I vowed it would never happen to me. And now, I’m faced with one of my mates, forced to endure a reality I’ve wanted to hide from for most of my life. The words bubble up to my lips before I can even think. My mouth opens to speak them, and his eyes harden on me, reading me so easily already that I can tell he knows exactly what I’m about to say.

“I reject the bond,” we both say at the same moment. But I can tell by the anger sending his veins bulging in his neck, the red creeping up the sides, that he held back, just a moment, just to be sure. But despite that, he too uttered the words and rejected the sacred bond between us.

“What the hell?” Ryan exclaims, moving to the side slightly to eye the two of us. He takes in both of our rigid postures, our hearts beating erratically, now in tune with each others’. His eyes light with understanding, his lips curving down for a moment before his brows knit in confusion. “You both rejected the bond?” he asks in surprise, and I honestly can’t blame him. Although the mate bond is considered sacred, there are some that reject it, but not many.

“Yes,” I breathe, letting my mouth move on autopilot still, not wanting to second guess my decision.

“Yes,” he grumbles through gritted teeth before moving over to his seat behind his desk and giving us a wide berth. His muscles ripple beneath his fitted navy suit and I watch him move hungrily, every inch of his powerful body a predator. I don’t miss the disdain in his voice, nor the fact that he waited until after I said yes. But he still agreed. He still rejected the bond, didn’t fight for it. That was the only thing that kept me from second-guessing myself. How would it work anyway? Sure, we’re forming an alliance, but we’re both leaders from two separate, very different, packs. There’s no way they would come together as one. My father had made the deal for our marriage, but that was when he was still alive, still able to lead my pack. And if I know the way his mind worked as well as I think I do, he would’ve had some sort of plan in place to one day break the marriage pact or take care of Marcus before the wedding can happen.

He gestures to the two seats on the opposite side before taking his own. Tension still hangs thickly in the air, but I brush it off, not wanting to linger on it. I hold back a relieved sigh that it seems he too wants to get down to business. Promptly ignoring the dark look he still gives me, I stride over to one of the seats, perching atop the black velvet chair. I expect Monte to slide into the chair beside me, but he doesn’t, his eyes still wide and moving between us, clearly still processing the news.

Not wanting to allow him the opportunity to continue this conversation, I know I need to say something, anything, to get us back on topic. There are more important things going on right now other than the dominating alpha before me. My fingers itch to trail along his beard, feeling the rough facial hair beneath my palm, his sensuous lips on mine, claiming me so thoroughly—no, I can’t think about that. I force my hands to grip my knees, keeping them busy so that they don’t find their way reaching across the desk to the savage man before me.

“We should get back on topic, Alpha Weavers,” I prompt as I look up from my lap. His eyes are already on me, their icy blue depth burning with a cool blaze, one that could devour me whole if I allow it to.

“Call me Marcus,” he says in a growl, the deep rumble of his voice forcing me to cross my legs. Fuck, even the sound of his voice turns me on, as though it reverberated through me straight to my core.

His nostrils flare, his keen wolf senses scenting the desire on me, the wetness pooling in my center.Fuck, this is dangerous, I cannot allow myself in a room with this man alone. And I can tell from the smug smirk that stretches across his lips, he knows it too, knows how easily I would take back my vow of rejection with those thick, calloused palms caressing my skin.

“We need to schedule a severing,” Ryan says curtly, his words slicing through the sexual tension like a knife. The desire burning in my veins is snuffed out like a light at his words. A severing of course, that would be the next step. The words of rejection are only the first step. The bond still exists between the two of us, stretching from my chest to his and connecting our souls.

Yes, we need to contact a priestess or a priest to conduct the severing ceremony, only they have the ancient words reserved for cutting ties between soulmates. Before I even register the movement, my hand raises to rub against my chest, just over my heart where we’re bound. It’s as though the thought of cutting that cord is already ripping my heart to shreds.

My gaze lifts to Marcus, his own watching my fingers rubbing circles against the bare skin on my chest. A pained expression crosses his face, and I almost think he’s about to take back his oath, to fight for the bond and his lips part. But before he can get a word out, he goes deathly still, his eyes frosting over so coldly I almost think shards of ice are about to pierce my skin when he turns it on me.

I’m about to ask what’s wrong, what happened to make his demeanor change so suddenly, and that’s when I remember. The ring ... on my left hand, the one that’s now clutched to my chest. The diamond glistens in the light of the black chandelier overhead, casting the same glittering rainbows I’d admired before.

“That was something else we were going to speak to you about, Alpha weavers.” Ryan strolls over to the seat beside me finally. He inclines his head as a sign of respect and uses the formal title, but I see the smug satisfaction in his amber eyes, gleefully relishing in Marcus cold fury.

Ryan meets my eyes, the taunting edge is gone now, compassion and understanding replacing it, and my heart aches for him. After everything he’s said, to be hit with the fear and uncertainty that I would fall into this stranger’s arms because he’s my soulmate. Yet he’s still able to be caring and kind to me.