All Chapters of The Alpha’s Rejected Mate: Chapter 41 - Chapter 50

Early the next morning, I wake before Mack does, which has become the pattern of our days. Before he used to be the early riser, and now it’s me because I like to go sit in the garden while the sun is still rising so I can soak up the tranquility I love so much about Winter Lake. He jokes that I’ve made him lazy, wanting to spend more time in bed than out of it, and the thought, as it always does, puts a smile on my face as I head downstairs in a pair of sweats and one of his t-shirts that I quickly threw on.The house is quiet and still as I make my way out through the back door and into the backyard. Only to discover that I’m not the first one to wake. Leaning on the side of the wall, and staring into the thick forest at the end of the backyard, is Faith, dressed in the same blue skinny jeans and long-sleeved gray jersey top she was wearing the night before. Other than her hair hanging loose around a face scrubbed clean of makeup, and the white slippers she’s stuffed her feet into,

Everything about him, from his stare, his posture, his perfectly pressed pair of black pants, to the black sweater that he’s chosen to wear today exudes power and confidence. Like a leader. Like an alpha.Standing over six feet tall, it doesn’t take him long to cross over to me. But when Moses, Ivan, and Helena attempt to follow, he holds a hand up without turning. They immediately halt. Like I said, an alpha through and through.One swift glance takes in my rumpled sweats, unbrushed hair, and bare feet. Even though I tell myself I have nothing to be embarrassed about, that isn’t enough to stop the dull heat I can feel sweeping over my cheeks and down my neck.His expression doesn’t change, but I feel the judgment all the same. So much so that I can almost hear his voice in my head: This is not you keeping up appearances, Aerin.I brace myself for him to order me back to the Boones, to tell me I’ve embarrassed him and the pack for leaving my mate. That he’s ashamed of me.He stops a f

But I’ve had enough. First Faith appears, wrecking me and Mack’s mating ceremony, and now my father’s here to drag me back to Minnesota? No…. just no.“I would think that since the issues concerning the Dacres occurred after you left your mate, you’d take some responsibility for what is happening now.”I forget everyone at the table and turn to face my father. “You’re saying this is my fault? That my rejecting Shane did what, exactly? Sent him crazy enough to kill his own father?”He doesn’t respond, but Mack does. “Aerin, come on, let’s—”I shake my head, all the while keeping my gaze trained on my father. “You said the pack was unstable. What did you mean?”“You wish to talk about this here?”He means in public. He means it as another reprimand for me failing to keep up appearances, never mind that he was the one to bring all this up here and now.I stiffen my spine and don’t look away.He nods, and after returning his fork to the table, sits back in his chair. “Fine. One of my enfo

But I didn’t dare go upstairs because that’s where Mack and Faith still were, in her room, talking in low murmurs. I didn’t stick around long enough to hear what they were talking about. I didn’t want to know.“You want to know if your mother could do what you can,” he says.I turn to find him eyeing me as we wander through the forest with Ivan a silent presence at our back.“Yes, yes, I do.”“The answer to that question is, I don’t know. If she could, she never did it in my presence.”I gape at him in surprise because I wasn’t expecting to get any kind of answer—least of all a straight one—from him at all.“You’re surprised.” His voice is flat, reminding me how rarely he’s ever surprised.I should’ve had a camera ready for his first sighting of Mack. No one would’ve believed the great Douglas Boone could be surprised by anything. “You never give up anything without getting something even more valuable back in return. Especially information. You’re always saying it’s a currency with m

Later that night, Mack and I lie in bed side by side in a house so full, it’s not even funny.Faith, who probably hates me, is staying in one spare bedroom. My father is in the other while his enforcers are sleeping in the lounge with blankets and bedding that Mack pulled out for them.But at least Connall, who definitely hates me for no reason that I can think of, isn’t in the house. Even though Mack suggested that he could stay with Adela or even Bennett, Connall decided he’d rather shift to wolf and sleep in the woods instead.“This is like some Christmas movie where everything goes wrong,” I tell Mack. “You know, like when the couple's extended family turns up, someone burns the Christmas dinner, and the dog destroys the garden party. Except, in this case, it won’t be a dog, it’ll be a wolf.”When he smiles, I shake my head.“No, I’m being serious. Things like this don’t happen. At least I didn’t believe they did,” I add, trying to silence my rising panic that something else will