All Chapters of Reject Me, Alpha Tate: Chapter 1 - Chapter 8

Nichole pov Tate had a standing order. Lunch to his office by one. No delays or excuses.I picked up the tray from the kitchen and took the executive corridor, the way I always did.Derek came around the corner first. He saw me from twenty feet away and didn't change his direction. Instead his shoulder hit mine hard."Watch where you're going, traitor's daughter."The tray lurched in my hands. I caught it, just barely, and kept walking.I almost made it to the next stretch of corridor before I heard footsteps speed up behind me. I turned in time to see one of the junior kitchen staff plant his foot directly in front of mine, grinning about it.My foot hit the wet patch on the tile where someone had moped and not dried it, and the world tilted. The tray left my hands. I tried to catch myself and missed and came down hard on my right knee, palms skidding across the tile, the sound of breaking ceramic ringing off every wall in the corridor.I stayed there for a moment, hands flat agains

Nicole's POVLily didn't waste a second. "I came out here and found her with Alpha Ashford. Alone, in the dark, pressed against the railing. The way she was looking at him, Tate — I was embarrassed on your behalf.""That is not what happened," I said."She's been following him all evening. Every time he moved, she was there.""That is not true." I turned to Tate, hating that I was pleading but doing it anyway. "We spoke for less than a minute. He came out for air. I came out for air. That was it."Tate looked at me for a long moment and then he laughed. "You." He tilted his head, something like genuine amusement crossing his face. "Seducing the Alpha of North Maple." He turned to Lily, shaking his head lightly. "Don't worry about it. She forgets herself sometimes. It won't happen again."My voice came out louder than I intended, years of swallowing things finally pushing back against my teeth. "I was standing on a balcony. I was having a conversation with a guest you invited. I did no

TATE'S POV Nicole had been unusually quiet for days. I am not a man who misses things. I was trained from the time I was old enough to stand not to miss things. Caesar believed that an alpha who could be surprised deserved whatever found him. So I learned to read rooms, read people, read the air itself before anyone in it had decided what they were going to do. It was the first and most fundamental lesson of my entire life.Two days ago, my beta received intelligence that unauthorized individuals were attempting to breach our western border. I was in the middle of collaborative discussions with the North Maple delegation at the time and I did not personally attend to it. I told Jonathan to monitor the situation and dispatched an elite squad to investigate. The matter felt minor. Probably rogues testing the perimeter, it has happened twice a year.But underneath the dismissal, something else had been running quietly. I had woken that morning with a familiar unease sitting in my chest

Nicole's POVThe Huang parents sat across from me in the nursery's small conference room, their hands folded."We're so sorry," Mrs. Huang said, glancing briefly at her husband. "Benjamin knows it was wrong. We've spoken to him very seriously about it.""Thank you," I said, keeping my voice even. "I appreciate that."Mr. Huang nodded, offered a thin smile, and they stood together. I rose and saw them out, said everything that needed saying at the threshold of the conference room and watched them step into the corridor.I had barely turned back inside when I heard it."She's raising them alone and expects us to take parenting advice from her." Mrs. Huang's voice was low but not low enough. "Please.""The board probably passed her research to keep Marlon happy," Mr. Huang said. "Everyone knows he did the real work."I stood very still in the doorway until their footsteps faded, and then I went back inside and sat down in one of the small chairs and stared at the wall for a moment.Four