Lahat ng Kabanata ng Rejected By The Alpha : Kabanata 31 - Kabanata 37

Kael's POVI had spent the entire walk from the council chamber trying to decide how to tell Lila. The only conclusion that came was that there was no good way.If I told her gently, she would accuse me of making the decision without her. If I explained the council's reasoning, she would tell me that their expectations were not her problem. If I admitted that I'd declared her my chosen mate because it was the only explanation that kept the council from digging deeper, she would remind me that I had once again decided what happened to her without asking whether she wanted it.She would be right and that was what frustrated me most. I knew that she would hate it but I had done it anyway. Because there had been no other answer I could give them without putting her in danger.I turned into the general library using the bond her like I usually did.The vast room was quieter than usual, most of the shelves empty at this hour. A few wolves sat scattered across the tables, absorbed in their o

Kael's POVI could not sleep that night. Every time I closed my eyes, my mind drifted to her.Lila standing against that shelf.Her eyes full of anger.Her hand against my chest.The words she had left me with still lodged beneath my ribs."I'd rather feel the pain of a rejection bond ten times over than trust you."I had heard worse things in my life.I had been threatened by wolves twice my size, challenged by Alphas who wanted my territory, and watched men die because they had underestimated the consequences of crossing Nightbane.None of it had followed me into the dark the way her voice did.So I remained awake.Sitting beside the window of my chambers, staring into the night while the pack slept around me.The bond was quiet.Too quiet.For the first time since Lila woke up several weeks ago, there was no sharp pull beneath my chest. No restless awareness of where she was. No phantom sense of her breathing somewhere beyond the walls.Just silence.Then something shifted.I strai

Lila’s POVLater that day, I found Kael in the Eastern Chambers.There was something almost irritating about the way my feet instinctively carried me through the corridors to him, even when my mind was too occupied to understand why. I stopped outside his door and stood there for a moment, feeling him on the other side.The bond stirred harder.That familiar pull moved through my chest, warm and insistent. I hated it, but this time, I didn't turn away from it. I raised my hand and knocked.The door opened almost immediately.Kael stood there, his hair slightly disheveled and his sleeves rolled to his forearms. He looked like he'd been waiting for me. His dark eyes found mine, and for one brief second, something almost like relief crossed his face before caution replaced it."Lila."I folded my arms. "We need to talk."His expression tightened. "I thought you didn't want to speak to me.""I didn't."He blinked. "But?""But I've thought about it."He stepped aside, and I walked in.The

Kael's POV The door had barely closed behind Lila before I let out the breath I had been holding. She had asked for space, and I was going to give it to her. Whatever had happened between us tonight had been her choice, just as much as it had been mine. I wasn't going to turn it into something it wasn't or use it as proof that the distance between us had disappeared. I had spent too long making decisions on her behalf to start doing it again simply because she had let me close for one night. But tomorrow was still coming, and with it, the council presentation. They would expect answers. They would want to know who Selene Vale was, where she came from, and why I had chosen her. The identity we had given Lila was enough to get her through the door, but it wouldn't survive a room full of council members determined to examine every detail of her life. If I wanted her to stand beside me without giving them an opening to tear apart the story, every part of her background needed to hold