All Chapters of The Rejected Omega's Bastard Heir: Chapter 11 - Chapter 20

POV: JackI stopped at the door, my hand on the frame, and looked back at my friend and Alpha. What I saw made my stomach clench.His eyes were bloodshot, the skin underneath bruised with dark circles that hadn't been there a week ago. A sickly gray pallor clung to him, the kind that came from night after night of no fucking sleep. He'd dropped weight too, which made sense since lately he picked at his food like it might poison him. I'd known this man since we were pups fighting over scraps, since before either of us understood what it meant to carry the weight of a whole territory on our backs. I'd watched him grow into an Alpha every wolf here respected, feared even, the kind of leader who never let anyone see him falter. I'd never once seen him look this shattered, and it scared me more than I wanted to admit.He even stopped letting Trishelle serve him. Gets some other wolf to do it now.I turned that thought over in my head, slow and deliberate, the way you'd turn over a stone lo

POV: JamesA soft knock on his bedroom door yanked him back into the present, and he groaned loud enough that it bounced around inside his own skull. Standing took more effort than it should have. His body felt heavy in a way that had nothing to do with sleep and everything to do with whatever exhaustion had dug itself into his bones the past few days. He shuffled to the door on legs that felt like they belonged to someone else and cracked it open just enough to see who was bothering him.A young male Omega stood on the other side, ducking his head the second James's eyes landed on him. "Excuse me, Alpha. Beta Juda wanted to know if you were up."James dragged a hand down his face, trying to scrub the fog off his brain. "Tell him I'm up. I'll see him at ten, in my office."He started to shut the door when the Omega piped up again, quick and nervous. "Ah, I'm sorry, Alpha, but it's already after lunch.""What?" The word came out sharper than he meant, and his own voice rang inside his

POV: TrishelleOnce Richard left with his supplies, I turned to James, keeping my voice steady even though my hand still throbbed like a son of a bitch. "Sorry, Alpha. About the mess. I can get another Omega to finish your food if you want."He waved me off without even looking up.I bit my lip, nerves crawling under my skin like ants. The silence stretched too long, so I filled it before it could turn ugly. "I'll clean this up, then. Get back to it."I scraped the bloody vegetables into the trash, tossed the cutting board and knife in the sink to soak, wiped the counter down twice, and snapped on a glove before grabbing fresh ingredients. My hands did the work without me. My mind stayed stuck on the weird tension still hanging in the air like smoke that wouldn't clear.Can't have his broth touched by filthy Omega blood. Wouldn't want to upset the Alpha's delicate fucking stomach.The thought came out meaner than I meant it, bitter in a way I usually kept caged up tight. I glanced up,

POV: RichardI couldn't stop turning it over in my head. What the hell had I walked in on that day in the kitchen? And more importantly, what the fuck was going on with my Alpha?That was the first time I'd ever seen James lose it like that over the kitchen Omega. The confusion followed me around for days, needling at me whenever things got quiet, surfacing at odd moments during meals, right before sleep, refusing to let me settle. I started keeping a closer eye on things after that. Aside from the obvious, James staring a beat too long during meals, the kitchen going strangely off-limits for forty minutes after lunch, nothing much seemed different.Oh. Except for the biggest change of all.Everyone called her by her actual name now.I huffed out a laugh remembering the day that rule got enforced. A couple of pups, too young to know better, had called her Trash within earshot of the Alpha and gotten the fright of their short lives for it. James's aura had rolled off him thick and furi

POV: JamesI stormed off the training field, furious. Furious at Richard, furious at Henry for that look he'd given me, but underneath all of it, furious mostly at myself.I shouldn't have followed her last night. I knew it walking down there.Another crescent moon had come and gone, and despite every rational argument I'd made to myself, I'd trailed after Trishelle to the lake again anyway. I'd told myself I wouldn't. I'd told myself the same damn thing the night before that, and the night before that, and every time my feet carried me down the same worn path regardless.Real strong willpower you've got there, man.Even having already seen her like that once, the sight still hit me like the first time, like something had reached into my chest and wrung it out slow.Something about her had changed, though. I wasn't sure if my eyes were playing tricks on me, but she didn't look nearly as thin as before. Her hips had filled out, softer now, her stomach no longer hollow. Even her cheeks