All Chapters of Reborn After Rejection: I Chose the Alpha Everyone Feared: Chapter 11 - Chapter 20

Hallie discovered the problem before anyone actually asked her to solve it. Two work crews stood beside the supply shed arguing over the same stack of lumber.One needed it for repairs near the outer cabins. The other had been told to reinforce a section of roofing before the next rain. Neither crew had enough material to finish both jobs, and the wagon carrying the rest would not arrive until later.Hallie had been assigned to check the morning distribution list. Nothing more. That should have made her invisible to the argument.It did not.One of the men looked at her and said, “Tell them we have priority.”Hallie lowered the list.“Why would I do that?”He frowned. “Because Grant’s not here.”“That doesn’t answer the question.”“You’re his wife.”The title had arrived before the authority again.Hallie glanced at the other crew. They were watching her now too.“I’m his wife,” she said. “I’m not your work supervisor.”The first man’s irritation deepened. “Someone has to decide.”“Ye

Grant had learned not to trust the first emotion he felt from someone.Fear could look like anger. Relief could sit beside resentment. Desire could exist beside regret and tell him nothing about where either feeling pointed.Hallie had made that lesson harder from the day she arrived. He stood near the work yard with a list in one hand and watched her argue with Caleb over the board they had started testing yesterday. Not really argue.Caleb pointed to one of the marks. Hallie erased it.A woman carrying tools said something Grant could not hear. Hallie listened, then wrote a different mark beside the job.No one asked Grant to settle it. Good. He moved closer.That was when the emotions reached him. Irritation first. Then concentration, sharp enough to make him glance at Hallie.He could not know whether either feeling belonged to the board, Caleb, the woman beside them, or something else. His half-Vael blood gave him the emotion and left the meaning alone.Hallie looked up.On her f

The board was working well enough to make someone angry.Hallie discovered that before breakfast was over.A man stood in front of it with his arms folded, staring at the single shortage mark beneath the hauling crew.Caleb noticed him too.“Problem?”The man looked at Hallie instead.“You keeping records now?”Hallie glanced at the board. “Only active shortages.”“That wasn’t my question.”The edge in his voice drew attention from two people nearby.Hallie resisted the instinct to answer quickly.Yesterday, she might have explained the whole system before he finished objecting.Today she waited.The man pointed at the board.“First it’s where people are working. Then it’s who moved. Now it’s which crew can’t keep up.”“We stopped tracking people.”“For now.”Caleb shifted beside her, but Hallie lifted one hand slightly.“What do you think happens next?” she asked.The man’s expression hardened.“Someone decides the same crews are short too often. Then someone decides who isn’t pullin

Austin discovered the second problem because too many people were waiting outside his office. Not arguing. That would have been simpler.They sat on benches, stood against the wall, or held folded papers they kept checking as if the words might rearrange themselves. Austin stopped.“What is this?”“Morning requests,” the man nearest the door said.Austin looked down the hall. There were eleven people.“Why are they all here?”The man hesitated. “They need decisions.”“From me?”“Yes, Alpha.”Austin almost asked who had sent them all at once. Then he remembered. No one had.That had been Hallie’s part. He entered the office and called in the first person.The request took less than five minutes. A worker wanted to switch a regular duty because another assignment fit his skills better.Austin approved it. The second man came in with almost the same request from the opposite side of the change. Austin stared at him.“You two already agreed?”“Yes.”“Then why are you both asking me separa

Hallie knew the argument had changed the moment someone said, “There’s no point asking her.”She stopped beside the work table.Caleb stood on one side with two assignment sheets. Grant stood on the other. Three workers waited nearby, all carrying the tight expressions of people who had already repeated themselves too many times.The man who had spoken looked directly at Hallie.“She’s his wife.”Hallie looked at Grant. His face gave away nothing.“What exactly am I supposed to agree with?” Hallie asked.The man shifted. Grant answered instead.“One of the repair crews left an assigned job unfinished yesterday.”Hallie glanced at the sheets.“Why?”“They lost two people to unloading when a shortage was marked.”That caught her attention. The board. One of the workers stepped forward.“The wagon had to be cleared before dark. We went because nobody else was free.”“And the repair work?” Hallie asked.“Still got most of it done.”“Most,” Grant said.The worker’s jaw tightened. Grant loo