Rejected But Not Alone
CARL
For forty-eight hours, I had convinced myself that keeping my distance was the smart, rational play. I had poured over Marion’s daily charts detailing her rapid, inexplicable healing, telling myself I was just monitoring a pack guest. But the reality was far more pathetic: I had spent the last two days pacing the corridors outside the infirmary wing just to catch the faint, intoxicating drift of rain and sweet sugar seeping under the door.
Every instinct I possessed screamed at me to cut my losses. She was another pack's reject, carrying baggage heavy enough to ignite a war, and the mere concept of a "second-chance mate" was a curse I had sworn to reject the day I buried Fiona and our