Page 44 of Rejected and Regretted

Once we made it to the area where our scouts team was, both my beta and I shifted back to our human forms, quickly dressing in the robes we had brought with us. Tension hung heavy in the air, our men standing defensively in line, inches away from the line that divided Opal Moon and Whispering Hills. In front of them, standing on their side of the land, were the enemy scouts guarding the corpse of our fallen pack member. Fuck, if it didn’t overflow me with sadness and fury seeing his lifeless body - another victim of my father’s egocentric mindset. Would I ever be able to stop this meaningless violence?

Inhaling deeply, I tried to clear my head. I couldn’t succumb to the rage filling me to the brim. If I wanted to be better than my old man, to prove his ways wrong, I had to act diplomatically even in such a maddening scenario. Yet, before I could try to reason with Opal Moon’s scouts, their leader showed up, a wicked smirk on his face. It would be a lot harder to negotiate with him.

“Well, what do we have here?” The man in his forties glanced at my fallen scout without the least bit of remorse in his eyes. In fact, I daresay he found amusement in the situation.

Diplomacy, Koen, I reminded myself, swallowing the urge to punch the bastard in the face, forcing a smile instead. “It’s a pleasure to meet you again, Alpha Grayson,” I somehow managed to say without an ounce of my rage shining through. “I just wish it was under different circumstances.”

“Yes,” he agreed, mockingly adding, “It’s a shame you couldn’t teach your man to stay out of my territory. Poor fella’s death is on you.”

Rage bubbled up in my throat, but a mindlink took my mind off of it before I acted impulsively.“Jared barely trespassed, Alpha,”John, the head of my scouts, reached out to me again.“He merely tripped. Maybe one of his paws touched the grass on the other side, and Grayson’s men immediately flew at him. It’s like they were waiting for one of us to accidentally set foot beyond our borders.”

Once his message had been delivered, I discreetly nodded at him. I believed him, and if what he said was true, it would be wise to further investigate Grayson’s intentions. Nonetheless, until I could check my facts, it would be best to avoid animosity to keep things from escalating - it was bad enough as it was.

Shifting my attention back to the other Alpha, I gave in. “It was my fault. If you could kindly return Jared’s body to us, I would like to do right by him by preparing a proper funeral for him.”

“You know the rules, Alpha Koen. If it gets into our territory, it’s ours to choose how to deal with,” the despicable man asserted, testing the limits of my patience.

“I’m aware,” I replied, clenching my fists to hide the black claws that were starting to break through my skin as Col pushed forward, eager to teach Grayson not to mess with our family. “Since this was the first time one of our men trespassed, could you please consider making an exception?”

Grayson touched his chin thoughtfully. He was clearly having too much fun with this, and it was getting on my nerves. Depending on his answer, I might not be able to keep Columbus from breaking free and tearing his throat.

Thankfully for him, he proved to have a drop of decency in him. “Lucky for you, I’m in a good mood, Alpha Koen. It’s your trash anyway, so you might as well clean it up.”

Contradicting my earlier thought, he proceeded to kick the body over the borderline, as if taking my man’s life for no reason had meant nothing to him. My team hurried to collect their friend’s corpse, and I instructed them on where to take it.

As they rushed past me, Grayson’s voice sounded again, making my skin crawl. “If my scouts catch any more of your men in our territory again, consider it war, Alpha Koen,” he warned.

With my composure hanging by a thread, I glared into his eyes fearlessly, spitting through gritted teeth, “Likewise.”

With a huff, the man shifted into his beast and disappeared into his territory, his team following behind him. My beta approached me to discuss our hostile encounter with Opal Moon, and what other consequences it could have. After that, I struggled to resume my day.

Deep down, I worried this could be the beginning of a bigger problem.

28

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A V R I L

After gathering withmy beta and gamma, we discussed the changes to our plan. Three times I had patiently waited for Wednesday to roll around in hopes of sneaking around the packhouse while Koen and his team were out hunting, and three times I had failed. Whenever I had a chance to strike, something always stopped me. It was obvious I couldn’t keep waiting an entire week between attempts. If I wanted to succeed and return home soon, I needed to broaden my opportunities.

Once we finished analyzing all our options, we decided to act on Saturday. It was the ranked members' day off, and I noticed his gamma would faithfully leave to visit his family, who lived in a nearby pack, only returning the next day. His beta was usually gone for the entire evening as well; I heard someone mention he went to the city, though I wasn’t sure what he did there. But it didn’t matter. With only Koen left, as he rarely left pack territory, we agreed that I would distract him. That would give Theo an opportunity to search the upper floors of the packhouse while Elijah ensured he wouldn’t be caught.

Although I was quite pleased with our new plan, I was slightly concerned about the part I would play. Considering how Koen tended to see right through me somehow, I feared hewould be able to tell that something was up. At least, I didn’t stumble onto him for the rest of the afternoon, which allowed me a moment of peace.

Yet, as night fell and I didn’t see him at the dining hall, relief started transforming into worry. Where could he be? I hadn’t seen him cross the town square, where I had spent most of the day hanging out with my friends; not even once. Had he stayed inside the packhouse all day? He’s never done that, at least, not since I arrived at Whispering Hills.

Well, maybe he just wanted some privacy and decided to have his meals delivered to him in his room. As a fellow alpha, I knew how overwhelming it could get to be surrounded by people all the time. Accepting that perhaps he just needed some time alone to unwind, I brushed it off and went to sleep.

However, when morning came and my friends told me Koen wasn’t at training, I found it hard to ignore it. As my restlessness became unsettling, I found myself searching every corner for him. Why did I even care? I certainly shouldn’t, not when I still hated him - or at least craved to hate him. Yet, I caught pack members discussing the alpha’s sudden disappearance, my reason was overcome by worry.

Before I noticed it, my feet were taking me to a place I could never forget. As I ventured into the woods, away from the main part of the territory, I could hear Koen’s warnings echoing in my mind. Unaware of my true power, he constantly voiced his discomfort about me being alone here, where I could encounter rogues who succeeded in dodging the sentinels. But I didn’t find any threats.

In fact, after seeing the alpha in all his glory, slaying enemies with fascinating ease, I could testify that he didn’t look at all threatening lounging on one of the branches of the tallest tree, gazing into the distance, trouble etched in his features.

I couldn’t hold back a sigh of relief as I spotted him from a distance. “Thank Goddess, you’re here.”

The sentence left my mouth before I realized I had even let it out. I couldn’t believe I had said that – I couldn’t believe I had even thought that. But I had, indeed, as became obvious when Koen’s head snapped in my direction. I swallowed dryly.Please, let him not have been able to distinguish my words from this far away.

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