Page 37 of Rejecting his Mate

I trail off, realizing I’ve said too much.

“And what are you? Other than the wolf who saved my life.” I notice she doesn’t take her eyes off me to look at her dead pack members strewn around the clearing. Does she think me a monster now? She should.

“I’m a—” I break off again, unable to reveal the secret I have kept close to my heart from the moment I discovered what I am.

“A what, Cade?”

I dip my head closer to hers, my eyes scanning over those plump pink lips. It would be so easy to move closer and claim her mouth. I want to, every cell in my body wants me, needs me, to take her, but she’s not mine.

The claiming mark on her neck is a beacon,reminding me I have no claim over Halle, even if that’s what I want.

I trail my fingers over it, and she flinches, not from my touch but from the mark itself. “I hate this being on your skin.”

“So do I.”

The bite will fade in time if her mate is not renewing it, but it won’t break her mating bond. She is tied to that bastard for life—unless he dies.

I glance over my shoulder in the direction he disappeared into. I was stupid to leave him breathing. I should have gone after him.

“You’re hurt.” Her soft voice brings my attention back to her, and my skin heats as she skims her fingers over my ribs. There is a large gash running along my side, and blood smeared over my skin. It throbs painfully, but I don’t care about my injuries; I care about Halle endangering herself.

Before I can say anything, she reaches her fingers out to my side, allowing them to hover over the injury. “I’m sorry you got hurt because of me,” she says.

“You didn’t cause this,” I tell her.

“Dalton only attacked you because he’s a jealous, petty little man who thinks we’re having some sort of affair.”

My stomach fills with fire. “That’s why he hurts you?”

“That’s why he hurt me today. He didn’t know you existed before. There are many other reasons why he hurts me, most of which are nonsense. I don’t think our mating has been the fairytale either of us envisaged.”

Her fingers press against my side, and I pull back, wincing. She doesn’t let me escape her touch, though, and heat suddenly infuses my skin around the injury site. Frowning, I glance down and watch, transfixed, as the skin knits together.

What the—?

How is she doing this? The skin repairs until there is no evidence there was ever a cut there other than the blood staining my skin. I swallow hard, and when I look up, Halle’s eyes are wide.

“How—how did you do that?” I demand.

She pulls her fingers back and stares at the tips as if she expects sparks to fly out of them. “I don’t know,” she whispers. “I just wanted to take your pain and then… I did.”

Her eyes flutter suddenly and she slumps forward right into my arms. “Halle?”

Panic is rolling through me as I push her hair from her face. Her lids are closing as if she’s fighting to hold on to consciousness.

Shit.

Carefully, I lay her down on the leaf-strewn ground and lean over her. She healed me, somehow. As far as I know, that is not something a wolf can do, none that I’ve heard of anyway. “What are you, Halle?” I ask.

Her tongue dips out and wets her lips. “I don’t know. My aunt, she wanted to tell me, but there wasn’t time. I don’t think I’m entirely wolf, though.”

The way she lays herself bare to me, and the vulnerability she shows, make me want to wrap myself around her. I don’t. Instead, I peer down at her, trying to sensewhat she might be. Before, when I’d scented her, I’d smelled only wolf, but in the aftermath of her healing me, there is something else, a spark of something I can’t quite put my finger on.

“This is why Dalton wants me dead,” her tired voice draws my attention. “Something is wrong with me. I can’t shift, and I think that’s because I’m not one of you.”

I flinch at her words as if she has slapped me across the face. “I’m not one of them either,” I admit.

Her eyes flare a little. “You smell like wolf, but… stronger, I guess. I can’t rank you. You’re not an alpha, but you feel more powerful than one.”

---