Page 38 of Rejecting his Mate

It would be so easy to feed her a lie. Part of me thinks I should because the truth is worse than the fiction.

My head whips around as I hear a wolf baying. Not one of mine, but one of Halle’s pack.

I quickly get to my feet, grabbing my clothes, and pulling them on. Once I’m dressed, I go back to Halle, who is struggling into a sitting position.

She’s spent, both from her injuries and from whatever she did to fix me. Running isn’t an option for her, but I need to get her to safety. My wolves are on their way, and Sawyer will be here soon, but not quickly enough.

I scoop her into my arms, ignoring her squeals of protest. “What are you doing?” she hisses.

“Getting us the fuck out of here. Hold on tight.”

Chapter 9

Halle

Idon’t protest as Cade holds me against his chest. I’m spent, my body exhausted. My throat and lungs still ache, and my side where Dalton kicked me is throbbing. I want to sleep for a week, but first, we have to get out of these woods and survive whatever vengeance my mate—formermate—wants to throw at me.

I can’t sense him through our mating bond, so he’s not close.

I wonder if they know three of our pack are dead? Kyle is among them. I wanted revenge for him spitting at me, but I figured I’d blacken his eye, not watch him be torn apart.

The other two were younger wolves.

I should feel bad, but I don’t. They came to kill us. They would have delivered me the same fate they were given had I been alone.

Snuggled against Cade’s chest, I forget about Dalton and my pack. All I focus on isbreathing in and out. What I would give to be in my room, curled on my bed with Teddy.

That makes my heart squeeze. I’ve had that damn bear from the moment I arrived in the pack’s lands. Adeline said it was a present from my mom and that I came here with it, but I don’t remember how I got it.

Losing it hurts.

It is my only link to the past, to my life before the accident where all my memories were destroyed.

Cade moves with a speed I’ve never seen, vaulting over fallen logs and stones as if I weigh nothing. Shifters are strong—that isn’t unusual—but his strength is more than I’ve seen, even from Klaus.

He is, like me, different, though he’s not ready to tell me how.

Different in our world is a curse, one that we cannot escape, so I don’t blame him for holding his tongue. I had no idea I wasn’t like the rest of my pack, and I’m struggling to come to terms with the fact I am not the purebred Beauford wolf I thought I was.

But that is a problem for another day when we’re not fleeing for our lives.

Dalton will return with more pack members, maybe even Klaus. Cade killed wolves, and that won’t be allowed to stand.

I don’t know how long we run for. I doze in his arms, unable to keep my eyes open any longer, and it is the yipping of wolves that rouses me.

Panic claws at my heart, and I try to move, urging Cade to put me down.

“Relax, little wolf. They’re friends.”

“Friends?”

“My wolves. We’re not pack in the traditional sense, but they are my family.”

He doesn’t elaborate on that, even though I want to know more. Instead, he stops and lowers me to the ground, not letting me go, even when I’m steady. His fingers fist around my bicep as three wolves pad out of the undergrowth.

They are huge, as big as Cade is in his wolf form, and they are snarling as they approach. Cade doesn’t say a word, but the wolves glance in his direction before they lower their heads—an act of submission I have only seen between alphas and their subjects.

Is Cade… an alpha of his pack that’s not a pack?

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