Page 70 of Rejecting his Mate

“If they come, I’ll stop them. Nothing is going to touch you.”

He rubs his fingers near my claiming mark and snarls.

“I wish I never laid eyes on him,” I say, meaning every single word.

He leans forward as if he wants to kiss me, and my pulse flutters wildly.

“Come and eat,” he says, pulling back from me. “You need to put something in your stomach.”

He walks out of the bathroom, disappointment swirling in my gut.

Chapter 17

Cade

As we reclaim our seats in the booth, I watch Halle. She seems smaller than she did when we first walked into the diner. I wonder what the hell she’s thinking. If her aunt did something to her memories, I don’t see how Halle can ever get past that. She stole the last bond she had to her mother, of her life before they shoved her into the role of mindless pack member.

Tentatively, I test our pack bond, but nothing is coming through, nothing I can use to help me understand anyway.

I focus on her instead. She’s trying to hide it, but I can see the tension, the fear, and the sadness in her expression as she fiddles with the salt shaker.

I move closer to her, making sure our bodies are touching, even if it’s only slightly. It seems to soothe her a little, relaxing her enough to release her hold on the shaker and focus on the rest of the group.

“You know what you want?” Sawyer hands her themenu, and she takes it from him with a murmured thanks. I give my brother a grateful look for trying to make things normal again.

I know she loves her aunt, but right now, I want to hurt her as much as Halle is hurting. If that’s what Adeline has done to Halle, it makes me question everything. Someone you love wouldn’t remove the very essence of who you are.

And I absolutely believe Adeline took Halle’s memories. The more I think about it, the more it makes sense. If Halle knew back then that she was not a full wolf, that she had witch in her, she would be a liability. One wrong move, one slip-up using magic in front of someone she shouldn’t, and her life would be over.

I understand why Adeline would want to protect her from accidentally outing herself, but taking her memories was fucking cruel.

I have to wonder what the fuck Adeline was thinking back then. She put Halle in a position where she was always doomed to fail. Did she do something to her witch half too? Why can’t she access it?

At first, I thought it could have been because she only had a small amount of power, but the way she healed Jackson… that wasn’t a small amount of anything. She fixed him, inside and out.

This shit is above my pay grade. I don’t know witches or what they’re capable of, particularly when they’re mixed with wolves. I’ve never met a tau wolf nor come across one in my lifetime, and I don’t know anyone who has.

I’d guess Adeline didn’t know shit about tau wolveseither, but she must have had some notion that her niece’s witch half would oppress her wolf.

Everyone knows hybrids can’t always pull their wolves out.

What the hell did she think would happen during the first moon ceremony?

I refuse to believe she expected Halle would shift.

She had to know—or expect—she wouldn’t be able to transition into her wolf. Did she think suppressing her magic would make her wolf stronger?

I stare at the side of Halle’s face, wondering if I should tell her my suspicions, but I can’t add that to her plate. She’s already overwhelmed thinking her aunt took her memories from her.

The waitress returns, and everyone orders. Halle’s gaze goes to the window when she’s done, as if she can’t look at any of us, and that makes me pissed. She’s done nothing wrong, nothing to be ashamed of, and yet I see that in her expression.

As someone who has struggled with facing the fact I’m different, I understand it. My vargr blood makes me an outsider among my own kind, even though I am a pure-blooded wolf and all that shit those assholes value. The Order of the Crescent Moon would hunt us, but the agreements we have in place keep us off their radar—or did. I wonder if our interference here will put us back on it.

I barely give the waitress any attention as she places the food in front of each of us. She can’t take her eyes off my brother, which isn’t unusual. Despite what he is, women are always drawn to Sawyer.

Humans are stupid creatures. They walk through life wearing blinders, not seeing the truth of what lives among them, even when evidence is presented. So many wolf attacks are blamed on wild animals. There was a time when our kind walked among theirs, and they knew of our existence, but over time, those truths became legends, and we were lost.

Now, wolf shifters have to remain a secret. If this human society discovered the truth, we’d all be hunted down and snuffed out. There are rules in place, methods that help keep us hidden.

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