Page 10 of Rejecting his Mate

That image brings a smirk to my lips. Maybe Ishould leash him and feed him treats, just to see how he likes it.

The smile fades.

This isn’t a joke. This is my life. I am tethered to a wolf who will one day be alpha, and I will sit at his side as his alpha female. It’s a good match, the best I could have asked my aunt Adeline to make.

So why does it feel so wrong?

As I emerge from the tree line, the main house comes into view, and the scent of my pack fills my nose. I can sense them through my pack link too, little snippets of thoughts and emotions that comfort me, despite my morose mood. I don’t remember my life before the pack, but I hope it wasn’t a lonely one. I can’t imagine not having the sense of kinship that I have with the Red Deer Pack.

As I trudge over the grass, I peer up at the old farmstead, which has been my home for as long as I can remember. The walls are covered in dark gray siding, and over the years, as the pack has grown, extensions have been added to the original building. It looks like a home, a warm and inviting one, with flowerpots on the wrap-around porch and a swing that overlooks the yard, but to me, it is a prison, one I cannot leave.

I never considered what pairing myself with a chosen mate would entail. I’d known Dalton for years. Like everyone else in the pack, he accepted me when I came to live with my aunt. I was content, happy even when he put the mating mark on me and imprinted himself on my wolf. The son of the alpha who would one day be alpha himself.

I couldn’t have asked for a better match.

But things changed.

He changed.

As I wait for my first moon ceremony, he has become distant and even cruel toward me. Maybe he resents this match as much as I do, but if that is the case, he should never have agreed to mate with me. The anger he has toward me is baffling, and no matter how much I try to understand its origin, I can’t.

Maybe he just wanted me for my name, for my bloodline. Now that he has me, he doesn’t need to impress me anymore.

As I climb the few steps that lead up to the porch, I scent him. There is a brush of awareness in my mind, something he can only do when we’re close. Our mating bond should develop and grow stronger alongside our feelings for each other, but since they have stagnated, so has the bond.

This is the curse of chosen mates, or so Aunt Adeline tells me—some can never truly cement a mating bond, even with time. I fear Dalton and I will be that way.

When I look up, I see him sitting on the bench pushed against the side of the house, his hands clasped between his parted thighs. Instinctively, my body knows trouble is coming and readies for the inevitable fight.

“Where’ve you been?” he demands.

The question makes me want to roll my eyes. I’m not four, and I don’t need him to treat me like I am. “Around,” I hedge, stepping toward the front door. I’mplanning on hiding in my room until he gets bored and leaves me alone.

Dalton has other plans.

I’ve barely reached for the handle before he’s on me, his hand crushing the back of my neck against the wood in front of me. A primal response has me wanting to rear back and fight, but I know I can’t win against his strength and size. I gasp, and my wolf bares her teeth.

Let me shift.

I wish I could, but even if I were able to, I wouldn’t. My wolf would be no match for his, and we both know it. He has alpha power, and with that comes strength I couldn’t hope to rival.

His fingers tighten around my nape, pushing me harder against the door until my face is plastered against it. I can feel him against my back, his solid body giving not even an inch between us.

My anger swells, and my hatred for him grows. Every day he chips away at me a little more, and I wonder if we’ve doomed ourselves to a life of unhappiness.

He hates me as much as I hate him. I wonder what it would be like if we were fated mates instead. How different would our relationship be then?

“Take your hands off me,” I snarl the words, sounding like the beast that lives inside me.

He ignores the threat lacing my tone because, to him, I am not one. He is Klaus’ son. He has all the power in this dynamic. He could have me and Adeline thrown out of the pack with a word.

I can never allow that to happen. This pack is everything to my aunt. Adeline took me in after—

After theevent.

Before I can walk that dark path down memory lane, I force my thoughts aside and come back to the present just in time for Dalton to press his hard cock against my ass. He rubs himself on me like a horny Labrador, grunting in my ear as he does.

Son of a bitch.

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