Page 2 of Rejected Bullied Mate

As soon as the sensation swept in, it was gone again, but there was no way I was going to be able to rest until I was sure I'd been mistaken. I glanced behind me at the empty house, small enough to see everything with a single sweep of my eyes, and carefully opened the front door. It had grown cold, but my adrenaline was making me sweat as I carefully scanned the area, trying to sense if anyone was lurking nearby.

It was a quiet night, the air cool and heavy with moisture from the nearby ocean and the oncoming rain. My senses picked up the sounds of the night, the chirping crickets, and the soft sound of the wind rustling through the trees. I couldn't hear or smell anyone, but it wasn't my wolf senses alone that were bothering me.

With a shaky hand, I flicked on the porch light and stepped out, shutting the door behind me. A quick look revealed nothing, but the feeling wouldn't leave me, a slow, pulsating throb in the base of my stomach. I reached out with the once-strange, now familiar magic that had bloomed in me after my single night with Samson, using it to examine the land around my cottage. Learning that I had been a witch hadn’t been a shock—it ran in the family—but after I'd sat with the magic for seven years, it responded to me like an old friend.

I could sense some residue of magic on the edge of my property and nothing more. It was so faint I couldn't even tell if it was a shifter or a witch.

Probably someone just passing through. A neighbor that you didn’t know wasn’t human, is all,I tried to tell myself…But I wasn’t very convincing.

After a second sweep around my home, I still couldn’t find a thing, even if the pain in my belly hadn’t let up. Exhaling, I decided the best thing to do would be to lock all the doors and try to get some sleep.

"I must be going crazy," I murmured. "Or maybe it's just stress."

But as I headed back to the door, I suddenly sensed the magic again, this time even closer. It was so powerful that I had no doubt what the source was. It hit me over the head like a hammer, and it was all I could do not to fall to my knees and cower.

It was my Alpha.

No, no, no, no. He couldn't possibly be here, could he?

Oh shit. He'd come for me, just as I'd feared. I had gotten so good at hiding, and we'd been so careful to cover our tracks. How could he have found us now, after all these years? I'd known it was a possibility that Samson would come for me, but not so soon. Not before my little Kit was grown, safe from the harsh realities of the pack hierarchy and his father's cruelty.

Worst of all, the center of that magic wasn’t coming from outside. It radiated from inside my house, where I’d left my son sleeping alone.

My hand was shaking on the doorknob, and it took me two tries to twist the knob. I couldn't let him near my son, not when Kit was so young. I had to get to him, to protect him, but if Samson was already inside, what could I possibly do? I’d grown stronger being on my own, but nowhere near strong enough to take on an Alpha.

I was nearly hyperventilating as I finally turned the knob, and the front door slowly creaked open. I’d held on to a tiny sliver of hope that I was just losing my mind, but as soon as I could see into my home, the truth was undeniable.

There, sitting at my dining room table, was Samson Jones, my former Alpha, the father of my son, and the only man I’d ever slept with. Every bit of Omega instincts inside of me was screaming to either submit to him right then or beg for his favor.

Screw that. I hadn’t separated myself from my pack for this long to just roll over and let Samson be the boss of me again, Omega or not. The fear was white hot, but there was one thing stronger—the drive to protect my son.

He stood and stepped forward, and I took an involuntary step back. My legs shook, and my knees nearly gave out, but I stood firm, raising my chin in a futile attempt to appear more confident than I felt.

Samson was still the most beautiful man I'd ever seen. Time hadn’t done anything to ease the almost painful attraction I felt towards him. His blonde hair, usually a few shades darker than Kit's, had been cut since I'd last seen him, and now it was a shorter, more severe style. His jaw was just as strong, and his lips were full and inviting as always against his tanned skin.

The one thing that hadn't changed, though, was his eyes. They were a bright, clear blue, and I knew the exact shade—the color of a summer sky.

His gaze raked over me, and for a moment, I was taken back to a simpler, sweeter time when we’d spent one beautiful night together before he’d ditched me and ignored me just like everyone else.

But this wasn't a memory. This was real.

"Kiera," he rumbled, "It's been a long time." Samson stepped forward again, and this time, I stood my ground. "Now, where the fuck is my son?"

Chapter 2 - Samson

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Don't play dumb with me, Kiera," I managed to get the words out, but it was a near thing. Seeing her again after all these years had left me close to speechless.

I guess I'd forgotten she was beautiful. I guess I'd forgotten that my wolf was desperate to protect her, to keep her safe like any good Alpha should for his Omega.

Somehow...I'd forgotten that Kiera Langley was the only woman on the planet who ever affected me, and now I had to pretend that the only thing I was feeling at the moment was anger, not a frustrating blend of anger and lust.

Usually fair-skinned, Kiera was flushed with anger and fear, the color sitting high on her cheeks. Her dark chocolate hair was coiled on top of her head, but strands of it had worked their way free, framing her face and tempting neck. Her eyes, midnight black sometimes cut through with moonlight silver, were wide and frantic. Kiera had been pretty to me before, but the past seven years had hammered out any lingering timidness, leaving behind only the best parts of her.

It would have been harder if I wasn't honestly angry as fuck with her, even as her delicious scent overwhelmed my senses. She'd been in hiding for seven fucking years at this point, and it'd taken a monumental effort to be able to finally find her. When I'd been told she'd only been four hours away the entire time, I'd been ready to tear the nearest person to shreds. I'd been so pissed.

Kiera had used a different last name and stayed under the radar for years, and had she been any other random pack member, I'd have ignored her disappearance and gone on with my life. If a wolf didn't like how I led the pack, so be it. But Kiera wasn't any other wolf.

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