Page 8 of His Rejected Alpha Mate
Yeah.
We sat in silence for a while until Tate was called away to serve someone else and his partner, Asher, came in. They both made drinks for the patrons pouring through the door now it was getting later. It was only then that I noticed they were on bar duty and weren’t on the floor as betas for hire to the omegas going through heats.
In Heatwave, omegas could pick betas to either take them through their heats with toys and magical assistance, or start them off and have an alpha finish it. Tate and Asher worked together on the floor and were the regular heat partners to my friend, Hiroshi, that I’d been alpha to a few times. While Kade had gone off to have his heat with Blake, I’d partnered with Hiroshi. I loved the guy in a platonic way. We had a lot of fun together and it was great to blow off some steam with no expectations.
It reminded me I needed to ask Hiroshi why he’d had a heat so early, more than a week earlier than expected. He’d been off too. Almost like he was sad but trying to mask it.
“How come you aren’t on the floor?” I asked Asher as he passed me.
He shared a look with his mate. “We, uh, just wanted to. Fuck! Look,” he leaned down to speak in my ear so other shifters wouldn’t hear. “I’m only saying this because you won’t judge us and won’t say anything, but we’re a thing with Hiroshi. So we aren’t doing that anymore.” He paused, and I tried to say something, except there were no words. “He’s still open to his fated. We assume our thing will end when he meets whoever. But for now… we love him, Dakota. He fits with us.”
My mouth snapped shut. Who was I to say a thing? This whole situation with Jasper had me thinking that our goddess, The Luna, was up to something. I knew our birth rate was shrinking, but it wasn’t like Hiroshi was denying a mate in favor of his betas. He wanted to wait for a fated mate before bonding, which was smart. “You haven’t bonded with him, have you?”
Asher gave me a scathing look, his anger covering another unnameable emotion. “And turn the council on us? Fuck, no. When the time comes, we’ll give him up and probably head for somewhere else.”
“Why leave?”
“We couldn’t watch him with someone else, and what kind of alpha will take on an omega and two betas?”
That question stuck with me the whole night and all the way home. When I wasn’t thinking about Tate, Asher, and Hiroshi, I was thinking about Jasper.
My past still haunted me and I wondered if I’d gotten it wrong all this time. What if Cooper hadn’t been my mate after all? Had I wasted over thirty years grieving for a man that wasn’t supposed to be mine anyway?
I couldn’t afford to think like that. Coop wasn’t less deserving of my grief, or the love I’d given him, just because he might not have been my fated mate at all. I’d loved him dearly from when I’d met him when he was nineteen, nearly twenty, and hadn’t stopped when I’d lost him before we could bond. Just a month short of his twenty-first birthday when we would finally find out if there was a bond there set by The Luna.
My mind wandered. Coop’s face was still fresh in my mind, like it had been only yesterday. What would he say to me about all of this? My minor obsession with Kade and now a fated bond with Jasper? I imagined him laughing his ass off wherever he was.
What would he have thought about Jasper? Come to think of it, what did I make of Jasper?
Not that it mattered. The man that felt like my true mate didn’t want me and wouldn’t even entertain having a conversation with me about it.
Tossing and turning the entire night, I finally got up unrested and worked my way through my usual routine. Since I had an important meeting, I attempted to iron a shirt and wore a tie as I headed to the Mercury Delivers depot for a meeting.
My phone rang as I parked my truck in the lot. “Boy, you’ve kept me awake half the night with your fretting.” Janet greeted me, tone sharp.
“I’m sorry, ma’am.” The best thing was just to apologize to the omega bear. Elders automatically demanded respect. They had so many years of wisdom on us. Janet was nearly two hundred, by the sleuth’s estimation.
“You best be. Mind and bring me some of that candy you know I like. My stash is running low.” She didn’t let me get a word in. “Now, I know you’re a busy man, but I have a reminder for you. Destiny says that you are fated to be in Kade’s life. As his papa’s mate. You know it feels right. Now I know you’re torn because of Cooper. You loved him so very much. Dear Cooper wants you to be happy. He was such a sweet, tormented boy. The Luna called him to her to save him from suffering. It wasn’t time for him to be here.”
Tears threatened to fall and I could barely get the words out. “He wants me with Jasper?”
“He wants you to follow fate.” Her voice softened. “You and he were never meant to be forever. There were different plans for both of you. He knows he will always be your first love. Cooper was so well loved by you then that he can be happy for you now. You have his blessing. Not that you needed it, but apparently you had to hear that.”
I made a strangled sound.
“Now, don’t forget my candy. Pop by soon, and we’ll have tea.” Then she hung up on me.
It took me a while to get myself together, and I was grateful I’d given myself plenty of time or I would have been late for the meeting. Not that it would make any difference.
There was tension in the air as I approached my office, people already milling around, going about their tasks. I greeted the familiar faces and most replied. Isaac was tense, and I understood. As our union rep, he’d been the one to report me and would sit in on the meeting.
Just before the meeting was due to start, I opened my office door and walked to the larger meeting room, where I met several unknown faces. They introduced themselves and the person taking the minutes of the meeting as Isaac sat by my side and listened.
Knowing that I wasn’t about to keep my job, I stayed silent. I’d left work to go help Blake get Kade back. I’d taken days off to nurse Kade back to health, and I knew what was likely to happen.
Fired.
Strangely, I didn’t care. I knew Kade wouldn’t be working for Mercury much longer and I’d done all that I could with the place. Financially, I was okay, or would be for a while. I owned my perfect home on the outskirts of the Sweetwater pack compound on land that belonged to the bear sleuth. I had savings and leave I hadn’t had a chance to take.
