Page 30 of Kidnapped Rejected Mate
“We’re fated,” I mutter, spitting out more blood, my eyes raising wretchedly to meet Lachlan’s. “Your sister and I are fated, Lach. She is my mate. I am claiming her now.”
“Thefuckyou are.”
He doesn’t even give me time to think, lunging toward me again, shifting into his golden wolf. The kettle goes flying from the stove, crashing into the floor and spraying—thankfully cool now—water over the planks. There’s a dent where the thing landed.
But I don’t have time to think about repairs, because I’m focusing on shifting just in time to receive him, our massive bodies flying backward fast enough to shatter the window over the kitchen.
This cabin was not made for a shifter’s wolf form.
Lachlan’s growl fills the space, and we fight, somehow both aware of Aurela, neither of us moving toward her.
I don’t want to be fighting him. But I won’t back down from claiming his sister. I’ve waited this long, and now that I know she’s not happy in that life, I won’t leave her to it. She can break off her engagement. Her parents can learn to deal with me—the way they learned to deal with Valerie—and Lachlan could even accept me.
If he’d just give me a fucking second to explain myself.
Instead, I rear back, and he snaps after me. When he lunges for me again, we go tumbling through the already-fucked doorway, further splintering the wood around the edges as our bodies barrel through. Something sharp and metal cuts into my side, and as we roll out into the morning light, I realize it’s one of the door hinges, hanging crooked, dripping with my blood.
I just hope Lachlan doesn’t think that washisblow.
My wolf is slightly bigger than his, but he has a bit more training than me. If this were a fight against Xeran, he would take me in an instant. And if it was Felix, I’m confident I could outmaneuver him.
But Lachlan is strong and smart, and he has the added benefit of going for blood while I’m on the defensive, just trying to let him work this out of his system. Trying to let him tire himself out so we can stop and talk about this.
He’s one of my best friends. Surely he might see how I could be good for his sister. Surely Lachlan wouldn’t reject me the same way his parents did, claiming I could never be good enough for Aurela.
In the pack order, there tends to be a clear hierarchy, spoken or unspoken. Ours is relatively unspoken. As an orphan raised only by my grandfather, lower middle class, and not coming from one of the original bloodlines, my place in that hierarchy is not high. One redeeming factor is my connection to Xeran. Another is Gramps’s tireless dedication to the community throughout his life. His name is known throughout the pack. If not for being rich and influential, then for being a good, solid shifter and a worthy packmate.
I am a good man, a good shifter. And I know Lachlan can see past the superficiality of where and how I was born. He’s married to Valerie Foley, after all. A woman who fled town out of shame and was nearly executed when she came back. She participated in starting that fire back then, and started one again the second she got back into Silverville.
This is just a momentary bout of rage.
Lachlan swipes at me, backing us further and further from the cabin, and still I see the undying flame of hatred burning in his eyes.
This has to be temporary rage.
And all I have to do is wait it out.
Chapter 16 - Aurela
Throughout my life, I’ve gained the sense that I am simply not allowed to have good things. I finally find a best friend and a group of girls to hang out with. Of course, that best friend turns out to be a blue-haired psychopath. And the rest of us girls scatter apart from each other.
And now, having only just gotten Soren back into my life, my brother is here to kill him.
Lachlanlookslike he’s going to kill Soren. At first, I wrote off everything he was saying as just another round of his dramatics, him throwing around words that he didn’t actually mean. I assumed that he didn’tactuallywant to kill his friend, and that he was just saying that because he’s an alpha, a shifter, a wolf, in the end.
But now, as I chase after them, barefoot in the dirt and dewy grass, I realize that my brother is serious. He’s going to kill Soren right in front of me.
“Stop!” I shriek, running up to them, trying to get between them, but each time I get near, they just shift away from me, moving further and further from the cabin like they’re both subconsciously aware of where I am and doing their best to avoid me. “Stop! Lachlan, Soren!”
But they either can’t hear me or don’t care.
Soren is playing the aggressive defensive, ducking and rolling to avoid Lachlan’s precise swipes, his teeth gnashing down, searching for Soren’s neck. It would be mesmerizing to watch the advance and dodging, if I weren’t so fucking scared.
“Stop!”
Panic and helplessness build up inside me, and I raise my hands up, palms toward them, not sure what to do. Not sure how to stop this from happening, other than to use the magic bubbling up under my skin, pushing against my pores.
For a second, just before I push it out and release it, my mind replays the laughing whisper I heard through the woods the night before.
