Page 2 of Rejected Forced Mate
"I'm not," I assured her roughly. I had enough on my plate dealing with my own pack, so I was confident I had no reason to be picking a fight with another. The only outlier reason was that I'd come to take Sage back, whether she wanted to go with me or not, but if the pack is allowing me to be healed, that tells me it wasn't Joe or any of his wolves that put me in the condition I was in. "Was I attacked?"
"That's what we believe happened, yes. You'd barely crossed into this territory before it happened, but no one in any of the local packs has any idea what happened. But we'll go overall of that once you're better. I'm going to give you some more medication so you can rest."
"Wait," I reached for her, fingers barely able to brush the sleeve of the long white healer's coat that she was wearing. "Sage, I want..." I coughed, and she offered me the water once more. "I want to talk to you. Please."
"This medication will knock you out for a few more hours, and one of us will be here to check on you again once you wake up."
I couldn't care less about resting, not when my long-lost mate was right there, our bond waking up from its years-long slumber. "Don't put me back to sleep. Stay. Talk to me."
"Once you're up again, we'll see if you can eat."
She was ignoring me completely, which made my heart sink. It wasn't that she couldn't hear me. I knew she could. But she was determined to be Sage the healer, and not Sage, my mate. I deserved it, but that didn't mean I was going to lie down and accept it.
Well. I was going to lie down for some time, at least. But once I was back on my feet, it would be a different story.
Still, the last thing I wanted was to see her go. It was like I was starving for her, and if I could only look my fill, that would have to be enough. "Sage. Sage. I don't care about the medical shit. Stay with me."
Sage still didn't turn, and after adjusting the IV line once more, I felt the cool medicine entering my veins. My eyes were heavy within seconds. "Sleep well, Noah. You're going to need it."
The last thing I did before passing back out was to reach for her. But Sage, of course, didn't reach back.
Chapter 2 - Sage
Life has been so normal since I joined the Brokenclaw pack five years ago. It had felt like a miracle when I'd gotten the job as a healer in this pack after answering an ad in the paper. I'd found that ad at just the right time, when I was being rejected by my mate and feeling so lost, and I was able to find a home where I was accepted, magic and all.
I loved my normal life. I wasn't the kind of woman to crave attention, just the simple things, and I'd been able to settle into life with the Brokenclaws. My life was quiet. I kept my head down, practiced my magic, and just lived. It was peaceful.
And my life had definitely not always been that way.
Back in my old pack, my gifts made me a freak and not a commodity. The other wolves were disgusted by the idea of being healed by a magic user, and even my family kept their distance when it became obvious that my power was growing and not fading. Friends weren't really a thing for me, but I'd convinced myself loneliness was fine, as long as I was able to live authentically.
It meant that I wasn't just lonely. I was also scared, always looking over my shoulder. I had to learn to keep my voice quiet and my eyes down. To make myself appear small, I hoped to go unnoticed when I was among my pack. It might have been a miserable experience, but it was all I knew. I shouldered that burden until Noah's awful rejection.
It was hard to believe that I was welcomed by Alpha Joe so readily into his pack, but it was readily apparent that my magic was a valuable skill, and he needed the help. The Brokenclaw
pack had a few other magic users, but nothing close to what I could do, and their previous healer was struggling with an illness. They needed someone right away, and the pay was decent, so I packed up my life and moved to Maine.
And my life had never been the same since.
I might have had a hole in my heart from someone in my old pack, but life was steady. Steady was good...or at least that was what I told myself.
When Joe sent for me this morning, I hadn't thought it was anything out of the ordinary. We'd been dealing with rogue wolf attacks that had only recently been handled, and while an injured stray wolf was a rarity, it wasn't anything I couldn't handle. I figured it was just some poor sod trying to join one of the four allied packs that ran astray of a black bear, but when I saw the man waiting in the bed, my world stopped turning in an instant.
It was as if the clocks had stopped as I looked down at home, broken and battered on the hospital bed. It was so surreal that for a long moment, I considered that I was hallucinating...but no. It was really him. Noah Aldrige, my mate, the man who had rejected me. The man who'd broken my heart so long ago, and
had been the reason why I'd escaped my pack and come to Maine.
I'd never expected to see him again, that man who knew me better than anyone in the world and still cast me aside like garbage. The man with whom I still had a connection, even five years later. Seeing him was like being forced back in time to when I was younger and heartbroken and aching to be loved by him.
I wanted to fall apart at that moment, but both my current Alpha and the man who was supposed to be my mate at one point in my life were counting on me. So I swallowed the pain
and panic I felt at seeing Noah again and got to work healing him. For that time, I would be Noah's healer, and not his rejected mate.
Part of me thought he didn't deserve my help, not after what he'd done to me, but it went against my code as a healer to abandon him. Sure, I could have passed him off to someone else, but that option tugged hard at something possessive in me. He might have thrown me away, but he was still my mate, and no one else was going to care for him but me. It would be my magic that brought him back from the brink of death, no one else's.
So I worked. It hurt to see him in pain, but it also gave him a sense of satisfaction to slowly and carefully take that pain away. Little by little, I healed him, mending bones, stitching skin, and easing his pain. It was bittersweet, knowing that this was the first and likely the only time he'd get to experience my magic, but at least I was given the chance to show it to him before he went back to his pack, and I stayed with me.
I mixed herbs until the smell had permanently soaked into my clothes, I whispered spells until my throat was sore, and I sat vigil throughout the long nights by his bedside so if he woke up in a strange land, there would at least be a familiar face by his side. Even if it was a face he was loath to see.
