Page 20 of Rejected Forced Mate
"You already did."
There was no time to react, and before I could draw another breath, Sage had fled, her bedroom door slamming. I cursed under my breath, sick with the knowledge that my words, no matter how sincere, didn't change the way Sage felt.
The mate bond was thrumming in my chest, urging me to go after her, to fix what was wrong. But I was a shifter, and I couldn't fix a damn thing, could I?
I couldn't heal her like she could me, and it was killing me.
With a frustrated growl, I went to the fridge, ripping the door open and grabbing a bottle of beer. I had a whole pack that relied on me to fix the shit that had been happening, a mate who hated my guts, a brain that wasn't working right, and a father who wanted to control everything long after the pack wasn't his anymore. The beer was ice cold as it ran down my throat, but it did little to quench the fire burning inside me.
Chapter 10 - Sage
"Well," Richard's voice was weaker with age, but it still felt like needles running across my nerves. "I see it's true, then. My son dragged a witch home and made her Luna."
I hadn't wanted to go to the dinner. In fact, there was little else in the world that I wanted to do less. But Noah had asked me to attend, and for the moment, it was in my best interest to stay close to Noah whenever possible. My body was behaving itself so far, my heat only causing me a few pulses of pain here and there, but whenever Noah was gone, the pains increased in frequency. I knew my heat would come on in full any day, but being close to my mate at least kept things comfortable.
Unfortunately, that meant when he wanted to go and have dinner with his asshole father, I was forced to tag along if I wanted to hide what was happening to me.
The house of Richard Aldrige, former Alpha and father of my mate, was familiar. I'd seen it a few times as a kid, when I still called the Silvervine pack home, but I'd never been inside. It was still in one piece, but peeling paint and a slightly sagging roof told me that house upkeep was low on the list of Richard's priorities. The windows were dirty, too, and there were cracks in the cement walk that led up to the front door.
Noah's father wasn't hurting for money, not with the amount of land and resources he owned, but Noah had explained to me how his once-strong father had faded significantly. He hadn't gone into detail about how it happened, but I understood that Noah had inherited the pack because his father had been permanently injured.
I wasn't the only one feeling awful. Noah was stiff when he entered the home, but I found it hard to feel sorry for him.Everything that had happened since I returned had been against my will, and it was his fault, and I was still being forced to attend a dinner with an old man who considered me lower than the dirt on his shoe. It was either that, or go into full-blown heat to the point Noah would be able to smell it on me. The lack of choices had me on the verge of crying, but I kept a strong facade.
I just had to get through dinner, and then I could go back to miserably hiding in my room. It was a joke that my life had spiraled out of control to the point that locking myself in a bedroom was the only thing I had to look forward to, but there was no help for it.
Despite Noah's warning, I was still shocked to see how diminished the former Alpha was. I had still expected him to be the way I remembered, tall and broad-shouldered, a sneer on his face and his power causing those around them to want to lower their eyes, but the man in the wheelchair was something else.
Richard Aldrige was thin, his hair greasy and gray, his legs obscured by a throw blanket. His beard was gone, and his face was gaunt, but hatred still burned brightly in his eyes.
But he didn't stand when Noah entered the room. He couldn't. That was the cost of his injuries.
When he insulted me, Noah stepped forward immediately, his shoulders pulled back and his eyes like two thunder clouds. "Watch it, Dad."
Richard laughed cruelly. "Don't tell me what to do, pup. This is still my house."
"And I'll happily leave your house right now. If you can't keep your mouth shut about her, we will leave."
The man looked over at me, and then back to Noah, his mouth thinning into a line. "I was simply pointing out a fact. Sheis a witch, and she is your Luna, right?" When neither of us had anything to say to that, he grunted and motioned towards the empty chairs. "Sit down. We might as well enjoy the food your cousin made."
Noah looked skeptical, but when he glanced at me, I simply shrugged. I'd expected to be intimidated by Richard the way I was before, but seeing him in the state he was in, and how his bitterness had festered in him, I just felt...sad. Not sad for Richard, but sad about how things had played out for Noah and his family, and how different things could have been if Richard had adapted with the times.
How much time had Noah and I lost because of his father's hateful outlook on the world?
Noah pulled out a chair for me, and I sat down, trying to look more confident than I felt. Noah's cousin, a pretty woman named Summer who was only a few years younger than Noah, brought in a steaming plate of roasted chicken and veggies, setting it in the center of the table. Noah introduced me to his outgoing, overly positive relative, whom I took a quick liking to, but even Summer's presence couldn't distract from how tense things were between father and son.
We ate, but the food tasted like ash, at least to me. In the beginning, silence stretched between the four of us, but eventually Noah made the attempt to speak to his father as if nothing was wrong. It broke my heart a little to see how hard he tried, but Richard had already made up his mind how this dinner was going to go.
Noah spoke about the land, the troubles some of the farmers were having, and the recent bear attack that I was brought in to heal the victims of. It didn't surprise me that he tried to spark a
conversation...I knew he hoped there could be some semblance of peace between me and his father.
But what did surprise me was how the former Alpha didn't even acknowledge my existence, instead responding to Noah as if I wasn't even there.
"And what are you doing to deal with the bears?"
"They're wild animals, Dad. There's really nothing to be done."
"You could eradicate them. Letting animals in close enough to attack your wolves reeks of weakness."
