Page 12 of The Enforcer's Rejected Mate
“It’ll fix itself. Everyone has a mate,” Keiran told me and put an arm around my shoulder. “Give it time. You’ll see him when it’s meant for you to.”
Time. He said exactly what Maud said but in all of that time…
“Didn’t you dream me?” I ask him. I don’t understand why he wouldn’t say it was my face in his dream when I told him about mine. “I-you saw me before tonight, right?”
Keiran smiles at me. “It’s always been you.” Keiran’s fingers move over mine. He pulls me into his arms and it’s hard to think about dreams when he’s touching me the way he is. I relax into his arms, the ache of holding myself strong slides off me. I’m safe in his hands. I don’t have to be the one to watch my back with Keiran as my mate to do it. He drops his head lower and I know he’s going to kiss me from the look in his eyes. I’ve seen it a thousand times before when it was just us. Now it isn’t us. If I wasn’t trembling from the force of my heat and my wolf trying to take my skin I’d smile at the chaos Keiran choosing me has unleashed in Frostclaw Pack.
Every wolf around us, and probably every wolf in the tri-state area too from the sounds of it, lose their collective shit but they don’t dare come any closer. I know why. They’re afraid ofKeiran. My mate. My wolf lets out a happy huff and turns in a circle. She’s proud to have such a strong mate. One that would make even an entire pack stand down. But even if they didn’t, I wouldn’t know with the way I stay focused on Keiran. We smile at each other and gentleness and sweetness wrap itself around us like a bubble capable of blocking out the world, but then like all things in my life, everything goes sideways. Keiran’s fingers tighten on mine and I gasp. He’s holding me too tight.
It hurts.
My wolf snarls, her hackles are up. Something is wrong. She pulls at me and wants me far away from Keiran but even with her trying to pull me away, I don’t listen. I double down and go after the man that I’ve wanted for as long as I can remember.
I take a deep breath and tell Keiran the words I’ve never said before now because I never dreamed they would be mine to say. “Keiran, I-I love-” I don’t get any further before Keiran cuts me off.
“No,” he grits out between clenched teeth. Stone shutters slam down over his eyes and my mate is gone. The Alpha’s son, the Heir, glares back at me now.
“Scrape that bitch off now,” Alpha Ashford orders.
Keiran throws me away from him so fast that I almost fall. Déjà vu from this afternoon washes over me. Once again, I’m left alone and confused.
I feel weak from the early stages of my heat and I sway as I manage to keep my feet under me.
“Keiran? What’s going on?” My voice comes out hoarse because the world is shrinking again, and the smaller it gets the heavier it weighs on me. I can barely breathe. The pressure is back along with the familiar ache that settles too readily into my body like a home. I thought I knew what my worst nightmare was but I was wrong. It’s not being wolf-less and orphaned for the rest of my life, the least of the pack,it’s this.
My living nightmare come to life is finding my wolf and my mate and still losing my mate all the same.
How can anyone survive losing everything they’ve ever wanted? Right now I don’t think it’s possible. Not with the way my still beating heart has been ripped out of my chest.
Chapter
Seven
CORDELIA
“Keiran?” I take a step towards him but there’s no warmth or care now when Keiran looks at me. The tightness in my chest tells me what’s about to happen even if I don’t want to believe it. My wolf howls when I move towards him. She snaps her teeth, ears flat down to her skull as she takes in the scene in front of her.
I know what I look like in front of the pack that’s now gone silent.
Pathetic. Weak. Worthless.
I wish I had enough pride to care. Everything I’ve ever wanted is so close, I can’t just let it slip away. I can’t. I’ll beg. I have to. How can I survive without my mate?
Keiran shakes his head and points a finger at me. “You and that witch did this, didn't you?”
I shake my head. “What? No! I-I didn’t do anything.”
Keiran looks back at Maud. “What did you do to me? And triggering her heat? You think this whore is going to tempt me from my duty to the pack?”
My eyes sting with tears when Keiran calls me that word. He’s never called me anything like that. Not like the others inthe pack. Everything I’ve ever done with Keiran comes rushing back to me and I want the ground to open up and swallow me. Take me and bury beneath a mountain of rock and soil until I’m somewhere Keiran can’t touch me ever again.
“I did nothing the moon did not will into place, pup.” Maud crosses her arms and narrows her eyes. “You think you’re better than your moon blessed true mate? What you do tonight can never be undone. Do you hear me?Never. Unforgivable.”
Maud’s‘Never’lands like an avalanche. We all feel it. He takes a step back and looks between Maud and me, Keiran looks uncertain, but it’s fleeting and my stupid heart stutters like a flickering flame trying to stay alight in a rainstorm before it goes out. Keiran makes his choice and turns his back on me. My hope dies.
Alpha Ashford rounds on Maud with a roar. “You think you can do this to me and mine, witch?! That you would drag this bitch in heat here and steal my son from me?”
My wolf wants to tear his throat out for yelling at her.She’s ours.Part of our pack. Our Elder, the one that raised us until we were strong, and we will never let him disrespect her.
