Page 33 of Rejected Mate

Despair and rage bubbled in my throat. My magic pricked against my skin. I had to let it out before it whipped out on its own and destroyed something.

But nothing happened. My power fizzled out like a toy with expired batteries. I turned to the couch, holding out my hand and concentrating on a pillow, willing it to levitate to me. Sweat beaded across the back of my neck, but the pillow didn't move.

My power wasn't working.

I shook my head, still trying to sort through the feelings inside me. Fear, pride, loss, anger, hatred, sadness, and dread. With my power not working, Winter's prediction was coming true. Without it, I couldn't save myself or anyone from my father and the other wolves.

My chest ached and I felt an incredible weight on my shoulders that was beginning to crush me.

I didn't have a choice. I had to mate with Husk.

Seconds later, I left my room, waiting for Winter and Sky to drive me to a bar to meet Husk, my hands shaking.

How was I going to go through with this?

10

Husk

Fagua didn’t want to travel with me. In fact, I didn’t fucking get how we were supposed to be mates when it was clear that she couldn’t stand to be in the same room as me. The bar she chose was a short walk from the hotel. The idea was for us to get a drink, then I would imprint on her. That was the short summary of it.

Winter made it sound so easy—the mate that had been in our casino for so many weeks, was now going to roll over and allow me to mate with her. I nodded and agreed with his explanation of the events that should take place, knowing that there was no fucking way that it would happen so easily.

"Go relax. Chill. Spend time alone and see how you feel about each other. Then, if it doesn't happen, we can take it from there."

No pressure. None whatsoever. Doc was dead. He'd been killed by Fagua's father's pack, and part of me blamed her for it. Even if she wasn't part of their pack anymore.

I had so much resentment and anger about the trail of events, but I was supposed to just relax, drink, eat, and mate.

My brothers knew nothing about the turmoil inside me called emotions, which I possessed a little too much of, and which made me the hard-headed one of the family.

I would be joining Doc, along with my brothers, if we didn't unify and bring her parents down. They were the ones behind this war, and all of them should be killed as a result of it.

I couldn't tell her what was in my mind, let alone my heart, especially when I found out that Doc was dead. There was no need to kill such a gentle soul. Someone who only found the best in wolves and had done so much for our community.

Fagua's scent was so potent, that it took me all of two seconds to locate her inside the crowded bar.

"What's your poison, Husk?" she asked. I tried to avoid eye contact because sometimes when I looked at her, I could see the fear in her eyes. I didn't blame her; I tended to act first and then regret it later. Then again, I'd never regretted anything, not until I saw the way she looked at me when the other pack turned up the other night. One doesn't forget a look like that in a hurry.

I'd washed up at the hospital as best I could, wiping away the blood. I wore a bandage on my arm from the fucking wolf's bite because in my state, my healing abilities had been reduced to almost nonexistent.

She wrinkled her nose and I knew she could probably still smell the other wolves' blood on me. I didn't need to tell her it was either kill or be killed.

"JD," I answered her.

She called the bartender and then ordered, "JD neat."

"You didn't order anything for yourself?"

"Nope." I couldn't read her, and it annoyed me even more.

Was it because she didn't want to get drunk around me? Or have her senses dulled in any way? Her gaze darted across the bar, as if she wanted to be any other place than here with me. A tightness pressed into the back of my throat and I wished I'd ordered a double.

She paid for the drink and then handed it over to me.

"We can sit over there."

I was being paranoid, but what was the point of going to a bar, if not to drink? "I'll buy the next two rounds. You sure you don't want anything?"

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