Page 43 of Rejected Mate

"Yeah. I know that he's different, not like his brothers at all. Not the least bit, and…"

"And he's different. That's the point of having three mates. They're different in every way. Now, what is it that you liked about him? The mating must have been good because usually you want him as far away from you as possible, so something's changed." I heard her smile on the other side of the phone. And I wished she were here so that she could hug me and tell me that all this craziness was in my mind and I shouldn't be so uptight, even though it was so hard.

"Look, it sounds like the pressure is getting to you. No one mates just to save wolves and all their kind. I think that's why you're letting your feelings take over and it's causing this confusion."

I shook my head in disagreement. Earlier in the shower, I had hope that last night meant something to him like it had me. But then he hadn’t shown back up or called or texted. Like he was avoiding me and his rejection hurt. Like it had just been sex for him.

"It's the pressure to be with a wolf that you want nothing from. It's one thing to mate and have that click, and it's another to force it. This all feels forced with him. We had an incredible night, but that was it. I mean, I can't just push away all the differences between us when there are so many things I don't like about him. I could list them all, but there's not enough hours in the day."

Before she had a chance to reply, a shadow in front of me blocked out the light.

"Fagua!" Husk grunted, and without saying another word, he was out of my sight.

"Shit, he heard all that, didn't he?" Mayia asked. "You need to go and sort it out with him. Tell him what you said before he heard what he heard so that there's some mutual understanding between the two of you."

I took a deep breath, knowing that I had to talk to Husk, but I wasn't in the mood. Let him think what he wanted to think. He left me all morning without a word. What did he expect?

Me to chase after him because he did the right thing?

No.

I would let him know that I had feelings too, and that his actions had consequences, whether he liked it or not.

14

Husk

"Say something! Anything, for fuck's sake. What is wrong with you? You saw that I was sitting and talking, yet you just left and you didn't even say a word!" Fagua screamed as she entered, then slamming the door behind her with her final word. "You're gone more than half the day, don't call, don't reply to my text, then you storm off like that?"

And I wanted to say something to her. I wanted to say everything I was feeling because I went from being on such a high after imprinting on her to a low after hearing her conversation.

I didn't know if this relationship was for me. I thought our spending time together alone and imprinting on her had brought out a new lease of life within me, something I didn't even know I possessed. Then in the space of six hours—or however long it had been since I left the hotel—this flame inside of me had turned to ashes.

Her arms were crossed over her chest, and she waited for me to respond to her question with a tilt of her head. I tried to say something, but the words just wouldn't leave my mouth.

I have so many emotions inside of me that, at times, I don't know how to control them, and the only way to handle them was with silence. If I don't say what's on my mind, then things would be okay and no one would get hurt in the process. I was scared that she would be the one running out the door just as quickly as she entered if I expressed how I felt. So the best thing to do would be to be silent for now.

I turned back and concentrated on packing, which I was doing before she walked through the door. She stood waiting for me, but I ignored her presence. I could feel the heat from her body, the cloud of rage and anger in which she entered the room was slowly subsiding, which was good. It meant that we could leave here with no more drama.

Maybe on the long ride home I would tell her; after we both had time to calm down. Then I could explain how I was feeling and we could go back to having the connection we did when we made love last night and within the early hours of the morning.

Made love.

I didn't know what it was, until I imprinted on her. If anyone had told me that this kind of thing would happen between us, I would have torn them down and said it was impossible.

But it happened, and just as quickly, it was over and we were back to where we were before—her feeling contempt for me and me feeling regret about the idea of us being more than we are right now.

"Ready?"

She looked up at me, as if she was expecting me to say something else. She shook her head and then suddenly started rushing around the room, furiously slamming things. I watched, wishing I could say something to her, but I couldn’t, so I shook my head once again and decided to leave the room.

I paced the hallway outside, where the scent of her perfume still lingered on my skin from when she kissed me tenderly on my lips last night… And then all those warm feelings evaporated with her words. One minute I would think I'd go and talk to her and we would just have it all out. We would row, like we'd done so many times before, but then the other part of me was thinking to wait. We had to both calm down and have a civilized conversation about it. The same way I'd heard her speak to Winter and vice-versa on occasion.

We could be like that too.

I just had to figure out a way to do it. No, I had to be positive about being with Fagua. I couldn't think of anything else but positivity.

It was the only way we were gonna get through this because it wasn't just our lives at stake but my brothers too.

---