Page 46 of Rejected Mate

What was with her and the f word lately? She spat it out as if it was the only vocabulary that she knew.

"No. I was distracted." I clenched my hands on the steering wheel. It was like I couldn't do anything right when it came to her.

I drove the car through the gates of the casino, waving off the valet.

"Yeah, yeah. Go blame someone else for your crap. I'm sick and tired of it." She unfastened her seatbelt. "Look, let me get out here. I need to go for a fucking walk."

"You weren't well only a few seconds ago."

"Well, I'm fine now," she barked, grabbing her purse. Then she opened the car door without hesitation. Everything was happening so fast that I couldn't even get my thoughts together because I was confused.

"I just need to get some air. It's just really stressful for me."

What was?

I couldn't even answer her because she disappeared from sight.

The only thing I could think as I sat frozen in the car, was what the fuck was going on, or rather what the hell just happened?

15

Fagua

Ihad to pretend I didn't know what Husk was talking about because if I told him the truth, then he would panic and think I couldn't use my magic at all. I knew I could, or so I thought, but something had changed. I wasn't as strong as I used to be, but I assumed within a matter of time I would be.

I had mated with Husk, but then at the same time, it felt like we were back to square one. No, we were even worse than before. At least before we had some kind of rules; by keeping our distance, there was no conflict. Now, we'd mated and it felt as if we were being forced to be something that we could never be.

I just had to get over the idea that he was neither Winter nor Sky. This morning, it was like a rude awakening, that for over six weeks, we'd hardly spent any time together, and the little time we had, all we'd done was fight. It was as if we were enemies, being forced to be lovers.

How do you make that change so quickly?

We had to forget the past and all the tension between us in the flash of a heartbeat. I tried to wander the streets, to try and make sense of it all. The more I walked, the more I felt like a little sheep just going up and down with no direction. No indication of where I was going and not caring about the time or the distance away from home.

I could call Winter, but I knew if I did he would reassure me that everything was fine. So I had this bright idea. I would go to the one place that has provided me with a feeling of safety and comfort. I'd gone there several times over the past few weeks, but not alone; I'd been there with Mayia. And once I was there, maybe I would give her a call to see if she was free to have a chat in person with me.

I didn't feel the need to get the bus or grab a taxi because the summer was cool and the right temperature to help clear my mind.

I had to stop being selfish and think of a way to save the wolves. The same ones I loved to hate and who I'd spent my whole life with in a bubble in SmallHeath, until recently.

As I entered the bar, I noticed it wasn't as quiet as usual. I mean, the place wasn't crowded, but it wasn’t empty. Like maybe one or two lost souls. Maybe they'd been doing some advertising online. I wasn't that curious to find out how newcomers had found it, so I let the thought slip away.

My gaze darted to the corner where I'd normally sit with Mayia. The chairs we would usually occupy weren't empty, or at least one of them wasn't. Mayia was here.

How did she know I was going to be here? Or did she decide to come here on her own, seeking the same things I was?

I decided against ordering at the bar and walked up to her. It was then that she acknowledged my presence as she looked up, away from her phone, and smiled.

"Hey, I've been waiting for you to come in," she said as she embraced me. I hugged her tightly, knowing that seeing her friendly face was what I was in need of right now.

"How did you know I would come here? I mean, I cut the phone call to you. I could have gone to the casino."

"I hate to tell you, but you're so predictable. With the way things are with you and Husk, I knew it was a matter of time before you came in, so I calculated the time between when you said you were leaving the hotel to how long it would take you to get here from the casino."

I chuckled as I sat down, thinking about what she'd said.

"I could have decided to make up with him in the car journey and then go to the casino and make passionate love with him," I said, denying her prediction of the trail of events.

"In your dreams. I probably know you a lot better than they do in the short time we've been friends."

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