Page 25 of Claiming His Rejected Mate

I dial Ayana’s number from memory, my heart pounding with each ring.

“Hello, who is this?” Her voice is cautious, almost breathless, as if she’s already regretting taking the call.

“Ayana,” I whisper, relief flooding me. She’s safe. That’s more than I could have asked for.

“Hazel?” she asks, her tone sharpening with worry. “Oh, Hazel. I’ve been so worried. Where are you? Are you safe? Are you hurt?”

“I’m fine.” The knot in my chest doesn’t ease, and the gash along my arm throbs. “I’m…at the Moonfang estate.”

There’s a beat of silence, and then she exhales sharply. “Moonfang? How the hell—”

“It’s a long story,” I interrupt. “Listen, I need to know. Are you okay? Has Eldon—”

“He’s looking for you,” she says, her voice dropping to a whisper. “His men have been tearing through Broadstone, asking everyone if they’ve seen you. They came by the pub last night.”

My stomach drops, the weight of her words pressing down on me like a boulder.

“Did they hurt you?” I swear I’ll have Eldon’s balls if his men so much as snapped a strand of her hair.

“No, no. I stayed out of sight. But Hazel…they’re not going to stop. I’m really scared.”

The air in the room feels colder. Eldon is relentless, his obsession with control bleeding into every corner of Broadstone.

“You need to leave,” I say, my voice shaking. “Get out of the city. Go somewhere safe.”

“And where would that be?” she asks, her tone bitter. “We don’t exactly have lots of choices open to us, Hazel.”

I press my hand to my forehead, trying to think. My wolf growls softly, a low rumble of frustration and helplessness.

“I’ll figure something out,” I say finally. “Just…stay out of sight for now, even if it means avoiding the pub. Promise me.”

“I promise,” she says, though the hesitation in her voice makes my chest ache. She needs the money. There’s no other way for her to survive. It would be hell for her, and all because of me. All because she stayed by my side.

“Good. I’ll call you when I can.”

“Be careful,” she says softly.

“I will.”

I end the call, staring at the phone before slipping back into the room. I need to find a place to hide it, but everywhere is within view. I hear the guard’s footsteps coming down to the door.

Shit, where do I hide this?

I turn the phone off, lift the edge of the bed, and slide it under the mattress just as the guard comes in with the pitcher of water and a cup. He puts it on the table in the corner. I offer him a sweet smile despite my panic, and he leaves after throwing me a suspicious glare.

But just as I try to settle, I hear the guards talking right outside the door. My ears perk up, trying to hear what they say.

“You think Eldon is using her?” one of them says.

“Yeah, I think Eldon must have known who she was before all this began. He must have put a target on her when he learned that Alpha rejected her two years ago,” the other replies with obvious amusement in his voice.

“Way to be obsessed with our indomitable Alpha,” the first one adds. They both burst into laughter.

It now starts to make sense. It was probably after investigating my life in detail that Eldon found the balls to use me as a pawn in his quest for power. Just like Kieran is doing now. I'm the perfect piece to move around in these pack politics, just an object for power play. It was never about me, yet now I'm dragged into it. Now, it's all about me. And on both sides.

I glance around the room, the polished wood and soft fabrics suddenly feeling less like a cage and more like a sanctuary.

As suffocating as it feels, this estate is the safest place I could be.