Page 10
Harlan
Lily’s words echoed in my head.
“I reject your proposal. I won’t be anyone’s omega. I won’t ever allow myself to be treated like shit again. By anyone. No one will ever own me.”
What had our female been through to make her think for one second we would mistreat her or try to own her in some way?
Who had hurt my omega?
“Goddamn it,” I said, scrubbing my hand down my face.
Roan and Benji fell silent.
“We scared her,” Benji said. “We somehow scared her? That’s all I can think of. Did we say something else wrong?”
I patted Benji’s back. “I don’t think it’s us.”
“What do you mean?” Roan regained some of the color in his face. Not all of it.
“Don’t you feel it? There was pain in her reaction. Someone hurt her. Someone treated her badly. Abused her. I don’t know.”
“Are you three okay?” One of the DarkShadow pack, Wilder, came up to speak to us, followed by the others. Their omega and their pup stayed near the truck, near Lily, but she didn’t make a move to get in.
“Not really. Our omega just flat-out rejected us.”
Wilder nodded and glanced over at the truck. “Are you sure she’s the one?”
“Not a doubt in my mind.”
Penn, another one of the pack, came forward. “Did you say something to her? Something out of line? Lily is the sweetest person.”
“We would never.” Benji balled his fists at his sides.
I felt his frustration.
First, that other males clearly knew our mate better than us. Stupid considering we’d just met her, but my alpha was a beast sometimes.
Second, that he would think for one second, that we would ever purposefully hurt her or say something awful.
“Benji, they’re just protecting her. She’s their friend.”
He nodded. “Yeah. I-I guess we have to go. Please take care of her.”
“That’s it?” Wilder asked. “You’re giving up on the mate you’ve been waiting for your whole lives?”
“We are respecting her rejection,” Roan said. “What do you expect us to do?”
“That’s not for me to say. Do you…I shouldn’t do this, but you know where we live?”
I nodded. I hadn’t been there personally, but everyone kept loose tabs on where the other bastard packs lived in case we needed help. “Somewhat.”
“Good. Here. Take our card. My number is on there. We have to go now.”
“Thank you.” I took the card from him. “We have to go as well.”
We stood there and watched while they all piled into the truck and drove away. Getting rejected was a horrible knife to the chest, but watching her drive away ripped my heart out.
Once she was out of sight, we got into our truck and I began to drive home. My wolf threw a fit. He wanted me to follow them. Find our omega. Beg her to let us have a chance.
Life didn’t work the way wolves thought it should.
Our very existence was proof of that.
The three of us were silent most of the ride home. We were all broken in varying degrees. Hurting. Shocked. Hollow.
“What do we do now?” Roan asked.
“I don’t know.”
We got home and, for the rest of the day, were shells of ourselves. No one ate dinner. Benji grumbled something about not working that night. I parked the truck in my shop but didn’t put anything away. Just left it there.
Roan went to his room almost immediately, and we didn’t see him for the rest of the night.
As the sting of the rejection faded somewhat, reality settled in. Our poor omega. The more I replayed our interaction, the worse I felt for her.
Did she think that we wanted to own her?
She would never again be treated like shit?
I wanted to get to the bottom of whoever abused her, but I might not ever have that chance. She rejected us.
And there wasn’t a damned thing I could do about it.
I lay in bed into the wee hours, thinking of all kinds of things. How we could have approached her in a softer way. How angry she was. Her pain. It hurt me now, even hours later.
A small part of me still thought we had a chance.
Maybe there was a way we could earn her trust. Show her we weren’t like other alphas. Show her we could be mates she could feel safe with. Mates who would treasure her for the gift she was.
There was a chance our fate wasn’t sealed in being alone.