Page 104 of Rejected By the Shifter King

“Exactly! The more you keep doing this, the more you’ve proven to me that I fell in love with the right man. So just quit it, okay? Quit it before you destroy with the person you truly and actually love.”

Hexius was glad Brandy didn’t give him a chance to answer, having walked out on him right after throwing those words at his face.

Because if she had, it would have been worse, with how his blood had gone cold, and he had this sick feeling in his stomach that what she said was true.

He suddenly wanted to change. To stop just like she asked. But by then it was too late.

“Hexius wants to steal her back, and I know he’ll be able to.”

To eavesdrop on a preter was next to impossible because of their heightened senses. So what Hexius had done, which at that time was meant to protect the pack from inside threats, was install spy cameras throughout the compound.

And this was how, that same night, Hexius had found out just how much he had destroyed his relationship with his brother without knowing it.

“You must take action,”Vaughn was urging his older brother.“Everyone is talking behind your back now. They say he’s better, stronger, and smarter than you. And that the only reason you’re alpha is by virtue of age.”

Hexius had expected Alphonse to dismiss such pointless comparisons. Or even reprimand the younger man for entertaining such doubts. But instead, he heard his brother admit the opposite.

“They aren’t saying anything that’s not true. Even I know this. And there’s nothing I can do about it.”

It was Hexius’ first time to hear his brother speak in such an empty tone, and he couldn’t remember hating himself more than he did at that moment.

Because Brandy was right, dammit.

Alphonse, his big brother, was the one person in his life that hedidlove.

But in his arrogance, he had pushed Alphonse to doubt his own capabilities as alpha.

His older brother summoned him to his office the next day, and by then Hexius had steeled himself to have his pride battered. He was ready to issue a public apology. To acknowledge how he had been acting like a self-centered prick the past weeks.

But he wasn’t even able to say a word, with Alphonse holding his hand up in a bid for silence, before gesturing for his second-in-command to speak.

“It has been decided that you are to marry to a bride of the pack’s choosing.”

Hexius’s first instinct was to wipe the smug grin off Vaughn’s face with a solid punch.

Did they really fucking think he’d let them decide his future like he was some spineless idiot?

But then he saw the way Alphonse was holding himself so rigidly—

And he finally noticed the scent of anxiety clinging to his alpha’s skin—

Too late.

He was too late in repenting, and this was his punishment.

“I would like to meet her first.”

Hexius had to clench his hands against his sides as he forced himself say this. Otherwise he’d start punching holes in the walls with his fists. No fucking way did he want to marry a girl not of his choosing. But he would consider it at least. It was the price he had to pay for his stupidity and selfishness.

If she passed his criteria, well then...

Unfortunately, she did not.

To start with: the girl was human, for fuck’s sake.

Why the hell would he marry a human when they were supposed to keep their existence a secret from mankind?

He had expected Alphonse to at least choose his bride as any alpha would for a member of his pack. But this...