Page 9 of Rejected Sold Mate (Crystal Creek Wolves #4)

When I woke up, it was to birdsong. For long heartbeats, I didn’t open my eyes, just soaked in the sounds of morning and how nice it felt to sleep in, wrapped in a warm blanket, the scent of cedar in the air.

I didn’t remember the rogues being dragged through the forest, the sharp pain on my cheekbone, or the frantic run through the forest beside the Alpha that had humiliated me.

I also didn’t remember that Alpha rescuing me, or the borderline-painful ache in my chest that had taken root since the first night we’d spent together. I certainly didn’t remember the second shift watch I was supposed to take, or the fact that Jayce could have very well been feet away from me.

And then, in an instant, it all flooded back.

I sat up with a gasp, looking around, but the cabin was empty. Guilt and annoyance warred inside of me. Of course, he hadn’t woken me up for my shift, even though he must have been exhausted. That was what Alphas did, right? Took the hard jobs to keep their pack safe?

Yet I wasn’t even packed, and he’d waited up the entire night to keep me safe while I’d slept like a rock. Something sharp twisted in my stomach at that thought. I was already in his debt for the rescue, but Jayce was apparently planning to keep playing the hero.

I almost liked him better when he was being a prick. Almost.

I sat up carefully, the joints in my shoulders, wrists, and elbows protesting from being tied up last night. My cheek felt tender, but all in all, I was in remarkably good shape for having survived a kidnapping.

Padding over to the window, I pulled the curtain aside and looked out.

There was no sign of Jayce there, either.

Part of me was disappointed he hadn’t even stuck around long enough to tell me good morning, but the rest of me was glad to have a free window to get the heck out of there and go home.

Jayce had been so insistent that I couldn’t return to my trailer last night that I’d given in, silently agreeing that I didn’t want to risk the rogues showing back up again either.

But I had no intention of staying in that cabin full of memories for another night if I could help it.

He’d undoubtedly be pissed if he was just out checking the perimeter or something, but I had to put some space between us. It was too easy to get comfortable around the Blacktide Alpha, too easy to let the awful things he’d said to me fall by the wayside.

Moving as quietly as possible, I pulled the front door open, looking around to make sure I was really alone, and shifted. I kept my nose to the ground for the first part of the run back to Shadowbay territory, but I didn’t pick up any hints of Jayce or the rogue, so I picked up the pace.

The trip home wasn’t short, but once I was out of Jayce’s territory, it was at least familiar, and it passed in a daze. The sun was out, warming my skin beneath my coat, and I had plenty of time to think over the night before.

There was too much to untangle with Jayce, but I had to make a decision about what had happened before the kidnapping.

My guard had only been down because I was so focused on getting the painting done before fleeing the pack again.

If I had been more level-headed, maybe the rogues wouldn’t have been able to get a jump on me.

I was only able to enjoy my sunshine-soaked trot through the woods because Jayce managed to find me.

Otherwise, I’d have been tied up by the cold campfire still, or worse.

Of course, Jayce had been the one to put me into the mindset where I thought I needed to run in the first place, so he wasn’t totally innocent. I still needed to work on that undeniable urge that cropped up whenever things got tough…but one step at a time.

All I knew was that I had no plans on running away that morning, at least. I needed some calm and some time to unwind. I thought about the painting that had been sitting abandoned in the yard since last night and winced. Hopefully, it wouldn’t take too much work to fix it.

At home, I shifted back and immediately went to change out of Jayce’s clothes. I debated throwing them away, but ended up tossing them in the washer instead. Dressed like myself and feeling more centered than I had in a while, I brewed myself some coffee and went to find my dropped painting.

When the text came in, I was twenty minutes into what would be a two-hour job of cleaning up the canvas. I had my favorite old country playlist on and was so in the zone that I didn’t notice the message for quite some time.

Which meant when I checked it, I was already almost late.

Scott: Meeting at my place at noon. Nonnegotiable.

Shit.

I stared at the phone screen for way too long, wondering if there was any way for me to get out of the meeting that was due to start in seventeen minutes.

Jayce must have told Scott about the rogues, which didn’t surprise me, even if it made my heart sink.

They had an alliance, and there was very little that superseded it.

My feelings on the subject certainly weren’t reason enough to keep it quiet for Jayce, apparently.

Alpha Scott had never summoned me on my own.

Our only meetings had been the brief ceremony to welcome me into the pack, and a short word after he made the decree that I and the other Omegas weren’t to be harassed by the unmated males anymore.

Otherwise, I got the feeling the Alpha preferred to pretend I didn’t exist.

It was probably just a warning to be more careful, or just to get my side of the story. So why was I so freaked out?

***

I was ten minutes late to the meeting, but what I saw when I walked into the Alpha’s dining room, where everyone was sitting, made me wish I’d stuck with the plan to run away and go rogue.

There were only two people there, and neither of them was the one person I’d hoped to see—Nayeli. A friendly face and ally would have gone a long way.

Instead, it was just Scott…and Jayce.

I barely looked at my Alpha; my eyes were fixed on Jayce instead. He was leaning back in the chair, arms crossed over his broad chest, his expression unreadable. He was looking at me, too, and it made me feel like I’d been touched with a live wire.

Scott cleared his throat, and I was shaken back into the moment, remembering where I was.

I swallowed past my embarrassment and approached the table.

Jayce watched my every move, his neutral expression becoming calculating, and something darker and more possessive underneath it all.

I could see him taking in the paint stains on my hands and white t-shirt, and then the slightest smirk when he met my eyes again.

My anxiety ratcheted up a few more notches. Nothing Jayce would be smirking about could be good news for me.

I made it to the foot of the table and looked down at my feet. “Alpha, you wanted to see me?”

“Yes,” Scott sounded more curious than anything. At least he wasn’t angry. “Sit down, Rhie.”

Doing as I was told, I sat in the chair closest to me and waited.

I was almost vibrating with nerves, looking between the two of them with my hands folded in my lap so I didn’t try to rip my own hair out.

Whatever it was, I just wanted to get it over with so I could close the chapter of my life that Jayce had forced himself into.

Finally, Scott spoke, his tone even. “Jayce came to me this morning, Rhie. I know this is personal, but he was right to do so. Jayce told me about how the two of you slept together less than a week ago, and how something formed between the two of you afterwards.”

All of my thoughts came to a screaming halt, and I felt my face go beet red. I whipped around to Jayce, no longer bothering to be the well-behaved Omega I was expected to present myself as. “You told him what!?”

Jayce’s smirk only grew, but he stayed silent, watching me as Scott continued.

“I know it can be hard to tell since you’ve never experienced it before, but from what Jayce has described, I think it’s likely the two of you have formed a mating bond,” I started to argue when Scott held a hand up, “Before you get defensive, Rhie, understand that this changes things. Permanently.”

“I—” the rest of the words died in my throat. I couldn’t find the air to speak.

“This goes beyond a one-night stand. It’s a lifetime bond, as both of you are aware.”

I wanted to protest, wanted to scream that there was no way it was true, but I felt my heart sink when all the pieces started to fall into place.

It made too much sense. The lonely ache I’d felt since the night we’d slept together, the way my emotions had been heightened, and how I’d been desperate to be close to Jayce no matter how cruel he was…

Could it be? Was Jayce my mate? It would explain the unbearable homesickness I’d been struck with.

I was glad I was sitting, because there was no way my legs would have held me at that point. “No…” I whispered, horrified. “No, this can’t…”

Scott blew out a long breath. “I know it’s a shock, but these things just happen.

You know that. And when a bond forms, you don’t run away from it, you honor it.

” He looked chagrined for a moment. “Trust me on that. I made that mistake with Nayeli, and it almost ruined my life. Jayce knows what happens next, so it’s just up to you to accept it. ”

Still shaking my head, I looked inside of myself and reached for that ache that had haunted me for days.

As soon as I brushed it with my consciousness, it changed, and I knew my fate had been sealed.

The ache wasn’t just a nebulous thing when I looked at it closely; it was a tether, thin but solid, running from me to Jayce.

If I’d investigated the ache days ago, I would have known immediately what it was, but I’d been so determined to ignore it and put what happened with Jayce behind me that I’d missed what was right in front of me the whole time.

Almost shyly, I looked up at Jayce and found that he had been staring at me while I dealt with my inner turmoil. He didn’t seem shaken up about it at all. In fact, he seemed almost smug.

“So how…” I had to swallow before I continued, my mouth having gone dry as a desert. “How do I honor and accept this…uh…bond?”

“Well,” Scott steepled his fingers and leaned back in his chair.

“As an Alpha and your mate, Jayce has decided to take you back to his pack to live with him, which is his right. We’ve been trying to be a little more…

progressive with how the pack is being run, but no amount of progressiveness is going to supersede a mating bond. ”

That brought my thought process to a stuttering halt. “No. I’m willing to do a lot, but I don’t want to move,” my voice sounded desperate to my own ears. “I’ve just settled in. It’s just started to feel like home…”

“There is nothing to be done, Rhie. I’m sure Jayce will do everything he can to make you comfortable in his pack—”

“No!” Arguing with an Alpha was a dumb decision on a good day, and it was outright dangerous when Scott had already made up his mind, but I couldn’t keep quiet any longer. “You don’t get to decide where I’m going to live. Neither of you does!”

Scott shrugged, annoyed but mostly unbothered. “The bond decided for you.”

The fight drained out of me, and I flopped back in the chair, feeling boneless. He was right. What was the point in arguing when none of us could change the connection that had formed between Jayce and me?

I covered my face with my hands, feeling like I was frozen.

It all made sense when I thought about it.

Jayce felt responsible for protecting me from the rogues, but we both knew if Scott found out I’d endangered not only myself but both packs by letting my guard down enough to get snatched, he’d be pissed.

I’d been ready to take whatever punishment Scott would mete out, but apparently Jayce decided the best way to keep me out of trouble was just to acknowledge the bond that he might have been trying to ignore just as hard as I had been and take me home with him.

The Blacktide Alpha felt responsible for my safety after saving me once.

He didn’t have to be, but maybe the mating bond was making him feel compelled to do so.

Whatever the reasoning was, I wasn’t about to bring up the kidnapping to complicate things when the mating bond was front and center of my problems.

“This is insane,” I mumbled, more to myself than the two Alphas in the room with me, but Scott responded anyway.

“You’re bonded, Rhie, and that’s that. And frankly…

” he exhaled, and chose his next words carefully, “This might be for the best. It’s no secret you’ve had a difficult time integrating into my pack.

Being Jayce’s mate will make it a lot easier for you in his pack.

It comes with a certain measure of respect that they won’t be able to deny you. ”

For the best . Of course, he would think that way.

Scott had let me join his pack in repayment for some ancient debt, but I’d never really found firm footing, and I wasn’t contributing anything that he would be worried about losing.

I was just an outcast. The outsider Omega. And now I wasn’t his problem anymore.

Instead of arguing with my Alpha—my former Alpha now—I glared up at Jayce.

He’d dropped a damn bomb in my lap without even a little bit of a warning.

He could have at least told me first. I’d still have been angry, but at least it wouldn’t have felt like I was being ganged up on in the meeting, or left totally in the dark.

Infuriatingly, Jayce’s expression didn’t change at all. He still looked smug and amused. Finally, he spoke, “You’ll pack what you need today, and I’ll take you to my home. We can get everything else you need from your place over the next week while you settle in.”

I’d already lost. I knew it, but I still couldn’t help trying to save myself one more time. I looked back at Scott, “Alpha…”

“It’s done,” he said, not even bothering to hear me out.

“This will be good for all of us and make the alliance between our packs even stronger. Just think of it like that, Rhie. Even if you’re hesitant, you’re doing the right thing for the pack.

” He slapped both his hands down on the table.

“Meeting adjourned. Jayce will take you back to your trailer to pack.”

And just like that, it was done. I’d lost any semblance of control I’d had over my life, and basically been handed to Jayce like a prettily wrapped present. He offered me his hand to help me stand, but I slapped it away and pushed past him, not wanting him to see the tears in my eyes.

“Don’t bother,” I yelled over my shoulder. “I’ll drive myself to your place after I pack on my own. ”

“I’ll send you the address,” he replied, sounding much too pleased with himself.

A mating bond. There really was no escape.