Page 11 of The Enforcer’s Rejected Mate (Red River Rejected Mates #1)

Even when I told myself what Keiran and I had would never last I always lied to myself that he wasn’t like them.

I swore he was kind and gentle.

“I promise you, Cordy. I’m going to make this place safe for you. I swear I will.”

A sob crawls its way up and out of me. I fight it but it’s no use.

My body shakes as the tears come and my cursed heat bears down on me until I can hardly breathe.

Even now with Keiran looking at me with disdain and another she-wolf on his arm, I still want to reach out to him.

I want to beg him to save me, to get me through my heat and Luna, I still want his knot.

Shame burns bright in me as Keiran and the pack watch me.

I swore Keiran was different.

He had to be when I’d fallen for him in my own way. How sad it is to realize simultaneously that it was love all along and that I was so fucking wrong.

“You’re a mistake. An abomination. You never should have survived in the first place and you’ve only gotten this far by the goodwill of the pack.

You’re worthless. Every moment I spent with you was out of pity.

Do you think I wanted you when I knew everyone else had already had you?

You mean nothing to me. You never have.”

“Stop,” I choke out. Tears spill down my cheeks.

I wish it didn’t hurt but it does. Gods, I still love him.

That ember of affection so small that I kept it to myself, protected it and guarded it for fear that if I ever said it outloud, ever admitted it, that Keiran would treat me the way he is right now.

Keiran was the only kindness I knew outside of Maud. The secrets we shared and the intimacy, all of it couldn’t have been nothing. I won’t believe it.

I shake my head and move to stand up. “You don’t mean that. I know you don’t.”

Keiran comes towards me then. He leans down and shoves me back down.

His face is just inches from mine, and his scent pulls me closer.

Begs me to come closer when I shouldn’t.

I can’t help but do it, that shift forward is impossible not to do.

Keiran puts a hand on my shoulder, his grip is like iron and forces me to stay where I am.

“Let me make this clear. You don’t come near me.

The only thing you’ve ever been to me was an easy fuck.

A whore like you? You made it too easy, Cordelia.

Fucking gave it away. Always hoping for more from me but I never gave you a thought after I was done using you.

” Right on cue the pack starts to whisper but it doesn’t matter to me so much now with my heart bleeding and broken in Keiran’s grip.

I want to scream at him. I’ve never been with anyone but Keiran. He knows that. Doesn’t stop him from playing into the lies his father told of me.

“You’re lying,” I whisper. Anything louder and I’ll probably shatter into a million brittle pieces. The stones beneath me dig into my battered knees and Keiran’s hand on my shoulder keeps me right where I am.

He shakes me and grabs my face with his other hand.

I cry out when he squeezes so hard that it’s hard for me to breathe.

“My pack deserves a real Luna. Someone beautiful and strong, someone worthy of me. Worthy of my bond. Bella is everything you wish you were and I’ve chosen her as my mate.

” Keiran flings me away from him. I barely manage to stop my face from hitting the ground.

My already bloody hands barely catch me in time.

I’m hunched over now, head hanging low and eyes on the ground beneath me.

I don’t lift my head while Keiran keeps talking.

I can’t bear to look at him. “And that’s something you’ll never be.

Mine. You don’t belong here. You’re not one of us and you never will be.

You’re pathetic and weak, a used up orphan begging for love. You’ve always disgusted me. ”

I squeeze my eyes shut. Keiran’s words cut into me like a knife that gets twisted deeper and deeper with each word he speaks. I know what’s coming next. I can feel it in my bones.

“I am the son of Alpha Ashford, the appointed heir of Frostclaw Pack, and I reject you, Cordelia.”

My world explodes in a roar of pain so sharp that even the pain of my heat is blocked out.

Nothing else exists but the pain. Everything goes dark and I almost pass out from it.

When my arms give out I drop to my belly with a scream and claw at my chest. It feels like my heart is being pulled out.

My mate bond, I realize, it’s tearing. It’s being ripped right in half and there’s nothing I can do to stop it.

I can’t stop the screams that pour out of me. It’s like I’m listening to someone else’s screams echo in the night. My voice goes hoarse and my wolf howls in agony.

“Make it stop!” There’s laughter and mocking from the pack as I double over and almost puke. “Keiran! Please! Please. ”

“Pathetic.”

“She’s weak screaming for him like this.”

“A whore like her deserves this.”

I block the pack out and I hang onto a shred of sanity through it all. I know what I have to do.

I have to accept his rejection or this won’t end.

The agony, the pain, the wave of loss so great that it feels like I’m drowning won’t stop until I accept what Keiran’s done.

I curl my fingers and my claws slice through the flagstone like butter.

My wolf is here with me. I'm not alone. I can do this.

I lift my head and look up at my mate and the woman he’s chosen over me. He holds her to him with a tenderness not meant for me. Somehow seeing them together doesn’t hurt as bad as it did before but that could be an after effect of the agony I’m in right now.

I take in a deep breath and force myself to sit up. I won’t let Keiran or the pack win by seeing me on my belly like a snake.

“You’re right, I don’t belong here. I never have belonged here, but I will find where I belong, and when I do I’m going to forget all about you.

” I look behind me at the pack that’s laughing and mocking me.

I’m used to the treatment by now. “But you won’t forget about me.

Not a single one of you.” I look back at Keiran and point at him.

“ Ever.” I spit the last word at him and Bella’s eyes flash.

It’s the only warning I get before she slaps me.

She’s wearing a ring on her left hand and it cuts into my lip when she hits me.

The sting of it is nothing compared to the way my soul screams from accepting my rejection.

The coppery taste of blood fills my mouth and I spit it out at Keiran’s feet.

“I am Cordelia, the daughter of none and I accept your rejection, Keiran.”

“Get out of my sight.” Keiran turns his back on me and walks away with Bella.