Page 28 of The Enforcer’s Rejected Mate (Red River Rejected Mates #1)
Chapter
Eighteen
THORNE
C ontribute her fair share.
I never thought hearing something would make me this pissed off but here I am. Pissed and jogging into Bloodstone with the Defenders and the Omega at my back. There’s only one explanation for it really.
She’s a witch.
That’s the only thing that makes good sense.
Why else would I have lost my head over her like this? All of my control snapped in the meadow and hearing her say all she needed is a bed, not even thinking we would feed her? My wolf snaps his teeth at that. We provide for her. Us. An omega that’s fed and happy, healthy and protected which fuck.
This is witchcraft. I’ve been fucking hexed.
I look over at the omega. She’s keeping pace but she's hurting now. The speed and endurance she showed earlier are gone. She deflated like an old balloon the second we came into sight of Thorne’s Embrace and Bloodstone Keep.
I look up at the great tree. My namesake.
My parents are firm believers in tradition, that the old ways are the right ways, meant to be honored by each generation to keep the pack strong.
I don’t know how much I believe in that.
Belief or not, I was named for the great tree that stands guard over the whole of Red River.
It’s the first sight that anyone who comes to our pack sees when they make the trip to town.
It doesn’t matter if they come from the forest or make the trek from the northern trailhead.
Most humans opt for the trailhead. Red River is only a ten minute walk from the parking lot but there’s no awe in that journey.
No, the forest entrance is the only way to fully appreciate Thorne’s Embrace and the first glimpse of the Keep. I feel a glow of pleasure knowing the omega saw it the way it was intended and that she was with me.
She beat me, too.
The pride I feel grows, swells up until I can feel it where we were shot. The pulse there makes me remember the pack lore that will soon sink its claws into the new omega. She’ll know soon enough what the lightning means to us.
Two halves blessed as one.
I sidestep the words I know I’ll hear soon and double back to the fact that a witch hexed me.
A witch that doesn’t think I’ll provide for her.
There won’t be a day that she doesn’t have fresh meat waiting for her, a home just the way she sees fit and all her days to spend as her own.
I will provide. The thoughts dig their dangerous hooks into me and pull me under and I let it happen, ignoring the fact that my thoughts are illogical.
Pure fantasy and Alpha instincts that won’t shut the fuck up and let me think.
The pack will provide. We need a healer and Alpha Ronan is a fair Alpha. We butt heads from time to time but that’s to be expected with alphas. I might be hard-headed but I’d never lose my head enough to challenge Ronan. I wouldn’t trade places with Ronan for all the gold and glory in the world.
To be an alpha is one thing but to be the Alpha?
No fucking thank you.
I’d last all of a day before I lost my mind.
Being indoors and listening to petitions and negotiations to keep the peace, and all while being ready to take all challengers?
The latter I can do with no compunction, but the former?
I’d rather lick one of the by now no longer drunk but hungover hunter’s asses.
Right on cue, one of them throws up. I hadn’t heard much from them in a while so we were due for one getting sick, I suppose.
I glance over to see it’s Lucian’s hunter.
I slow and signal to him that I’m taking the omega with me.
The omega. I look at her. She looks tired.
No longer just hurting but on the verge of collapse.
I can see it in the heavy way her feet move and the slump of her shoulders.
She’s pale too. Definitely exhausted by now.
Need to get her in bed and fed. Somewhere safe. Now.
My wolf throws himself forward. He’s pissed that I’m not taking care of the omega he views as his.
Ours. His message is clear. If I’m going to fall down on the job then he’s willing to step up.
I push him back and veer off to the right.
We’re close to the Keep now but where the others will head straight in with the hunters to lock them up for the night, I’m taking the omega to the visitor’s quarters.
It’s late. Ronan won’t have time to see her.
At least that’s what I tell myself but a healer?
Ronan would make time for a healer. He’d think she was a blessing. Luna sent.
I don’t take her that way, though. I’m not ready for the Alpha to meet her. Not until I’ve spoken to him about her. My wolf is already too protective, too territorial over her. If I don’t hash this out with Ronan we’re going to be one wrong look from Ronan away from a challenge.
And like I said, I have no plans to be Alpha.