Page 51 of The Enforcer’s Rejected Mate (Red River Rejected Mates #1)

“Holy hells. This is seriously cool,” she says, bringing me back to the here and now.

She turns in a circle and looks around the room with a bright smile on her beautiful face.

The room is big and airy, windows line the far wall and overlook into the courtyard of the keep.

The room has a massive curio cabinet fully stocked with herbs, each of them labeled painstakingly by Jo before the sickness took her.

Two beds sit in the corner across from the curio cabinet and there’s a cord attached to a curtain there for Cordelia to use if she wants to have a bit more privacy for her patients.

A set of sinks sits in a marble countertop closest to the door for scrubbing up.

Beside that there’s a wall of wooden drawers.

Each of them holds instruments and equipment specifically designed by Jo.

Some of it is for surgeries but there’s other devices created for making tinctures and preserving herbs.

At the center of the room there’s a massive wooden table meant for making medicines, or the experiments Jo loved to conduct.

Honest to Luna, none of us ever had an idea of what she was tinkering with until she was presenting us with a new salve or cure all tea.

There’s a rolling display holding up a set of charts perfect for note taking or for going over the diagrams of plants Jo created during her lifetime as a healer.

To the right side of the room there's a set of doors where five more beds wait for patients along with a bathroom for easy access. Opposite of that there’s another door where a small nursery has been built.

It can hold up to ten pups which is more than enough with the rate our pack is growing.

I take a step back and lean against the wall to watch Cordelia run around the room in excitement.

She rushes into the nursery and back out again before rushing over to the supply drawers with a happy clap.

Cordelia pulls open a drawer and gasps. “Who made this equipment? I’ve never seen anything like it!”

“Jo did,” I tell her. She lets out a whistle while looking over the item she’s holding, a long skinny beaker that splits into two with a tub of mercury attached to the side of it. Gods knows what Jo was using that for.

“The pack’s healer,” Cordelia guesses and I nod.

“That’s right. She was our healer for fifty years. Delivered pretty much every shifter above the age of three in this pack.”

Cordelia gently places the contraption she’s holding back in the drawer and shuts it. “That means she delivered me,” she says with a quiet laugh.

“She did.”

“I wish I could have met her.” She looks around the room again and then moves towards the charts and flips through them with a shale of her head. “Her attention to detail…it’s beautiful. She must have been brilliant. I’ve never seen anything like this before.”

“She was brilliant. Definitely moon-touched at times but brilliant all the same.”

“I hope I can do her memory justice.”

I open my mouth to tell her that there’s no possible way she won’t bring honor to Jo’s name as our new healer but a knock at the door interrupts me.

“Why hello there, stranger.”

I don’t even have to look to know who it is that’s talking. There’s only one shifter that would greet me like that.

I cross my arms and lean back against the wall, eyes still on Cordelia. “Cassidy.”

Cassidy is Beta Morgana’s daughter. She just returned from a stint with the humans to attend college and ever since she has she hasn’t made it a secret that she wants to catch my eye.

It’s been hell the past few months with Cassidy making her interest known.

Even without being tied to Cordelia or the weight of a fated mate hanging over my head, I’m not an idiot.

I would never touch Cassidy. I know better than to shit where I eat and getting involved with the Beta’s daughter is exactly that.

Cassidy tosses her long honey blonde hair over her shoulder and walks into the room with a grin.

“You know, one of these days I’m going to manage to get a good morning from you, Enforcer.

” She draws the last word out, makes it last as long as she can with a giggle.

There’s no mistaking the flirtation there.

I ignore it like I always do but Cordelia doesn’t.

Hells. Cordelia shifts and lets out an awkward cough before she turns away to study Jo’s charts.

I sigh when she flips one of the charts with more force than necessary.

Her shoulders hunch up around her ears and she shrinks in on herself.

Yup, Cordelia absolutely gets what Cassidy is all about.

Fuck.

“Good morning, Cassidy,” I amend quickly. It’s easier than letting her launch into her regular game of baiting me and then claiming I’m playing ‘hard to get’, which is ‘totally not cool, Thorne. You’re going to make me go running to those college boys if you’re not careful.’

I don’t tell her that I wish she would find herself another male—even if it is a human. I’d drive her right to that college boy’s house if it meant this would end. But she’s the Beta’s kid, which means I’ve got to play nice…for now.

Cassidy feigns shock and claps her hands to her chest with a gasp at my good morning. “Oh my Luna! I am wearing you down, I can tell. You’re going to be asking me out any day now. I’ll tell my mother she can expect you at dinner tonight.”

I grit my teeth. “Can’t come to dinner. On patrol.”

Her face falls. “You’re always on patrol. There’s nothing out there, Thorne.”

“There’s ferals,” Cordelia says and we both turn to her. She looks shocked that she spoke, cheeks turning pink and she swallows. She clasps her hands in front of her and takes a step back, bumping into the charts behind her. “I-I m-mean, that’s what I heard, um, that there’s ferals roaming.”

Cassidy waves her hand at Cordelia. “Ferals in the woods. That’s just human shit. Humans are scared of their own shadow and if they see one of us they think we’re ferals. You’re new here so let me clue you in, there’s nothing in those woods. Anyone with half a brain knows that.”

Her tone is harsh and Cordelia shrinks. Where’s the woman that butted heads with me?

“Sure,” she mumbles and looks away with a nod to flip through the charts again.

Cassidy lets out a little huff before she turns back to me with a bright smile. “Anyways, like I was saying…dinner tonight is going to be at seven pm sharp, and you are not to be late.”

I cross my arms over my chest. “Not coming to dinner, Cassidy. Already told you. Not a big fan of repeating myself.”

She frowns. “But-”

“And that’s our new healer you just spoke to,” I tell her with a jerk of my chin over to where Cordelia is doing her best to act like she’s not in the room with us. “I’d watch your tone if I was you, when you talk to her.”

Cassidy’s eyes cut back to Cordelia and she shrugs. “Yeah, heard all about the stray this morning at breakfast.” She laughs and looks at me like we’re sharing a joke. Godsfuckingdammit. I move my visit to Annie and Ceelie up to my number one priority. They’re cutting that shit out now .

I see Cordelia freeze. Feel it too. Like ice water being poured down my chest. So cold that it burns. I rub my chest and watch as she looks like a deer caught in headlights with the way she looks around the room like she’s trying to find an escape route.

“She’s pack ,” I growl and Cassidy gasps at the sound.

In all the years I’ve known her and for all her unwanted advances I’ve never used this tone with her.

I’m always polite, if curt, but never this.

The burning ache Cordelia is pumping through the Soul Tie sweeps my reason to be cordial away like dirt off a porch.

“Cordelia was personally welcomed by Ronan to be this pack’s healer.

That means she ranks in this pack, and the last time I checked, you don’t rank, Cassidy. ”

What I’m saying is true. Morgana’s rank is not her daughter’s. That’s not how we do things here and Cassidy knows it. Rank is earned. Anything else makes lazy wolves who forget their most important priority is pack.

“I…” Cassidy looks between me and then to Cordelia and has the good sense to look embarrassed.

She gives me a pleading look, like I’m going to be the one to smooth things over.

Fuck that. Another tense minute passes before it dawns on her that she’s on her own and she throws her hands up.

“What? Everyone is saying it and when I say everyone I mean, everyone . They’re calling her a stray and it’s not even a big deal, okay? ”

I open my mouth to tell her that it is a very big fucking deal when Cordelia speaks. “I’ve been called a lot worse than a stray, so you’re not wrong that it’s not a big deal.” She looks at me when she talks, not Cassidy and gives me a smile.

“People have been staring at me. Now I know why.”

Shame washes over me. I should have put a stop to it. Done more to shut this shit down.

“Cordelia-”

She holds up a hand. “It’s okay, really. Stray is pretty low grade for an insult,’ she looks at Cassidy when she says that, “kind of basic, if you think about it.”

Cassidy’s mouth drops open and I know she’s taking Cordelia’s words exactly as the omega intended.

“Who are you calling basic?”

Cordelia doesn’t even hesitate. “You.”