Page 55 of The Enforcer’s Rejected Mate (Red River Rejected Mates #1)

Chapter

Thirty-Eight

THORNE

W hen I’m in a shit mood, sparring is the one thing that will always clear my head and get my head on straight.

There’s just something about throwing Lucian out of the ring that does it for me.

He is getting better though, caught me a few times to the ribs when I should have been ready to block.

I rub my side with a grimace. That asshole bruised a couple of ribs no doubt about it.

We sparred for four hours, right up until dinner time.

I could have kept going but wasn’t going to risk missing Cordelia.

“Where you off to?” Lucian asked when I hopped up off the mat and made for the doors. “I just fucking wore you down. Running off now because you know you’re going to lose?”

“I’ve got somewhere more important to be.”

He grabbed his chest with mock sob. “Ouch. Right to the heart. Fine. Tell her I said hi.” The rest of the Defenders perked up when they heard him say that.

I flipped him off on my way out of the gym for the trouble he was going to bring down on me with that one.

Cordy had been ready for me when I arrived at the Healer’s Rooms. She’d been lingering outside of the rooms like she wasn’t sure if she should go or stay, and I knew why.

She didn’t think I was going to show after we got into it.

Her mouth dropped open when she saw me. “Thorne?” Her voice was soft, surprised, yup she definitely did not think I was going to show.

“Ready?” I asked her when she seemed like she’d recovered enough to not fall over.

She bobbed her head, arms wrapped tight around her backpack. “Y-yeah, of course.”

It had been a quiet walk to the mess hall.

An even quieter meal until Clover had arrived.

That perked Cordelia right up. The pair of them had chattered throughout the meal.

I’d listened and learned she’d had her first patient and made friends with Piper, both were good news.

I was glad the pack was eager to see her and Piper was a good one to have around.

She was the only alpha I trusted to be around her on their own.

Piper was the town librarian and tough enough to be a Defender but definitely not into it, her words not mine.

“Listen, it’s not my vibe, okay? Throwing people around and running through the woods? No way. If you need a good book though, I’m your alpha.”

I only spoke when they directed a question my way—which was really just Clover since Cordelia was back to being shy around me.

I hate that she wasn’t talking to me. It was my fault.

I knew that. I just didn’t know what to say to her to fix it.

I’d tried a few times during the meal but it hadn’t amounted to much more than me asking if she needed more tea to drink.

The answer had been ‘no thank you’. I hadn’t gotten much further than that before the dinner was done and Clover shooed me off to walk with Cordelia.

Now I was home.

The Soul Tie was humming along just fine, which was why I was here at home.

Whatever she was doing, she was happy enough.

I say enough because of the ever present melancholy feeling that was always just beneath the surface of Cordelia’s emotions.

No matter what she was doing or who she was with, that heavy feeling was always there.

Sometimes it was barely there but still I could feel it in the bond, like a splinter you couldn’t get out.

Just like normal, when I felt the heavy undercurrent of her emotions, I wondered. I wondered who did that to her, what gave her that feeling?

Was it the result of the trauma from being taken from home? Did she carry that same shadow we all did? Or was this new? Something all her own?

I close my eyes and press my palm to my forehead.

“Get a fucking grip.” To put it nicely, I’m losing my goddamn shit over her.

“Let her go,” I command myself. The words fall flat because I don’t.

The bond stays right where it is, snapping like a live wire.

I take in a deep breath and then another before I go to my door and open it.

The cool night air does a little to recenter me but it’s not enough.

I step out onto the grass and take a deep breath before I sprint for the woods.

I don’t slow down until I’ve cleared the switchbacks and cross the Meadow.

Both make me think of Cordelia. I push my body harder to put distance between me and every single thing that reminds me of the dark-eyed omega.

How is she a shifter? Why can’t I smell her? Luna, what if she is a fairy? A damn changeling? Is that even possible?

And out of all the females that could catch my interest why her and why now?

How the fuck are we bonded together?

The last question hangs heavy as I run. A Soul Tie isn’t random. The old magic that bonds two souls is predestined. Whatever happened to us in this world only set us both on our paths to one another.

“No,” I grit out and pick up speed. I’ll run all fucking night if it means I can hold off my inevitable bond with Cordelia for a little longer.

I can’t afford a distraction with the way our borders are compromised and Moonshadow is on the move.

My focus has to be on the pack. Non-negotiable. Nothing else matters but the pack.

But what happens when she knows it’s you ?

That’s a whole different can of worms. Right now I am the only soul being tortured with the knowledge that we are two halves of a whole.

When Cordelia finds out, though? Well, that will change things.

Ronan wouldn’t be okay with me side-stepping bonding with her and I don’t think Cordelia would be too happy about it either.

Both wouldn’t take into account the dangers of being with me.

The risks my role in the pack brings with it and how hard it would be on my mate.

If I died, what would happen to her? Nothing if Ronan was the Alpha, but Ronan couldn’t live forever and being the pack Enforcer meant I had a target on my back.

That target would double and split to Cordelia if I claimed her.

I feel sick thinking about what some piece of shit alpha would do to her to set an example.

No, I’m not going to dump this on her now.

Not when she is settling into the pack. Not when we had unrest on our borders.

I’m so caught up in my thoughts that I almost miss the first scent of an intruder.

Thankfully, my senses are sharp enough to catch it even when I’m lost in my own fucking head.

I slow and give the air a sniff when I catch an unfamiliar scent.

Fucking Moonshadow. It’s one of them. The familiar coppery smell of blood my wolf associates with them hangs in the early evening air.

It’s fresh. They’ve been here recently. I follow my nose and my wolf takes over. We follow the scent of Moonshadow deep into the trees and to a deer trail. It meanders but I have an idea of where it’s going.

Oak Fast.

Why there?

Moonshadow Pack is north of us and Oak Fast is to the west. It makes no sense that Moonshadow would be going that way.

If anything, we have more run-ins with them going into Brimrose, the town that sits northwest of us.

Definitely our territory but still in the battleground as far as Moonshadow’s shithead Alpha is concerned.

My wolf tracks the scent until the highway shows itself.

The smell of asphalt and diesel floats up from the road and my wolf wrinkles its nose.

We hate the fucking highway and its shit smell but I can still pick out the copper smell of Moonshadow.

It’s here but faint, like the owner was plucked off the ground.

I pad out of the trees and pace along the gravel shoulder of the road before I cross it to see if the scent picks back up but there’s nothing.

I turn and look around, ears twitching when I hear a truck coming up the bend half a mile off.

There’s a road marker for Oak Fast up ahead and it doesn’t take a genius to understand what happened.

The Moonshadow wolf got picked up by someone driving.

They’d only do that if they were trying to hide their tracks and didn’t want to show their hand on which direction they took.

The truck I heard blows past, headlights shining bright as it passes me and flies up the road.

I turn and follow its red tail lights until they vanish from sight, only then do I turn and hightail it back to Red River.

“It makes no sense that Moonshadow is this far south.”

Ronan nods and leans over to look at the map of the territory he has spread out on the table in front of him.

We’ve been going over the routes and our boundaries since I got in from my patrol.

The sun hasn’t risen yet, but it will soon.

I shift from foot to foot. I’m antsy, have been since I tracked the Moonshadow wolf.

There’s only one place I want to be and it’s not here, surprisingly. It’s not on patrol either.

Cordelia.

I want to be with her.

Or as close to her as I can get. I slept on her porch last night, near enough that I’d be the first to know if something went wrong.

It’s not comfortable but I’ve slept in worse spots than her cottage porch.

As soon as we’re done here I’m going straight there.

I keep my eyes on Ronan while he considers the map.

I will him to give me an order, a simple command that will make the path forward clear.

Anything to set me free and let me go to her.

Omega.

That one thought has rattled around in my wolf’s brain until there’s nothing else. My wolf wants her. It’s driving me up the fucking wall.

“Interesting they came this way after Cordelia’s arrival.”

My hands flex and I cross my arms. “You think she’s got something to do with it?”

Ronan looks up at me. “You still think she’s a spy.”

It’s not a question. It’s a statement.