Page 71 of The Enforcer’s Rejected Mate (Red River Rejected Mates #1)

Chapter

Fifty

THORNE

A aron McCourt has been a little shit since I first got stuck watching over him when he was ten and I was fifteen. I drew the short straw that summer and ended up pulling babysitter duty while my friends spent their days down at the river.

“He’s not so bad anymore. Little dumb, but you know,” Lucian had told me when he’d joined the Defenders. That had been the last time I’d thought about Aaron McCourt until I saw him doing something that moved him from little to very, fucking, dumb.

He had his hands on Cordelia.

Hand on her arm and eyeing her up and down in a way that let me know exactly what he was thinking.

I didn’t think then, I just walked through the crowd and straight for Cordelia.

After getting in from a patrol that gave us zero leads, the meeting hall had been the first place I’d come after I’d washed up and put on a clean pair of clothes.

She’d be here, I knew it. Could feel it in my bones.

Plus, there was the note Clover had left at my house.

Bringing her to the dance. Look alive, lover boy.

PS: I really like her and so do you. Don’t mess this up.

In true Clover fashion she’d made her thoughts on Cordelia and I known.

Guess I was doing a worse job than I thought when it came to hiding how I felt about her.

She’d been the only thing I’d thought of the four days I’d been gone.

For every mile and hour that I ran with the others, she was the reason for it all.

Even when we’d run the length of the border and back to find no hint of Moonshadow she’d been the reason I’d swallowed the bitter pill and come home.

Normally, I would have pushed the group to keep running, to leave the northern and eastern borders for the rest of our territory.

If Jazzy saw them, then chances were Moonshadow was somewhere to the west or south of us.

It wasn’t smart to come home so soon but Ronan had given his orders which meant we came home.

For the first time I had someone other than family I wanted to see, someone waiting on me.

Once we set out for Red River we got home in record time.

I’d waited for Cordelia in the far corner to keep an eye on the entire room. I didn’t want to miss out on even a second with her. Even if I had the witch’s prophecy hanging like a millstone from my neck, there was tonight. No matter what happened, I had tonight with Cordelia.

Ours.

My wolf was restless. He knew what was going to happen tonight. He was dead set on claiming our mate. Even if I wasn’t completely eye-to-eye with him on the timing, what we both agreed on was another alpha touching our mate, especially if that alpha was a dumb little shit.

“No, really, you don’t have to do that. I’m fine. Really.” Cordelia pulls her arm but there’s no breaking Aaron’s hold.

He pulls her back to him. “I insist.”

Cordelia shakes her head. Her voice is higher and I can hear the panic as sure as I feel it in my chest. “No, really, I want to go alone.”

“Alone is no way to make new friends,” he says and pulls her towards him. “Don’t you want new friends?”

I don’t let it go on for a second more. I step right in and grab Aaron’s shirt.

“She’s full up on friends, you pushy shit.”

He lets go of Cordelia the second he realizes it's me. “Enforcer?”

I shove him back from her. “What the fuck is wrong with you?”

He looks from me to Cordelia and then around at the others like someone might help him. “I-I was asking her to dance with me.”

“Looked like you were forcing yourself on her from where I was standing.”

He shakes his head. “She’s lying.”

Cordelia charges up beside me and points a finger at him. “How am I lying if I didn’t say anything yet?”

I cross my arms and stare him down. “She’s got you there, dipshit. Anything else you want to lie about?”

“This isn’t what it looks like.”

I shrug. “I don’t give a fuck. Get out.”

His eyes go wide. “But the dance-”

“Is off limits to wastes of space like you. Now get the fuck out and don’t even think about reporting for duty tomorrow, you’re done with the Defenders.”

Aaron’s eyes bug out of his head. “You can’t do that. For her?” He points towards Cordelia like I’ve lost my mind. Maybe I have fucking lost my mind but I don’t give a shit.

I slap his finger away from her. “Point at her again and I’m going to cut it off and choke you with it.”

Cordelia gasps. Her hand comes to my arm. “Thorne…”

I wince. Fuck. That’s not the side of me I want her to see. I put a hand on her arm. “I’m sorry.” Aaron visibly relaxes at my apology so I point at him. “Not you. You’re still fucked. Get out.”

For a second, Aaron looks like he might fight me but he finally decides to do something halfway smart and stalks out of the meeting hall without another look. The second he’s out of sight, Cordelia tugs me around to face her.

“What was that?” she asks me.

“I saw him touching you.”

She bites her bottom lip. “He was.”

“No one touches you.”

The hand on my arm moves and she rubs her thumb across my bicep. “Except for you?” She sounds hopeful. Fuck, she feels hopeful. I can feel it moving through the Soul Tie. Bright and happy, like the summer sunshine from my dream.

The band starts a new song, it’s something slow and couples around us make for the dance floor. When Cordelia moves to take a step off to the side, I catch her by the waist and pull her into me.

“Yeah, that’s right. Just me,” I tell her as I start to lead her through a dance. We make it all of two steps before she steps on my foot. The next step and she does it again.

“Oh my Luna, oh no, I’m so bad at this. I don’t know how to dance. I’m sorry.”

“You never learned?”

She shakes her head. “No.”

“I’ll teach you.”