Alpha's Regret: His Wrongful Rejection

And another time, years before, the night of the full moon when Ma didn’t come back to fetch me from the knoll where the unmated females watched us little ones. I sat in the dew-wet grass, forgotten, while a male gasped out the story to Deirdre Sullivan. “Her wolf just leapt,” he’d said, still stunned,…

He stands stock still. The water is halfway up his legs. It skims her chin. He lowers himself to his belly. She narrows her eyes. He sinks further under until the water comes just below his nostrils. She gives herself another vigorous shake and sets off toward me, her paws slipping. She goes under twice…

“Pups?” Something quickens in my stomach, and it’s gone so fast, and I’m still so shaken from the past forty-eight hours that I’m not sure whether it’s excitement or terror. He grunts and rises to his feet, offering me a hand. I take it. He helps me up and guides me through an arched hobbit…

Everything gets taken away. Nothing is guaranteed. “I’ll never let anyone hurt you again,” he says, and I know he means himself, too. “I know.” I reach out and brush my fingertips across his soft bottom lip, and I smile for him, so he knows what I mean—he’s not alone anymore. “You’re my mate.” I’m…

Darragh also wants to check in with the command center set up in the lodge. He says that the humans are from the branch of their government that “administrates” us. I have no idea what that means, but apparently, they’re more on our side than the hunters, and they have resources we don’t when it…

He takes my hand to lead me across camp and blood roars in my ears. Is he taking me back to the guest cabin from the night we mated? But we turn off past the commissary and up the path to the garage, and I calm down, but not entirely. My wolf is on edge,…

As it gets later, the stream of visitors tapers off. Annie excuses herself to bed. Kennedy changes into her comfy sweats and puts on a movie. Out on the porch, Lucan and Fallon shoot the shit in undertones. Is Darragh just going to leave me here? Go back to his shack in the woods like…

At some point, Darragh disappeared, and I didn’t even notice. I search the bond, and he’s not far, so I force myself to relax. He needs to get cleaned up and seen to as well, although I can’t imagine him letting anyone fuss over him. A flash of irrational ire heats my cheeks. Would he…

“Hardly ever.” I hug my shoulders. The sheet is too thin. “What do you know about me?” “Very little. But Darragh Ryan and I go way back.” My wolf growls. Abertha’s lip twitches, but only once. “So do you want to know, sweet little Mari?” A sense of foreboding settles on my chest where the…

“His wolf is cool with me.” It’s a stupid thing to claim, and I only say it to cover how stupid I feel. “You’ve met his wolf in your human form?” Abertha’s eyebrows rise. My face burns. That’s what I get for bragging that I have some kind of special connection with the mate who…