Filed To Story: In the Shadow of the Past Luna (Lily & James)
Lily smiles. “Luke told me that you are not as bad as you seem. From where I sit, you are worse. Should I call Luke a liar as well?”
she responds.
I ignore Lily’s question. It was rhetorical anyway.
“Little Brat, I am not done with my revenge! I will not let you just walk away from me! Not this time! Not until you pay for what you did to Stephanie. I will not accept your rejection!”
“Oh, I am so sorry, James,”
she says with obvious sarcasm. “You are right. I missed a step. You told me earlier that you expected me to be on my knees when I begged you for a rejection. Would you like me to
I do that now?”
“Are you offering to get on your knees for me?”
I retort. “If so, thanks but no thanks. I have other she-
wolves to help me with that.”
“Oh, James. Please do not misunderstand me. My offer stands, but I have no interest in pleasuring you.
You see, my taste buds are repulsed by the flavor of man wh ores. What I am offering is to get on my knees and you to accept my rejection. It is what you said you wanted earlier. I have decided that I am willing to give it to you beg y
Suddenly a thought occurs to me. Is it possible that Lily has been possessed by a demon? Maybe?
Possibly? Probably?
I guess it is irrelevant. I cannot back down. I decide to call Lily out on her bluff.
“FINE. Get on your knees. It is the least that you can do after getting Stephanie killed!”
Lily immediately drops down.
I am shocked. I did not expect her to actually do it.
Something else is bothering me too. I reach out to Luke again. “Luke, Lily is bruised and beaten. She is on her knees, ready to beg me. She should look pathetic. Instead, she looks… powerful. How can that be? Did she put some sort of spell on me? On herself?”
“No, James. Lily looks powerful because she is. She is the one fully in control of the situation right now.
You are the one who looks pathetic,”
Luke responds.
I rub my aching chest as the pain in my heart continues to worsen, but I refuse to admit that Luke may be right.
“No, that is not true. I am the one in control here, not her. I would never cede control to a murderer.”
“Pretty sure you already have.”
That is it. I cut the link with Luke and put up a block. Putting up a block is an extreme measure, but I need to focus what is left of my energy and Luke is not helping me at all. He is just confusing me more.
cent your rejection? FINE. But first “Okay, Lily Brogan. You want me to I want to hear you beg. Do it now. I want the entire pack to listen to YOUR WORTHLESS PATHETIC SELF beg me. DO IT. DO IT NOW.”
“Happily.”
(Lily POV)
Adrenaline rushes are amazing things.
In medical school, they teach us that adrenaline rushes can sometimes allow petite human females to lift large vehicles to save their babies, human males to jump extreme distances when trying to escape from a building fire, and werewolf children to shift far earlier than their 14th birthday if necessary to save someone they love.
Of course, the main problem with an adrenaline rush is that it is short-lived. And when the adrenaline begins to fade, reality takes over again.
I have never been someone who can hold on to her anger for very long, and so the longer that James and
I yell at each other, the more that I can feel reality and my insecurities starting to work themselves back.
In fact, my “offer”
to get on my knees for James was actually motivated by the severe pain in my body and the fact that I was not sure how much longer I could stand.
Rose is in the background trying to encourage me, but her encouragement only breaks my heart. It is largely unheard of for a wolf to support a rejection except in extreme situations; wolf instincts and the mate bond usually drive a wolf to want to accept a Goddess-selected mate no matter what.
I suppose this is an extreme situation. 1
As I try to gather myself, Sheila steps closer to James and puts her hand on his shoulder. It looks like she is trying to comfort him, but he does not seem to even register that she is there. Not one to give up easily, she then crouches down and whispers something in his ear. He responds by absent-mindedly swatting at her as though she is a fly. Sheila steps back with an offended look on her face, and then she looks at me and glares.
Bad move, Sheila, I think to myself. Your glare triggers many unpleasant memories. In fact, those memories are so unpleasant that they trigger another small rush of adrenaline. I guess I should thank you later. Not.
I have to finish this, and finish this soon.
Taking a deep breath, I decide to beg James just like he has requested. Unfortunately for him, that begging will be on my terms not his.
“Dearest James, I beg you to accept my rejection,”
I begin.
“Please free me from having to experience the betrayal pains that you have promised I would feel every
Please free me from having to be mated to someone who claims to love my deceased sister and yet affiliates himself with a she-wolf who has more to do with what happened to her than me.
Please free me from having to be mated to someone who has spent six years trying to punish me for an incident that he has never even bothered to ask me about. That NO ONE has ever bothered to ask me about.
Please free me from having to be mated to someone who is blinded to the truth, and who is so arrogant and bull-headed that he would rather accept a chosen mate than admit that maybe just maybe he made a mistake. And maybe not just one, but many.”
I pause, and then look over at my father, who is watching me with horror on his face.
“Please, James, free me so that I can find a male who is smart enough to love and appreciate me without falsely believing that I will be a burden to him, his family, and his community.
Please, James, I beg you to accept my rejection.”
At first, James says nothing. Then he hits me with the only tool he has left in his toolbox. Thankfully, he has used it before, so I am prepared.
“You do not deserve a rejection, you Little Brat. I am not done with you yet! You deserve every single one of the betrayal pains I plan to give you while I am having sex with each of the she-wolves in this pack who
Xare better than you, which by my count is all of them!”
Tears threaten to fall from my eyes, but I fight them back. Neither James nor this pack deserve to see how much they have broken me.
“James, you are forgetting something. Betrayal pains work both ways. For years, you have accused me of being a wh ore. Have you thought about what will happen if you are right about me and you fail to accept the rejection? What do I care if I experience betrayal pains? I do not have a pack that I have to worry about or take care of anymore. But you? How effective of an alpha will you be when you are doubled over in pain on the battlefield while I am out there proving you right with my whorish ways?!?!”
Watching his face, I can tell that I have gotten under his skin. As much as he hates me, the mate bond makes him crazy at the thought of me sleeping with someone else.
“Alright, you Little B&&ch. You win. The Moon Goddess clearly made a mistake, and it is time to fix it. I, James Anderson, future alpha of the West Mountain Pack, hereby accept the rejection of the most ugly and pathetic she-wolf ever born, Lily Brogan.”
I
With that, I feel the final tether between James and I break. My heart shatters for yet another time today.
Standing up, I look at all the shocked faces around me. I have one more thing to say. “I, Lily Brogan, reject the West Mountain Pack. I hereby rescind any links or ties that I might have to this bl oody place.”
Thankfully, there is no pain when I say that. After all, they ignored my 14th birthday and I never swore any loyalty to the pack or to Alpha Randall. I still have (had) ties to the pack, but they are the small child tethers that we are all born with, and they are not very strong.
“Okay, Lily. It is done. Now run! We have to get out of here, and fast!”
Rose tells me.
I quickly walk-okay, stumble-out of the event hall. Thankfully, everyone in the pack hall was so stunned by the show that James and I just gave them that it appears that no one has followed me. At least not yet.
I make it almost to the forest when I suddenly feel multiple hands pulling at me. Unfortunately, before I can fight back or even determine who it is, I pass out.
(James POV)
Almost as soon as I said the words accepting Lily’s rejection, I regretted them. Everything in me told me that I had just made the biggest mistake of my life.
New Book: Veiled Desires of the Alpha King Novel
Dayson was the alpha of the largest pack in North America. Powerful figures from other packs sought to offer gorgeous girls as potential mates for Dayson. He steadfastly rejected these advances, he was not a pawn to be manipulated. But eventually there came a mysterious girl he could hardly say No. Who was she?