Lusting After My Rejected Mate

ELSA

For a werewolf society, one of the most important things that any of us can look forward to is the day we find and claim our mates. But for me, Elsa, daughter of Luca, this day held no such joy. It was merely a formality. A pointless punctuation that I was soon going to puncture.

My breaths fogged the air in front of me as I ran.

Onward, I charged myself. Faster.

I didn’t want to look back. I didn’t care that I was being noisy and that my clothes were dirty. There was nothing else said or done that would make me continue with this façade, and inside me, my wolf howled, sensing both my pain and anger, and stoked by both, wished me to shift. To allow myself to take the backseat while she championed things.

And for a while, I considered it.

My phone buzzed against my thigh and I pulled it out, not bothering to stop my bothering. It was him. I swiped at the call, not knowing why I did so, only for a message to pop in a second later.

DON’T DO ANYTHING RASH, Elsa.

The message read. I laughed mirthlessly. How much more of a rash decision could I make? Any more than catching my supposed mate in bed with another woman? Another woman that he’d been seeing for a longer period than I could have ever fathomed.

There was nothing more rash left to do so I stashed my phone back in my pocket and continued to run, away from his house of fornication and all of his lies, hoping that the ten thousand sweet nothings he whispered into my ears every other day would disappear, dissolving in a cloud that rested with him.

But I’d never been that lucky, and the only thing I could manage was broken sobs that speared through every fiber of my being as unbidden memories rose inside me.

* * *

Seven years ago when I first met Alpha Derek Xavier, it felt like for once, I was going to have all the luck in the universe. He smelled like the forest, rich and earthy, and stood strong and proud. But his eyes carried a fire burning in them that made me go weak in the knees, every time I was with him.

He was my little burning sun. He pulled me in with every single word, with every single touch… I wanted to be his. I desired it, and deep inside me, I felt it too. So when he’d asked me out, abandoning the conventional rules of mating, I’d consented quickly. Something about his strong confidence and the way he said the words, “We can make our magic. Why wait for a mate when we’ve got all we need right here?”

And like a fool, I had believed him.

My family did not approve, but I was one of the few women left without a mate in the village. I had gone for the mating rituals from the very minute that I was determined an adult wolf at eighteen, expecting to meet the person that my wolf would howl with joy for.

But I never found them and had soon given up hope of finding a mate. Until the miracle of Alpha Derek appeared…

Even now, I could still feel the warmth of his skin, so close to my own, and hear his words pounding through my brain as though he was right next to me…

“What are you doing?”

My eyes snapped open and new smells filled my nostrils.

Spices being prepared for an evening meal, a slew of meats and peppers being turned together in a large pot that I knew would now have to be shared with others… with people who were not supposed to be privy to this private joy.

I opened the door to my home with a bang that only I could hear.

“He’s been cheating on me, mother!” I wanted to scream.

“All the time, that sick bastard’s been playing me. He has a mate. He’s had a mate longer than we knew and I was a fool to ever think that he loved me. He doesn’t love me. He doesn’t give me anything. Only scraps while I go all the way for him, and he does everything for his mate.”

But no sound left my lips. I stood there hunched at the door, heaving as though I could pull in all the pain in my heart. After a while, someone noticed the open door and came to me.

“Elsa?”

The voice was rough, but the tone was concerned. I would always find comfort in my father.

“What happened to you, child?”

“Father” I sniffed. All I wanted to do was throw myself into his arms tell him everything and just cry. I took a step towards him.

“Alpha Derek —”

But at that moment, my aunt came forward, ladle smelling fragrantly of meat broth folded in her arms as she gave me a dirty look. “Elsa, you disgrace us all.”

I stopped, my outstretched hands falling as my father turned. My mother came out just at that second, looking angrier than my aunt.

“Elsa, you will turn back this instant and go back to that house you just ran from.”

“Elsa,” my father chided, “will you not at least hear your daughter out first?”

But my mother was already shouting over the roof. “I will not! She has to go back to his house, Nolan. She must go back to Alpha Derek and apologize to the man. How many years have we waited for and with her in this house? Waiting for her mate… no one thought to seek her out and when the one man who finally wants to marry her comes along, what does she do? She drops his engagement ring without a word and runs away.”

“You’re despicable, Elsa,” my aunt berated. “Even I would not be that wicked to someone who has been that good to me.”

But Alpha Derek had not been good to me at all.

Everywhere I looked, I could see angry eyes. I could see that they were not ready to listen to me, no matter what I had to say.

I understood what had happened.

Alpha Derek had lied to them before I could get here.

He’d done it again.