Page 10 of Rejected Alpha Mate

I take a sip of wine and steal a glance at Nicholas, only to find him staring at me through his lashes. Eyes fiercely penetrating in emerald, my heart skips a beat, my breath catching in my throat, while my nerve-fibers sizzle with awareness.

Something unexplainable is happening, and for the first time in my life, my inner wolf feels out of control. Too hot. Too flushed. Too large for my body, for my skin.

I need fresh air.

Clearing my throat as I tear my gaze away from Nicholas, I turn to find my brother staring at me expectantly.

“Are you alright, Dons?” he quips with an arched brow, tone suspicious as he continues staring at me. “Did you hear what I asked?”

“I—er—sorry,” I stammer, flustered. An invisible chain wraps around my throat, choking me, the air around me suffocating. I feel a bead of sweat break out on my brow and lift my napkin to my forehead.

“Donna…? You look like you’re gonna be sick,” Cecelia worriedly exclaims, getting to her feet, but I stop her from rushing over to me with a raised hand.

“I’m fine, Cece, I promise. I just…I just need to be excused to—” I clear my throat. “I need the restroom.”

Cecelia nods as she cradles her growing belly, slowly sinking back into her seat and glancing at Nicholas. He calmly rises to his feet, strolling behind me and pulling the chair out just enough that I can stand up.

“I’ll show you where the restroom is,” he assures me, his voice calm and measured. “You’ll have to know where it is if you guys are gonna be here for the next two weeks,” he chuckles lightly, throwing Dominic and Cecelia a charming grin.

At this point, my knees are practically shaking, weak from being so close to him. I’m about to lose my mind, my vision blurring as I follow him down the hallway toward the bathroom.

He appears so calm and collected that it makes me feel crazy to be feeling this way. Where is this coming from?

The first time I met Nicholas in Nightmist, we’d shaken hands, and I thought I felt something stir, but I dismissed it. The second time I met him at Dominic and Cecelia’s wedding, I tried to deny feeling drawn to him. Now, it feels like I’m going into heat—it’s everything Cecelia described it to be, but worse.

“Over there, on your left,” Nicholas points out, but his husky tone is my undoing. The little dignity I had left crumbles when my knees cave, and I stumble forward.

A pair of strong hands clutch my shoulders like protective pads, warm, inducing a raging fire through my veins, but also catching me before I fall forward.

“Whoa…careful there, Donna,” Nicholas’s smooth, sultry voice warns me gently as he steadies me on my feet. But the moment he turns me around to face him, our eyes meet again, and I lose myself in the vibrant, emerald depths that call to my inner wolf.

A frown flits past his face, his expression smoothing out in recognition this time. Without a word, he pulls me into the bathroom, shutting the door behind us as his breath comes out in uneven pants.

His hands return to my shoulders, his eyes never leaving mine.

“Your brother’s gonna kill me for this…” he drawls, his hot breath fanning my face and arresting me in this moment where nothing matters.

Not my brother, not Cecelia, not their unborn child, not Dominic and Nicholas’s friendship. Nothing matters except quelling this aching desire, and that’s when I reach out and grab the back of his head, pulling him in for a ravenous kiss that awakens every dormant nerve ending in my body.

He kisses me back with equal fervor, his tongue diving into my mouth for exploration, his hands all over my waist, my hips, my rear, my thighs.

“What’s happening?” I pant when I break the kiss, frowning deeply as I stare into eyes that have turned dark with greedy desire.

“I don’t—” Nicholas gulps, licking my saliva off his lips. “All I know is that I must have you.”

My heart skips a beat again, my fingers carding through his blonde hair. Now that we’re so close, I can see every tiny freckle on his face, the way his mouth is shaped like a heart because of a prominent cupid’s bow, pink and swollen from our abrupt kiss.

“This is crazy…” I try denial, but it doesn’t work when Nicholas leans in again.

“No, it isn’t,” he protests, eyes lingering on my lips with hunger. “I’ve wanted you since the first day I met you, Donna. You’ve just been holding out on me.”

His eyes lift to mine again, and I see a flicker of sincerity that makes me realize I wasn’t imagining things all along. Every silent half-smile, every stolen glance, every time our paths crossed—it meant something.

Dominic was destined to be Nicholas’s best friend, because I was destined to meet him through my brother.

I shake my head slowly, saying, “I’m not holding out anymore.”

Nicholas’s lips curl into a seductive smirk, and he kisses me more passionately this time, deeper, desperate.