Page 30 of Rejected Alpha Mate

The words slip out before I can stop them. “You already did.”

For a moment, everything inside him stills. His lips part, but no sound comes out. Then he looks away, jaw locking hard as he storms toward the back door, slamming it open and vanishing outside into the sunlight.

The silence he leaves behind is deafening.

Delilah sighs softly, turning back to me. “He’ll come around. They always do when it’s life or death.”

But I’m barely listening. My hands are trembling, warmth pulsing stronger now beneath my skin, like my body already knows what’s coming. I close my eyes, taking a slow, shaky breath.

If this is what it takes to help him—to finally make him feel the same helplessness he once made me feel—then so be it.

“Fine,” I whisper. “We’ll do it tonight. I’m ready.”

Chapter 10 - Nicholas

The last person I was expecting to find outside was Dominic, especially since my blood is boiling because of his sister. I don’t want to face him right now, and that’s why I didn’t call him over.

But since Sean and Emily are here, too, I deduce that Delilah must have called the others after hearing about the hex bag and Gwen’s vision.

“Yo, Nick, what’s—” Dominic begins, finding me in the front yard and stopping when he notices my rigid demeanor that must be written on my face. He frowns at me, glances at Sean and Emily as she says she’s heading inside, and returns his skeptical eyes to me.

Before he can say anything, I hold my hand up dismissively. “Don’t ask, Dom. I’m not in the mood.”

Dominic purses his lips, and Sean takes it as his cue to give us some privacy and follow Emily into the house. With my blood still boiling, I can barely meet my best friend’s eyes and growl when he places a hand on my shoulder.

Dominic sighs frustratedly, shaking his head when he hangs it.

“I won’t know what’s going on unless you tell me,” he says, and I chuckle bitterly.

“You must know enough already. That’s why you’re here.”

Dominic narrows his eyes at me. “I wanna hear it from you.”

“Why don’t you go ask your sister?” I sneer, shaking my head. “She’s the one who wants to put herself in danger when I just married her to keep her out of danger!”

“Is that really why you married her?” Dominic asks skeptically, and I scoff.

“Why else would I marry her?”

“Maybe because you’re fated mates,” he says matter-of-factly, and my heart skips a beat, my jaw hanging slightly.

So, he knows.

How was it going to be a secret when the witches knew? Nothing can be a secret anymore.

Gulping hard, Dominic clocks my reaction and chuckles nervously. “When were you going to tell me? When did you discover it? Is that why you married her? I get it, though.”

The exhale I let out borders on relief, only because it sounds like Dominic doesn’t know about what happened last summer. But still, I feel queasy about everything going on, my stomach lurching with a sense of dread I can’t quite pinpoint.

Even my head feels fuzzy, and I can’t quite think straight. The dull ache in my shoulder is a lingering reminder that I don’t want Donna experimenting with powers she didn’t even know existed until a few minutes ago.

She could just slice me with her claws and get it over and done with, but Donna seems determined to do exactly what I don’t want her to. That’s the part that irritates me, and I have a feeling she’s doing it on purpose to get back at me.

“Did you know she’s a witch?” I ask Dominic, to which he shakes his head slowly.

“No idea until Delilah called this morning, panicking, telling me about Gwen’s vision.”

I nod slowly, but hardly thinking or processing what Dominic said, my ears buzzing with vibrations that shouldn’t be there. Dominic’s brows knit tighter when I don’t respond. “Nick, talk to me, man. What’s going on with you?”