Page 4 of Rejected Alpha Mate

My cheeks burn with embarrassment, but it’s not because I feel guilty. I just hate the thick tension hanging in the air, suffocating me. I need to get out.

“Is that so…?” Nicholas’s eyes flick to me briefly, the ghost of a smirk hanging on his lips. “Not even a single mention, huh?” He draws his hand back and leans in. “I must be very special if you kept me a secret.”

“Don’t flatter yourself,” I mutter under my breath, staring at the ground. “You just weren’t worth mentioning, that’s all.”

Dominic laughs obliviously. “You two!” he grins and slaps Nicholas’s back. “Always at each other’s throats.”

“Speaking of which, mine is dry,” I clear my throat, needing to get far away from this conversation lest my brother brings up the summer we spent in Wells with the Crescent Moon Pack. “I need a drink.”

“Want me to grab you one?” Nicholas asks. “Still like strawberry daqs?”

“No, I don’t,” I say, hiding my disdain with a forced smile. “I think Toby and I will find our own drinks at the bar.”

Nicholas crosses his arms, chuckling dryly. “Yeah. You and Toby should do that.” He chuckles again, patting Tobias’s shoulder as we turn to leave. “Better take care of him, Dons. I bet he can’t handle liquor as well as you do,” he muses, that low, smooth tone sending an unwanted shiver through me.

I freeze. Tobias laughs awkwardly, probably thinking it’s a joke, but I can hear the double edge in Nicholas’s tone. He’s baiting me, like he always used to.

Before I can bite back, Cecelia swoops in like an angel of mercy, linking her arm through mine. “Come on, Dons, help me with the drinks, yeah?”

I nod stiffly and let her drag me away, pulling Tobias with us as I pretend not to notice Nicholas’s gaze burning into my back.

Only when we’re at the bar, and Tobias goes ahead to order more drinks for the party outside, does Cecelia hand me a glass and whisper, “Ignore him. He’s just being…Nicholas.”

“Yeah,” I murmur, staring into the golden reflection of the fire in my glass. “That’s the problem.”

Because Nicholas Bartalow isn’t just being Nicholas. He’s the man who shattered my heart and now has the audacity to look at me like he never stopped wanting me.

And I hate him for it.

It seems I was right, after all. It was highly ambitious of me to come here tonight and expect that I could face him, or pretend that his existence doesn’t bother me. Dominic was right, too. Being ambitious could get me into trouble, and I’ve only narrowly escaped it now.

Thank Goddess for Tobias, or I might have crawled under a ditch and never come out again.

All I need to do is get through this night unscathed.

Chapter 2 - Nicholas

What the fuck was I thinking?

That was a low blow, even from me. And Donna didn’t deserve that. Commenting on how she handles her liquor was uncalled for, especially in the company of her human friend. He doesn’t know she’s a werewolf who burns it out of her system quicker than a fire truck to a raging fire. Now I’ve gone and made her sound like someone who drinks too much.

I just couldn’t help it; my inner wolf was seething with an unholy amount of anger that shouldn’t be there.

What is this feeling?

Jealousy?

Possessiveness?

Those feelings aren’t warranted when Donna isn’t mine. But I remember a time when I wished she were.

It was back when I first met her, and she had no idea the kind of effect she had on me. All it took was meeting her dark, chocolate-brown eyes for me to be hauled into a split second that seemed to stretch for miles, eons even.

“Nice to meet you. You’re from the pack down in Wells, right?” Donna asked me that first day, and I wasn’t just impressed that she knew where Crescent Moon was based, but I was captivated by the way she simply breathed, her aura filled with the scent of a lavender field in bloom.

Was that one meeting enough to justify what I’m feeling right now, along with the summer she spent in Wells? I try shaking it off because it’s ridiculous, but it’s still there as I watch them at the bar. Cecelia comes out first, leaving Donna and her human friend, Toby, inside as if they need privacy.

I shove my free hand into my pocket, my thumb toying with the smooth edges of the velvet box I’m hiding. More irritation coils around my chest like a vice-grip, forcing my attention from Donna laughing blissfully at something her friend whispered in her ear.