Page 55 of Rejected Alpha Mate

Donna doesn’t remove her hand from mine, and she bats her eyelids at me in a suggestive, soft manner. “Then stop running,” she whispers, her lips parting on her next exhale.

Her mere breath—sweet and seductive in its naturalness—draws me in, my head dipping as my chest pounds with the intoxicating dopamine that hits me like a high even before our lips have met. It’s a rush of anticipation, the thrill of what’s to come, and like a starved man, I’m about to crush my lips to hers and devour her essence like it’s my sustenance.

She doesn’t pull away or resist, and it lets me know that she wants this kiss as much as I do. But just when I’m about an inch away from conquering her lips, Evan’s voice enters my mind.

I groan at the rude interruption, and Donna giggles nervously.

“Alpha Dominic is here, Alpha Nicholas. It sounds urgent.”

“I’m coming,” I respond mentally, then wince apologetically to Donna.

But she’s stopped giggling.

“It’s my brother, isn’t it? I can sense his presence, and his urgency…” she laments, her expression hardening.

“It must be important,” I say, helping her step off the rock. “Let’s go back.”

Chapter 19 - Donna

“The Alpha of Loups de Lune called me,” Dominic explains once we’ve all gathered in Nicholas’s pack den. My brother is pacing the floor impatiently, hands running through his hair sporadically between huffing breaths.

“Tobias was there. I heard him speaking to Alpha Beaumont. Then, a shrill cry, and the call cut abruptly.” Dominic’s explanation is short and to the point because he’s said this three times already.

First, to me and Nicholas, then to Delilah, Hunter, and Gwen, and now to the others as soon as they arrived. He called it “urgent” because that’s exactly what it is.

No one can get hold of Alpha Etienne Beaumont, and we all know what that means.

Tobias is behind this.

“We need to be cautious,” Nicholas says, and my eyes flit to him, only to find him staring directly at me with worry in his eyes. “Tobias is working for the dark lord, and this is probably a plot to draw us out. Tobias wants us because of Barry Louvet. The dark lord wants Donna. He’s killing two birds with one stone by targeting my fated mate.”

Dominic narrows his eyes at me, and it’s like he’s weighing his options.

“I say we leave Donna here and go to Montreal,” he says, shocking me.

“No. I’m not staying behind,” I protest firmly, and Nicholas intervenes, stepping forward.

“Look, Dom, I would have agreed with you, but leaving Donna behind, alone, unprotected, sounds like a bad idea.”

“You can stay with her, and we’ll go to Montreal and take down Tobias,” Dominic counters, but Nicholas shakes his head, coming toward me and taking my hand.

“Again, I would have totally agreed with you, Dom.” Nicholas locks eyes with me and grins. “But I know Donna will never forgive us for leaving her out of this. And if there’s one thing I’m sure of, it’s that she’s ready to fight. I’ve seen her training. She’s one heck of a witch!”

I can’t help but smirk as I stare into Nicholas’s eyes, feeling seen for who I truly am. It’s such a liberating feeling, one that makes me feel invincible.

But there isn’t much time to bask in that feeling when the others quickly agree that we should all go.

Delilah agrees that four witches working together will be a force that not even Tobias can withstand. Though the fifth witch hasn’t emerged yet, we’re strong enough to take the dark lord down, even if it’s just to drive him away and buy us more time.

“Tobias wouldn’t just attack an alpha,” Delilah mutters, and we turn toward her. “Not unless he’s completely—”

“Gone,” I whisper, cutting her off.

Everyone looks at me, but I turn my eyes to the floor instead, my stomach twisting into a knot. Nicholas must sense how I’m feeling, what I’m thinking, and he places an arm around my shoulders, drawing me against his side. Through his silence and the small flicker of a smile he offers, he’s the grounding force I need to remain strong through this.

Tobias was my friend once. He wasn’t always someone to fear. But the boy I went to college with is nowhere in the man who’s in Etienne’s village now.

Dominic inhales sharply. “We leave now.”