Page 8 of Rejected Alpha Mate

Tyler pats my shoulder. “You are looking a little rough around the edges. Get some rest, bud. We’re hunting tomorrow, when Tobias leaves.”

I nod and watch the guys leave the fire pit area toward the hot tubs before heading in the opposite direction toward the luxury tents. Dragging my feet despondently, I barely lift my head or take stock of my surroundings when my airways become filled with the familiar scent of lavender.

Slowing down, I look up to realize I’m standing between two tents, as if I’m standing between two worlds.

Tobias’s tent is on the right.

Donna’s tent is on the left.

Turning slowly toward the left, the scent spreads around the log and tempered-glass tent like a protective shield. Or is it meant to entice me, meant to beckon me forward, like a mating call that signals my inner wolf?

That’s the only explanation for walking toward the wooden door, the lace curtains on the windows on either side closed, the lights out in Donna’s tent. She must be asleep already, but her scent exudes life that can only ever be found when I stare deeply into her eyes.

I’m already pulling out the box from my pocket, contemplating if I should go ahead and knock on the door and give her the graduation gift I was supposed to give her if I wasn’t such a coward.

If my head wasn’t so messed up from seeing her with Tobias tonight….

I shove the box back into my pocket and pause on my way there, raking a hand through my hair, silently cursing myself.

Don’t do it, Nick…don’t make it worse….

The night air is cool against my heated skin, the forest surrounding the resort thick with the scent of pine and earth, and traces of smoke. It should calm me, but it doesn’t. My wolf is prowling restlessly beneath the surface of my being, stirred by Donna’s scent clinging to the wind—lavender and something sweeter, something hers. It wraps around me like an invisible chain, tugging me toward her tent until I can almost see her in my mind; curled beneath her blankets, breathing softly, unaware that I’m fighting every primal instinct that wants to tear down that wooden door and check up on her.

I turn around, away from her tent, before I do something stupid, something so impulsive that I’ll regret it later.

That’s when I catch movement at the edge of the resort, behind the tents—a faint shuffle near the communal bathroom.

My wolf instantly becomes alert.

Someone’s out there….

I pad across the stone path toward the soft lawn, quietly following the faint sound of footsteps across the gravel until the air shifts again, and I leave Donna’s scent behind. What hits my airways sharply this time is familiar. I know that scent.

I’ve been growing an aversion to it all night, becoming irritable every time I caught a whiff of that smell, so of course I recognize it now.

Tobias.

My stomach twists as I follow him through the path leading toward the forest, my boots crunching lightly on dry leaves. What is he doing out here, going in the opposite direction from his tent?

It’s my instincts that soar now, the goosebumps pebbling my arms compelling me to follow him as he enters the woods. It’s unnecessary, and highly suspicious.

That’s when he stops beside a tree, turning his face to the side. I still my body and hide myself behind a thick tree trunk, peeking out to spy on him.

He’s not alone, and my breath catches. There’s a figure cloaked in black beside him, moving too smoothly, too deliberately to be human.

A low growl rumbles in my chest as I duck behind the tree, watching them disappear deeper into the shadows. My pulse quickens, my inner wolf ready to burst out.

What the hell is Tobias doing?

And who, or what, the fuck is that cloaked thing?

Chapter 3 - Donna

Nicholas Bartalow is the most insufferable creature I’ve ever met.

How does he still have the balls to show his face here after what he did?

He’s bold, I’ll give him that. Brave and arrogant about his confidence, no doubt. But those aren’t traits I find commendable. On the contrary, it makes it harder to stand him, makes me hate him even more.