Page 29 of His Rejected Mate

An exasperated sigh escaped my lips. “You know what I mean. Everyone in this place sees how you’re treating him. Do you hate him? If so, you need to let him know there’s zero chance he can make up for past mistakes and be done with it.”

Chelsey stared at me for several seconds like I’d spoken a foreign language. Then, a moment before I was going to ask again, her eyes filled with tears, and she shook her head.

“Iwantto hate him. Kira, he hurt me so badly. It’s been two years, and I still haven’t recovered.”

All I could do was nod. She devolved into sobs, and I let her cry until she was composed enough to talk again.

Chelsey swiped a sleeve under her nose. “I’ve tried to forget about it. Ireallyhave. No matter what I do, I keep picturing him as that loving and tender mate he was before the rejection. It hurts me to see what’s happened to him on this island.” She gestured toward the door. “He lost an eye, for the gods’ sake. He’s been through more than I could ever imagine.” She put her hands in her hair. “I never even knew he was on the show. That’s the kicker—I never watched it. I do remember a friend calling me one night, telling me to turn on the show. That there was something I needed to see.” She chuckled and shrugged. “I freaked out and told her never to mention the show again. Looking back, she probably wanted me to see Ben was on the show. I’ve been walking around in this haze of heartbreak.”

“It’s all right, Chelsey,” I said. “You’re allowed to be hurt. Maybe there’s still a chance for you guys. If you talk to him, you may find out that things aren’t as they appear.”

It wasn’t my place to tell Crew’s story. That would have to be something he revealed to her in private.

Chelsey snorted. “Yeah, sure. Even if I wanted to try, it’s obvious he’s got another person for company.”

Furrowing my brow, I narrowed my eyes in confusion. “What? Who are you talking about.”

Rolling her eyes, Chelsey groaned. “Oh my gosh, it’s obvious, Kira. Crew and Elianna? The one they call Eli? I can totally tell they’re together. It makes my inner wolf furious just thinking about it.”

I slapped a hand to my mouth, not out of shock, but to keep from laughing. For a smart girl, Chelsey wasn’t seeing thingsfor what they were. Her mind was too consumed with pain to understand what was really going on.

“I can assure you,” I said as I stifled a laugh, “that there is nothing going on between Crew and Eli. From what I’ve seen, those two are more like siblings than lovers. I’ve spent enough time with them to know there is literallyzeroromantic attraction between them.”

Chelsey eyed me suspiciously while chewing her lower lip. “Really? Are you sure?”

“Look, you need to talk to Crew. Talk—nothing else. Get all this out and hear his side of it. The guy can’t focus on anything if you’re within five hundred feet of him. I promise you, if you go in with an open mind and hear him out, you’ll see everything in a new light.”

She wanted to speak to him, I could see it on her face. The problem was that she was too terrified of getting hurt again to allow him back in.

Chelsey stared at the floor. When she finally looked up to meet my eyes again, a wary hope glimmered on her face. “I’ll talk to him,” she said reluctantly. “But what if it’s all for nothing?”

“What do you mean?”

“Our connection,” Chelsey explained. “What if we talk and make up, but then find out our fated mate connection was a mistake, like you said the other night on the show? Maybe Heline’s acolytes didn’t process our bloodwork correctly, and Ben and I were never meant to be together in the first place?”

That idea had been at the back of my mind for days leading up to the fall of the mansion. It had worried me at first, but now? The further I strayed from following the old dogmatic beliefs our society had clung to for centuries, the easier it was to see that none of it mattered.

“When people feel as strongly about each other as you and Crew do, who gives a damn what some acolyte in a dirty robesays?” I laughed. “I mean, the onlytrueway to know what connections are real would be to talk to Heline directly.”

As soon as the words were out of my mouth, a lightbulb went on in my mind. My joke was more than that—it was a glimpse at a path forward. If we found Heline, the moon goddess herself, we could get real answers. We could show her the proof that her acolytes were meddling with the connections. There might even be a chance that Heline would step in and stop the war.

My heart rate sped up, and chills coursed through my arms.

“I guess you’re right,” Chelsey said. “I’ll do it. I’ll talk to Crew. All I can do is pray he won’t end up hurting me again.”

She made to leave, and I put a hand on her arm. “Be honest with him, and listen to what he has to say. That’s the only thing I can tell you.”

She nodded and gave me a weak smile before vanishing down the corridor. As soon as she was gone, I hurried away, eager to tell Wyatt my idea. Searching out the moon goddess terrified me, but the more I thought about it, the more sense it made.

Wyatt was in the meeting room with Mika. I caught a snatch of their conversation as I made my way down the hall toward them.

“...the magic users more so,” Mika said. “They’re the ones who’ll need to be trained how to fight the most.”

Wyatt frowned. “Mika, I’ll train everyone, but the magic usershave magic. Don’t you think people with less experience and no extra abilities should get the bulk of training?”

Mika shook his head fervently. “What happens if they get into a situation where they can’t use their magic? They’ll be screwed worse than a shifter. Right?”

“What is up with you?” Wyatt asked him as I walked into the room. “You’ve been going on and on about the magic users the whole time.”

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