“Ace!” Maleena yells and comes running up next to me. She basically launches herself on me and starts crying. I hold her and start shushing her to calm her down. Father stands up and walks over to the bed. He doesn’t say anything, but I can see the worry in his eyes. Sebastian is holding my hand.
“I was so scared I was going to lose you.” Maleena says sniffling. I chuckle at her.
“You know it takes a lot to kill me, little sun.” I say still trying to comfort her. She gets off me and stands at my side.
“What happened after I passed out?” I ask, looking between each of my family members. They all look down as if something bad happened and they didn’t want to tell me.
“Lucas brought you to the hospital. And told the doctors what you said. They were able to stitch you up and start the blood transfusion. After we were told we could visit you King Alarick came and wanted to see you. He came in and as soon as he entered the room, you started having a seizure. When he left Sebastion stayed to help calm you down. King Alarick was demanding we tell him why you didn’t trust the mate bond. I told him to do the math. You are his second chance mate and he is yours. Kinda. But I didn’t say the kinda part. He did the math and left upset. He hasn’t been back since.” Maleena says and I nod my head. I can feel Fen stirring, but she still isn’t awake. Before she could continue the door opens and I see a bunch of people outside waiting to come in. I nod and everyone comes in. They all say the same thing. That they were scared of losing me. Once everybody does their thing I look around the now crowded room.
“What about the shadow?” I ask and the room goes quiet. They all look down and nobody says a word. Lucas is the one who pushes forward.
“The council is deliberating now on what will happen.” Lucas says then looks toward the window. Everybody shuffles from foot to foot as I try to get out of bed. Before I could go to the window everybody but Maleena and Lucas left. When I get to the window and draw back the curtains I see them. There are people crowded around the lawn of the hospital holding signs. All saying that I saved them or a loved one. I look around at the faces and notice the majority of them are from the rogue pack. My anger starts to rise.
“Why are they here?!” I yell, turning around and staring at Lucas. He is the only one who knows about the pack and where it is. He looks down, not answering my question, which pisses me off even more. I rush to him and throw him against the wall causing a picture to fall. Fen might not be awake, but I still have the strength. I walk over to him and pick him up off the ground by his throat. I push him up against the wall and I feel Fen push forward. She is awake now.
“I brought you to that pack to ensure that you knew where to take people when you saved them. You knew not to expose the pack no matter what. And yet you brought them here? Exposing them? Bringing them out of hiding to what? Save me? Boy, I don’t need to be saved. You should have never brought them here. I should have never trusted you with that knowledge.” Fen and I grit out together making it a terrifying combination. He starts to turn purple and I hear noises from behind me and am tackled to the ground. I am seething.
“He is the reason the council and I have decided to let you go scott free. You should be thanking him, not trying to kill him.” An angry Alarick grits out above me. He has me pinned down with my hands against my waist and his face inches from mine. I feel the sparks shooting through my body and it pisses me and Fen off. Who does he think he is? Before I could even think about it Fen took control and connected our forehead to his nose. He lets go of me and grabs his nose. Taking the opportunity Fen flips him off of us and we get up growling. Maleena and Lucas are still in the room.
“You could have locked me up in the cells for all I care. That pack should not have come.” I grit out and Alarick stands up.
“That isn’t the only pack here LeeAca.” He says and I try to keep my expression from falling. What does he mean? Before I could find out I walked out of the hospital room. I needed to leave. I hear my name and a doctor stands in front of me.
“Your highness. I need to examine you to discharge you.” She bowed slightly when she called me your highness. Did she not see what happened at the challenge? There is no way in hell I will be allowed to be queen. Not that I even want to. Fen growls low at the lady who stopped us from leaving. The doctor starts shaking in fear.
“Do I look like I need to be examined?” I grit out low causing the doctor to start shaking uncontrollably. I push past her and walk out of the hospital doors, feeling a little guilty for scaring the doctor. When I walked out I forgot that there were people outside. I hear cheers and hoorays all around. I look up to see Garret standing with two women and a man. I also saw Alpha Jorian and Luna Jannett. They have big smiles on their faces when they see me. I force myself to smile slightly at them and nod. I start to walk in the direction of the castle. People separate and make a path for me, all saying thank you as I pass.
As I am walking towards the castle my anger starts to decrease. Fen and I are looking around in awe at all of the people who came here for us. All of them holding up signs. Once I get to the castle and walk up the stairs I turn around to see everybody on the field. I take a deep breath because this will take some effort.
“I want to thank you all for coming here to support me. The council has decided not to punish me in any way and it is thanks to you. As I am now recovered and your purpose for being here is concluded you may all leave if you wish.” I mindlink all of them. I hear a loud cumulative gasp and then one by one they all start to kneel. I look around and see Alarick is the only person not kneeling. He is about 20 feet away from me and he starts to walk towards me. I stood there looking at everyone in amazement. They were kneeling for me. I don’t deserve this. Feeling overwhelmed, guilty, and lightheaded I turn and walk into the castle. Alrick follows behind me and runs up and grabs my arm. I feel those damned sparks and Fen growls. He lets go putting his hands in the air and I continue up to my apartment.
“LeeAca. We need to talk about everything.” He says from behind me. I ignore him and continue walking when I reach the apartment. He opens the door for me and I glare at him. I walk in and he follows.
“Go ahead. Do it.” I say and he looks at me in confusion.
“We can’t here. There are too many people here. When he rejects us we are going to lose it. We can’t risk innocent lives.” Fen speaks up and I agree with her. I didn’t think about it.
“Do what?” Alarick asks, looking at me like I am an alien.
“Not here. All that I ask is that you take me to the border and do it. I can’t risk hurting innocent people.” I say and he still has that same expression.
“What are you talking about LeeAca?” He asks and my anger bubbles.
“REJECT ME! Do you really think that I am that stupid to think you won’t?! I am not dumb, you are going to reject me and I need it to be away from here so I don’t go ape sh*t and kill everybody.” I start yelling. I see the confusion and surprise on his face. Then he growled.
“I WILL NOT REJECT YOU! DON’T SAY SUCH A THING!” His wolf takes over and yells at me. That surprised me, but I still don’t trust them and neither does Fen. The last one that made us believe that they wanted us was the one who broke us.
“Leave.” I say and he looks at me in shock. “I said LEAVE! I need rest.” I said and he looked down. I feel the anger and uneasiness coming off of him.
“You rest. We will talk about this when you wake up.” He says and he leaves. I walk over to my bedroom and take a quick shower. After that mindlink with all of those people I am exhausted. I change and lay down in bed. Instantly I fell asleep.
Alarick’s POV
I am exhausted and it is only 8:00. I have been waiting for LeeAca to wake up, I left her about 2 hours ago. It looks like she will be sleeping for the rest of the night. I head to my room, staying in my thoughts. Why would she say that I am going to reject her? I admit at one point I did think about it, but it wouldn’t look good if I did. I also can’t imagine living my life without her constant snarky comments and beautiful face. I felt this way before the Luna Challenge, let alone finding out we are mates. The mate bond only intensifies my feelings towards her. Yes. I was pissed when I found out that she hid it from me and that she was the shadow, but after hearing all of the stories from those people, I knew she was good. I just need her to talk to me, explain what is going on and why she did it.
I take a shower and lay in bed. My thoughts immediately go to her. I fall asleep restless, not knowing why my mate doesn’t want me.
There’s a gorgeous man leading me into the forest. My heart is bursting with happiness. The tingles from the bond are shooting up my arm and straight to my heart. He keeps looking back at me with love and admiration in his eyes. Once we get to a small clearing he pulls me close. Oh how I get lost in his eyes.
“I didn’t realize how much I would love you already.” The man says and kisses my hand. I melt at his touch. The next thing I know he is laying on the ground with a hole in his chest and I have his heart in my hands. Pain ripples through me.
I shoot up out of bed panting. “Mate needs us! Go to mate!” Onin yells at me. I quickly get up and start running toward her room. When I get there I burst through the door to her apartment then quickly go to her room and push open the door. I look around for danger and there is nothing. She is sitting on the edge of her bed and her head shoots up when I burst through.
More Kickass Werewolf Reads
Dive into our collection of free werewolf romance novels—where fierce Alphas, daring heroines, and heart-stopping twists await. Every story burns with forbidden desire, loyalty, and destiny. Don’t wait—here’s a world where love bites hard and nothing is stronger than the call of the mate.
Leave a Reply