Awakening (2 book series)
Awakening – Rejected Mate Chapter 84

"Thank you." It's a genuine response because this gown is not exactly great at hiding things, or offering comfort, and maybe eating will help straighten me out a little. In human form I'm suffering from the effects of not eating and probably have a low blood sugar to boot. The female seems interested in me but keeps her distance, and it's not hard to tell that my kind make her nervous. She pushes the trolley to near him and then turns and walks away without a word.

"It's nothing too adventurous, just a chicken salad and bread. The cook is normally quite wonderful with our hot foods, but you were an in between meal visitor. It won't be long before lunch is served and it'll be something hot, like it always is. I believe today is carrot and coriander soup, followed by a delightful steak tartar. Fabulous talented chef and we are most grateful to have one here." Despite his overly friendly chatter and enthusiasm over food, he seems awkward now that we are down here and I catch him throw a glance over his shoulder at our sleeping beauty, watching our departed medical student walk into her room and check on the equipment and levels. The door closing behind her quickly and dampening the noise back to a low hum that intensified when she opened it. I catch the doctor pause for a second longer, before a slight sag gives away a little tell.

"You knew her?" I ask brazenly, seeing a sadness as he turns back to me and a fake smile pops up to hide his obvious reaction. His expression clouding over a little and despite my senses not being on form, I can almost taste the change in his mood. He looks at me oddly, eyes narrowing, and it's as though he goes to say something then stops and falters, his mouth opening with no sound before he draws back, looks around once more and leans in a little, lowering his tone. Only too aware of the female across the way. "She was my friend. This was her project... long before the war. The hybrid research.... the learning about the rare wolves no one talks about. I never imagined she would end up being one of its inhabitants." His face reddens and he shakes his head as though he can't quite believe he told me this. Mentally shaking himself, but I'm not going to let an opportunity pass me by, and I have to show he can trust me.

"He just left her here to rot. Juan, I mean... because she got sick?" I ask innocently, fully aware that upstairs he said there was nothing wrong with her mind at all, but I need to gently draw him into this. I need to win him over slowly.

"Sick! Hah...... Her mate has no interest in my research, but we serve a purpose that he needs fulfilled. Keeping her alive and........ Quiet. If that is the sickness to which you refer. So, he pays the facility bills, funds my grants, and leaves us to do whatever as long as she exists here, and we don't ask questions anymore." His low hushed voice signals that maybe he doesn't quite trust either the female across the way, or maybe there are camera's down here. I sit up a little, pushing my hands under the edges of my legs and change tactic. A common ground to show him I'm definitely not about to run to Juan.

"I knew her too... and her son.... I know him. Colton." I don't know why I hesitate to call him my fated mate, but the piercing sharp stab to my heart before the word comes out stops me. Maybe because all I can think of when he comes to the forefront, is that he has betrayed me and marked that bitch and is now her mate. I can't bear to say the word out loud. I swallow it down, the bitter taste almost making me gag.

"Ahhh, yes, little Colton, such a blessed boy. So many years since I laid eyes on that beautiful child. She was so very proud to bear a son you know. Always wanted a child of her own, and the fates blessed her finally, with that little bundle of cheekiness, while providing Juan the heir he was pressing for. His future legacy. He was such a little rebel as a pup, always climbing, and running around when I visited the manor. I can't imagine what her being taken did to him. He loved her so very much." The faraway look, the distance as he locks onto a memory, and I slide down from the bed, motioning to the food tray so as not to make him think I'm coming at him, but I want to be closer so he feels more able to talk freely in a hushed tone. I want to lull him into a sense of security and kill him with kindness.

"She struggled to conceive him?" I ask innocently, trying to direct the conversation and keep him engaged in what he assumes is neutral, get him talking. If I'm going to win him over to my side, I have to make him feel he can talk to me and not like I'm prying too much for answers to Sierra's current predicament. 'You move around the prey to suss out the best angles and lull it into a sense of calm before you pounce on it'... is something my grandfather always used to say. I'm curious though, that a wolf would have issues with fertility, as it's not really something we suffer with. We're physically perfect... fertility is a given when the fates decide it's your time to pup.

"Curse of some hybrids I'm afraid. It's that when they mate with a pureblood, sometimes the pure genetics destroys the hybrid cells and the child becomes non-viable. In vitro cell death. It's been so hard to reproduce with your kind, because like I said, imperfections are destroyed by your own DNA. An invasion of another species in the makeup is exactly like a virus in your body, it has itself a little war of its own and diminishes the fertile egg. Fascinating, yet heart-breaking, especially for her. Colton was her seventh and I think had he died it would have finally broken her. Such a special boy."

I know he's said it twice now, but he can't be right, about the hybrid thing at all. I mean, my mother had two planned pups and she never mentioned issues in pregnancy or carrying us, so neither of my parents could have been hybrids. Which means I'm definitely not. And then there's the matter of Sierra... she was wolf. And especially not where Juan is concerned, he's not. That's a whole other thing.

"She can't be a hybrid. That makes no sense at all... Juan Santo is a pureblood who wouldn't' tolerate that kind of union. His son's a pureblood, it's all he ever goes on about." Rolling my eyes without meaning to, a little anger spiking through as memory replays on the whole superior lording over the mountain bullshit. Juan's constant lord and king kick and preaching to the packs for decades about his families traced pure line of genetics. The Santos pride themselves on being from the strongest lineage of wolves. He would never willingly take on a mate who was anything less, I mean look at his reaction to my being fated to Colton. That says it all!!

The doctor looks behind him, checking his assistant is engrossed in dealing with the machines before stepping inside my room, so the door slides closes behind him, lowering his tone once more.