Rejected Mate and Following Fate - Awakening Book
Chapter 13: Alora Can!

I fall silent as I pull on the last item from the pile, gritting my teeth at his pigheaded denseness, asthat ember erupts into a little flame, pushing my nerves taut. A small candle sized one, that hits inthe dark recess and instantly glows, and grows, to epic proportions of robust flame, that moves meto dress faster with a hostile last tug to secure my pants. My blood boiling as it overtakes me, and Isweep my hair back with sass and grab the door handle angrily.Yanking the door open, surprised to come face to face with him as he’s leaning his forehead againstthe door and I almost face butt him full on. His eyes glowing with the turmoil of his emotions, but itdoes little to dampen mine. It only notches my inner fury up another click. They meet mine and lockon in that special way we have whenever our eyes connect, the sizzle, the connection, but he isn'texpecting the response that comes out of me. Nor the rage. That little burning flame of crazy thatexplodes at the sight of him."You didn't even like me before that night! You didn't know me! This, us, it's not real. It's somethingimplanted inside of us by something up there.” I point skyward, aggressively, glaring at him. “Wewould never have fallen for one another, never have crossed paths in any kind of way if it wasn't forthe fates. I wasn't on your radar, and to be honest, I didn't even like you anyway.” I shove him backout of my space with a push to his ab’s, so he clears the doorway, and he just gawps at me like I'velost my mind. Maybe I have! “You don't even remember me, do you? ... Before that night. I didn’tthink so! ... You need to pull your head out of your ass and remember that. Carmen was the womanyou loved and planned a life with, and you chose her.... Loud and painfully clear! You said the wordsto me, and this is done. The fates didn't stop us, Colton, you did and your family, and everyone elsein this hell hole that confined my kind to a dark hole on the outskirts and left us there to die. Sodon't you dare tell me how awful this is for you, because you have no fucking idea what awful isuntil you've walked in my shoes for the last ten years of life. You have Carmen, you have a pack, ahome, and a fucking choice in all of this. I never did! The fates didn't punish you with this, theyprobably expected you to man up and do what they told you to do, for whatever reason theydecided on us! You did this to us! You did this to me! Suck it up and shut the fuck up!” I have noidea where this angry dress down comes from, but I deliver it in a raspy, accusatory tone, right intohis face. No fear or wuthering wallflower, cowering in front of an alpha of the pack. Just an angrygirl, in the face of a stupid boy, who bruised her heart and is pissing her off by denying his part in it.A powerful frustration filled lecture, snarls and throaty growls included, and I lock a penetratinggaze on him pinning him where he stands as though I could impale him with looks alone.It's true though. He can stand making speeches and regretful apologies from now until eternity, butthe simple fact is, Colton had a choice, and this is what he chose. He doesn't get to whine like somespoiled pup about it now. He's an alpha for god's sake, and he needs to own it. Not act like someoverdramatic teen whose parents are being lame and stopping him from doing somethingsuperficial.He stares back at me in utter shock, rendered mute at my outburst and unsure how to even respondanyway. Even his mind link is silent. I don’t think any wolf this far below his station has ever talked tohim like that, and he doesn’t seem like he knows quite how to respond. If I was anyone else, heprobably would have me pinned to the floor by the throat and reminded them who their alpha was.Instead he’s silently shocked that I even had it in me.I “arghh’ at him, and shove him back abruptly, marching past, simmering with this sudden newfoundrage and I know it can only be some sort of delayed reaction to what happened tonight.I'm not myself, I don't feel like I'm really here, and to be honest this whole Carmen, Colton,Vampires, bullshit and being brought to the home of the people who made my last decadeworthless, is all a little too much for me right now. I'm angry, seething, bubbling away inside... athim, them, life, The god damn fates. Most of all, I'm angry at me; for being this weak stupid girl whowasn't good enough to keep, and too useless and vulnerable to save her friends. Her family.I lost everything and I almost died. Terrified inside, deep down, like a churning pit of foreboding thatshadows me, of the monsters I knew only from stories. The ones who jumped out of the fables andthrew me out of my own bedroom window.Knowing they are out there and close enough to really devastate our kind is enough in itself tomake me cower for the rest of my life. They had a weapon, a sound, that much like Carmen's hadthe ability to hurt us and render us unable to turn. That means we're no longer the stronger in thisnewfound war and we can all be killed. I have bigger things in my head right now, than loveconfessions, and pining assholes trying to mess with my head, while arguing with his mate.“I'm not going to spend my days whining about this crap, and I need you to just stop, okay. Thewords you said in the forest were the end of this. There's nothing to say or drag out and talkthrough.” I turn on him aggressively, lifting my palms in a show of “what now?’, meaning where thehell am I meant to be going in this damned house because I have never been here before and I'mfucking lost. He nods back at a door behind me with very little to say. His expression ashen,temporarily without words, and not really tackling my mood in the slightest.To be honest, he looks a little shellshocked and right now, I don't really care. I have weeks of pentup heartbreak at this guy's hands and I'm done being a push over. My life, in one night, went fromawful, to completely rock bottom, end of the line, apocalypse, kind of bad. I have bigger headachesthan him.My emotions starts shredding and unraveling now that I let all of that out, chest hit with a heavyshunt, and suddenly I don't’ feel so pent up and hostile anymore, instead I feel like maybe, I mightactually cry. From rage and frustration to a sudden need to lie down and sob. Energy burning outfrom venting, and reality coming back full circle to remind me that I've lost everything.I spin away from him to head on, then stop, shudder involuntarily as the overwhelming wave hitsme at full speed and the tidal wave of tears come out of nowhere. I don't even have a chance to tryand combat it before it hits full throttle. Breaking and flinching as I lose control and they start to fall.Coughing on the woeful sound that escapes me and smothering my face with both hands to try andcatch the waterfall as it pours from my eyes.“Lorey, baby, don't.” Colton catches me by the arm, tries to pull me towards him but I throw him off,putting too much force into shoving him away from me and sending him back stepping by aboutthree feet. Startling him with my show of force as he raises his palms to show he won't retaliate.Even breaking down like a feeble femme, there's an internal burning rage that just isn't ready to die.“Don’t. I don't need you touching me, consoling me. I just need you to leave me alone. All of you. Iwas fine on my own before, and I'll be fine on my own again.” Not really accurate, but irrational, andhormonal, are not states to be argued with, and all I know is I need to get out of here and run. Ineed space. From him, them, this, my whole head mess of pain, at knowing from tonight onwards,nothing is going to be the same ever again.I turn and head for the front door impulsively, not caring about anything else but getting solitude,the darkness invading the open space as I reach it, sending an internal shiver of terror down into mystomach. I peer out into the unknown, from a doorway I've never known and with the knowledgethat creatures out there worse than us mean us harm. They could be anywhere, and I have no placeto return too now either.“No!” Colton yanks me back with force and I spin on him tearfully. “I'll leave you alone, but you'renot leaving this house. It's dangerous out there for all of us now, and I won't let you go.” He pins mewith a commanding look and a hostile tone, veiling a sliver of fear for my safety, but I throw it asideand cast of his emotions that are starting to flood me once more. I open my mouth to bark arefusal, but he hits me with a mental link and that dominant tone that instantly disables me.You are not to leave this pack house without my say so, and you won't argue! Stop it, now!My head buzzes, both with rage and sheer frustration, as words catch in my throat and almostchoke me instantaneously. I can't get them out, his gift being misused to confine me to his homeand stop my need to tell him what I think of his “commands’. Rendered mute because he forbademe to argue and the only words poised are one's that tell him where to go. I instead throw myhands in the air, glaring furiously at him and then sucker punch him in the abs, out of intensefrustration. He flinches, half smiling with a shocked response, total disbelief that I'm being thisaggressive and a little apprehensive in how to react. I storm left, heading for the bathroom I justcame from. Hating on him for being such a bossy asshole and exerting his powers over me when hehas no god damn right.Colton catches me by the elbow instantly, and yanks me to the right instead, heading for the stairsat a fast pace that signals he’s in no mode to argue about it. Forced by his strength. Not evenletting me choose where I get to be alone and it riles me, that simmering fire in my belly back in aflash to push all tame aside and my inner demon shows face. I start fighting him, every inch of theway, by tugging, and squirming, and pushing him off, stabbing him with scathing pointed glares,refusing to relent. I pull his hand from my arm, getting madder when he grabs me by the otherinstead, a tighter, biting grip, that is meant to bring me back to heel. I twist it away, but to no availas he shunts me from behind, then slides his arms around my body and continues to forcefullyguide and push me where he wants me to go. It becomes a juvenile game of slapping, grabbing,shoving, tugging, and he gets me around the waist and lifts me from my feet before I ram an elbowstraight in his face, crunching on the bridge of his nose and bruising my bone in the process.“Fuck sakes, Lorey!” He snaps at me, losing his shit completely and halts as we hit the foot of thestair. Seriously emanating all kinds of rage at my refusal to be controlled and glares, hitting me witha full-on furious frown and sneer. He turns me snappily, hauls me towards him by the waist, bendsand hoists me over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes.Not playing anymore; his anger radiating hotter than the sun, but it only heightens my own.Carrying me as I squirm and wriggle and kick out, using my nails on his back in a bid to make himdrop me. He grips me tight and does the worst thing he can do in this moment. He uses his giftagain, in a bid to get me to do as he wants, against my will.Be still. Be quiet. Obey me!I freeze, motionless, voiceless, all without choice and completely furious that he renders meimmobile. My internal bubbling pot of “how the fuck dare you’ heightening to volcanic levels in theblink of an eye. Internally seething, that twice, in the space of a minute, he's exerted his alpha toneover me and put me in my place like an obedient little lowlife. My body obeying him, my throatmuting, and I honestly don't think I have ever felt this much instant venom for anyone in my wholelife.It almost explodes inside of me, with the power to rip down these damned four walls. Like a kettleletting off steam after boiling to excessive popping abilities, and it fills my every pore and vein witha molten lava, straight from the depths of hell.I loathe him, more than I ever thought I could hate anyone, and despite being bonded andimprinted to this arrogant asshole, I want to rip his god damn, fucking, stupid, dumbass, shitty,head, off his shoulders, and kick it down the stairs like a soccer ball.That internal rage heats me like a volcano from inside out, my blood reaching boiling point, mytemper shooting through the roof and despite being utterly paralyzed, slumped over him as weclimb the stairs, my mind and insides churn up a tornado that would scare the fates. It feels like Iemit a solar flare when I boom out via our mental link.I FUCKING DESPISE YOU!!!It's a psychic scream, but as we pass two other Santo’s on the stair, the very second it erupts frommy mind to his, even those two males cower and fall to the ground, grabbing their heads andyelping in agony. Colton, too crumbles, dropping me clumsily, my lifeless body, with an ungracefulthud on top of him as we collapse in a heap on the steps.Like a tremor of an earthquake, erupting from my soul, every vase, glass, ceramic, and piece ofpottery, in the near vicinity, explodes instantaneously, windows blow out all around us and thechandelier of the main hall hanging right to the left of the stair way shatters into a thousand tinyspecks of self-combusted dust, as though it just exploded. Scattering microscopic glitter into the airthat comes to settle on everything around it.It's a second of utter chaos, as though a bomb just went off in the center of the pack house, andhard brittle objects in every direction break under the strain with a dramatic “whoosh’.People come down like ten pins around us, caving and crumbling while covering their ears, everysingle Santo in the downstairs hall who just walked in. I can see them from my viewpoint. Allgripping their skulls and screwing their eyes shut as it reverberates through and causes them all tocollapse where they stand, in a ripple effect. I'm the only one not clawing at themselves to keep,what seems to be overwhelming pain, out.“What the f....?" Colton is breathless as he tries to regain composure, sliding his arms away from mehurriedly, and skirts back to give me space, leaving me suddenly free to pull myself together. A hintof fear darting across his normally emotionless face as he flashes a glance at me and then on thecarnage all around us, at all the debris. I can sense his panic and confusion and for the moment, Ican feel he doesn't want to get any closer, that he's wary about what I just did. If that was even me.I'm dazed, bruised, from being dropped on a hardwood staircase, and completely non-plussedabout what the hell just happened. I feel like there was some sort of implosion around me, yet I'mcompletely unscathed. And now, my internal thoughts, body and soul are totally calm. All that fireand rage, just gone.“Was that voice hers?” one of the males on the stairs crawls to his knees and attempts to pullhimself up by the bannister, staring at me in utter wariness. He too looks afraid and keeps hisdistance, getting further from me as he moves out of range."You heard her?” Colton spins on him and I pale as both men nod. Eyes darting to me, then him,and they slide down the steps until they get on their own feet and scale it quickly to get away fromme. Shaking legs, rubbing their heads and I can feel all eyes turning my way as others begin to pickthemselves up from the floor. The hall looks like Armageddon just rolled through and there'ssmashed glass, china, and all sorts of carnage on every surface.I know I did it in the headspace that only Colton should hear. No one else can access our bondedlink. I didn't say it out loud, and as I move to sit up and gather my wits, I realize I'm no longer boundby his command either. I cough, and croak out a shocked reply, weirded out that I can both moveand speak. Shouldn't be able to until he undoes what he told me to do.“I didn't do that.” I implore him, turning with nervousness, wounded when he moves even furtheraway, his eyes on me mistrusting. I can sense his apprehension, and it cuts deep, like he's rejectingme all over again."What the hell was that?!?!" Juan Santo bursts in the open space of the front door of the packhouse, surrounded by his entourage of men, all dragging on blankets to conceal their nudity andlooking utterly feral. All casting an accusatory eye, first at those who have come out into the hallwayto see what's going on, dazed, and confused, to join those picking themselves out of the mess, butthen his eyes scan up to where we are and locks a hateful glare right on me.I can almost taste his despise of me and the pointed way his eyes flicker to Colton in an “why is shehere?’ furious balk.“I think that was Alora. I mean... it was, Alora.” Colton sounds sheepish, and even through all thischaos going off inside of me, I can feel he's afraid to come near me. There's genuine confusion, fear,inside of him and he’s keeping his distance by several feet now. Bonded or not, right now, he isscared of me. He doesn't understand what I just did any more than I do.“It couldn't have been. She can’t have the power to inflict that kind of pain in the link state.... Orbreak everything as far as the eye can see. No wolf can.” A voice in the crowd echoes my way andI'm aware every set of eyes locked on me now and shrink down into a huddled heap of shame. Heatrising to my face as I attempt to turn invisible.I immediately think of Carmen's gift, wondering if maybe it's coincidental, and this was her, fromsomewhere else in the house, going catatonic in her own misery, but I know it can't be. She cansmash glass only in the near vicinity when she sustains a scream at highest pitch for long seconds. Ithurts our hearing, not our mental link, and she’s never demolished everything around her the way Ijust did. Nor immobilized the entire pack with one pulsating psychic yell.“Alora can.” Colton’s voice drops in the air around us like a heavy thud, and the deathly silence,wave of shock, fear, and utter confusion, his response is met with, sends the fear of god right to thepit of my soul.

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