The Alpha's Rejected Mate
Chapter 12

After Kaiden and I fixed my arm up we stayed in the cabin for some quiet time. We just lay on the bed we shared and talked about some of the stuff that was going on with us. We’d been talking for nearly an hour when Kaiden brought up Cade.

“Have you been alright? You know... being around him?” He asks, shifting his body so we are facing each other. “I know you weren’t really keen on coming when this first came about.”

I reach my hand out, playing with his hair as I say: “I guess I’m okay. It’s kind of weird though. Being around people that I haven’t seen in ages—since I left. And Cade... I’m okay being around him. Yes, I didn’t think he would have replaced me with someone else, but I am okay.”

“What do you mean you didn’t expect him to replace you?” Kaiden scrunches his brows up in confusion.

“I mean that I always thought mates were forever, you know? That they were supposed to be there for you no matter what and that out of all others in the world, your mate was the one you could rely on for guidance and support. To make you feel beautiful even when you, yourself, don’t think you are. To be strong, where you are not. To lift you up when you think you’re about to fall.” I tell him. “When I was younger, I always wanted for Cade to be that for me.”

“Am I not doing a good job of being what you want? If you wish that it was Cade that was here beside you right now, maybe we shouldn’t be together.” He replies, obviously hurt.

“That’s not what I’m saying. Of course, you are all those things towards me. And I am so grateful that you are that for me. I just thought that Cade would try to replace me after he rejected me, not replace me with some hoe. Do you know how much it hurt when I could feel my mate having sex with someone else? It was unbearable.”

“You keep forgetting, Scar, that I do know what you went through.” His eyes turn a bit darker than usual. “You weren’t the only one who got rejected.” And with that, he hops off the bed and leaves the room.

I hit my head on my hand, scolding myself. I needed to stop being so selfish. Here I was complaining about how much my mate rejected me when I wasn’t the only one it happened to.

I jump off the bed, heading towards the front door of the cabin. “Kaiden, wait—!” I am cut off my bumping into a hard chest. I look up. “Cade?”

“We need to talk.” Is all he says as he starts pulling me in the direction of the pack house.

“Cade, I was kind of trying to follow someone,” I mutter, but he ignores me.

He leads me down multiple hallways until we stop in front of a wooden door at the end of the hall with the words, ‘Do Not Enter’, in bold letters on the door.

Cade opens the door and I my eyes adjust to the dark lighting of what looks like a bedroom. My thoughts are proven correct when Cade turns the light on. I look around the room, immediately knowing that it is his. His king bed is pressed against a black feature wall, with a white side table on each side. There is a TV on one side of the room with an X-box connected to it. His room is actually pretty open. Two out of four of the walls are actually floor length windows. Because he is at the end of the hall he has two views of the land surrounding the pack house. It is the gate that would lead us to our old school and forest area. The sun is setting just now so it actually looks really beautiful at the moment and a few of the werewolf children are playing outside just below us.

“It is beautiful, isn’t it?” Cade says, reading my thoughts.

“Yes, beautiful is definitely it. Can they see us?” I ask, gesturing to the children.

“No. It’s a special glass. You can see what is going on outside from being inside my room, but you can’t see inside if you are outside. It’s like the outside of the window is tinted.

“That’s really cool. It must be nice. You can see a lot of things from up here.”

“Yeah, I designed the room so it would be like this.” He tells me, sounding proud.

“Really? This is your design? That’s really amazing, Cade.” I tell him, gripping his arm in a reassuring hold, before letting go.

“Thanks. You probably want to know why I brought you here, don’t you?”

I nervously chuckle. “Well, kinda.”

He smiles at me. “You don’t need to be nervous. I’m not going to kill you I promise.”

“That’s exactly what a murderer would say,” I joke. “Anyway, what is it you wanted to tell me?” I ask.

“I just wanted to say that I’m really sorry that I rejected you. And, maybe when all this rogue business has settled down, I’ll tell you the reason why I rejected you in the first place.” He tells me.

“Why does what you said sound like a riddle?” I ask him, my eyebrows rising.

“Because you are confused and riddles are confusing.” His smile is soft but hesitant. He places his hands in his pockets. Living with boys I’ve come to replace that this means they’re nervous.

I mimic him from earlier: “Hey, you don’t need to be nervous, I’m not going to kill you.” But then I add after. “Yet.”

He laughs with me, but then his face turns serious. “I broke up with Cassie today.”

“Why?”

“Because she’s not my mate and I feel like I’m betraying you by being with her.” He replies.

By now I start to get a bit angry. “Why now? Why now, after I come back do you finally think that by being with her were betraying me? Did it never occur to you before then that you were betraying me every single time you hugged her, kissed her, had sex with her? Was that not betraying me then?”

“No. Because you were doing the exact same thing. You think the females are the only ones who feel it when their mate has sex with someone else? Well let me clue you in, they’re not. And you are in the wrong as much as I am.”

“If you hadn’t rejected me, none of this would have happened, so yeah, you are more in the wrong than me.” I mutter, moving him out of my way so I could reach for the door.

Just as I am closing it behind me I hear him whisper, so low I almost don’t here: “If I had accepted you, you would probably be dead.”