The Curse Of Rejection
A Pile Of Rejections

XIMUN

Days later, Ximun woke up after a nightmare-free sleep that lasted for hours. In the past- well, before he supposedly broke the curse by having sex with Aysu- he never enjoyed an hour of sleep without dreaming about his worst fear. That situation worsened after his fifteenth mate called it quits. Reality dawned on him and his fear came to pass. He started to feel his wolf slip away from him and that scared him so much that he thought of ending his life without thinking much.

He barely managed to pull through those dark moments.

But now that he was finally experiencing and enjoying the true meaning of freedom, he questioned the extremity of his action at the council meeting. While his mind replayed the moans Aysu made, he also recalled her pleas and the way he ignored them. And Ximun wondered what he was going to do to fix the mess he created.

The way things were, to finalise their bond and to be further free from the shackles of the curse, the both of them needed to meet again and perhaps a few times more to make sure a permanent mate bond was in place. But that can only happen if they were crazy about each other, which they weren’t.

‘You have to fix this on your own,’ Evalopus, his wolf, said, his voice grumpy.

“How was the run yesterday?”

‘Oh, you know. I saw her yesterday.’

Ximun frowned. “Who?”

‘Who do you think?’

“Aysu.”

‘She is the one we are meant to give our all to.’

Ximun was tempted to chuckle but he knew how stupid that would make him look, so he got up and headed for a nearby window. “How do we give our all to her when I have already messed up?”

‘I told you not to make a fool of yourself that day. You just had to do otherwise.’

“She was infuriating that day!” Ximun retorted, his voice loud enough to cause some clamour outside his room. “Mayana had just rejected me. All I wanted was a good run in the forest and not some memo about getting rid of a very silly curse.”

‘Call it silly all you want. How are you fixing this?’ Unlike Ximun, Evalopus was calm, collected and barely quick to anger. His beauty was similar to his human and it stood out every time. Besides, Evalopus’s greyish manes were enough to make him special.

“How do I fix this?”

‘How about apologising? I have to teach you everything.’

“You seem to forget that we are in this together.”

‘Nope.’ Evalopus proceeded to close his eyes. ‘I am going to sleep. Wake me up when you’ve fixed your mess. I wish to meet the she-wolf that ended my pain as soon as possible.’

Ximun sneered at his wolf’s nonchalance. But he didn’t dwindle and waste time deliberating what else to do. With speed, he got naked, hopped into the bath, and as he turned on the steaminess of the bath, he hoped that things would go well with Aysu. He also hoped that his silliness would not get the best of him.

“Who are you?” Ximun demanded from the man who opened the door to Aysu’s room.

“I am Magnetino. Aysu’s help.”

“Aysu? She’s to be your Queen. How dare you call her by her first name?”

The man was unfazed by Ximun’s spitting and that bothered the Alpha King who wondered what happened the few days he was apart from Aysu.

The man named Magnetino responded, “Aysu said to call her by her first name. I can’t refuse the future Queen.”

“Good that you know that. Can you let her know I am here?”

“She said not to ever let you in.”

Ximun’s anger developed faster than he hoped. “How audacious are you? The Alpha King wishes to see his future Queen. I demand to see her.”

“And I reject that demand.” Unfortunately, it wasn’t Magnetino that said that. Or else, his head would have been on the ground. That rejection was from Aysu who gently walked towards the entrance. “What are you doing here?”

The moment their eyes met, Ximun’s heart thudded and his wolf woke up.

‘Don’t mess this up,’ Evalopus warned.

‘I won’t,’ Ximun replied, his eyes glued on the woman who could not stop playing with the ends of her hair in a way that made him tempted to do the same.

“What do you want?” Aysu asked before he could get distracted by what she was doing.

Ximun drew a sharp breath. “I came to apologise.”

“What for?”

“My shitty behaviour.”

One of her brows lifted but that was not enough to determine what she was thinking in her head. “Well, at least you know you are a shitty person.”

“I am not-”

“You are not a shitty person?” she asked. “Really?”

“You can’t-”

“Ximun,” the way her somewhat thick voice uttered his name made something in his heart leap, “you made a show out of me. What was meant to be a wedding night, a private thing between us, became a show for your people. So tell me how you are not a shitty person. Tell me why I should even be listening to you right now.”

“I am sorry, okay?” Ximun quickly added before his carelessness could lead him to say something more stupid. His hands pulled into fists. “I shouldn’t have done what I did.”

Aysu still seemed unwilling to listen to him. With a simple shrug, she continued, “I get that you hate me and the fate we share, but-”

“I don’t hate you.”

“’I can tell you are lying,” she retorted.

And Ximun sighed. “Okay, I don’t totally like you. I confess. But now that we are in a place where we get to be mates, I would like us to walk past this problem of ours. Let’s make the most of what this union has to offer.”

Silence followed and Aysu stopped playing with her hair to his delight. The more she did that, the more he kept picturing himself running his hands through her hair and tugging her roots in the most sensual way.

“Did you also feel it?”she asked, her voice somewhat timid.

“The freedom?” He nodded, a slight smile on his firm face. “I did.”

“It feels good to finally breathe fine, doesn’t it?”

“It does. So,” he took a step closer and searched her eyes, “are you going to forgive me?”

Her lips widened with a smile and Ximun was excited about the possibility that he succeeded in quenching her anger. He then began to consider kissing her again since he had been trying to ignore the vivid memories from their moment in the council meeting room. He had to admit, he didn’t expect that the curse would be easily erased nor did he think that the bond that formed between them would lead him to consider having more moments with her.

“Why would I?” Aysu replied and her smile crashed and converted to a devious smirk. “I have no intention to forgive you.”

’What?”

“Alpha Ximun, I have resolved to stay out of your sight for as long as possible.”

“Aysu, we now share a bond and we have to complete what we share.”

“Does it look like I care?” she scoffed. “The moment you humiliated me, I rejected whatever bond was formed.”

“It doesn’t work that way, Aysu.” Ximun wondered what her name meant. “You can’t just reject what is already formed. Besides, it’s not like we are trying to build a pile of rejections here.”

“Are you forgetting something? You started this. The moment you rejected me back then, you initiated me into a weird relationship with you. But I will not give up. I don’t care if I have to go to hell to overcome our bond, I will do all I can to quench it.”

“Aysu, are you trying to make a fool out of me?”

“Have a good day.” The door slammed shut and Ximun was left to wonder why he bothered to listen to Evalopus’s nonsense about apologising.

If the woman was already set on not ever mating with him, there was no point trying to drive their relationship forward.

So, with his quick fury trying to remain low-key, Ximun turned and walked away.

When he reached his room, he growled without thought and asked no one in particular, “Who does she think she is? She asked me to mate with her and now she does this? Damn this! Fuck this!”

“I don’t know what you are talking about,” a voice he didn’t expect spoke from his bed, “but I can help you feel better.”

“Mayana,” Ximun breathed the name of the fifteenth woman that rejected him, the woman that he truly loved with all that he had, regardless of the mate bond that was between them.