Rejected (Shadow Beast Shifters, #1)(103)

The friends exchanged a look before they turned back to me. “Do you really need to know, though?” Torin smarmed. “I mean, all that matters is you’re back. Tomorrow we’ll call a pack meeting and introduce you as the alpha-mate. This is exactly what you’ve been working toward, right?”

I couldn’t stop the snort from escaping; Torin didn’t miss it, his expression darkening. But what did he expect? The last thing I ever wanted was to be his mate. I’d wanted to get the hell away from this pack as soon as I could, so this was a little like my worst nightmare.

Keep the peace. Keep the peace.

Just a few more hours.





56

Jaxson had to take off after this for pack duties, leaving me alone with Torin. Now that his friend was gone, the alpha had lost some of his cockiness, his face unsure as he asked, “Would you maybe… like to go for a walk?”

My wolf cocked her head, her interest there. Mine was non-existent, but I was playing the long game now, so I couldn’t falter.

“Sure. That would be nice.”

Like getting a Brazilian wax. While wolfed out.

He didn’t touch me as we walked, but he was closer than I wanted, especially when a tiny part of me enjoyed the buzz of mate bond between us. “Were you surprised?” he asked, and it shocked me enough that I stopped walking.

“About what?”

My mind was constantly spinning between him, Jaxson, and Shadow, and I had no idea what specifically he was asking.

“That I was your true mate?”

Oh. I forced myself to move again, and he caught up to me. “I thought it would be Jaxson,” I finally admitted, being honest with him for probably the first time since I’d tried to rip his throat out.

“We’ve always had a bond that went deeper than the ordinary. I mean, after my dad, that connection went to shit, but before that… he was my guy. And I honestly thought if it was anyone here, it would be Jax.”

Torin’s chuckle was strangled. “Yeah, the massive fight we got into after you left kind of indicated he had the same feeling. You were almost the breaking point in our lifetime of friendship. Again.”

“You still made him your beta,” I said with a shrug.

Torin nodded. “Jaxson is the best fucking shifter I’ve ever known. He deserves to be alpha and he’s definitely the better man for you, but fate obviously decided it wasn’t going to happen this time around, so it’s up to me to be…” He hesitated. “What you deserve. You and Torma.”

I managed to cover my disbelief with a cough.

Torin didn’t miss it, though, and surprisingly, he ducked his head and smiled. “Yeah, I might not have been off to a flying start on that, but I honestly didn’t expect you to fight me so hard. We were rescuing you, and I’ve spent half a year trying to work out my plan, so it was a little anticlimactic to know you didn’t even want to be rescued.”

Yeah, I guess from their perspective, I might have acted a little out of character. Maybe they just never knew the true depth of my hatred for them. How they could have thought any other way after the pack’s treatment of me, I’d never know, but they were dumbass dudes, after all.

“You said before that I almost ended your friendship with Jaxson again. Why again?”

I’d never known them to fight and I couldn’t crush my curiosity of what that meant.

For the first time since we’d started this tête-à-tête, Torin looked cagey, but to his credit, he didn’t try to lie to me. “When your father first attacked mine”—his eyes were pained at the mention of his executed father—“I warned Jaxson that he had to let you go. He refused, but his entire life was on the line. It was clear that your standing in this pack was gone, and if he wanted to be beta, he couldn’t lose respect like the Callahans had. He had no other choice.”

My head was spinning, and there was the weirdest ache in my chest, like indigestion. “I didn’t know that. He fought to stay friends with me?”

Torin nodded. “Yep. We didn’t talk for a month, and at almost every opportunity, he attempted to punch my fucking lights out.”

I’d been living in a world of hurt and grief and fear back then, so it was all very murky, but I kind of remembered Jaxson still being around for a short time after my father’s death.

“Why did he give up on his mission to stick it out with me?”

Torin’s face was set, hard and unyielding, the alpha in him shining clear as fucking day. “His father and mine got together and taught Jaxson a few life lessons. He almost didn’t survive, and if it wasn’t for my intervention, they might have killed him. They still managed to break something in my friend that day, and I haven’t seen it again until recently. His strength and will has returned with vengeance, and I doubt there’s anything in this world that could tear him away from you now.”

I sucked down a sob… No way would I cry in front of Torin. But this little story, one that was almost unbelievable and yet explained so much, was like a whole new dagger in my chest.

“What tangled webs we weave,” I murmured. “I had no idea Jaxson went through so much to try to save me.” It didn’t negate the shit he’d put me through, but it did help me understand, and that helped me somewhat forgive him.