Pregnant And Rejected

Chapter 12 Reject My Mate

Selene‘s POV

Garrick disappears in a wisp of smoke and i duck down behind the sofa’s backrest, choking on my sobs. The door slams shut, and I hear the thud of heavy paws against wood floors. The wolf rounds the sectional, shaking off excess water as he prowls toward me.

I cower away from Bastien as he approaches, clamping my eyes shut when he’s near enough for me to feel the heat of his breath on my face.

I expect growls and pain, instead feel the pillows dip beneath me, and then a huge furry body nudging me away from the backrest and taking its place. I peek one eye open, to make sure I’m actually feeling what I think I am. Bastien‘s wolf has wound himself around my body like a furry blanket, so much larger than me in this form that I’m completely encircled.

He’s still herding me into position, prodding and nuzzling until I relax against him, leaning into his warmth and using his shoulder as a pillow. His fur is damp but I don’t care, the quilt around my body shields me from the cold, and my face is already soaked with tears.

When I finally submit fully, Bastien settles his head in my lap and begins to emit a soft rumbling noise. If he were a cat shifter I’d call it a pure, but whatever its name, nothing soothes me more. My panic over the storm begins to recede, and my fears about Arabella and my future trail in their wake.

in the end all I’m left with is my sorrow over losing Bastien. When it too begins to fade I struggle slightly, fighting to hold onto the sender feelings. I don’t want him to lull this away. I want to feel every second of the ache, the evidence of the love I never thought i would feel again, the love that gave me my baby.

But he doesn’t let me hold onto it. He washes it away with everything else, until I’m hovering on that hazy plane between waking and sleep, the storm entirely forgotten.

Bastien’s POV

Ten Years Earlier

The rebels came at dawn, storming the rocky plateau beneath Nova Hall to gain entrance to the city. They poured into the streets of Elysium, breaking off into roving bands of marauders as they hunted fo those they had been paid to call enemy.

they found a deserted metropolis.

pathways, looking down from our perch high above the valley Pack enforcers and sentinels gathered at the mouth of the alpine tunnels, blocking all paths to the emergency shelters where

I was 16, old enough to fight but too experienced to truly understand the horrors awaiting me in battle. The pack Beta and Gamma were positioned at our shoulders, my father’s night and left hands: Donavon and Griffin, and my

father was harsh when he needed to be, but always loyal always loving The idea that his own brother should move against

a pack enforcer and the perfect counterbalance to my dominance and aggressen Whele Alden was

went wherever yn did. I used to call her his title shadow she was always there,

I think she sensed what was going to

finally figured out where we were, rerouting the attack up the mountain. As their gray bodies disappeared from the streets and into the trees, father howled a rallying cry,

battle has been scalded into nightmares: Fangs and claws tearing through fur, muscle and flesh; bones cracking, blood splashing and limbs hanging

mercenaries. He was my first kill – but he would not be my last. I hurtled through the trees, trailing carnage with my

the forest where I’d spent my youth was little more than a graveyard. Flynn, Aiden and I were circling fallen bodies on a jagged cliff,

coming, but Flynn did. My best friend threw himself into the wolf’s

tumble to his death, all the while knowing it should

our youth died that day, we

and innocent in my arms, I think of Arabella laying in her hospital bed. Whatever happened between them, my little wolf does not possess the

her pain was real, and seeing

for Arabella as I knew my friend would, to provide for her and keep her safe. It’s my fault she was left alone in the world, and therefore my responsibility to help her find her way in life. Before Selene, I

part of me imagined that it would make Flynn happy to see us together. I missed him so terribly that I think I hoped I might feel closer to

and all my plans for the future went out the window. I knew she was my mate the moment I saw her, and though I still support Arabella,

Arabella over the years, so much so that she returned to Elysium to lend me a shoulder when I found out about Selene‘s true love. When we first married, I knew there was an uphill