Pregnant And Rejected

Chapter 36 Leave

Bastien’s POV

Axel hasn’t made a sound in days. Though he was all but feral from the moment I answered Danver’s phone call to the second Dr Kane uncovered Selene’s body in the morgue, he hasn’t moved a muscle since. I’ve found myself reaching out to him on the hour.

extending my internal feelers toward his shape just to make sure he’s still there.

More than anything else, his absence tells me that this nightmare l’ve been living is unfortunately very real. Selene my sweet, perfect little wolf is dead.

She ran from my home believing I thought her guilty of a terrible crime. She fled my protection because I made her think it was persecution, and died alone and afraid.

My father’s death nearly destroyed me, but my mate’s has annihilated me completely. Everything that used to matter to me, has ceased to be important. Suddenly I don’t care if I’m the Alpha; I don’t care if the pack falls to ruin; I don’t care if Arabella is found; 1 don’t even care if I live.

I do not recognize myself, and I don’t feel the need to find the man I once was, nor create a path forward for the wretch I’ve become.

At first I took to the forest, but when I discovered that I could not shift, I returned to the pack house, and locked myself in my rooms. My mother, Aiden and Donovan have all tried to persuade me to return to the land of the living, but I have no interest in being there without Selene.

Even now, when Aiden is outside my door with news that might have sent me running last week, I want nothing more than to disappear.

“The enforcers think they’ve found Arabella.” He calls through the heavy wood panel.

“Fine.” I respond blankly, refusing to pull my attention from the picture frame clutched in my hand. “Go get her.”

“Not without you.” Aiden huffs out a frustrated breath. “We need you to lead us.”

“You don’t.” I counter, tracing Selene’s shape in our wedding photo. “Just bring her home.”

this is your duty. You made a vow to Flynn and your father to care for Arabella, to safeguard the pack. Do not disappoint them this way.

to protect my mate.” I lash out, flinging all my anguish and fury in their direction. “I broke the most sacred vow I ever took. How can you possibly think I care

something went wrong with the rescue and you weren’ t there to help

I could pull

do it for intel.” Donavon finally

a prickle of interest in the far reaches of my mind, even as I brush them aside. “If she could identify them, they would never let her

planned on letting her live. We just beat them to the

one hand through my hair. “What makes you so

announces assuredly. “We’ve already got

emergency blankets and patting her back while she cries. Her nose and cheeks are swollen and splotchy, her flushed skin

burly shoulders. “He said he said he was

on a nearby park bench. “Can you tell us anything about the man responsible? What he looked like? Anything he told you about

fit of sobs. I should feel guilty for not being more concerned, indeed, under any other circumstances I would be absolutely horrified by my apparent apathy when someone I care about is so clearly suffering. Yet I can’t bring myself to conjure

I am of Arabella, I’ve known for a long time that those feelings come down

fair in any way shape or form. She didn’t ask to be kidnapped, but if I hadn’t been off looking for her, I would have been there when Selene needed me.

it was all for nothing. The real danger was right under my nose the whole time. I never

lower lip caught in a trembling pout. “He said you don’t deserve to be Alpha. He said you have blood on your

Selene’s POV

afternoon sun bathes my skin in golden warmth. My senses gradually return, filling in the world around me with crisp air, damp earth, and the familiar smells of moss

my eyes, the cold ground beneath my cheek littered with fallen leaves and sprawling tangles of knobby roots. A

examine this new plane of existence. It looks so like the forests around Elysium; the forests I grew up exploring with Luna; the forest where Bastien found me

that my afterlife should be spent in

aching limbs iņ confusion, a new thought plaguing my bewildered psyche. If this is the otherworld, why do I still feel