Rejected Mate and Following Fate

Chapter 25: Time

It's been a few days since Colton told me about his mom and I swear she keeps plaguing my thoughts. It's like a tiny itch in my brain I can't shake, and I keep coming back to it repeatedly for no obvious reason. I even dreamt of her last night, and it was the weirdest most confusing thing ever. It came after I finally located a memory of her in this shared library of thoughts and couldn't shake her soft face from my visuals. I must have tried too hard and implanted her in my brain to mess with me, it's the only explanation.

I do remember her vaguely without Colton's influence, only in my own memories she's faceless, because I couldn't remember her all that well, so it's nice to apply features to her. She has Colton's flawless beauty, his black hair, darkest chocolate eyes, and sallow skin, with a soft ambience that's less masculine than his.

She used to come to the library near our farm every weekend to read books to the children. I remember her being a caring quiet lady, well spoken, well dressed, and she had no prejudices whatsoever against wolves from rival packs, the children were all one to her. She always wanted to see us live in peace and harmony, and she had this warm pull that I see in Colton sometimes, when he isn't closing up on me and freezing me out.

The dream lingers in my mind, despite being up for hours, and now, I'm sat on the grass taking a break from training and can still feel her voice ebbing back to me from the recess of my mind. Fatigue letting it slip back in as I cool down and catch my breath, and her haunting melodic tone, filled with pleading, rings through again, the words which woke me this morning.

"Save us."

It's all that comes through and it gives me the same shivers it did when I dreamt it. She walked up to me, in a bright white, sterile, wall less space, with no one else around me but blurred nothingness of light and stale air. Standing in the middle of what felt like a hospital, I don't know, unsure where I was meant to go or how I even got there. Confused.

She appeared in the distance at first, catching my eye, almost hazy and surrounded by a fog which cleared as she came closer. Dressed in a light shapeless gown, almost like a medical covering, except it was pure snow white, not blue, or patterned. Her hair was loose, free, and hung longer than I can recall from my memory bank, almost touching her waist, whereas she always kept it jaw length in even Colton's memories.

When she came into focus at first, I could see her cheeks were wet with tears, eyes blood shot, her skin streaked where they had fallen repeatedly and her smock was soaked through, as though they'd been absorbing thousands of them, for an eternity. Her desperate sadness consumed, and overwhelmed me, and I was rooted to the spot, unable to breathe with the heaviness of her pain.

She was eerily pale, beautiful still, but only the shadow of the woman from Colton's memories, thin and worn down, as though her life was being sucked away. She touched my face softly, startling me with the sheer heat she exuded, leaned in so close that she almost kissed me, her warmth invading the coolness of my own air and whispered it right into my face, startling me to wake in the dull stillness of my own room.

Those two damned words.

to remove the feel of it. The dream felt so real and I hate that it won't leave me alone in waking hours, replaying on a loop, and affecting me so deeply. The

doing for an infuriating number of days. It's like opening up about her reminded him of all the reasons he chose to reject me, and he back tracked at a hundred miles

a safe distance, and has our mind link on permanent closed door. It's making me madder than hell, infuriating that once again he has done another U turn, but whenever I try to talk to him, he walks off and blanks me. He makes sure I can't get close, I can't touch him, and he either sticks with the sub pack so I can't get him alone or leaves before anyone else does so I can't follow. A big fat 'stay away' from me aura,

doing, and as much as I want to punch him in his genitals for it, I do understand, but it's just so frustrating. What makes is worse, is Carmen has caught onto the strained atmosphere and is laying on the oozing flirt mode with all her might, driving even the males of the pack to eye roll every time she

isn't tolerating her, but it doesn't mean I'm not having visions of turning and ripping her throat out multiple times a day. Killing a fellow wolf from your pack is a mortal sin, no matter the excuse, but I would happily pay the time for that

having girl time to throw off all the stresses of everything going on around us. She brought me clothes, and make up, not that I need them now my own belongings were left at my door when I came back from training a couple of days ago. I suspect Colton went and packed up everything with my scent on in the orphanage, but I can't be sure, and he won't stick around to let me ask him at all. It adds

the day. He spends the rest of his time with Juan, patrolling the lay of the land, and overseeing the training camp and the new buildings. I've seen them walking together many times and I almost couldn't control

any of us. He knows the pack will have questions about this. He brought me to them, made it seem like I might have a chance and then snubbed me

he tries to work things out, but we're losing time. Ticking away slowly as the full moon approaches in its cycle and I don't think I can take much more. Logic is telling me to give up on him, but I don't want to accept this is it. That he's done and given up on us after what he said to me. My heart doesn't

sick with the chaos of this lack of closure. I'm not being a cold idiot and cutting him off, or avoiding him, like he is me. I would talk to him in a heartbeat if he let me. It's like he just abandoned me after dumping me in his sub

I go? What do I do? I'm only here because of my link to him. I'm not a Santo, I don't belong here and although the sub pack seem to be warming to me, I'm not bonded to them. I'm not one of them, and Carmen will kick my ass to the curb the second

mate. That's how it works. She'll have more say than any of them and I can see Colton allowing her to move me out for the sake of their pairing. She hates me with a

past ten minutes, ripping at strands absentmindedly, letting my mind run riot, as Meadow strolls on up beside me and slumps down too. She's barely flushed, no evidence of panting after scaling thirty-foot tree climbs, and almost no sweat has formed on any part of her at all. I'm over here looking like I rolled in a puddle,

I no longer hit the shakes and near vomit like

Meadow falls back on the grass, seeming very athletic in pink leggings, and matching sports bra, that enhance her natural assets. Cesar has been driving her mad the past few days, with his overprotective side kicking in, as Juan upped the training schedule and started pushing his agenda a little harder. He's been all over her,

over sensitive, and willing to wrap their mates in wadding. It's an inevitable part of our year, which thankfully is short lived, but sees every male and femme who've been turned go into horny overdrive. Most mated couples don't leave the bedrooms for days on end. The unmated are fair game, and result