The Rejected Mate

The Inevitable

“What do you mean “it doesn’t work for you?”

“I mean it doesn’t work for me.”

“But it has to. You’re my mate.”

“Well it just doesn’t. I’m not that kind of a guy and you’ve been around me long enough to know that.” I said a bit too harshly.

“But I thought that was supposed to all change once you found your mate.”

“Leah, I can’t.” This time I watched as my words finally sank in.

“But… I… you’re my mate!” She repeated with frustration.

I ran my hands through my hair again with agitation. I seemed to be doing that a lot today. This was even harder than I thought. How was I going to bear watching as I broke her heart? And I was doing it slowly and heartlessly too. This has to be done like taking off a band-aid. Fast.

“Because. For one, you are five years younger than me and to be honest I don’t want a mate. I like my single life and besides I have a pack to manage they have to have my full attention.” I was scared that my lame excuses wouldn’t do for her. We stood in yet another silence as she absorbed what I just said. We stood for a long moment looking at each other and I wanted so much to hold her in my arms and tell I didn’t mean what I just said. But I couldn’t. I could see her eyes slowly turning glassy as everything sank in.

“Fine.” She finally said and began to walk away from me. Leaving me behind.

“Leah, wait.” I called out but she didn’t.

Instinctively, I followed her and stupidly grabbed her arm. Everything froze for a moment. It was just me, her and the electrifying feeling at the place our skin made contact. Damn it! I had to stop touching her. It was driving me insane with need.

I resentfully released her hand and as I did so, my body screamed at me to touch her again.

“Sorry… I shouldn’t have…” Her face suddenly became angry.

“Sorry?" She repeated.

And when I didn’t say anything, she turned around and started hitting my chest. I made no attempt to stop her, I deserved way worse than her punching my chest. In fact, she looked kind of cute doing it. Like an angry kitten who thinks she’s invincible.

"You’re such a jerk!” She said as she continued to punch my chest.

After a while, I became worried that she would hurt herself and gathered her hands in one of mine. Ignoring the feel of her skin on mine. Was this going to happen every time I touched her? Time to be a real jerk.

“Leah, what do you want me to do? I’m not one of those guys that are willing to give everything up for their mate. I’m not the guy you want me to be. I’m just not.”

“How dare you? I never asked you to give up anything or be anything that you're not. I just wanted you to claim me as your mate. But that’s too much for the great Alex Snider!  No one’s good enough for him.”  I saw a faint colour rise to her cheeks as her lips uttered these words. The last part broke my heart.  She thought this was her fault. She was more than enough, in fact she was all I wanted right now. But there was no point in dwelling on a matter that’s already settled.

“But see you are. By asking me to be your mate, you’re asking me to give up who I am. I’m just not one to settle down. I’m sorry. I’m just not.” I was being such an asshole.

“What did I do to deserve a mate like you? You know what? You're probably saving me great load of trouble now. I’m sure I would of caught you with some slut at some point anyways because that’s what you are Alex, a man-whore. Nothing more. I don’t even know why I’m crying. You don’t deserve my tears.” Ouch. That hurt. I quickly wiped any trace of hurt off my face. I wanted her to think I didn’t care and showing I was hurt, wouldn’t help the cause.

“Well good then. You seem to finally get the point.” I felt how harsh my words were and I knew this was strike three. I was out.

She pulled her hands out of mine and walked away. Just like that. I watched as she got further and further away from me. It was taking every bit of the control I had mastered over my wolf to keep him from taking over and run after her. Hell, it was taking every bit of self-control to keep me from running after her.