My Alpha Rejects Me

In Sickness & Health

My mind wakes up long before my eyes do, but a heaviness weighs over my head. I spread my fingers out, gripping the plush comforters beneath them.

I was in a parking lot?

My eyes fly open and I find myself staring up at a cream ceiling, a modern mahogany fan buzzing softly above me, and a California King sized bed below me. I sit up, taking in my surroundings.

It was obviously a hotel. Just your average beige walls, dark grey shag carpets, plush black comforters and throw pillows, and two leather chairs sitting in the corner directly in front of the window, a mahogany side table with a lamp shared between the two of them. Of course there was a dresser-like entertainment center against the wall in front of the bed, but with a bigger than normal tv and a mini fridge beside it.

I feel an internal thread pull slightly and groan as a headache emerges from the weight. My wolf whimpers.

A door opens and a red headed man steps out from the bathroom. "You're finally awake." Adam says softly as he perched himself on the edge of the bed beside me.

I rub my forehead, "Yeah, weren't we at the mall?"

"We were, but you ran away from me, then hurled all over someone's car a shit ton before fainting." He leans in slightly closer before putting a damp cool washcloth on my forehead. I hadn't even realized he was holding it.

I take it from him awkwardly, holding it against my forehead like the independent woman I am. "Thanks," I finally manage. "H-how did you find me?"

I stare back into his aqua eyes and a calming vibration falls over me. When we were younger, I thought Adam was hot, but hot didn't even describe him now.

It's been so many years since I've seen him, let alone heard from him. I was hit by that car, and now I don't totally remember much of what all had even happened in the first place.

My parents had told me that Adam saved my life, but ran off when I was in the hospital for revenge. Then I was trapped in my mind screaming for his help for nine months. I couldn't feel my bonds. I couldn't feel my wolf. All I could feel was how scared and lonely — how vulnerable I was.

It was like an unescapable emptiness inside that I didn't wake up from for almost an entire year... I knew in the moment, my first reaction to seeing Adam again was selfish because it wasn't his fault. I knew he had no control over the situation. I knew he couldn't save me from that emptiness.

— but what I didn't know, was how to tell Adam that I can't shift anymore.

"I did a lot of digging around in a library." He says casually.

I almost laugh at the irony. Of course he dug around in a library, but I stop the corners of my mouth from curling up into a smile anyways.

"Let me guess, you broke into Astrid Territory, too?" I do in fact laugh at this comment.

He shrugs, "It's not that hard, my scent was already there prior to my fight with Dakota. I forgot a jacket in the library, so when I snuck in, no one even recognized it as a disturbance."

"That's... smart actually."

He smiles at me, exposing straight white teeth and dimples. I have the slight urge to reach out and touch his face, but stop myself.

I can't. It's been three years, things are different. He's here, but why is he even here to begin with?

"Adam, why are you here?"

He sits back slightly and rubs his temples before speaking.

"I still feel you."

"Feel me?" I can't stop myself from the abrupt scoff that escapes my mouth.

He raises his eyebrows, "When we were younger, I felt this overwhelming attraction to you, and not only attraction, but connection as well. Like my wolf is some how tied to yours."

My wolf.

I close my eyes, trying as hard as I can to feel my wolf in the shallows of my mind. She is there, but her presence fainter than before I fainted.

"Adam," I squeak. "I don't know how to tell you this..."

He frowns at me, "Don't tell me you've 'fallen in love' with a human, and last time I saw you, you had a Slave's Mark, so I know you haven't found your mate, either."

I stare blankly at him, having almost forgotten about the Slave's Mark entirely, but it's still there, and thinking about it made it tingle ever so slightly.

"N-no!" I finally stammer, "None of those!"

"Then what's wrong?"

"I can't shift."