Page 12 of His Protective Bear

He smiled widely at me like he hadn’t been sure of how that would go. He held my gaze as he spoke, “Sage Matthews, you’re mine. My mate made perfect for me by the gods, and I’m here to claim you.”

My mouth dropped open, and all I could do was stare because this had to either be a dream or some kind of nightmare. It felt like I could hear my blood rushing in my ears. I couldn’t seem to draw in a breath, and I began to sweat. Why would Hunter do this? He couldn’t be my mate. This was cruel. My mate had rejected me because I was defective. There was no way Hunter could be my mate, so why would he make fun of me like this? I’d done nothing to him.

I threw the bouquet in my hand down on the counter, “This isn’t funny, Hunter. I don’t know what kind of joke you think you’re playing but leave me out of it. And leave me the hell alone.” I knew my voice was getting louder with every word, but I couldn’t help it. “Stay away from me.”

With that, I pushed past my dad and ran to the back office and shut the door, locking it and leaning against it for good measure, trying to get my racing heart to slow down. But my brain couldn’t stop screaming why.

Why would Hunter say something that couldn’t be possible? I patted my heated cheeks. I bet this was some kind of stupid prank because he knew about me now.

I dashed the tears that fell from my eyes. I wasn’t upset; I was angry. Pissed off, in fact.

There was a knock at the door, and I froze, “Sage,” it was my Papa’s voice. “Open the door, son.”

“I’m not coming out if he’s there,” I said.

“Sage please—” Papa tried.

“No, get rid of him. I don’t want him here.” I swallowed down the lump in my throat. You have no reason to be embarrassed. He was the jerk. “Tell him to go away, or I’m not coming out.”

I heard footsteps moving away from the door, and I stayed where I was until there was a knock at the door about five minutes later, “You can come out now.” It was Simon.

I stood up slowly from the floor and straightened my clothes before turning the key to open the door. When my cousin saw me, he shook his head, his blue eyes that we both shared filled with what I could swear was disappointment before walking away.

I shook it off and made my way back out to the restaurant even though I would rather have stayed in the back, but I refused to give him the satisfaction of hiding out.

Still, I kept my head down and tidied up the tables. Thankfully, several tables had cleared out. I was walking back to the kitchen with some dirty plates when I heard it.

“Can’t believe he rejected him,” a female voice said.

“I wouldn’t,” another voice said. This one was definitely male.

“He humiliated the alpha publicly,” a third voice chimed in. “A Hallbjorn too, the last alpha in that mix as well. Who rejects one of the most eligible alphas and their mate to boot?”

There was a long sigh, “I wish I had an alpha willing to go all out like that for me.”

“Girl, you wish you had an alpha,” the first female voice shot back.

I backed away so they didn’t see me. My stomach fluttered, and my chest tightened. He wasn’t my mate… he couldn’t be. Right? I’d already had a mate that didn’t want me. Why would Hunter say this? He was wrong. He had to be. As far as I knew, Warren was still alive, and you couldn’t have two living mates unless you were all mates.

There was no way. Hunter had to be mistaken.

But what if he’s not?

Chapter 6

Hunter

I did my best to block out all the chatter at the station, especially since it was all about me and the spectacular rejection from my mate.

I pressed my hand to my eyes, not that it helped the throbbing at the base of my skull. There was a knock at the door, and I sighed but called, “Come in.”

The door opened, and Sandra, our dispatcher, poked her head in.“ Hey chief, I picked up some cinnamon buns.” She held them out.

Yeah, that was another thing. I couldn’t stand the sympathy. I really should have gone straight home. But that wasn’t how I operated. My mate had a right to refuse me. I sprung it on him. Maybe I should have listened to Rhys. He was right. Sage was shy. The public display might have overwhelmed him.

“I’m fine,” I said to Sandra. “Can everyone just act normally, please?”

Sandra clucked her tongue, “Doubt it, love. This is probably the biggest piece of gossip the town has at the moment.”

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