Page 4 of Because You Rejected Me

“Don’t want one.” I started slicing the potatoes into thick wedges. “I like my solitude.”

“I think you’re just scared of being happy.”

I lifted my gaze, giving Sam that look I’d given him a hundred times that said stop pestering me. He sighed, shrugged a bit, and went back to working on the chicken.

“New guy is young,” he said, going back to my original question. “Probably twenty or so. And whatever happened to him, it happened fast. I could smell the fear and desperation on him the moment he walked through the door. He just started sobbing when I told him he could stay. He got cleaned up and came back downstairs to eat. You should’ve seen how he gobbled down his meal. Poor thing hadn’t eaten for days, and he’s already so skinny to begin with.”

“Alpha?”

Sam shook his head. “Not from what I can tell. Just a lone wolf from a small-town pack somewhere down south. He’s got the cutest little twang to his voice.” He sighed as he turned around and lit the fire on the stove, popping a pan down on top of it. “Poor kid will probably be scarred for life after hitchhiking all the way up here.”

“I did that to get here from Traverse City.”

“Yeah, but you were already a tough little thing,” he replied. “This kid seems… I don’t know… kinda fragile. There’s more to it than just losing his pack. I just can’t place my finger on it.”

“I wonder what it could be.”

Sam shrugged again. “No idea. But I’m sure it’ll come out in time. I’m gonna give him a few days to get a hold of himself, and then I’ll help him figure out how to get back on his feet. Something tells me he’s never been on his own before, so it’s gonna be a project.” He turned around, pointing a spatula at me. “Do you need help with that garden of yours?”

“Not really,” I replied, chopping through my last potato and tossing it into the bowl. “Then again, I can’t really make it any bigger without help. But I’m not sure if I want to. I’ve got enough money, and I like my privacy.” I pulled the salad greens toward me and started prepping those for the side salad. “Besides, I don’t talk much, and you know how that makes people uncomfortable.”

“Maybe that’s what this kid needs.” He leaned to the side, flipping on the deep fryer for the fries. “But I’ll figure that all out later. Something smaller might be a better start.”

I breathed an internal sigh of relief. The last thing I wanted was someone on my farm all the time.

Chapter Three: Matt

The sun was high in the sky by the time I woke. As I rolled over and glanced out the window at the perfect bright blue sky beyond, I couldn’t believe how bad I felt. Even after sleeping for so long, I still felt like I’d been hit by a goddamn truck. I rolled back over, pulling a pillow over my face, wishing desperately that the sun hadn’t come up. How could the world outside be so beautiful when everything in my life was going so poorly?

That just didn’t seem fair.

Reaching for my phone on the dresser, I pushed the power button, hoping for a bit of distraction. Thanks to Sam and his hotel room, I was finally able to charge it. However, as it came back online, I saw that it was getting no reception. Shifter Grove was in the middle of nowhere, that was for sure, but it wasn’t that far off the highway. Surely people in this tiny town had cell phones that worked.

But, as I flipped through the settings, I realized what had happened. My service had been turned out, essentially turning my phone into a useless brick. There was wifi available, but all of them were locked. I tossed the phone back onto the nightstand with a scoff, thoroughly pissed.

Not only had my parents kicked me out of the house, but they turned off my fucking phone the moment I was gone. Talk about kicking a guy while he’s down. They knew I was out on the streets alone without any money and they turned off my only source of help if I desperately needed it.

Then again, even if I called and they miraculously answered, I knew none of them would help me. They made it clear they didn’t want to see me again. And the Alpha of the pack… well, let’s just say he’d probably snap my neck if I ever came back. He and his son both.

My heart hurt just thinking about it.

And I didn’t want to think about it anymore.

With a sigh, I kicked the warm blankets off me, the cool air causing all the hairs on my body to stand up. I glanced down, noticing the morning wood lying against my belly, scoffed, and headed for the shower.

That was the last fucking thing I wanted to deal with right now. It was the reason I’d gotten into this mess in the first place. If my dick liked women, I’d be sleeping in my own bed right now without a care in the world. But no, I had to be the only werewolf in my pack who preferred the company of other men. How fucking lucky.

The shower was ice cold. By the time I got out, I was shivering, but my boner was gone. Good riddance for now. Being twenty years old meant I’d have to deal with it eventually, but it could wait a few days. Right now, all I wanted was food and a long walk so I could think about what I was going to do next.

I didn’t know the rules of the hotel yet, but no matter how nice the owner was, I’m sure I wasn’t allowed to stay for the rest of my life. And that meant planning. I needed to figure out how to make money and how to live on my own without relying on anyone else. Both of those things were new to me. Of course, I also knew I wasn’t going back to college this fall, so I had to figure out how to cancel all that, too. Not having a phone or a car made both of those things difficult. In just a matter of days, I was forced to come face to face with the reality that I was completely unprepared to live on my own as an adult. I’d been relying on my family pretty heavily for a long time.

Maybe Sam could point me in the right direction. It felt wrong to lean on a total stranger, but I had nothing else. At this point, the only thing standing between me and living on the street was Sam’s good opinion of me. The first order of business was ingratiating myself with him and doing anything he asked me to. If I had to earn my keep, so be it. Whatever it took, I was going to figure it out. Because relying on his charity was already eating away the lining of my stomach. I wasn’t sure how long I’d be able to stand it before I just keeled over from the stress.

My stomach grumbled as I pulled my clothes on. Even after stuffing myself last night, I was somehow hungrier than I had been. Plus, a meal might give me some time to talk with Sam and learn the rules of the hotel. Besides, it wasn’t like I was gonna get another meal today, so I might as well have it now.

Grabbing my key and my brick of a phone out of habit, I headed out of the room and down to the elevator. When I arrived at the bottom floor and the doors opened, I was struck with the smell of deep-frying food. I didn’t know where the kitchens were, but following my nose seemed like a good place to start. After all, I wasn’t a werewolf for nothing.

I pushed my way through a set of swinging doors on the far side of the lobby and found myself in a massive kitchen lined with stainless steel shelving, a large restaurant grill on one side, and a large bench in the middle for food prepping. Two figures looked up from the other side of the room. One of them was Sam, standing over the deep fryer with two baskets bubbling away happily. The other was a tall, muscular man in a black t-shirt and a black cowboy hat sitting nearby nursing a cup of what looked to be coffee. The room was easily over eighty degrees.

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