Page 15 of Because You Rejected Me

“Me?!” He pretended to be shocked, his hand on his chest. “I’m not up to anything. I’ve never schemed a day in my life.”

“Uh-huh.” If that were true, I’d eat my hat.

“So, did you apologize to Matt?” he asked, suddenly changing the subject again.

My heart fell to the pit of my stomach. “Fuck.”

“Ace…” Sam sighed, shaking his head. “You really aren’t doing yourself any favors. How are you going to get that kid to like you if you don’t apologize to him?”

“Like me?”

“Uh yeah. He’s your mate.”

I just stared at him blankly.

“You are going to pursue him, right? The mate bond isn’t something that you can just ignore. It’s not gonna go away.”

“He doesn’t like me…”

“That’s because he’s hurt and confused. And, I’m not gonna tell you his business, but he’s pretty fragile at the moment. Just like you were when you first arrived here.”

“He needs time alone then…”

“Absolutely not,” Sam said, cutting me off. “The last thing I want him to do is end up an old hermit like you!”

“Old?!”

“I’m not an idiot, Ace. I know why you stay out on that little piece of land all by yourself all the time. You’re terrified that if you allow yourself to feel something, you’ll get hurt again.”

I wasn’t going to tell Sam he was right. But he was.

“Solitude is not the answer. I know you’ve built up icy walls around your heart to keep yourself safe. We’ve all been there before. But if you do that forever, you’re going to miss the opportunity that’s right in front of you.” He leaned back, pointing a finger at me. “And I’m not going to let you do that to yourself.”

Without a word or a wave, Sam turned away and walked back through the front door of the hotel. I sat in my truck, trying to process everything he’d just said. I wasn’t sure what he was going to do, but I had a feeling I’d find out soon enough. Sam always followed through with his threats.

Chapter Nine: Matt

After my run-in with Ace at the beach, I decided it was probably best to keep to myself at the hotel for the rest of the night. And, after getting the wifi password from Sam, it was a good thing I stayed in because the first thing I did was sign in on my phone and open my social media accounts.

Nearly everyone in my family and my pack had either unfriended or blocked me.

I knew it was going to happen. Or, at least, some part of me knew. But I didn’t expect it to hurt as bad as it did. Not only had my phone service been shut off, stranding me in the outside world without the ability to call for help if I needed it. But even if I somehow managed to make it, nobody would ever know.

There was a piece of me that had been holding onto the idea of proving them all wrong. I would not only live but succeed and show them all how wrong they’d been to abandon me for something so stupid. But now, they’d never know, and I couldn’t force them to bear witness to my survival. It wasn’t until that moment that I realized how much I’d been leaning on that idea to keep myself sane.

The depression sank in pretty quickly after that. In fact, I completely forgot to eat. It wasn’t until Sam showed up near midnight that I realized I’d never gone down for dinner.

“You get a meal a day,” he reminded me, placing the plate on my desk. “Even if you don’t want to eat. You can at least put it in your fridge for when you are hungry.” He stopped in my doorway. “You alright?”

“No,” I replied honestly. “I don’t want to talk about it.”

“That’s totally fine,” he nodded. “Take tonight to work through it, but tomorrow, I have a job for you to get your mind off things.”

I wanted to snap back at him, to tell him that I didn’t want to do anything. I just wanted to lay in bed and feel sorry for myself. But I knew I was getting the room and my food for free, not to mention the twenty bucks he just gave me earlier that day.

“Is it dishes or something?” I asked. I figured the work would mostly be cleaning, considering it was a hotel.

“I’m gonna have you make a delivery for me.”

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