Page 25 of Semi-Rejected Life

I took it, feeling the ease of his strength as he pulled me to my feet. “It was my fault,” I replied at last, finally finding my words. “I wasn’t paying attention.”

“I kinda stepped right in your way. It was my fault.”

“It’s okay. Really.”

We stared at one another for a long moment. I’d never seen him before, but he smelled human, so I could’ve just ignored him up until now.

“I’ve seen you here a few times,” he said, breaking the silence. “Do you… live in town?”

“Yeah,” I nodded nervously. “I run the pizza shop.”

“No way! That’s awesome!” He seemed very excited about that. “I order from there all the time! You make those delicious pizzas?”

“Some of them. I have a delivery guy.”

“Cory, right?”

“Yes?”

“He and I are good friends. We go kayaking together.” He bit his lower lip, glancing up at me. “He… didn’t mention how cute you were.”

I lifted an eyebrow, completely surprised by his sudden compliment. I didn’t feel a warm tingle or a sudden rush of adrenaline like I did with River, but it was still nice to hear. However, the moment River entered my mind, I did feel a rush of irritation. I recalled what Andy had told me and I made a split second decision right then and there. If River wasn’t going to text me back or take advantage of me, then I could at least have some fun with this handsome stranger.

“Give me your phone,” I said, although it sounded a bit more like a command. The man handed it over without question. I flipped open his contacts and began to type. “My name is Vince,” I said, handing it back to him and letting our fingers linger against one another for a couple of heartbeats. “Text me sometime.”

I didn’t wait for him to respond. Instead, I just gave him a wink and headed out of the cafe.

River could go fuck himself.

Chapter Twelve: River

I had been staring at my phone for four days trying to build up the courage to text Vincent. Obviously I wanted to so fucking bad. But that’s what stopped me from doing it. Texting him was giving into emotions that I knew I shouldn’t be having.

I was obsessed. Every waking moment of every day since our night together I’d been thinking about him. Each morning I woke up rock hard and nothing would get it to go away except jerking off. And, of course, whenever I touched my cock, all I could think about was Vincent. Even when I tried to put on porn or think about anyone else, I always saw his face. There was just nothing I could do to get him out of my brain.

And then, every single day, I drove by the cafe at just the right time to see his car sitting outside. I felt like a fucking stalker when I got a sudden surge of happiness at seeing him through the windows of the shop. It was creepy, but I couldn’t stop thinking about him. And, every night it took all the willpower I had not to order pizza. In fact, I’d been eating all my meals at the hotel alone in my room. The owner Sam had been trying to get me to join him and his menagerie of charity cases, but I just wasn’t feeling it. The only person I wanted to be around was Vincent.

But I couldn’t. Every time I thought of texting him, I heard my father’s words again.

You’ve got one last summer to goof off and get this out of your system. But when you come home, it’s time to be a real Alpha. This pack will never accept a male pair to lead them and neither will I.

Those words haunted me. And the more I thought about them, the more I felt scared of what I was feeling. I wanted my inheritance and I wanted the easy life that came with being an Alpha. It was all planned out, I understood each facet of it, and nothing was left up to chance. Leaving all that behind turned my life into a fucking mess instantly. It was a lot to give up for something as trivial as a crush on a guy I’d fucked once.

But the wolf inside me told me this wasn’t just a crush. In fact, the wolf had taken on the habit of chanting a single word in the back of my mind all day and night.

Mate.

Vincent couldn’t be my mate. He just couldn’t. And even if he was, it didn’t matter. I had a wife waiting for me back home. Granted, I didn’t know her at all. In fact, I didn’t even know her name yet or what she looked like. But my father said she was all picked out and waiting for me. I couldn’t let the pair of them down as well. The entire pack was expecting me to lead them into a bright and glorious future. How could I turn my back on them all for some guy?

I couldn’t. And I was tired of sitting around thinking about it constantly. What I really should’ve been doing was surfing and enjoying the free time I had left. After spending four days pretty much holed up in my hotel room, it was time to get out and do something. In fact, maybe finding a different dude to get involved with would be a good idea. That might help clean the slate and give me a fresh perspective. The sex with Vincent was amazing, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t have amazing sex with someone else. He was just confusing me somehow.

Yeah. That had to be it.

Sitting up on my bed, I grabbed my phone from the nightstand and flipped open the app store. It only took a second to locate the most popular hookup app for gay dudes ever invented and hit the download button. Within a minute or two I had an active profile with a sexy shirtless picture and a call out for casual sex with anyone that was looking. Human or wolf, I didn’t care. I’d even go cruising if that’s what people were into. Whatever it took to get Vincent off my mind.

And thankfully, I didn’t have to wait long. That was the perk of having Alpha heritage I guess. The abs and the cut V of my hips got boys hot and bothered so easily. Of course, it didn’t help that I made sure I was showing off my goods as much as possible through my paper thin swim trunks.

However, what started out as a pleasant surge of attention soon became a tidal wave. My phone was constantly pinging and messages were pouring in from all over. Some of the guys were already asking to meet up and more than one of them were willing to drive nearly a hundred miles just to let me fuck them. Dick pics came flying at me from all sides followed by asses, holes, and even a few more kinky pictures that just weren’t really my thing.

---