Page 40 of Pregnant Rejected Mate

“Well, Draco knows that he’s not allowed to do that,” Lily affirms sternly just as her mate appears at the doorway. She watches him with a sharp eye and a smirk. “He’ll just end up in the dog box.”

“We’ve been in and out of Italy; that’s why I wasn’t here to meet you on your first day on the island,” Lily says, going on to explain how they’d purchased a house on that side of the world as an alibi—her family in the human world believes that she and Draco live there with their adopted son. It’s the only way to explain how Tyson came to be since she’d only been pregnant for three months. That’s how long dragonspirit children are carried for.

“My sister had been snooping around. That’s what led us to your father. Now we have to host her in Italy, so she thinks we live there. Will you be coming to visit?”

“I—” I hesitate, only because I haven’t been offered to go to Italy yet. It’s one of the places I have on my list of places in the world to visit.

I’m just not sure where I fit in with Felix’s family, especially after yesterday. He knows he can’t force me to be his mate, but then where does that leave us? Maybe I’m waiting on some miracle, some sign that will show me that he can be trusted again.

It takes a lifetime to build trust—or, in our case, falling in love—and a second to demolish it. Building it up again isn’t easy, not when it’s something I hadn’t even considered before I’d been flown to the island, only to discover that Felix is a weredragon.

“I would like to visit Italy,” I say earnestly. “I’m just not sure if Felix will be up to it.”

“Up to what?” he asks when he suddenly appears out of nowhere.

The tension in the air rises, causing me to gulp on my words. My hesitation to reply has me averting my gaze, leading Lily to reply.

“Will you and Sierra be joining us in Italy?” Lily asks him.

He mutters something inaudible under his breath, keeping his gaze down when he responds, “We have a meeting with the Council tomorrow. With Draco in and out of the island, I have to take care of things here.”

“You don’t have to, Felix,” Aragon offers. “Since Yazmine is too pregnant to travel, I’ll stand in your place as Beta,”

Felix grunts under his breath. “You’d like that, won’t you?” he muses, though there’s bitter intent on his tongue.

“I’m not gonna deny it,” Aragon shrugs. “You don’t have to pretend that you enjoy being the Beta of the clan.”

“It’s my responsibility now,” Felix asserts sternly before going back to his lunch. “I’d been chosen as the Beta, and I have duties to fulfill.” He seems to be in a terrible mood—probably because he hasn’t gotten over my reluctance to speak to him yesterday. He’s being avoidant, too, only making his appearance in front of me in the presence of his family.

Through the side of my eye, I watch him as he eats with deliberate mouthfuls as if he’s rushing through lunch. He doesn’t seem to be enjoying the meal, and I have difficulty finding my appetite.

The Vulkan men continue to discuss the dragon clan issues, making me realize there’s more to it than just enjoying the extravagance of the castle and the island. Important issues like keeping their existence from the prying eyes of the mortal world to the war in the Middle East that they’re planning on intercepting. I realize the extent of being a weredragon and how they pride themselves on being the protectors of the Earth from the shadows thanks to their advanced technologies and will to fight for the right causes.

All of this is done from the island without humankind being aware of their existence. Heroes without the need to be recognized. While I listen to their conversations, it strikes me that their lives are so much different from ours. Where we live to die, they live to protect everyone else.

Is that why Felix left? Not because he didn’t love me, but because he was trying to protect me? When the realization hits, I gasp into a cupped hand over my mouth and excuse myself from the lunch table.

My ears begin ringing, my head pounding, and my heart racing as it hits me. Before Lily, the weredragons didn’t know their kind could mate with humans.

This is more than just him and I. It was never personal. He was protecting his identity—an identity the weredragons work so hard to protect. He was protecting me, probably wanting me to live my life as it was meant to.

After all, he must have thought that staying with me would have been a mistake. He’d be forever thirty while I grew old and withered away.

He was protecting himself from the most brutal heartbreak of having to be around while I grew old. Now that he knows differently, he wanted me to be his mate so we could be together forever.

Only for me to break his heart with rejection.

I wait for the elevator, a part of me hoping he’d follow me from the dining room. When the elevator doors slide open and he doesn’t appear, I realize how painful yesterday must have been for him.

I can only hope that he understands how agonizing it is for me.

Chapter 17 - Felix

“Maybe we should just keep him locked away,” Father suggests as we sit around the boardroom table. The other council elders are gathered here, too, to discuss what to do with Diego Alvarez.

“What do you mean, Father?” I frown. “Locked away, as in here, on the island?”

Father shrugs nonchalantly. “Like you said, the girl has a very estranged relationship with him. She won’t care.”

---