Page 18 of Rejected Wolf Mate

“Oh, you know.” He waved his hand in a vague gesture. “I met a few people on my travels, but that’s it.”

“Right,” I said. “You didn’t want to get attached.”

He shrugged. “Well, it wasn’t as though settling down was ever on the agenda for me. Besides, getting attached would have been too dangerous for them. You know that.”

I frowned. “What do you mean, ‘I know that?’”

He studied me, and I saw the genuine confusion on his face. “I mean, that’s why we broke up. Us staying together was going to put you in danger, and so it was better if we broke up. We had that whole fight, remember?”

My jaw clenched, and I glared at him. “Of course I remember. It wasn’t an easy fight to forget.”

He scratched his chin as if contemplating. “Yeah, I guess that was one of our more memorable fights,” he acknowledged.

My mouth opened. “You’re really going to be that cavalier about it all?”

His brow furrowed. “What are you talking about?”

I stood, moving away before rounding to face him again, all that frustration growing again. “Do you really think that the fight was about you breaking up with me to protect me?”

He shrugged. “Sure. I get it wasn’t a fun fight, but I figured we were past it by now.”

“It wasn’t a fun fight?” I repeated, trying to process the words as my anger began to simmer. It boiled over, and I exploded. “That ‘not fun’ fight wasn’t because you broke up with me to protect me. Our fight happened because I woke up in the middle of the night and noticed you weren’t there. I went to look for you and found you in the kitchen writing a fucking break-up note.”

The memory flooded back to me, as vivid as if it had happened just this morning. I remembered walking down the hall in our cramped house to the living room and noticing a packed duffle bag by the door. I remembered hearing heavy boots in the kitchen and going to see what was going on. I remember seeing Rand hunched over the table, scribbling on a sheet of paper. I remember the guilty but determined expression on his face when he realized I was there and he wasn’t going to make the quiet escape he’d imagined.

All of this flooded my mind and memory in an instant. Present-day Rand sat in front of me, not moving. He frowned, his eyes narrowing. “You know why I did that,” he said. “And it wasn’t as though you didn’t know I was leaving. I told you I wanted to hunt monsters. You supported me. You told me to go for it.”

“I didn’t know you were leaving that day or in the middle of the night. And I sure as hell didn’t know you were breaking up with me. At least not until I read the damn note.”

“It was for the best,” he argued. In my mind, I saw the younger Rand saying the same words as he tried to move past me into the living room while I continued to block his path.

“For who? You? So you could avoid confrontation?” I taunted.

“Watch it,” he barked. “That wasn’t the reason, and you know it.”

I gave a harsh laugh. “Then tell me, what the hell turned you into such a massive dick? We dated for nearly two years. At that time, I never would have thought you would do something like that. I thought you were better than that. Turns out I was wrong. And considering you have no remorse for what you did, I can only imagine you’re still the same asshole and haven’t learned your lesson.”

“I did it to protect you!” he argued. “I told you as much. I was going into a profession notorious for making enemies. If any of them found out I had someone I cared about, they could have used you against me. I would have been indirectly putting you in danger.”

“All of that is great,” I said sarcastically. “Except when you try to sneak out like a coward and use a note to break up with me.”

He stalked toward me, his massive frame hovering over me. I narrowed my eyes as I looked up at him. Those intense eyes of his stared into me, a mixture of frustration and desire lurking there. I saw them flick up and down my body in a way that made my toes curl and my body grow warm despite my better judgment. But this was the way it had always been between us. The anger seemed to only intensify the craving.

The scent of maple filled my nose. My wolf flexed her claws inside, growling with her own need. I stepped back, trying to move away from him before my back pressed against the wall.

“I did what I thought was best,” he growled. “I didn’t want you or Thea hurt.”

“You could have asked,” I snapped. “You could have told me. What the hell did you think was going to happen if I hadn’t found you? That I would just see the note and go, ‘Oh, okay. Guess the guy I thought I loved and who I assumed would be a part of my life forever is gone now. I wonder what’s for dinner?’”

“You would have argued,” he pointed out.

“Of course I would have. Because I cared enough about us to fight for you. Apparently, you didn’t.”

He snarled. His hands slammed into the wall on either side of me, pinning me in. He leaned forward until our faces were inches apart. Anger and need swirled inside me, blending together until they were impossible to differentiate. A fire began between my legs as my own frustration built and climbed.

“Of course I cared about you,” he said. His breath caressed my cheek. “If I didn’t, I wouldn’t have left.”

I laughed. “That’s not how it works.” I tried to push him away, but he grabbed my wrists, putting them over my head and keeping them there. I glared up at him, fully aware of his mouth so close to mine and how his free hand had moved to my hip, his thumb slowly stroking a bare patch of skin that had appeared as my hem rose. His smell and touch were dizzying, enough to make any woman drunk. I forced myself to pay attention to the argument, not to focus on the way his eyes raked over my body or how my skin felt electrified wherever he touched me.

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