Page 48 of Rejected By the Alpha King

My head jerked up. “Excuse me?”

“You’ll be at The Fanged Smile for most of your time, unless I need you. I won’t be able to watch you,” he said evenly.

“Worried your little hands-off policy isn’t going to fly?” When those objected to him installing me as his mate, he made it clear that the penalty for hurting me was exile.

“I’m worried that Dean is going to be a problem. It will just make me feel better if there is someone I trust by your side.”

“Trust? Remember what happened last time Finn tried to help us? I put on his clothes and you lost your shit. Are you going to be able to keep it together knowing that we’ll be near each other?”

“Are you planning on fucking him?” He asked coldly.

“Putting on his clothes because I’m literally freezing to death is a far cry from fucking him.”

“I suggest you don’t put yourself in a situation where you need to wear his clothes.” In the dark, I watched as he raked his hand through this hair. “You should get some sleep.”

“What did the witches say to you, Jax? Other than there was some growing magical threat on the horizon where you might need me to detect?”

It was the first time I’d bluntly asked. When I’d been attacked, he’d been willing to let me go. We’d even started trying to trust each other. When I woke up, I wasn’t allowed to leave, and he couldn’t contain the disgust in his eyes when he looked at me.

When I was alone with the coven, I demanded answers from them. The mother and the maiden, who I thought were my friends, just looked at me sadly and told me that there was nothing they could do to help me.

What the fuck did that even mean? I didn’t need help. I just needed to be alone, away from this stupid mating bond that I couldn’t escape, away from my father’s reputation, away from anyone who pitied me.

I just needed to start over.

“I told you that they said I needed you. Your abilities.”

“What, and you hate me again for that? Because I’m a…you know.” We didn’t say it out loud.

A null witch was rare, a null wolf shifter was unheard of.

Everyone who found out tried to use me.

“What I hate, Anna, is not being able to be rid of you,” he said tiredly.

The remark stung, and I just snuggled back in the blankets and tried to ignore his scent as it wrapped around me.

The door never opened again. After a few seconds, the blankets moved, the mattress dipped under his weight, and his hand settled on my waist. “I hate that my house smells entirely of you, and I fucking hate how all I want to do is fuck you.”

I knew the feeling. Against my better judgment, I turned and stared at him. Did I haunt his dreams the way he haunted mine? Did I taunt and tease him in his mind the way he tormented me?

He pulled the hem of my shirt up and smoothed his hand over my naked skin. With a gasp, I arched into him. We hadn’t touched since I’d moved in. Hadn’t even talked about it.

Apparently, we were at a breaking point.

“I hate you,” I growled as I ran my hands through his hair. “Make me come.”

22

Jax

Her body curled around mine automatically, like it remembered my touch in that cave and craved more. Ever since that night, she was never far from my mind.

How could a woman have so much control over me when I had none over her? The crone had told me that as a null, Anna would never feel the mating bond the way that I did. It would never affect her. When I finally let her go, she could walk away and never think of me again.

She might not even think of me now except that I was forcing her to live in my house.

Forcing her to sleep in my bed.

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