Page 4 of Rejected Mate's Baby for the Alpha King

Instead of answering, she stared out the window. “I’m not really familiar with the area. Where do you think I should go?”

I wanted to demand an answer. In part because I was not used to being ignored, but also because she was a mystery, and I didn’t like mysteries. Instead, I reminded myself of the task at hand. The sooner I finished meeting with the alphas here, the sooner I could leave. “Home.”

Her face clouded over. “I can’t do that. Need to breathe and think.”

“Breathing and thinking might be easier with jeans on.”

Her gaze slid my way. “You don’t know much about women, do you? No one thinks easier with jeans on.”

“And what are you thinking about?”

“That it’s over,” she whispered so quietly that I almost didn’t hear it. “You really brought me here just so I can clean myself up? No other reason?”

“Is that so difficult to believe?”

“I see the way you’re looking at me.”

At that, I smiled briefly. “I have good intentions, but I’m not dead. I can appreciate beauty when I see it.”

“Why were you outside the hotel?”

“You ask a lot of questions, little bird.”

Maya’s eyes widened a little. “Little bird?”

“Little, helpless, injured bird.” I waited to see if she would defend herself, but she just nodded her head a little, like she agreed. Was she so submissive that she couldn’t even speak up for herself?

“I’m just procrastinating, I suppose. Was it a terrible question to ask?”

“No. I was procrastinating as well. Balls aren’t exactly my idea of a good time.”

Snorting with laughter, she rolled her eyes, and I got the first glimmer of something beneath the breaking shell around her. “I’m sorry, you’re an alpha and you don’t like the balls? I find that hard to believe.”

“Do you?”

“Oh, please. Alphas love nothing more than parading around and showing off their power. You do it around your pack, but there’s no real competition. Doing it at a ball? Now there’s the real challenge. Taking care of a whole pack isn’t. You have to posture who is the most important alpha. The strongest. The one with the most control over their wolf. It’s supposed to be about camaraderie, but it’s just a giant pissing match to see whose dick is the biggest.”

Then, as if she realized who she was talking to, she lowered her eyes and scrunched up her nose. “I apologize. I shouldn’t have said that.”

“No. You should not have said that, but you are not wrong. Balls are frivolous.”

“To you.”

I cocked my head. “Excuse me?”

“Balls are frivolous to you, and maybe to the other alphas, but to the women, they are anything but. You alphas set the rules for your packs, and some make even stricter rules for the women. Sometimes, the only way out of a pack is to marry another alpha.” Her voice was soft and her eyes got that faraway look.

I understood. Maya wasn’t broken over Larson’s denial. She was broken over her chance to leave. “What pack are you from?”

“Does it matter? They’re all the same.”

They were not all the same, but I didn’t tell her that.

“I’m not from around here either. I have no suggestions for you if you won’t go home.”

“It’s just as well. Shit’s always the same no matter where you go. Thank you for the clothes.”

“Full moon tonight. Everyone was going to run in celebration after the ball. Don’t you want to join them?” She walked closer to the window and let the moonlight wash over her.

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