Page 26 of The Alpha's Rejected Mate

I’d tried to be considerate and suggested we meet on neutral territory. I drove out to Pioneer Point, which wasn’t Dalesbloom or Grandbay territory. Given that there was quite a bit of stuff forus to unpack, I thought it was wiser that we spoke somewhere where we didn’t run the risk of being interrupted by any of her family or our packs.

I pulled up onto the Point and parked beside Catrina’s truck. My stomach churned as I noticed Catrina had spread out a picnic rug overlooking the sweeping canyon below. She was settled on it, her long legs stretched out in a snug pair of jeans. She wore a low-cut crop top that showed off her bust and toned stomach.

As I got out of the car and wandered over to her, her full red lips lifted in a smile. Her long lashes accentuated her bright blue eyes, and she said, “We’ve spent a lot of good times here, haven’t we? I thought it’d be nice to make the most of the good weather.”

Thishadbeen one of the spots we’d come to when we’d first hooked up—before we’d chosen to share it with our families and packs. A flash of a few good nights in my truck, of my hands sweeping over Catrina’s soft curves and kissing her plush lips, had my willpower diminishing for a nanosecond.

But I schooled my features into a neutral expression, not wanting to give away where my thoughts had gone. “I thought I made it clear that we had a lot to talk about, Catrina.”

Her expression grew earnest, her eyes assessing me as she sat up, “We’re adults. There’s no reason why we can’t be comfortable while we talk, is there?” She batted her eyelashes at me in feigned innocence.

As I sat down, I looked out on the canyon, forcing myself to say what I’d come here to. “We have had some good times, Catrina, but I need to be honest with you about how I’m feeling. Since the Moondream and what Vana showed me, I know I need to get to know Billie more.”

Since discovering that Billie might be my old Betas daughter, Elizabeth, I’d barely been able to stop thinking about the matter. Undoubtedly, if Billie was actually Elizabeth Rathbone, I wanted to get to the bottom of how she’d come to be in David’s care and what had happened to her real parents, Shannon and Tobi. But aside from that, since the night that Billie had been at Grandbay, I wanted to seeheragain.

Catrina’s blue stare darkened, but then she let out a laugh. Her gaze heated, and she said, “Gavin, don’t you see what a mistake that would be? You deserve so much better than her. And, besides, notallof Vana’s suggestions are set in stone, and fated mates have been known to change, you know?”

My eyebrows drew together. “What do you mean?”

She lifted a shoulder nonchalantly. “When a fated mate dies, Vana has been known to present a different fated mate.”

At the word“dies,”my heartbeat stuttered, but I trained my features so as to hide how my stomach was knotted at what I thought she was suggesting. “You mean,” I said, “that if Billie were to die, Vana would bestow another fated mate on me?”

The fact that my question brought a smile to her face sent a chill down my spine, but she seemed oblivious to my aversion as she pressed on. “Exactly. Besides, there’s something I haven’t told you about, a similar loose end that needs tying up.” Her eyes grew serious as she explained, “It’s why I understand what you’re going through with Billie, believe me.” Her mouth twisted into a frown. “I rejected my fated mate when Vana presented Joseph, one of the Dalesbloom pack, to me.”

Surprise crashed through me. She’d never mentioned that she’d known who her fated mate was. She’d never told me abouther packmate, Joseph, being who she was destined for. I’d always thought Catrina was outspoken and frank and that she let you see everything about her upfront. But this smarted of concealment and design. Suspicion started to swirl through me. What else hadn’t I been aware of?

I kept my expression neutral as I wanted to hear her truths. “When was this?” I asked.

She coiled a strand of her silky hair around her finger. “I was only fourteen years old when I was saddled with the witless wonder, Joseph, in my Moondream.”

“What happened between you?” I asked, alarmed by the contempt that I saw in her cold expression but needing to know what had happened.

“Joseph had the nerve to come to me and ask whether he could mark me,” she said. “He declared that he’d always cared about me and that Vana had answered his prayers when she’d showed me to him in his Moondream.” She scoffed. “That I should be lumped with someone like him was disgusting.”

Her eyes glimmered. “So, I knocked him unconscious on a stump in the woods. Then, when he woke, I told him that if he ever came near me again or told anyone about me featuring in his Moondream, I’d kill him on that stump.”

She smirked. “The next day, he told everyone he’d had his Moondream but didn’t say anything aboutme,” she said happily. “And I haven’t said a word about him, obviously, to anyone … until now.” Her gaze brushed me with meaning as if sharing this confession was romantic in some way.

“We could help each other,” she said. “You could tie up my loose end, and I could tie up yours,” she suggested with a chilling ease.

Incredulity spun through me. If one killed their fated mate, then they wouldn’t be awarded another. But she’d calculated that if we were to do away with each other’s fated mate, it would increase the chances of us becoming each other’s fated mates.

Shaken to my core by the discovery of how conniving Catrina really was, repulsion beat through me. Suddenly, I needed to be as far away from these sordid schemes she was concocting as I could.

Scowling, I declared, “It’s over, Catrina. The only thing you’ve done with your proposition is to make me question how I couldeverhave been with you in the first place.”

Looking as if she’d been slapped, she quickly disguised her hurt and jumped to her feet. “Believe me, I’m beginning to wonder the same thing. After all, maybe you deserve such a weak mate, given that you’ve got great power within your grasp, but you’ll never do the deed necessary to claim it.”

Great power?

I stood up, tracing her taut expression and wondering about the meaning of the cryptic comment she’d just thrown at me. Then it hit me. Somehow, she knew about Muriel’s horn and the power it could bestow.

“The deed necessary?” I asked, my voice shaking with rage. “So, you’re proposing athirdmurder now?”

She flushed. I reckoned with anger rather than shame. She was angry with herself for alluding to things that she shouldn’t have. She’d let her control slip and showed her cards.

“Is that what your father wants to do, Catrina?” I pushed. “Use Muriel’s horn?”

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