Page 6 of The Alpha's Rejected Mate

I stared at Colt, trying to understand how he was here, too. “How’d you find me?”

“Oh, I came down to get water and noticed your scent in the kitchen,” he explained. He shrugged. “Dad always locks the backdoor at night. When I found it open, I followed your scent.”

For my trail to be so evident, he must have been in the kitchen not long after me. He couldn’t have been far behind me this whole time. If only I’d known he’d been about when I’d spied that monster, I might not have freaked out and fallen.

Colt’s voice interrupted my sluggish thoughts again, “What on earth happened?”

The memory of the Moondream, with the pool bathed in light, caught me up … and my throat constricted.

Where the hell do I begin?

Chapter 4

Gavin

Cold sweat bathed me as I jolted out of the dream. Sickness roiled in my gut. Recently, I’d had nightmares about my wolf chasing those two hikers. But I thought that would have been a better dream than what I’d just experienced.

My forehead and palms were clammy, and my heart was still thrashing against my ribcage in shock at what I’d witnessed.

What I’d witnessed in my … Moondream. Bile climbed up the back of my throat as I pictured the bright white light pouring down on the dark expanse of water.

Confusion beat through me. Hadn’t I just been praying to Vana earlier today to reveal my fated mate?

I gritted my jaw, grinding my teeth.

Not like this.

This wasn’t right. It couldn’t be.

I recalled staring down into the pool and feeling as if I’d plunged into it as icy shock sluiced through my body. I locked eyes with the intrusive green gaze of the woman in the pool. Her mousy brown hair hung messily about her shoulders, most of it havingescaped the braid it was in. Her slight figure was lost in the same blue sweatshirt she’d worn earlier today. Then, she laid her hand on my brown-coated wolf’s shoulder in an intimate clasp.

As rage fired through my body, tightening my muscles, I knew that what I’d seen tonight was Vana’s Moondream. The full moon and the pool had reflected my deepest truths back to me.

And yet, both my body and mind couldn’t reconcile the revelation. Everything within me squirmed against it. I gritted my jaw, sweeping my hands through my hair, making it stand on end. But I didn’t care. The only thing that mattered was proving thiswasn’ttrue.

Inspiration struck. If Billie was in her bed and unaffected by such a dream, it couldn’t be true. Fated mates always had the truth revealed in the moon pool by the goddess at the same time.

Easy.

With the simple solution, I hurried out of bed, throwing on my clothes from earlier. I opted to take my truck to Hexen Manor. With how riled I was, it probably wasn’t the wisest move to unleash my wolf right now. Vana knows what he might do. No, it was much better to get some closure from going to the source of the issue. I tried to imagine a sleep-befuddled Billie looking at me in utter confusion, after which this agitation pounding through me would be expelled. But I kept picturing her piercing green eyes and the way they’d held me as if they’d seen right to my very soul.

Seeking to drown out the memory of the dream, I concentrated on keeping my truck on the rough dirt path as I made my way out of Grandbay territory and into Dalesbloom. The hint ofsunrise was on the horizon, and the pale gray light lay against the trees and grass, its softness easing my tension a little.

But as I swung into the driveway of Hexen Manor, dread settled like a lead weight in my stomach. The grand estate loomed before me, its imposing facade casting shadows over the lawn. I parked my truck out front, and then I got out into the cool morning.

I wandered around the back of the house, knowing David preferred the pack to use the back entrance. I fisted my hands and then thumped the door. The manor was huge and lofty, and I knew I had to make a racket for anyone to hear me.

A half-awake David opened the door, with Catrina trailing not far behind him.

As I caught sight of mygirlfriend, I realized I hadn’t thought this far ahead.

Catrina’s bright blue eyes widened. “Babe, what’s wrong?”

I cursed myself silently for not even considering that Catrina would be here. For some reason, the only thing that seemed to matter was the need to see Billie. Now, the same urgency swallowed me again, and I pushed past the dread.

I blurted out. “Nothing. Where’s Billie?”

Consequences be damned.

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