Page 38 of Rejected By the Alpha

Chapter 18 - Leah

Based on everything I had heard about having sex for the first time, my experience with Killian had been anything but ordinary. As expected, there had been some pain, but the pleasure had far surpassed any discomfort.

My usual self-consciousness was gone as our bodies lay entwined. One leg was draped across Killian’s as he held me in a tight embrace. His heartbeat was audible through his chest as I lay with my head resting on him.

“Are you feeling alright?” he asked.

“I feel amazing,” I replied, squeezing his chest tighter.

I knew he was worried that he might have hurt me, but I wanted him to know he had no cause for concern.

“I’m glad,” he said, squeezing me back.

I rolled onto my back to stretch and felt Killian do the same. I turned my head to look at him, admiring his powerful form in all its glory.

“You ready for round two?” I asked seductively.

Killian chuckled. “Actually, can we get dressed for a minute? I wanted to talk to you about something, and it’s going to be difficult for me to concentrate with you looking so tempting.”

I giggled, rolled out of bed, and grabbed an oversized t-shirt from the dresser before returning to sit cross-legged next to him. He had wrapped the blanket around his waist and was looking at me intently.

“What’s wrong?” I asked, noticing his serious expression.

“Nothing,” he assured me. “But you told me about your past earlier, and I was hoping you’d give me a chance to do the same.”

He was hesitant with his words, and I sensed that what he was about to tell me had rarely been spoken of before today.

“Of course,” I said. “I want to know everything about you.”

Killian swallowed hard before beginning.

“My mother was a human who got pregnant by a shifter rogue, who made her life a living hell. Luckily for her, he died shortly after I was born. Unluckily for her, she soon got caught up with another shifter who was even worse,” he winced. “My younger brother, Franco, was born shortly after. She stayed with Franco’s father for almost a decade in the vain hope that her love could change him. When it became clear that wasn’t going to happen, she decided to leave. She took me but left Franco behind. She knew that his father would never allow his firstborn son to be taken away from him, and she didn’t have the strength to fight him. Franco had always been his father’s golden child, and she was sure he would be safe—if not morally, at least physically.”

Listening to Killian’s story brought tears of horror to my eyes. I had thought my life had been difficult, but his mother had been through far more pain than I could imagine.

“Don’t feel too bad for her,” he clarified, seeing the pain in my eyes. “She found work in a brothel run by Jasper’s mother. The women there—including my mother—were cruel and vicious. Especially to Jasper.”

“Why?” I asked. I couldn’t imagine a group of women who had been forced into such circumstances wanting to cause pain to their own children.

“Because they had been hurt by men, and we were going to grow up to be men,” he said with a shrug. “After being neglected and beaten for a few years, Jasper and I decided to run away. We joined Aiden’s Moonstone Pack, and soon after that, I met you.”

My heart began to beat faster as I realized he was going to explain what had happened between us from his point of view. I was glad he had asked me to put a shirt on, and I wrapped my arms around myself like armor.

“The secret relationship I had with you was the brightest spot in my life,” Killian continued. “But it was shortly after that when I crossed paths with Franco for the first time since my mother had abandoned him. He asked me to come with him to start a new pack, one even more ruthless and conniving than the Moonstones. He said that I owed him for abandoning him so many years ago, and since the tensions between Sparkle Hollow and the Moonstones had gotten so far out of hand, I felt like I needed to let you go before our alphas caught wind and punished us.”

“Would they have?” I asked, not realizing that could have been a possibility at the time.

“Jasper was Aiden’s beta, and he had told me that any fraternization between our packs would end in death.”

“I had no idea,” I whispered.

Of course, I had known that our packs were at war with one another, but I had never been in a position of being made privy to the details of the turmoil.

“When I rejected you, it broke my heart in two,” he said. “I’m so sorry for hurting you. It was, without a doubt, the biggest mistake of my life.”

Tears spilled silently down my cheeks as his remorseful apology hung in the air. “I forgive you,” I assured him.

He took a moment to compose himself before continuing.

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