Page 55 of Rejected By the Alpha

“But you’re healing,” Leah said encouragingly. “It’s just going to take a little more time than usual. Your arm was broken, and you had a lot of deep cuts.”

I smiled at her, this time managing to avoid the crippling pain that had accompanied my last attempt.

“We’ll go make you some food and let you get some rest,” April said, pulling gently on Jasper’s arm.

“It’s good to see you awake, brother,” Jasper said.

He wasn’t a man of very many words, but I knew by those few words how much he cared about me. I had always considered him to be my brother, but rarely did I feel that sentiment reciprocated.

I nodded at him, my eyes filling with tears as Jasper, April, and the doctor left. Leah remained by my side, playing quietly with my hand.

“Were you injured?” I asked her. “I barely remember what happened. Everything seems so blurry.”

“The doctor said it might take some time for your memories to return,” she said. “The poison didn’t just attack your body; it attacked your brain, too. But to answer your question—no, I wasn’t hurt.”

I sighed in relief. When I confronted Franco at the community center, I remembered wanting to keep Leah safe, but I wasn’t sure if I had kept my promise to do that.

“Can you tell me what happened?” I asked.

She shuddered as she put herself back in the moment. “You asked me to hide in the hedge while you investigated the sounds coming from inside the building,” she began. “When I saw Franco in the doorway, I knew we were in over our heads—especially after he said that his pack was inside with him. I couldn’t see how many wolves he had with him, so I convinced Destiny to run back to the forest to get help.”

Her voice broke before she continued.

“When we got back, they had you surrounded. Killian, I’m so sorry. I shouldn’t have left you behind. I should’ve stayed with you.”

“No,” I said firmly. “Don’t think like that. You did everything right. I was outnumbered, and even if you had stayed, I would have gotten hurt. And so would you. We probably wouldn’t be sitting here talking about it.”

She nodded, wiping her eyes. “We split up—some of our wolves going inside to evacuate the prisoners and therest fighting Franco’s pack outside,” she said. “Franco’s second baited you into attacking him. We had the rest of the wolves to our front, and we presumed he was too injured to attack our backs. But he transformed, grabbed a knife from somewhere, and cut you with it. We were able to take him down almost immediately, but the damage had been done.”

I concentrated on her words as images came back from that night. I remembered fighting the wolf, as well as the pain the blade had caused when it pierced my skin. But there was something else I remembered. A look of victory in the ice-blue eyes of my half-brother.

Franco had to have known what his beta had planned to do. In fact, it wouldn’t surprise me if he had orchestrated the entire night to end my life and get retribution for my abandonment of him.

I understood his hate and anger, but I also knew that they came from hurt. I had experienced that hurt before, but I’d had Jasper by my side to pull me through it and help me find light and hope on the other side. Franco had never allowed himself to get close to anyone—even me. My heart broke for what had transpired between us, and for the loss of the brother I would never have.

“What about the people in town?” I asked, suddenly remembering the din of the fight. Surely, the snarls and howls of the wolves had been noticed. “Did the fight raise any alarm among the humans?”

“No,” Leah said. “Luckily, it was quick and on the outskirts of town. Since Nile’s pack owns all the homes in that area, there weren’t any humans to overhear the chaos. Our secret is still safe.”

It was a relief knowing that my brother’s presence in town wasn’t going to force everyone to leave. Because of how integrated the werewolves were with the humans here, it was of paramount importance that we keep our abilities a secret. Anything else would cause problems for more than just us. The entire werewolf world would be at risk.

I shuddered, thinking how my relationship with my brother could have caused such catastrophic consequences.

Leah noticed my dark thoughts and reached out to place her palm on my cheek. “It isn’t your fault,” she said.

“I know,” I replied offhand.

“No, you need to hear this, Killian,” she said, looking into my eyes with sincerity and love. “What happened with Franco wasn’t your fault.”

My chest tightened as tears threatened to spill out of my eyes. “I abandoned him,” I choked out. “Twice.”

“You and I both suffered trauma in our lives. Plenty of people all over the world—including the alphas of the other packs here—have gone through unimaginable horrors. We’ve all made mistakes, yes, but we’ve learned from them and become better. Franco didn’t do that. He made his own choices, and those choices arenot your fault.” She emphasized her final words, wanting the truth behind them to fully sink in.

As always, Leah was right. There was no one who could control Franco if he decided to go down a path of destruction, just as no one could control Jasper, Aiden, or me when we had done things that we later came to regret. Life was a series of choices, and my brother had chosen the wrong ones. All I could hope for was that someday, somehow, something would open his eyes to a better way of living.

I prayed that day would come before we met again.

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