Page 52 of That's the Way Rejection Goes

I just didn’t think he’d show up so soon.

A knock at the door startled us both. I turned around, glancing at the door before I shot a fearful look in Calum’s direction. He, knowing I was already emotionally compromised, took point. Abandoning his packing, he took a deep breath and headed for the door. I knew who would be standing on the other side before he opened it. Nonetheless, when the door swung open and Sam’s face came into view, I felt my stomach twist into a tight knot.

“Hi,” he said, sounding a little out of breath. There was a big smile on his face, and I felt myself wince. How could he be happy when everything was about to fall apart? “Can I come in?”

Calum stepped to the side, gesturing for him to enter. He shut the door behind him and walked back over to me, taking my hand. Both of us stood there, waiting for the bad news to drop. Sam looked at us, drawing a deep breath as if he were about to launch into a big speech. But then his gaze fell on the half packed suitcases and that breath whooshed out of him.

“You two going somewhere?” he asked, a tinge of irritation in his voice.

“Just say what you need to say,” I choked, holding tight to Calum’s hand. “And then we’ll get out of here.”

“Get out of here?” Sam shrugged, furrowing his brows. “Why do you have to leave?”

“That man downstairs was your mate, wasn’t he?” Calum asked, his tone flat. Despite that, the words felt like a knife in my gut.

But Sam didn’t flinch. “A long time ago yes, he was.”

“So we should keep on packing then,” Calum added, both of us knowing it was over.

“I don’t understand why you’re packing at all,” Sam shot back. “Unless you want to leave.”

“Of course we don’t want to leave!” I sobbed, practically yelling at him for being so thick headed. “But how can you expect us to stay here? We just have to eat dinner with you and see you every fucking day knowing you don’t want anything to do with us? Now that you’ve got your mate back, we should have to suffer from a distance?” I shook my head. “No. I won’t do that. We can find somewhere else to stay. Shifter Grove isn’t big enough for all of us.”

“Wow,” Sam sighed, putting his hands on his hips. He glanced up at Calum. “And is this how you feel too?”

“I don’t know what else to think,” he answered. “Now that we know you have your mate back, what other choice do we have?”

Sam slowly transitioned from upset to furious in the span of a few seconds. His jaw clenched and worked as he tried to speak, but nothing came out. He kept biting back his words, only making little noises here and there until he blew out an exasperated sigh and walked over to the bed. There he began to take our clothes out of the suitcases and placed them back in the dresser.

“What are you doing?” I cried, furious he was undoing all the work I’d just done. Why was he making this harder?

“I’m putting your clothes where they belong,” he said, slamming the dresser drawer open. “Here. In the dresser. In this hotel. In Shifter Grove.With me.”

“I… I don’t understand…”

“I’ll tell you what I understand,” he snapped, stopping and pointing a finger at the both of us. “I understand that you two like to make a lot of fucking assumptions and we’re gonna put an end to that right now.”

“Assumptions?”

“Yeah. Assumptions. And fucking stupid ones at that.”

Calum and I exchanged a confused glance.

“What do you mean?” Calum asked.

“I mean that you two saw something downstairs and instead of asking me what happened or hearing my side of the story, you just decided to start packing your fucking bags and move out of the hotel.” He threw a shirt into the dresser with gusto. “And all that not twelve hours after you both made me your mate.”

“But…he’syour mate.”

“Was, Calum. WAS.”

“But–”

“I saw you kissing him,” I blurted out, unable to contain my anger and betrayal any longer. “I saw you two and the way he was holding you… I know what love looks like. I’m not stupid.”

“Maybe you’re not stupid, but you should get your eyes checked,” Sam shot back. “Because I wasn’t holding Rogerat all. I wasn’t even kissing him. He was kissing me and holding me. And if you two had stuck around for another ten seconds instead of running away, you would’ve heard me call him every terrible name in the book for forcing himself on me.”

The betrayal I felt turned immediately to fury as Sam’s words fell on my ears.

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