Page 40 of Rejected Exile

For both of us.

I don't expect her to thank me for what I've told her. Curse words would be more apt. Maybe a few threats or taunt.

But the last thing I expect is for her to twist her lips in a snarl, take twolargesteps forward, and shove me backwards.

As I slip off the porch steps, my arms briefly, comically, windmill—then I fall anyway. My ass hits the ground first, followed by the rest of me. Awhumphleaves my lips along with all the air in my lungs.

Staring up at the afternoon sky, I can't feel anything but shock. The Delilah I knew would never do that. She didn't have that much anger inside her—or that much strength.

"You're an asshole, Kieran." Stalking towards me, she leans down to glare at me from above. The afternoon sun lights the back of her head, making her hair glow like bits of magic. "I don't know why my father left you that totem—I'm sure he knew, just like everyone else around town, that you've turned into a worthless do-nothing of an adult. Maybe he just forgot to take you out of his will before he died.

"What Idoknow, with absolute certainty, is that one vote on the council doesn't make you god. It makes you one of three. All I need is for the other two votes to go to an alpha who will let me stay in town—something that'll be easy, considering I'm beloved and missed around here.

"So make your empty threats. Say whatever insulting things you want. I'm not leaving." She smirks at me, then kneels and reaches for my face. I wince, but all she does is wipe a smear of dirt off my cheek.

In a low voice she adds, "Since you're going to be doing some work around the house, you should know—I don't let trash inside on my hardwood floors. Stay out here and pull the weeds instead. You can start with the six-foot tall one lying on the ground like a dumbass."

Then she stands up, wheels around, and stalks back into the house—closing the door behind her with a finality I feel all the way down to my bones.

Fourteen

Delilah

It shouldn't bug me, what Kieran said. He alreadyrejectedme; I've been exiled for seven years, lied to about my wolf, and kept from my culture. But something about him having one of the totems and vowing to keep me out of Juniper is just too much on top of everything else.

So as I stalk into the house, I have to take a moment to shake the anger off me. Cat, who's sitting in the kitchen, notices. She holds out an empty mug and raises a brow at me.

"Need some more coffee? Or maybe a little tea—you look... irritated."

"Just more of the same nonsense."

My mind keeps replaying that conversation in my head. It didn't seem like Kieran knew about the microchip, or that I'm not really shiftless. So he rejected me because he didn't want a mate without a wolf.

That shouldn't still hurt. Itshouldn't.But it does. Here he is, by all accounts a broken man seeking a high in the arms ofvampires,and still, he thinks he's too good for me.

"You sure you don't need some tea?"

I shoot Cat a smile, taking a deep breath and mentally filing my worries away. "I need something to hit with a hammer."

"That's my girl." She jerks her head towards the living room. "Roarke and Finn went upstairs to fix the leaky plumbing, but Lance stayed down here. He's cleared out the furniture in the living room so he can peel up the warped flooring and put down some new boards. Bet you could join him."

"Sounds like a plan."

"First..." Cat's voice tugs me over to her, and she lowers her voice as I lean in towards her. "Those three are absolutelysmoking.If you're going to stick around this place, I think you should avail yourself of a few of the perks. Like maybe climbing one of them—or all three."

I wrinkle my nose, even though the idea has occurred to me more than once. "All three? Cat, we don't all have your ability to multitask."

"Oh, my younger days." She sighs forlornly—like her days of wild dating escapades are in the past, when I know for a fact she still gets up to trouble regularly. "Take a page out of my book, Lilah, and don't pass up an opportunity for a little fun."

"I'll consider it," I tell her, trying to ignore how nervous the merethoughtof hooking up with a werewolf male makes me. "Where's my tool belt?"

"Right here. Though if you ask me, it should be other tools you think about."

I roll my eyes. "No more dirty puns."

"Try and stop me."

Lance is in the living room, just like Cat said, kneeling at the edge of a cleared-off space free of furniture. He's gotten a few of the warped hardwood planks up and is working on more; the ruined wood sits to one side, while replacement boards are piled up in a corner, unwrapped and ready to go.

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