Page 11 of Rejected and Pregnant by the Lycan King

Alexander seethed with anger as he noticed Maximus holding me. I schooled my face to show no emotion, not wanting to provoke him further. Though I wasn’t sure if there was anything that wouldn’t set him off right now.

“Release her,” Alexander demanded.

Maximus snarled. “Over my dead body.”

Alexander stepped toward Maximus, and I was surprised that he didn’t tighten his hold on me. His heart rate stayed steady—just as it was when my father was glaring at him. Maximus wasn’t afraid at all. From the way his face looked, he hoped my father would dare try to take me from his grasp.

“She ismine,” my father snarled. “She is the only omega in this house who can clean correctly, and I will not allow her to be taken from me.”

That was it? That was all I was worth to this man I was supposed to call my father? He couldn’t even say it was because I was his daughter; he wanted Maximus to make a deal with him over my future. Some alphas demanded a bounty to trade off their females, and I thought that’s what would happen now.

Nope. Instead, I got a man who didn’t want me to leave because I could clean his toilet just right.

Maximus straightened his back, making him tower over Alexander as he leaned in toward him. “Say that again, and I will rip your fucking head from your shoulders. She ismine. My mate. Mine to protect. Mine to take from an abusive home to one that will show her what love is supposed to feel like.”

A snarl escaped him, and I trembled in his arms. I was used to snarls like that being directed at me. Maximus must have known what I was thinking because he leaned down to place a kiss on my forehead to calm me. I sighed and rolled my head to rest my cheek against his chest.

“So, either move out of my way, or I’ll make good on that threat to slaughter this pack.”

My father was too proud a man to let anyone, including our king, order him around. He stood firm on letting us leave, and I felt Maximus lower me onto the ground. It shocked me how I could stand after being down in the dungeon for so long, and I didn’t know how it was happening. But that shock faded as, like a bolt of lightning, Maximus moved quickly and struck my father with a crack of his fist against my father’s jaw. The thunderous sound of the impact echoed throughout the hall. Alexander went to the ground, and Maximus didn’t stop there. I heard the pounding of his fist hitting him over and over, turning into sickening wet smacks, and then I screamed.

My body trembled as Maximus’s anger barreled into me. Seeing and feeling his rage manifest in my father being a bloody pulp on the ground should have brought me some kind of joy, but feeling Maximus’s anger was too much for me. I didn’t want to be around anger anymore. He was supposed to be my place of calm. Even worse, I didn’t want him to continue down this path and kill those who didn’t deserve it.

“Max, stop!”

In the next second, Maximus’s arms were around me, and my face was against his chest. I heard him whispering, “It’s okay,” as he stroked my hair, and I felt my heart calm down, knowing his anger had subsided. He picked me up again and cradled me against him as we walked down the hall. A tall, lean man with black hair and gray eyes had Amara tucked in at his side. Eli. It was Eli beside her, the one person my best friend wanted who was now hers. I was so thrilled that my best friend had found amate that I felt like crying again. Maybe I would get to take the best thing from this pack with me as we left this wretched place.

“Let’s go home,” Maximus said to us.

Home. Yes. I finally had a home.

6

Maximus

For once, I let Eli drive my car so I could sit in the backseat with my mate. There wasn’t a chance I’d let her out of my arms, so I held her against me while my beta drove us home. His new mate, Amara, sat in the passenger seat, and I noticed she kept looking back to check on Kylie. At least one person in that group seemed to care about my mate. She needed someone, and I was glad she had Amara and that she was coming with us. Amara, like my mate, was powerless against the alpha. She was there for my mate when she took her beatings and punishments but ultimately helpless to prevent it from happening in the first place. A little comfort in her world of torment.

I still couldn’t believe I found my mate locked away in the dungeon. If it hadn’t been for her, I would have ripped Alexander apart for keeping her down there. Kylie looked far too thin for my liking, confirming my theory that he had starved her in that dungeon. The first thing I needed to do was haveher injuries assessed. Her lycan’s scent wasn’t strong, which also meant her lycan wasn’t powerful enough to rise to her full potential. Even if my mate was an omega, she should’ve had enough strength to heal her wounds.

“Why aren’t you healing, little omega? Is it because you were starved down there?”

I could hear her soft, even breathing and realized she was asleep—most likely due to the lack of energy. Amara glanced over the seat with a frown on her face.

“Kylie’s lycan hasn’t been strong enough to help her. She’s had the ability to shift for almost a year now, but I think she’s only done it three times. It takes a lot for her to shift, and her lycan healing is slow.”

My blood boiled hearing that. How could she be that weak? There was more to this story, and I would get to the bottom of it. My lycan wanted nothing more than to tell Eli to turn the damn car around so I could slaughter that pack and wipe their existence from the map. They didn’t deserve to breathe the same air as my mate.

Though most of these thoughts came from my lycan, I had to agree. This was proof I needed to look more closely into the packs under my care. I might have done a lot since I took the throne, but clearly not enough. Things needed to change once I got back.

Well, after I tended to my mate first.

Kylie slept on me the entire way home. When we pulled into the driveway, her eyes fluttered open as I moved from the seat.Amara rushed to my side when I got out of the car, but Eli dragged her away and tucked her under his arm. Eli understood just as much as I did about protecting a mate. Amara might have been a female close to Kylie, but after what we went through at the pack house, my lycan would be on edge if anyone approached me right now. I saw everyone as an enemy, regardless of who they were, because my mate was so badly injured.

It was tough navigating the halls when my pack wanted to greet me. Eli told them all to move out of my way, and thankfully, they listened. I took Kylie right to the pack doctor, and she was on a stretcher within several minutes. The doctor let loose a few growls as he examined each bruise and muttered something under his breath about carelessness.

“What’s the verdict, Doc?”

Anthony, the doctor, was an older lycan. His soft brown eyes met mine as he shook his head. His anger etched even more wrinkles onto his already-lined face. He looked upset about the state my mate was in, and it eased me a little to see him care for her so much already.

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