Page 24 of Rejected and Pregnant by the Lycan King

I thought about it for a long time and sighed. “I don’t know.”

“You don’t think that witch put a curse on her, too, do you?” Eli said, and the way I stared at him had Eli looking off to the side before he answered the question I hadn’t spoken. “She’s a witch. What if she could see into the future and find out who your mate was supposed to be and weakened her?”

It seemed like an answer, but it wasn’t. “No, Kylie said this has always been the case for her. That would mean the witch would have had to go back in time to curse her, and I don’t think magic extends that far.”

He shrugged. “If only that was the case. We could’ve just tracked down Zephyrine and made her undo the damn spell.”

“If only.”

Eli stepped in to help with the research. We dug through every source to uncover anything that could explain Kylie’s condition and whether a cure existed. I had never been the best at navigating research or the depths of the internet, so his presence was more than welcome. Despite his best efforts, no answers surfaced. There wasn’t a single record of anyone experiencing this before. It was entirely uncharted territory with no guidance or solutions. We were left with nothing but uncertainty.

So what the hell was going on with my mate?

“This makes no sense. How can her lycan be this weak if she wasn’t cursed? There is no condition out there that we know about or has been documented before like this, either.” I growled as I restrained myself from throwing the computer against the wall.

“I wish I knew the answer. What has the pack doctor said about this?”

“Nothing. He doesn’t have the answer, either. Kylie should have healed from the injuries inflicted by her father, and that should have been it. Her lycan is just weak.”

Eli growled and stood from his chair. “Don’t give up on her, Max. I know how you think. This has to be part of Zeph’s curse. Don’t discard something just because it’s not working out the way you think it should.”

“What else am I supposed to do, Eli? I have an entire kingdom to look after. If I have to be at her side to lend her my strength through touch, that doesn’t sound like I’m going to be an excellent king.”

He shook his head and sighed. “Why does the kingdom matter when you have your mate who needs you more? You’re doing a damn good job balancing both.”

“I can’t keep balancing both if this keeps going on!”

He walked toward the door and looked back at me with an unreadable expression on his face. “The Moon Goddess gave you a gift, and you need to treasure her while you still can. If you think this is defining her, you aren’t seeing the bigger picture. Whether it’s something that will fade away, something you needto work on, or something that she will face for the rest of her life, it doesn’t matter. You are mated now, and she is yours to love and cherish forever.” He sighed and walked through the doorway. “Don’t let your pride get in the way, Max.”

Pride. Was that what this was? I felt like this would damage my reputation as king, and that’s why I didn’t want a mate who was visibly so weak? The idea of rejecting her came to mind again, and my lycan snarled at me.

No. Mate needs us.

If she needs us to be in constant contact to survive, she could become a liability.

If you aren’t around, the pack can keep her safe.

It’s not the pack’s job to keep her safe! It’s ours!

Then protect her!

The lycan’s fury surged through me, threatening to take control. I shoved him down and locked him away in a cage deep within me. I was unwilling to battle his rage on top of everything else going on. There were no answers to Kylie’s condition, no solutions laid out before me, and that left only one brutal choice—to decide my next move. If she couldn’t regain her strength, if her weakness put the kingdom at risk, then rejecting my mate might be the only path forward. A harsh truth, but one I might have to face.

Kylie had brought happiness into my life that I didn’t know was missing. Just knowing she was upstairs waiting for me was enough to lift my spirits. Thinking of her gave me the drive topush through everything standing between us so I could get back to her. It had been that way from the moment I brought her home, and the thought of losing her was something I couldn’t stomach. But as king, the weight of tough choices rested solely on my shoulders, whether I wanted it to or not.

That was the dilemma. If I went through with this, it would be the hardest choice I’d ever have to make. Fated mates were rare—a bond not easily discarded—and rejecting one wasn’t a decision to be made on impulse. Yet, keeping Kylie bound to me just to sustain her, just to give her enough strength to survive, felt just as dangerous. Neither path was simple, and neither could be taken lightly.

Either path meant sacrifice. No matter which way I turned, something or someone would be lost. If I kept Kylie tethered to me just to sustain her, I would weaken not only her but also the kingdom’s faith in its queen. And if I let her go, I would lose the mate I had barely known. A month was nothing, a blink, yet it had already reshaped everything.

There was no simple answer, no clear direction forward. The weight of responsibility pressing down on me demanded that I make a choice no one should have to face.

I exhaled sharply as the scent of coconut drifted through the air. Why did Nova have to come in now? She strode in like she owned the place, sinking into the chair with practiced ease. The little clothing she wore left much to the imagination. There was only a small scrap of fabric wrapped tightly around her chest, and the skirt rode so high that it barely qualified as clothing. The curve of her bare skin was impossible to ignore. She shifted seductively in a deliberate display that only aggravated my mood further.

“What do you want, Nova?” I said through my teeth.

This wasn’t something I had time for. Two hours had passed since I left the room, and the bond pulled at me, demanding I return to Kylie. But ignoring it came easier than I expected. I had other matters to handle, and pushing aside the instinct to be near her wasn’t the struggle I had anticipated. I’d heard that the bond’s intensity faded over time, that the craving for proximity eventually dulled—but for it to feel so effortless already? That was unsettling.

Maybe I didn’t want this bond as much as I thought I did. My lycan wasn’t demanding to see her, either. After I put him in the cage, he seemed content to be away from her.

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