Page 20 of Sold Rejected Mate
When I finally get a call to go back through, Kalen tells me about the fire. It’s east of town, and he gives me the location for staging.
But my mind isn’t on the fire, or getting ready for it.
My mind is on the woman in the room down the hall, maybe still asleep, with no idea that I’m planning to leave.
I can’t leave her on her own. She might need something. And I still have no idea what the hell is wrong with her leg—I’ve never seen a healing limb getmorebruised. If it doesn’t start to look better in a few days, I’ll have to get a pack doctor out here.
The moment the call ends, I’m pulling back, finding a different contact, and calling.
“Lachlan?” Phina’s voice is surprised but gentle
It’s not like me and the new pack luna are friends. In fact, back in high school, I joined right in on making fun of her, pointing out her connection to the most notorious family in town. Once she came back and was living in Xeran’s house, I could tell that something was different. That she was his mate. And I knew he was just trying to find a way he could claim her without embarrassing himself publicly and making a spectacle. Because when she had tried to claim him back in high school, he had announced—essentially, in front of the entire pack—that he wasnotfated to her.
And that’s not the kind of thing you can come back from easily, lying to the whole pack.
But they did, and our packmates are accepting of them, even if a few of the older ones still tut about Seraphina when they’re sure neither the alpha supreme nor luna can hear them.
“Hey,” I finally say, clearing my throat. “I’m going out for the fire call—”
“Xeran already left,” she says. “Did he forget his phone?”
“No. I was hoping you could come out to my place?”
She’s quiet for a moment. “What?”
“Did he tell you about the…situation?”The fact that I basically adopted a strange woman, even though I have no idea who she is, and she doesn’t really seem to like me that much?
“Oh,” she says, recognition flooding into her voice. “You’d like me to stay with her while you’re gone?”
“She can’t really walk,” I say, and then, stupidly, “I could pay you—”
“No,” she laughs, and I can picture her shaking her head on the other side of the line. “You don’t have to pay me. I’ll come.”
And she does, bringing her daughter, who gapes at my house. Just like I was gaping at her when she—nearly single-handedly—stopped the last wildfire from swallowing our town.
“Make yourselves at home,” I say, knowing I’m late and trying to hurry out the door. “She’s in the guest room. Just…be gentle when you talk to her. She’s very skittish.”
Seraphina nods and tells me it will be fine. Then I’m sprinting out to the Jeep, throwing in my bag, and driving way too fast on the back roads to get to the staging area.
“It’s at nine hundred and climbing!” Soren calls the moment I’m out, standing in a little pull-off on the east side of town, hastily pulling on my gear. The fire is already approaching—I can feel the heat in the air, shimmering, oppressive. “The others went to circle around,” Soren adds.
“Right,” I growl, turning to find the gleaming red engine behind me. “Should we use the hose?”
Together, we unwind the long, long hose from the engine and plod forward until we find the wall of flames dancing and twirling around the trees. They burn up, twisting like noodles from a bowl plucked up into the air.
“Looks like a damn tornado,” Soren breathes, and when I glance at him, his face is blue and purple, lit with the hues of the approaching fire.
“Well,” I say as I grab the hose, pull the lever that will release the extinguisher, and gesture for him to hit the switch on the engine. “I guess we’re storm chasers now.”
Chapter 11 - Valerie
Seraphina Winward looks completely different now.
It’s been over a decade since the last time I saw her, and time has changed her, filled out the sharp angles of her face, and given her an air of confidence. I think about seeing Xeran in the hospital, that strange, new edge to his typical Sorel scent.
That new edge was Phina. They mated.
Somehow, Seraphina Winward—from one of the worst families in town, sister to Lucian—managed to mate with the alpha supreme, even after he publicly rejected her back in high school.
