Page 45 of Rejected By My Stepbrother Alpha
What the hell was happening?
With a jolt, I realized that Asher didn’t know Damian was my brother.
“I can take it from here,” Damian said with ice in his voice.
They scowled at each other for another moment, and then Damian whisked me away from Asher. As he carried me through the door, I looked back at my former Mate one last time.
Our eyes locked, and a muscle ticced in Asher’s jaw.
My heart dropped, but I forced myself to look away and ignore the small part of me that wanted to stay with him.
Chapter 17
Unfinished Business
Asher
The view from my office window held no interest to me anymore. Not when the only thing I could see was Ivy's face.
I sighed and turned away from the bustling city below me. It had been two days since the wolf attacked Ivy, and I was worried sick about her. I had no idea how she was mentally or physically after being attacked by the wolf. I tried to get in contact with her at the hotel she was staying at or through her company, but each time I’d get connected to Damian Blackwood who would say that Ivy was fine and she didn't want to see me. When I asked Healer Emery, he told me that Ivy was all right, but he couldn't say anything else because of patient confidentiality.
But I didn't want to hear that Ivy was okay from someone else. I wanted to hear it from her. I wanted to see her with my own eyes or at least hear her voice through the phone. And why the hell was Damian speaking for her? Why did he seem so protective over her? My hands clenched into tight fists as I paced my office. He was technically her boss. They had to be business colleagues, nothing more.
Or at least that was what I was telling myself so that I didn't go crazy.
After Damian had carried Ivy away from me that night, I'd called my guards stationed around the border and asked if there had been a breach in security. They said there hadn't been, so that meant that the wolf who had attacked Ivy either got past all of my guards and cameras, or the asshole had been given clearance to enter my territory.
I wasn't fond of either of those possibilities. Either way, I've doubled my security and have stationed warriors all throughout the woods. My wolf was going just as crazy as me inside my head. The last two nights I've spent running in my wolf form through the woods past the hotel Ivy was staying in. I was afraid that the wolf would come back and try to finish Ivy off. Along with my guards, I'd been searching for the wolf, but we hadn't found anything yet.
As I ran, images of Ivy from the past and present haunted me. I thought of her white dress from her mating ceremony and the one from my father’s gala. The way she looked was one of the only details I could still remember from the night. I also remembered her smile when she rejected me and the look of betrayal when I had rejected her.
All of these images blurred together in my mind until it was impossible to think straight.
If I looked on the slightly bright side of things, we had somewhat cleared the air between us. I was glad that she had been given the opportunity to say what she needed to. Her words from that night were branded in my head.
I'm happy that you rejected me. You rejecting me made me into the strong, confident woman I am today. Sorry to break it to you, but I haven’t spent the last seven years crying and pining over you. I actually went out and made something of myself.
I was proud of the confident businesswoman that Ivy had turned out to be. I was impressed as hell that she was the vice president of Blackwood Inc. and that she obviously demanded respect in every room she walked into. Her newfound confidence was one of the things I found most attractive about her.
After I’d bandaged her wound, we had been connecting before Damian had interrupted us, hadn't we? I apologized for rejecting her,and my sentiment truly seemed to mean something to her. And we had almost kissed. Our lips had been centimeters apart before Ivy had pulled away. I’d been close enough to feel the heat coming off her body and to inhale that honeysuckle scent.
Ivy’s eyes had roamed over my naked body like she had the same fantasies about me like I did about her. Just from her body language that night, I could tell that she felt the insistent pull between us, too. It was going to be nearly impossible to stay away from each other.
My feelings for Ivy were still complicated. Dealing with them was like trying to pick a beautiful rose off of a vine full of thorns. There was this overwhelming desire to protect and have Ivy all to myself. This intense need was mixed with regret for hurting her and our unresolved issues from the past. I still didn't know if Ivy had been working with her mom to steal all of my father's assets, but seeing her being attacked and injured changed something in me. But I was still at a loss about how I felt about her.
I wanted to talk to her more about everything. I wanted to hear her side of the story—something I should have done before I rejected her.
Something that I couldn't stop thinking about was that it seemed like I'd been led by a powerful force to her the night of her attack. That night when we’d been talking, I’d glanced down at the scar on my left palm—the same one that Ivy had on her hand. At the time, my stomach twisted in surprise. Over the years, the scar had grown faint until I could barely see it anymore. But now that Ivy and I were together again, my scar was coming in, growing more red and bold. And I'd gotten a glimpse of Ivy's scar. Hers was growing more prominent, too.
Did that mean that our Fated Mates bond was trying to repair itself? I couldn't know for sure. There weren't many past examples to go by since the rejection of a Fated Mate was rare. But our mating bond being intact could explain why I still felt an intense desire for her. Why it felt like half of my soul was missing. Maybe these past seven years our bond had been holding on by a thread, waiting for us to find our way back to each other.
But maybe that was just wishful thinkingon my part.
Ivy and I still had unfinished business, and talking about everything would be good for both of us. Why wouldn't she talk to me? Why was she allowing Damian to speak for her? I just wanted—needed—to hear her voice to know that she was all right. I couldn't get the image of her bleeding wound out of my head. I'd barely slept since that night because I couldn’t shut my mind off.
A knock on my door interrupted my restless thoughts.
“Can I come in?” Cooper asked, standing in the open doorway outside my office.
