Page 3 of Rejection and Redeemed
“Look,” Creswell growled out, getting annoyed. “You might not like it, you might not like me, but get this through your head: this is my pack now, not your father’s and certainly not yours. You can either help me through this transition or get out.”
“It’s still my house,” Jacob ground out. “You have no right to it.”
“I have every right to it. Your father lost an Alpha fight. Everything he owned automatically passed to Alpha Pullman, who, not wanting it, passed it along to the new Alpha, namely me. Everything that was in your father’s name now comes to me, with the exception of anything that Alpha Pullman wants for restitution against your father.”
“But that’s not how it works! Father told me only pack land and holdings can be held by an Alpha who wins an Alpha fight,” Jacob said.
“That’s not true, Jacob. When your father lost the fight yesterday, literally everything he owned, down to his clothes, became the property of the new Alpha. I know this was your family home, so I’ll let you keep anything you want to remember your family by. Hell, you can take everything except the furniture if you want to. But this house, the pack lands, this pack is all now mine.”
“And what’s supposed to happen to me?” Jacob asked, suddenly scared for the first time. Was he about to be kicked out of his home, his pack, with just trinkets?
“You can stay in this house until you find somewhere else to live, and stay part of the pack, but you will not be the next Alpha. You will not even be in my inner circle. You will become just a regular packmate.”
“How is that fair?” Jacob demanded. “I can’t go from Alpha heir to nothing.”
“Why not? Other people have managed to go on and live happy lives, I don’t see why you should be any different. I’m going easy on you. Wasn’t it you who rejected your mate because he couldn’t shift into a wolf? Was it not you who got him kicked out of the pack with just a couple of bags?”
“What?” Jacob exclaimed. “Yes, I rejected him, but I didn’t kick him out, that was my father and his father. I had nothing to do with that.”
Cresswell stared at him. “Did you care enough about him after you rejected him to go and see how he was? Did you try and find him and make sure he was okay? All those are things an Alpha or an Alpha heir should have done. You didn’t. How many times have you checked on the welfare of your pack members? How many times have you helped them out? What exactly have you done to show them you’d be a better Alpha than your father?”
“I looked into finding Fintan, but the council website didn’t say where he was, plus I looked into reversing the breaking of the mating bond, and anyway Alphas don’t do that. They rule their packs with fear. If someone is sick, tough, they should have been strong enough not to get sick. Only a weakling asks for help,” Jacob said, repeating his father's teachings. Surely Romsey knew this, this was how an Alpha leads.
Cresswell looked at him with pity. “That’s not how an Alpha leads, and it shouldn’t be how an Alpha thinks, either. The Council has received so many complaints from members of this pack, that even if he wasn’t challenged, he would have been investigated and removed as Alpha.”
Jacob shook his head in shock. “Who complained? What the hell did anyone have to complain about? My father was a goodAlpha. He ruled this pack with an iron fist, he was feared. We’ve not been told about any complaints made against my father.”
“Your father wouldn’t have known until a council official turned up. Can’t you see that therein lies the problem, Jacob? He should have been respected, not feared.” The Alpha paused and looked at him. “Do you have any important papers in this office?”
Jacob nodded. “Second drawer down in that filing cabinet there,” he said, pointing. “That whole drawer is family matters and papers.”
Cresswell got up and tried to open the drawer.
“You need a key to get in it,” Jacob said with a smirk.
“And where is the key?” Cresswell asked pleasantly.
Jacob shrugged. “Who knows?”
Cresswell looked at him for a moment, then turned back to the drawer and, using his Alpha strength, pulled the drawer out. “Who needs a key?” Cresswell took the papers and put them on the desk. Then, he sat back down and started to open one.
“Don’t look at them! They’re family papers, dammit,” Jacob shouted angrily, jumping up and putting his hand on them.
“You’re beginning to annoy me, Jacob,” Cresswell growled out.
“Good, because you’ve annoyed me since I walked in here. I told you, these are family papers, they have nothing to do with you. Now hand them over.”
The Alpha looked at him in anger, which was reflected in his eyes, and stood up, pushing out his Alpha power. “Move away and kneel.”
Jacob tried to resist, but Cresswell’s power was just too strong for him to ignore, and he moved away a few paces and dropped to his knees. He was fighting hard, but in the end, the Alpha’s power was too strong.
“Now, you will stay there until I have gone through these papers to see if they are all, in fact, just family documents,” Cresswell said, sitting down. “You had to do this the hard way, didn’t you?”
Jacob didn’t answer, he just shot looks of hate at Romsey while he went through the folders of paperwork.
It took some time but finally, Cresswell closed the last folder and looked at Jacob. “All of these folders except this one, relates to family papers. You may have these,” he said, picking them up and putting them on the edge of the desk near Jacob. “This one, however, stays here.” He left it in front of him. “You may stand and take these papers. You have four days to pack anything you want and then you will leave this house and move into the village, or you can leave the area completely. The choice is yours. Now go, I’ve had enough of you for now.” And with that, he pulled back his Alpha power and let Jacob go.
Jacob stood without saying a word and, grabbing the folders off the desk, he stormed out of the study, slamming the door behind him. He ran up to his room.
