Page 1 of Rejection and Redeemed
CHAPTER 1
“I, Jacob Bishop, reject you, Fintan Fitzwilliams, as my fated mate,” Jacob declared, feeling a shaft of pain run through him.
Fintan sat there, in shock, gaping at him and not saying anything.
“Did you hear me?” Jacob demanded, clenching his jaw and staring at Fintan. “I just said, ‘I Jacob Bishop reject you Fintan Fitzwilliams as my fated mate.’”
He waited for the words to sink in to Fintan’s brain.
“I, Fintan Fitzwilliam, accept your rejection as my fated mate.”
Then without crying, begging, or anything, he watched as Fintan calmly got up and said, “Have a good life.” And with that, without even looking back, Fintan picked up his bag and walked out of the canteen.
Jacob had felt the moment his rejection was accepted, the sharp pain telling him so. He stood stock still, fighting with his wolf to not shift and run after his jilted mate. His wolf howled inside of him before he turned his back on Jacob and laid down. How could he feel so much pain, when he couldn’t scent pain from Fintan?
His friends walked over to him and laughed. “And you thought he would cry and beg you not to reject him,” Nidal said.
“That’s what was supposed to happen.” He had deliberately done it in the canteen to humiliate Fintan as his father demanded, but from the laughter of his friends and the other canteen patrons, he was the one humiliated. “Looks like I was mistaken,” Jacob growled out.
The day Jacob had scented his mate he was ecstatic and couldn’t wait to see who fate had chosen for him and who would be co-ruler of the pack. He had followed the scent and it had led him to Fintan Fitzwilliam. He had been shocked at first, but then happy. The fact that Fintan couldn’t shift didn’t register for a moment, he had found his mate and was overjoyed. He decided to tell his father first before he spoke to Fintan.
He had waited until breakfast the next morning.
“Father, I’ve found my mate.”
His father beamed. “Congratulations. Finding your mate so soon is a cause for celebrations. We shall have a large party; the entire pack will be in attendance. Who’s your mate?”
“Fintan Fitzwilliam,” Jacob said, happily. It was true that he didn’t know Fintan all that well, everyone having been told to stay away from him after not shifting on his 12thbirthday. But that would mean nothing now that Fintan was his mate.
His father jumped up angrily from the table and grabbed Jacob’s hair, spitting out in an angry rush, “You will say the words and break your mating to that thing. He will not be the next Alpha mate. You will break your mating in the most public place possible, so everyone knows that he’s been rejected.” His father yanked his head back as he completed his tirade, “And as he stands there, crying and begging you to take him back, you will laugh at him, turn your back on him, and walk away. Do I make myself clear?”
“But father, he’s my mate,” Jacob protested.
His father pulled him up by his hair. “Listen to me, boy. No son of mine, no Alpha heir, will have a non-shifting defective mate.” Letting go of Jacobs hair, he punched him in the stomach. “You’re due to be the next Alpha of this pack, you show weakness to no one. You rule harshly. You will follow my orders or face punishment.”
He was brought back to the present by Nidal laughing.
“So, it would seem.”
“It’s better this way, Jacob. You’re destined to be the next pack Alpha and Fintan can't even shift,” Joe said.
He finally managed to move, shoving his confusion and hurt away, and turned to look at his friends. “I know. Come on, lectures are about to start.”
Jacob jerked awake, but the nightmare continued. He rubbed his eyes with the heels of his hands, his mind still churning and emotions roiling.
He had heard from his friends that Fintan had been kicked out of his house on his arrival home that fateful day. Apparently, neighbours had witnessed his dad, Amos, attacking Fintan and literally throwing him out of the house. And his father had told Fintan he had registered him as a lone wolf with the Paranormal Council.
There had to be a way to take Fintan’s name off the lone wolf register. Being on there would make it neigh on impossible for Fintan to be able to join a new pack.
No one deserved that ... well some people did, but Fintan didn’t. He had no idea what to do and it wasn’t something he could ask his father. No, he’d have to research on his own and see if there was a way he could reverse the breaking of a mating bond.
He remembered thinking that by being an Alpha, Jacob would be given another mate, but not Fintan, no. He would be mateless for the rest of his life.
He rolled over in his bed and groaned. What was the point of going through this all again? His father had been killed by Alpha Pullman, all the research Jacob had done on reversing the breaking of a mating bond hadn’t worked and to top it all off, Fintan was mated to the Pullman Alpha Heir.
What were the odds of that happening? Well, quite high, obviously. Not even three weeks after he broke the mating bond, Fintan had a new one.
Jacob sat up, hitting his pillows and bunching them up, flopped down again, and in less than a month, he had a new mate as well. An as-yet unclaimed mate. A blue-haired beauty who lived in the Pullman pack.
