Page 11 of Rejected Mate

CHAPTER FIVE

Beagoodgirl.

I ground my teeth as I replayed the hallway scene over and over. Ares was an ass, but his words rang true. My packhadbeen growing weaker. Wasn’t that why I had been sent here in the first place? A match with a male from a powerful pack would solidify our place in the hierarchy for another generation. It would protect us from rivals and ensure offspring that could survive.

Unfortunately, pups had been few and far between lately, and those that survived were frail. My generation was the last strong and healthy one. Only one pup had been born after me, my aunt and uncle’s daughter, Lizzie, and my parents had only been blessed with one child. No one was sure what was happening, but my grandfather felt he knew how to fix it: send me out to find a strong mate. Our family hadn’t had to participate in the competition for many years, but things were changing.

Like I needed that on my shoulders.

But what now? A vampire as a mate? No. I could never. Besides, how would that help our status at all? Packs and covens didn’t intermingle, let alone date or make babies. I didn’t even know if that was possible. Sure, I’d heard of rumors of viable matings between the two species, but I’d also heard there was a Loch Ness monster and a man on the moon, and we all knew that was fake.

“Isn’t this nice?”

I glanced up to see Violet slip into the chair beside me.

We were in the shared suite they assigned us, a large, expansive area with two bedrooms, a shared bathroom, a giant closet, and a beautifying area. I’d never seen anything like it. The tall ceilings and expensive furniture were far more luxurious than what we had back home. Everything was dipped in gold or sparkled with crystal. My mahogany bed frame held a bed so large one could get lost in it for days.

There were fresh flowers on the side tables, making the room smell like I imagined the gardens outside did, the ones we could only see and not experience. Yeah, those. Trays of finger sandwiches, cakes, and fresh fruit sat on tables for whenever we got peckish. It was as if every one of our desires was thought about and accounted for, everyone except that of freedom.

A gilded cage, I thought, as I settled into the crushed-velvet armchair in the salon area of our suite.

After the incident in the common room, the guards escorted the females to their rooms in pairs. Violet and I had been assigned this suite together, something I was grateful for since I was pretty sure I would have to suffocate that Laurel girl with a pillow on night one if I’d hung around her much longer. My relief ended, however, once they started the beautifying process. We’d been stripped, scrubbed, and tweezed. Well, Violet had. I’d told one servant if she came near me with those tweezers, I was going to put them somewhere so deep she would have baby tweezers nine months later.

She’d been a smart girl and decided my eyebrows were the prettiest she’d ever seen.

“What, exactly, are we being dolled up for?” I asked one of the vampire servant girls as she shoved high heels on my feet. “Weren’t we dolled up enough already?” I didn’t think I could take much more primping.

“Dinner,” one of the maids said. They were dressed in matching black and white uniforms that called to mind maids from the nineteenth century. The outfit matched the castle’s decor, but not the vampire women themselves. I pictured them in leather, stalking the night streets, searching for prey.

Yet, here they were, subdued and proper. However, the vampire girls didn’t seem too happy to be pampering shifter women, and I didn’t blame them. If I were in their shoes, I wouldn’t like it either. I would be pissed that their males were searching for mating prospects among their enemies and not their own kind. The question was, why? Maybe the vampires only wanted to marry us so they could legally steal our lands. Or perhaps this was a ploy to eradicate us completely. Either way, no good could come from it.

“Don’t you think it’s weird?” I said to Violet, leaning over in my armchair when the vampire servant stepped out to find another pair of heels. “Why would vampires want to mate with shifters? I mean… is that even possible?”

Violet shrugged. “Maybe vampire girls are boring. These ones seem to be.”

My new friend’s long brown hair had been styled in ringlets that fell delicately over slim shoulders. Her dinner dress was lavender and contrasted nicely with her tan skin. It seemed purple was her favored hue, and it suited her as well as her name. She was really lovely, sweet, and demure. Maybe Ares would want her as his plaything. Why did I have a feeling she might not mind?

“It doesn’t make sense,” I repeated in a hurried whisper lest the maids came back and heard us. “Are they trying to start a war? Irritate the shifters into making the first move? Why else would they kill eligible males and steal all the females?”

Violet’s eyes went wide. “Theykilledthe males?”

Uh oh. Had she not considered that? What if she knew or was related to one or more of them? I quickly backpedaled.

“I don’t know that for sure. I’m just speculating. They’re probably fine. I’m sure they’re home watching this all on TV.”

“Oh.” She blinked long, mascaraed eyelashes as my words washed over her. “I just assumed they asked them to go home.”

“Maybe they did.” I patted her arm.

I wasn’t sure why, since she was the same age as me, but I felt protective of Violet. Maybe it was her doe eyes or her thin frame or the fact that her hands shook whenever there was a loud noise. Whatever the reason, I knew I had to protect her. Whatever was going on here, things weren’t set up in our favor, and even if Violet could muster up a bit of courage when needed, she appeared to be the kind of person who found it easier to go along with the flow of things.

She shook her head. “I just came here to mate. I didn’t expect any of this. I’ve never even been outside of our territory.”

“They kept you in?”

She nodded. “I’m the eldest daughter. The only thing I’m good for is finding a good match, and now…” Violet bit her lip as her chin wobbled.

“I’m sure your family doesn’t think mating is your only purpose.”

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