Page 3 of Rejected By Blood (Mated in Silence 2)

“Really? I think it’s one of the nicest parts of the wood. Feels so ancient with the big trees and plants I haven’t found anywhere else. Isn’t that why you’re here?”

I snorted.I am collecting fiddleheads for the feast.I wanted to write that unlike some people I didn’t have a lot of time for aimlessly cavorting among the ancient giants. Only for collecting their bounty. But that was a lot of scribbling.

“And I come along and not only surprise you but make you drop them. Let me help!” He dropped to his knees, landing on a goodly portion of the ferns and I suppressed a groan. Enthusiastically, he piled them in the baskets before I could stop him. Now I’d have to sort the intact from the crushed before the bad started rotting all over the good. “There, that’s all of them, isn’t it?” He looked up at me from his position, a hopeful smile lifting the corners of his lips.

I nodded.

“Then maybe you’ll walk with me a bit? Then I’ll escort you home.” As if it were a done deal, he tucked my baskets under one arm and used the other to link with mine. “It’s nice to have company.”

With the way he held me, I couldn’t write, and therefore couldn’t protest, I needed to sort the ferns, to get more ferns...and I needed not to be so close to a man who had my wolf excited and not in a negative way.

She was all wound up and rumbling inside me.

“You are Jillian, right?” He chatted on about the trees and the birds, the other ferns...all the things that made this part of the forest so special. Sometimes I half expected a dinosaur to appear from behind a tree. Maybe a saber-toothed tiger. My fantasies knew no bounds but this was one that could not happen. Any thoughts of him stopping and taking me in his arms, of his kissing me and telling me he was my mate must be suppressed.

Dean did not deserve to be thrown off guard that way. He’d mentioned more than once his lack of understanding on the non-traditional relationships in the pack. And I couldn’t really explain that they were actually very traditional. Just because humans didn’t often choose to have several partners didn’t mean we had to be the same. My wolf was very enthusiastic about adding to our family, but Dean…

How would that pay him back for everything he’d done for me?

I waited for him to loosen his grip then stepped away and scribbled on my pad.Nice to meet you but I have to go home.

“Absolutely, I’ll walk you there.”

I shook my head. I need to get more ferns first.

“Well I can’t just leave you here all alone,” he protested, a lock of hair falling over his eyes in his distress. “I can wait.”

Nobody ever comes here...I’m safe.

“I came here, so obviously some people do…” Could this guy not take a hint.

Thank you but please go.I thrust the page at him then turned and double-timed it through the forest. Another minute and my wolf would have had me kissing him. I couldn’t fight her forever.

Chapter Four

Dean

“We have a summons from the alpha, Jillian. He says first thing this morning.” I loved her name, the way it felt right on my tongue, so I said it as much as possible.

My mate had come in from picking ferns with something on her shoulders the night before--I could just tell. Her eyebrows remained dipped down and her posture was tense. She seemed distracted.

I wished she could tell me with her own voice what was wrong.

And I wished I could fix whatever it was for her.

She turned toward me and rolled her eyes. Meetings with the alpha were not her favorite thing, and that was a nice way to put it.

“I know you don’t want to go, but I don’t want you to get into trouble.”

Shrugging one shoulder, she got out of bed. She wasn’t shy anymore. Just a few weeks ago, she would have hurried to cover herself up, often taking the bedsheet with her, but now she had no qualms about walking around me in nothing.

I wasn’t complaining, not one bit.

“I was also thinking about going to town to call my parents. Did you want to come with me?” I’d never broached the subject of my parents or my family with her. She’d brought it up several time but since I was still wrestling with it myself, I didn’t see the point.

She whirled around and then jumped into bed with me. Concern was written all over her face.

“It’s okay. I’m sure they are worried. I just want to tell them I’m okay and not to be concerned. I’d like to introduce you to them one day, but I know it will be a while. I’m not really ready to face them yet.”

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