Page 4 of Tolerated By the Sigma (Mate Hunt 7)

Well, now, I wasn’t sure which of us had the short end of the stick.

Me, probably.

I was no prize turkey, but I wasn’t a bitch, and logic told me that Ryder probably had an assload of lingering emotional shit after everything his mate—err, almost-mate—had put him through.

Fuck, this was a mess.

“So… you’ve already done this whole hunting thing,” I told the wolf, gesturing between him and me.

He bobbed his head, his expression still solemn.

“Your… first mate, I guess? Well, she was a bitch. Still is a bitch, to be honest. I almost started a fist fight with her the other day. Or was that earlier today? My current take on time is all wonky, thanks to this.” I gestured between us awkwardly. “I think you and I met before, once or twice. Your human was probably driving then. Anyway, I’m Charly Kelley. I’m a guidance counselor at the high school in town, so I know werewolves. I grew up here, for the most part, so I’m not new to any of this. If you want to skip the whole hunting thing, you can just bite me. That’s fine.”

Oscar blinked at me.

And then blinked again.

And then shook his head.

Damn, I had been hoping that would work. The hunting portion of the mating bond sounded annoying for both parties.

Guess there was no way around it, though.

“Okay then, we should probably go inside. Are you going to attack me for smelling like my ex-date?” I checked.

The wolf glared at me.

“That’s not a no.” I folded my arms over my chest.

A werewolf could never hurt his mate, but honestly, I was a bit lost as to whether or not he and I could really be mates at all.

How much of this situation was real?

What if Ryder’s wolf had just taken over to protect me, and he didn’t actually see me as his mate?

I’d never heard of a rejected guy having a second-chance mate. But… that didn’t mean it wasn’t possible, did it? There was only one other rejected guy in town, and he was a wild, violent asshole. Everyone knew to avoid him and his house, because the main alpha was moments away from killing him to protect the rest of us at any time of any day. The only reason he was still alive was because he hadn’t actually killed anyone yet, though he’d gotten pretty damn close to that with his mate before she rejected him.

But anyway, that was a long time ago.

Ryder was the first reject in… ages. Since I was a kid, honestly. Rejection wasn’t even something werewolves really feared because of just how rare it was.

But Lisa was a bitch, and Ryder got hosed by fate.

So… maybe he deserved a second chance.

But how the hell was it me?

He was probably four or five years older than me, and werewolves were usually mated to someone whose age was the same or almost the same as theirs; usually within a year or two.

And I wasn’t exactly mate material. Everyone in town had looked at me like one of the guys until I’d graduated high school. Then I’d become a potential mate that everyone wanted to meet—and then, I’d become the awkward human girl who they thought was only in town because of her sister.

I loved Moon Ridge; I would never choose to move away. But the town didn’t exactly know that. And even if they had, something told me they wouldn’t really care.

Okay, maybe I was a little bitter.

I really needed to focus on the here-and-now, but that really wasn’t my specialty.

Oscar—the wolf—started to growl at the window, his voice low and tone warning.

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