Page 27 of Wolf's Rejected Mate

I turned away and pretended to busy myself in the kitchen.

“Five minutes,” I informed him. “Then I’m leaving.”

He sighed heavily behind me, and the bathroom door clicked shut. Leaning over the sink, I exhaled the breath I’d been holding. This was too hard already. He hadn’t even been there a full day, and I was already at my wits’ end.

I pulled myself together by the time Elijah exited the bathroom and marched toward the back door. To my surprise, he didn’t pepper me with questions. In fact, he didn’t speak at all as we headed back into the shed.

“Are you going to lock me in?”

I stared at him, dumbfounded, when we re-entered the structure.

“What? Of course not. You’re not a prisoner, Elijah. I’m trusting you to do the right thing here.”

“What do you think that is, exactly?”

The query took me aback. He hadn’t asked me that before.

“I think…” I trailed off, feeling the burn of his beautiful eyes on me, eyes I’d envisioned thousands, if not millions, of times when I’d tried to sleep. He was here, right in front of me, and I was telling him to go. “I think you need to get out of Pario City.”

“Because it’s not my town anymore?”

I inhaled sharply. “Because it’s not safe for you, Elijah.”

Again with that cocky grin, and I rolled my eyes, wishing I’d known better than to take him seriously.

“I’m immortal, remember?”

“So that’s your big plan? Just keep taking blows? To what end? That’s dumb.”

He laughed, his eyes twinkling under the buzzing, bright bulb.

“Yeah, it is dumb,” he agreed. “I don’t have a plan. Not yet.”

Annoyed, I whirled away, wishing I hadn’t engaged with him. I’d forgotten how infuriating he could be—and how easily I succumbed to his charisma.

“Have a good day at work,” he called sweetly.

I grunted and hurried out, senses fully heightened to assess for nosy neighbors. I’d have to be extra careful while Elijah figured out his next move—whatever the hell that might be.

Chapter13

Elijah

Great. This was just great.

There was no accounting for how many times I stood up from the makeshift bed on the floor to open the door to the shed and leave, but Abby’s words stopped me every time.

“It’s not just about you. You’ll be putting me at risk, too.”

What did that mean? Was she afraid of Orson?

It was difficult to imagine that the same shifter who had worked at my side for the better part of a century had suddenly turned into a brute of whom my mate was afraid. But it was also like Abby had said, things were different now. The question was, just how different.

Abby could handle herself—she always had been able to, but now there was an edge to her that I hadn’t seen before. I never wanted her to be a part of my business back then. It wasn’t fair to pull her into the dredges of society where her beautiful hands might get sullied.

It seemed that Orson had no issue with that.

But I had no right to condemn him for that or anything else. He had been here while I hadn’t. He had provided for my mate while I had been holed away, unaware. And as much as I liked to ignore it, I had started it all with my rejection of Abby in the first place. I had no small part to play in this mess.

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