Page 28 of His Rejected Mate

Seeing the look on my face, Crew grunted. “Yeah. You see where this is going. It didn’t go well.”

“I get that your parents wanted you paired with someone of higher standing, but you could have told them to go to hell. Especially if you reallydidlove Chelsey.” Him bowing to his parents’ wishes and severing ties with a woman he loved struck me as cowardly. In the short time I’d known him, Crew came off as anything but a coward.

Crew looked as if I’d punched him in the gut. “You don’t get it. We fought about it, but my parents wouldn’t hear any of it. I defended Chelsey, tried to get them to see my side of it—that Chelsey was amazing, and I wanted to spend my life with her, but they’re too set in their ways.

“I told myself I didn’t care what they said or what they wanted, that I’d be with Chelsey no matter what. We were happy for a few months. I sent word to my parents that they would be invited to the mating ceremony, but if they didn’t come, they could enjoy life without me.” His lip curled in disgust. “That’s when I received avisitfrom my dear parents.”

A chill went up my spine when he looked into my eyes again. I didn’t dare speak. Whatever he was about to say was obviously painful, and I didn’t want to interrupt.

Tears welled in his good eye as he continued his story. “They came to my house and gave me an ultimatum. I reject Chelsey and choose a moreappropriatemate, or there would be…consequences. They handed me a folder full of pictures of Chelsey and her family that had been taken from a distance. Simple pictures of them going about their lives. Her parents, her little brother, one of her cousins she’s really close with—the whole family.” He let out a bitter laugh that broke my heart. “My mother pointed at her little brother and said, ‘It would be a shame for this little boy to have his brains blown out in front of his sister.’”

“Holy fucking gods,” I breathed, putting a hand to my mouth.

“Then my father said he’ll have every one of them killed if I chose to mate with Chelsey. He looked me in the eyes, Kira—the man who taught me to ride a bike, who gave me hugs and kisses on my birthdays. It was like he was a whole different person. He said, ‘I’d rather not have a son at all than have a son who would mate with and put his dick into trash.’ He called Chelsey trash, and…” A sob tore out of him. “I couldn’t even defend her. They were serious. They would do it. Nothing is more important to Chelsey than her family. I couldn’t let that happen. So,” he paused and took a steadying breath, “to save her and her family, I rejected her. My parents forced me to do it with the media present so I couldn’t take it back.”

Crouching, I put a hand on Crew’s knee. “I amsosorry, Crew. I can’t imagine how awful that was for you.”

He nodded and wiped at his remaining eye. “It gets worse. Afterward, my parents acted all fucking happy and shit. They started parading in all these vapid rich women from other packs. Only those from the First, Second, and Third Packs, of course.They wouldn’t allow me to mate with anyone lower than that. They got more and more frustrated when I turned them all away. One good thing did come from me rejecting Chelsey: it broke me out of that perfect son mold I’d been in. Nothing mattered anymore. No matter what I did, my parents would always find something new to try and control me with. I’d just figured it out too late to keep Chelsey.”

“Is that how you ended up on the show?” I asked. “To rebel against them?”

“Ha, yeah, that would have been a better story,” he said bitterly. “No. First thing I did was dig up dirt on my parents. I wanted to lash out, fuck them over. I snooped around and found all kinds of shit. After a few months, I’d basically thrown back the hood on all the underhanded and dirty deals my parents were part of. Not just them, butallthe upper packs. Twisted shit. Affairs, assassinations, blackmail, murders, embezzlement, and some really shady connections with people they had no business dealing with. I thought I could use everything I’d discovered to expose them and the other packs.” Crew looked miserable. “I was naive. I figured once the world knew what they were, I’d renounce my pack, then win Chelsey back. Explain what happened, why I rejected her. Get her to understand, and then go live together as lone wolves.”

Sighing, I leaned against the wall beside Crew. “You had to know they wouldn’t let that happen.” The thought was too outlandish to consider.

“I should have,” Crew said, kicking a frustrated foot against the opposite wall. “But they were myparents. No matter how much shit I dug up, I believed they were decent people deep down. All that got thrown out the window when the private investigator I’d hired flipped and told my parents what I was doing. They confronted me and said they were sending me toThe Reject Project.My father told me if I survived and won abetter mate, they’d accept me back into the pack, and all would be forgiven. If I didn’t agree to go, then Chelsey’s family would be free game. Not only that, but they’d go after Chelsey, too.” He looked at me imploringly. “Icouldn’tlet anything happen to Chelsey. I took the deal, came to the island. During the very first challenge, I escaped and used some of the tools the show gave me to found Haven.” He shrugged. “I spent all this time assuming Chelsey had forgotten about me and moved on. At least until the other day when she walked into Haven.”

“Well,” I said, “you can forget about that. She told me the story of her rejection, and it pretty much broke her heart. She’s been torn apart since the day it happened, Crew. The misery of losing the one person she loved is what pushed her to join the show.”

Crew banged his fist against his forehead gently. “Dammit. All I wanted was to keep her safe. I never wanted her to come here.”

“She didn’t even know you’d gone on the show. Apparently, watching anything to do with fated mates depressed her,” I explained.

“You aren’t making me feel any better,” Crew groaned.

“Sorry, but it’s true.”

“I haven’t stopped thinking of her since the day it all happened. Every morning, I wake up missing her, and every night, I go to sleep wishing she was with me. I can tell she hates me. All this time wanting her, and now that she’s here, she won’t even talk to me. Barely looks at me. I can’t blame her.” Crew gave a feeble shrug. “If it was reversed, I’d probably feel the same way. I should probably leave her be, stay out of her hair.”

It was the most tragic fucking thing I’d ever heard. Both Crew and Chelsey were dealing with terrible heartache. I understood why he’d done what he had, but the only way this would be resolved was for Chelsey to give him a chance to explain.

As I got to my feet, I gave Crew a friendly pat on the shoulder. “I’ll see if I can make any headway with Chelsey. Maybe if she hears you out, you two can smooth things over.”

Crew snorted. “Sure, yeah. I’m not holding my breath. I pissed on her heart and kicked her out the door. I don’t know why she’d ever give me a chance to redeem myself.”

Leaving Crew to wallow in his misery, I went to find Chelsey. The first thing I had to figure out was whether she actually hated Crew as much as she let on, or if it was only heartache and sorrow making her act that way.

My search didn’t take long. Chelsey stood with her arms crossed, face cloudy with some emotion I couldn’t pinpoint, leaning against the wall of a storage room. The place was filled with a couple dozen sacks labeled with words likeoatmeal, rice, quinoa. Sundries stolen fromThe Reject Projectsupply drops.

“Chelsey?” I said carefully.

“What?” Chelsey asked without looking up, her voice flat and emotionless.

For five seconds, I debated whether I should try to be subtle or if it would be easier to come out and ask. Then I remembered we were under a time crunch. This needed to be taken care of fast. The issues Chelsey and Crew were dealing with were huge, but lives were at risk.

“Do you hate Crew? Like,reallyhate him?”

“Ben?” Chelsey asked, using his first name. “What do you mean?”

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