Dark Times

Chapter Five

Pulling away, the pissy Alpha headed over to a bookshelf, which he scanned quickly. I watched him. He'd be looking for an explanation, of course. Even if those books gave him an answer, he wouldn't believe it. If he drew the same conclusion Igor had, he'd push it aside because his mate couldn't possibly be a rogue. Fate wasn't so cruel.

It wasn't cruel to me either. The Alpha couldn't have a rogue for a mate, and I couldn't have a mate in general.

"Not that this mate talk isn't thrilling," I drawled. "But can we please get back to the topic of why my associates and I are here? We're supposed to be arranging the details with your rogue prisoner."

He wasn't interested. If I wasn't saying 'fuck me', 'bend me over' or 'I'll be your Luna!', he wasn't going to hear a word I had to say. He certainly wasn't interested in rogue talk. But I was a stubborn bitch, through and through. If he weren't going to listen, I'd hold him by the ear and yell the words down it until his eardrums fizzled and popped.

"You really can't feel anything?" He asked, brows drawn in confusion. I doubted he'd find anything in the book he carried. If he was even taking any of those words in, that book was about pack wolves. I- for one- was not a pack wolf.

"I don't know what you want me to tell you," I said. "You don't want to hear the truth, and I don't think you'd want me to lie. I really can't feel anything. I think deep down, you can't either. Maybe you're getting impatient with the wait and are latching onto me. Understandable. I'm quite the catch." I sighed dramatically. "You'll probably have to wait a year or so longer. I'm sure your sickeningly cute love story will be epic. You and your actual mate can laugh about this."

He glared at me.

"I don't know why you can't feel this, but you can trust me. I'm going to find out."

"You don't have to do that."

"I can feel this, Lorelei."

"-Lorrie."

"You're my mate, and I can't let you leave me."

Then I'd have to kill him. I'd never killed an Alpha before. Suppose I was always up to trying new things.

Unless there was an easier way of doing it. Oh... what was that thing those pack wolves said to each other when they wanted rid? There was a line, like a script. A word order.

Snap! I had it.

"Look, Mr Alpha, I'm not really the settling down sort, and I really don't do the whole mates conundrum. So, I'm going to make this easier for both of us."

"Don't bother," He said without looking up. See, he'd already gotten complacent. Complacency didn't work well in my line of business. He'd be dead before his first day was up.

With his distraction working in my favour, I cleared my throat and shook my shoulders out. "I, Lorelei, reject you, Alpha-"

He thrust a hand down over my mouth, though it wasn't particularly frantic. More like an afterthought. More like he was shutting me up for ruining his ju-ju. His eyes were still on that damned book.

The rest of my sentence muffled into the palm of his hand.

"That's not going to work," He told me. "I wouldn't accept your rejection, even if I did let you get the words out."

He pulled his hand away to turn the page. I gaped up at him. We had annoying, persistent wolves back at the base- sure- but this Alpha was reminding me of how much I hated determination. In a fight or flight scenario, I'd take flight every time. It's how you stay alive.