Rejecting the Alpha

27 Vander

Kissing Kylie felt right. I was as hard as a rock against her, but if she noticed, she didn't seem to mind. I moved away from her lips and kissed a trail down the curve of her neck, making my way to the hollow of her throat.

As I brushed her hair away, my eyes caught on the mark her mate gave her. The bite was healed, but it looked darker than they normally did, as if a part of her had fought accepting his claim. I kissed over it, wishing my mark could cover it, that I could smooth away all her pain.

I didn't know what marking her would do under the circumstances, so I ignored my wolf's desperation to do just that. It was not worth it, not if it might hurt her. Nothing was worth hurting her.

I worked my way back up to her mouth, and then I reached between us and moved my hand up to her breast, giving her time to protest if she wanted to. She didn't, so I cupped one with my left hand, my other on her knee. I moved it up just above her knee and squeezed her leg gently.

Deep down, I knew I should stop, but I didn't want to, almost as much as my wolf was protesting the idea. I wrestled with him and myself, and was saved by the sound of my phone going off on the counter.

The timing was terribly excellent. We broke our kiss.

"I have to get that," I said.

She nodded and smiled at me as she shifted back into her own chair, and started eating her now cold food.

I grabbed the phone and brought it to my ear. Jack's familiar voice came at me.

"Hey, Vander, how's it going?" He had always asked that, ever since Darlene had passed away. It seemed everyone had been worrying about me.

"I'm great, yourself?" I asked him. I wasn't the only one who had lost her. She had been very close to her brother, and he still hadn't found his mate, although he never really spoke about it or seemed to care.

"Curious. What makes you great?"

I wasn't sure how he would take it, but I figured he'd cope. "I believe I've found my second chance," I told him. I glanced over at Kylie, who seemed to be doing her best not to listen in. I grinned, indicating it was okay.

His voice was incredulous, and then a hint of amusement broke through. "Your second chance mate? And you think? How do you not know?"

"It's complicated."

"Oh? Sounds like a human social media status."

"I'll explain later, once everything is clearer."

"I should come for a visit and meet my new...I don't even know what she would be to me. Maybe a step-sister-in-law-in-law?" He was joking, but his voice caught on the word sister. I still felt his pain. Like him, I would never stop loving Darlene, but I sensed it would take little for me to love Kylie just as much, in a new but equally powerful way.

"I'm guessing this isn't why you called, though," I said, in an attempt to get him back on track about the reason he phoned me.

"True. I just wanted to give you a heads up about an acquisition meeting we're having tomorrow at two, looks very promising. Want to be there?"

"I'll join remotely," I said. Somewhere in the back of my mind had been a plan to visit the physical offices sometime soon, but it would have to wait a little bit longer. I glanced over at Kylie, who had finished eating and was now looking out the picture window in the alcove beside the living room, before wandering to the book shelves. Maybe she'd like to come with me and see what we had built.

"Figured you'd say that, in light of what you've told me. Serious, I don't know why you're such a chick magnet—"

"I'm hardly that."

"Uh huh, found a second mate so quickly..."

"It's been a couple of years," I said, my heart heavy at the memory. A lifetime would not be enough to forget how I had loved my first mate. Watching Kylie pick a book and curl up in an arm chair soothed the pain, though. She was beautiful, entirely in her own way.

"Haven't found mine yet."

"Didn't know you were looking."

"Isn't everyone?" His laugh was easygoing.

"Maybe. Although if you left the offices once in a while..."

"Hey, someone's got to keep this operation together."

"And I appreciate all you do, Jack."

"Aw, you make my heart sing."

"Too bad it's off key. Maybe that's why you can't find her?"

Jack laughed. His mate would be a lucky woman. I was sure he'd find her, most people did. "Maybe. Anyways, I can tell you're preoccupied, so I'll let you go. Talk to you tomorrow."

"Absolutely. Later, man."

I set my phone back on the counter. My mind went back to what we had been doing before the call, but she looked entirely contented curled up in the chair, so I decided not to disturb her, much. She smiled up at me, so I leaned down and gave her a chaste kiss on the lips.

"If you're good, I'm going to do a bit of work this morning." I immediately regretted my words, since I would much prefer spending the time with Kylie now that I had found her.

But still, both my delta duties and my business responsibilities could only be put off so long.

"Okay, I'll try not to bother you."

"You could never bother me. I'll be in my office if you need me."

She nodded, so sweet my wolf just wanted to eat her up. She turned her attention back to the book, one that had once been Darlene's. I was glad that it was getting some use again.

Retreating to my office, I got down to work on everything I had been neglecting the last few weeks. It wasn't as bad as it could have been, because the beta and gamma had been picking up the slack—they understood that I was in something of a confusing situation—but I still wanted to pull my weight in the pack.

In light of Kylie's appearance in my life, I was glad I had turned down the beta position a year ago when the old beta had retired. I didn't want to waste a minute away from her.

By lunch, I had made satisfactory progress, and I went out to discover that Kylie had taken it upon herself to cook. My wolf was pushing me to provide for her in every way possible, but at the same time it warmed my heart to see her doing the same thing for me, so beautiful, in my kitchen. The sight awoke that slumbering yearning inside me yet again.

I walked up behind her and put my hands on her waist and kissed her neck, basking in her warm sweet scent.

—————

The next book I'm writing is going to be the Contrary Mate (tentative title). What's not tentative is that the main characters will be Jack (Vander's business partner who takes the bulk of the responsibility for their successful tech startup) and the mate he's been secretly dreaming of. It's going to be an opposites attract and drive each other crazy kind of story until they figure out how to understand each other.

I'm going to write first, then I'm going to post it in early January 2022 with daily updates.

If you're interested and want me to let you know when it's complete throw a comment right here and I'll let you know when it's done. >>>>>>>>>>

And thanks for reading!!! ❤️❤️❤️