Night and Neera: A Rejected Mate Story

Chapter 2: It Was Just A Bad Dream

From the moment of my birth, I was a member of the Aibek Pack. Masters of the Moon. First I was an epsilon, then a delta and eventually a gamma. I had no problem being a gamma, being the middle of the pack. My father had been a sub-alpha and my mother a beta; both of them fighters, both of them lost in the Aibek-Lunaire Pack War when I had been in middle school. I had been cared for after that by the pack mothers -- those older females who had already raised their young and had taken on the task of raising the many orphans left from that war.

Night had been just twenty-one then, had just received his mate brand and had assumed his role as Alpha after his father had been brutally tortured and killed, separated from his Howl, who had also been killed, so they could not form their Bonded wolf. 

Something had snapped in Night and his brother, Néron, after their parents were killed. The Slaine brothers had been an unstoppable force, rallying the Aibek wolves to press forward, not stopping until a bloody, ugly victory had been won with many carcasses from both sides left in the wake of their unrelenting quest for blood. Night and the Alpha of the Lunaire pack had hashed out a truce, and the shaky agreement had held in the eight years since. No one trusted it would last, and many were amazed it had lasted for so long. Much of that was due to Night's reputation as a fighter, a brutal warrior who never would back down until he had a pile of throats at his feet.

Today I had discovered that brutality extended to other areas of his life as he had shown all of us. My hands shook as I threw my clothes and toiletries into two duffel bags. Looking around my tiny apartment, I thanked the Great Wolves that Night had not issued an Alpha Decree keeping me on pack lands. I'm sure it never occurred to him that I'd leave. I was -- had been -- a gamma. We were rule followers, helpers, contributors; we loved our pack and our positions in it. Night wouldn't think I'd be bold enough to leave. 

And that was why I needed to leave, fast, before he thought to issue a decree forcing me to stay. I might be broken, I might be in excruciating pain, but I refused to die. I'd text my friends once I left, hoping they weren't already headed over to my place to bring much-needed comfort. They'd try to talk me out of leaving, but there was no way I could remain. Staying here would lead to my death.

On my way out, I grabbed the soft, cashmere afghan my mother had made -- the only real keepsake I had of her besides a few pictures I managed to save of her and my dad.

When I got to my car, I stopped cold. My friends Owena and Echo stood by my old, but reliable, Monte Carlo, duffel bags in hand.

"We figured you'd be taking off," Echo said, pushing her sunglasses up on her head. 

Owena nodded. "I'd be running from the law after that clusterfuck we all just witnessed because I would have killed both of those assholes." My friend since elementary school, Owena sometimes lacked a filter. 

"Yeah, well, you couldn't have because Alpha Decree," I reminded her.

"So, where are we going?" Echo asked.

"We're not going anywhere," I told them. "I'm going to hunt for the Raevyn, see if she can help me, and you two are staying here."

"Nope," Echo contradicted me. "We're going with you. What kind of best friends would we be if we let you take off alone, no pack to comfort you, have your back? You don't even know what's going to happen to you since he...after the Alpha...now that he's..."

"Rejected me," I finished her sentence firmly. "I can't pretty it up, Echo. My Destined One rejected me and as much as it hurts, I have to face it."

"Well, we'll be facing it with you, then," Owena said. "Now, let me drive us out of here, past the guards. They've seen me driving your car all the time, so they won't ask any questions."