Chapter 5: Wants To Reject Her

-Serena-

I had heard that Rogan Cane was powerful, smart, cunning, and strong. So I never thought he would struggle to speak, but it was like he was a broken record, stuck in a loop. I didn’t understand it, and then he just disappeared. Where the hell is he going? And why the hell did I care? I needed to get out of here! I pulled on my restraints, but they wouldn’t budge. They were probably strong enough to keep a werewolf in check, which said a lot.

“Come on!” I growled, pulling on them again.

I even tried leaning down closer to one of the restraints to use my teeth, but I couldn’t bend far enough because they held me firmly in place.

“Fuck!”

I needed to get out of here, but how?

-Rogan-

“What?” I growled as I got far enough away from the hunter’s little patient room.

We are not rejecting her.

“Yes, we are! Have you forgotten who she is?” I snapped, crossing my arms.

I could see my wolf pacing back and forth in my mind, shaking his head in disapproval. I couldn’t say I was very pleased with him either.

I know who she is.

“Then let us end this.”

He shook his head again and let out a growl that made my ears ring. I took a moment, shaking my head slightly, waiting for the ringing to subside.

“Don’t fucking do that again!”

Then do not reject her!

“She is the enemy!”

She is our mate.

I wanted to laugh because this was absurd. Did he not realize that she and I would never find common ground?

“She is nothing but a fucking pain in our ass!” I snapped.

He growled at me again, though not loudly enough to make my ears ring.

Maybe you want to go crazy, but I don’t.

“There is no guarantee of that,” I said.

Going against the Goddess always has consequences. She is not a forgiving woman.

“You don’t fucking say,” I muttered.

Did it occur to you while we were watching her that there might be a reason she is ours?

“No, ours,” I corrected him, making it clear that I wouldn’t allow him to get territorial over her.

Answer my question.

He clearly disagreed with me and didn’t care whether I accepted her or not.

“She could be a test,” I suggested.

A test to see if we are truly worthy of being leaders.

“Or a test to see if we are loyal to our kind.”

He huffed, clearly displeased with how I was twisting things around, but I simply couldn’t see it from his perspective. The hunters had nearly driven us to extinction.

No one questions our loyalty.

“Or maybe the Goddess does,” I countered.

Maybe she wants to see if we can judge fairly.

“Don’t tell me you’re actually considering getting to know her,” I said, the words sounding absurd even to my own ears.

She is our mate. She deserves more. She deserves a chance to change.

“Change?” I yelled. “No!”

Why not?

“You really think she would have done the same? She was there to kill us!” I growled.

Then let us be the bigger person.

“When did being the bigger person become so important to you? This isn’t the first time we’ve had to decide the fate of a hunter, and we’ve always agreed in the past on what to do with them,” I said.

And what about those who helped us?

I fell silent at his question.

They risked their lives.

I sighed and rubbed my eyes. “That was ten years ago,” I said.

Maybe we have a chance to change this one. As our mate, she deserves a shot.

I shook my head, already knowing he wouldn’t let me reject her unless I gave it a real try.

They can change. We’ve seen it.

I nodded. We had seen it. It was thanks to those hunters that we even knew where to strike. I had been young then—only twenty-three. Maybe I had grown colder over the years, less forgiving. But could you blame me?

“I…”

She is young, easily manipulated. Let us at least give it a try.

Her ID watch had shown her age: twenty-four. Maybe I was wrong to judge her so quickly, but how could I not? I saw the hate in her eyes, the mockery.

She doesn’t feel the same way we do. She doesn’t know how important we are to her. Give it time. She will become more aware.

It worked differently for humans when they chose their partners. They could easily lose their feelings and choose someone else. Wolves couldn’t.

“I believe we are wasting our time,” I said.

I’m willing to prove you wrong.

“Of course you are, because it means more time with the woman you consider our mate.”

He almost seemed to smile. We might not get a second chance if we reject her.

No, second chances were often reserved for those who had lost their mates in unfortunate ways—terrible accidents or being killed. Rejecting your mate rarely earned you a second chance unless your first had been abusive or awful in some way.

Well?

“We chose our mate,” I said. “We need to keep our promise.”

Things have changed.

“How am I going to explain this to Eric?” I inquired.

Be honest.

“Easier said than done,” I sighed, rubbing my eyes again to relieve the growing headache.

He will understand.

“No, no one will. Not with a hunter,” I said.

Give her some time.

“I can’t… I’m sorry.”

Rogan!

I shut him out with a mental wall, trying to isolate myself from his voice as best I could. I knew it wouldn’t hold for long, but maybe it would be enough time for me to reject the little hunter. I stormed back to her room, but when I arrived, I found a nurse unconscious on the floor and the bed empty.

I ran to the nurse to check if she was alive. She was. Then I scanned the room, noticing an open window further away. I rushed to it but couldn’t see the little hunter. I could smell her scent lingering in the air, but if she had gotten too far, it would be masked by the forest she had chosen to escape into.

“You’re not getting far,” I whispered before I jumped out of the window and followed her.