My Alpha Panicked When I Accepted His Rejection novel · Chapter 2 of 24

Chapter 2: The Eighth Alpha

Five years later, Alpha Desmond Kerr asks for Rhiannon's mark in front of every pack in the north, and she learns her ex has been buying up the debt of every man who courted her. The bond she thought was dead pulls once as Corbin walks into the ballroom.

Desmond Kerr went down on one knee in the middle of the ballroom, and three hundred wolves went quiet.

It was the opening night of the Healers' Hall in Moonbridge, and every pack in the north had sent someone.

I was standing beside the champagne tower in a dark green dress, with a toast half written in my head.

Desmond held out a small box. Inside it was a silver pin shaped like a crescent.

"Dr. Roarke," he said, loud enough for the back rows. "In front of every pack I know, I'm asking for your mark."

He was the Alpha of Blackwater, thirty-four years old, with a crooked smile and sandy hair that never lay flat.

He was also the eighth Alpha to ask me.

The room turned to look at me. Rooms did that now.

Five years ago nobody in Hollowmere could have picked my face out of a lineup.

Now my name opened the door of every pack hospital from here to the border, and the doors my name opened stayed open.

I took the box and closed it gently in his hand.

"Des," I said, low. "Stand up. You know I can't."

"Tell me why, so everyone can hear it."

He was grinning. He was also serious.

"A mark won't take on a she-wolf whose old bond isn't sealed," I said. "It only seals at the Moon Stone, with both of us standing there on a full moon."

"Then go to the Stone."

"He won't come."

"Has the Stone-keeper summoned him?"

"Every year," I said. "He burns the letter."

A murmur ran along the walls.

Everyone in that room knew who "he" was, though I had never once said his name in public.

Hester appeared at my elbow with her reading glasses on their cord and a plate of tiny crab cakes.

"Eat," she said. "You'll feel less murdery."

"I'm not murdery."

"You've been holding that glass by the neck for a minute and a half."

I put the glass down.

Hester leaned closer. "Poppy's asleep on the sofa in your office. She made me swear to wake her for dessert."

"Let her sleep."

"I told her that. She said the dessert would be sad without her."

My daughter was five years old and would be right about that.

Desmond got to his feet and dusted off his knee. His beta had come up behind him with a phone held low, and his smile slipped.

"Show her," Desmond said.

The beta turned the screen toward me.

It was a bank notice. Blackwater's line of credit had been called in that afternoon, in full, by a company I had never heard of.

"Stroud Holdings," the beta said. "It bought our debt on Tuesday."

I read the name twice.

"That's eight packs," Desmond said, calmly. "Every Alpha who has courted you since you came to Moonbridge. The first lost his mill. The fifth lost his hospital contract. I'm the eighth."

"I'll call him," I said.

"You don't have to."

"I do. I'm done being the reason people get hurt."

Desmond's crooked smile came back. "I'd really like to see him try to scare me out of this ballroom."

"Don't say that where the Alphas can hear."

"They're already listening."

He was right. Three Alphas along the wall had stopped pretending to look at the buffet.

"The seventh one cried," Desmond added, quieter. "On the phone. A grown man. He still sends you flowers."

"I know," I said. "I send them back."

Hester squeezed my arm. "Say it, Rhia. Say what you want."

"I want it finished," I said. "I want one night at the Stone and a piece of paper with the Stone-keeper's name on it. And I want his money out of other people's mouths."

"That's a lot of wanting for one crab cake."

I laughed in spite of myself.

Then the music stopped.

I hadn't noticed it stop until the silence filled up with something else.

The cord in my chest moved.

For five years it had lain slack and dead.

Now it pulled once, hard, toward the ballroom doors.

I turned.

Two guards in Moonbridge blue stood on either side of the entrance, and neither one looked sure of what to do.

Between them stood a tall man in a grey Alpha's coat, with dark hair cut short and a jaw I would have known anywhere.

His eyes were gold. They were a shade too pale.

"Alpha Corbin Stroud of Hollowmere," a guard announced, in a voice that wavered.

Three hundred wolves turned to look.

Corbin didn't look at any of them.

He crossed the floor straight toward me, and the crowd opened to let him through.

← Chapter 1 · All chapters · Chapter 3 →

Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend