Chapter 8: Reject

Mom changed in front of two hundred people.

Her face softened, her shoulders dropped, and her voice went warm.

"Oh, my baby girl," she said, and she reached for my face. "My Nessa. A Silver Wolf. I always knew you were special."

I stepped back out of her reach.

"You told me my rank wasn't worth your breath."

"I was upset!" she said. "A mother says things when she's worried. You know how I am."

"I do," I said. "That's the problem."

Dad cleared his throat.

He was trying to stand taller, and he could not quite do it.

"Nessa, this is wonderful news for the pack," he said. "A Silver Wolf from Greyfall. We'll announce it tonight. We'll put a banner over the hall."

"We didn't know," Jared said.

He had stopped looking at me and was staring at his boots.

"Nessa, I swear, we really didn't know."

"You didn't ask," I said.

"I'd have asked if..."

"If what, Jared? If I'd cried louder?"

He opened his mouth and shut it again.

"You bought me an e-reader," I said. "You bought her a laptop."

"I didn't know you'd be this," he said.

"I was exactly this the whole time."

Jasper pushed to the front.

He had been quiet through all of it, and now his face was pale and urgent.

He went down on one knee in the dust of the quad.

"Nessa," he said. "I felt it. At the ceremony, when you walked out, I felt it in my chest. You're my mate."

A murmur went through the cadets.

"The elders matched us when we were twelve," he said. "I never forgot it. I was only confused. Poppy was upset, and I got swept up..."

"You forgot my mango allergy," I said.

"I know. I'm so sorry."

"You forgot it three times," I said. "You told me to quit being needy."

Keep reading free with an account. Start They Forgot My Rank, So the Lycan King Claimed Me from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.