Rejected By the Alpha (Forbidden Alpha Kings #5)

57. Kaylee

57

Kaylee

Cold air brushes over my sore body, making me shiver. Someone must have noticed, as something warm is draped over me. I can smell the burning wood of a campfire, and I groan when I try to wiggle closer to it.

“Shit,” a deep voice curses, their strong hands pulling me away from my target.

“Kaylee, you need to stay still,” the voice softly warns. I growl at this voice, but the sound is meek. It is like all my strength has been zapped, leaving me sore and exhausted.

“I know you’re cold, but just rest,” the voice continues. It sounds soothing, comforting, and as they hold me tighter, I feel their warmth seeping through what confines me. The voice is right though, I am cold and exhausted and need to rest, and so I snuggle closer to the body and drift off into unconsciousness again.

***

Waking up facing a crackling fire, I smell the scent of meat cooking and look around for the source. On the other side of the fire, a man sits rotating sticks with rabbit meat skewered onto them, the meat emitting a mouth-watering smell. My stomach decides to grumble for the food, and this must have alerted the man that I am awake as he lets out a chuckle.

“Hungry?” he asks, the haziness of my brain clearing as I register who the voice belongs to. Bolting up from where I lay, I fumble for a moment and fight whatever is enclosing me, my fingers turning to claws as I rip apart fabric.

“What the hell are you doing here!” I demand, free from what I realize was a sleeping bag, holding me inside.

“Making food and making sure your heat has passed,” he shrugs, picking up one of the handmade skewers and taking a bite of the rabbit. His words are the fan that clears the haze from my head, as the events of the last few days run through my mind. From being kidnapped and held hostage in Shadow Moon, to the injection and Alpha Jordan touching me. Finally, my mind sets on the fact Lucas rescued me and carried me away. I remember the heat. The flames and the pain. Then I remember the cooling sensation and the…pleasure.

My eyes widen as I take note of my body. My bones are no longer broken, but there is a soreness I felt before when Lucas took my virginity.

“You fucked me!?” I growl out, angry that my ex had touched me.

“It was either that or let you die,” he states seriously, his eyes staring into mine with such intensity that it dazzles me for a brief moment.

“I wouldn’t have died from my heat. Been in extreme pain, yes, but not die,” I point out, standing to my feet on shaky legs. Lucas sighs, standing and moving so fast that he has my hands held behind my back, and me unable to fight back.

“Actually, Kaylee, whatever caused your heat made it so that either someone had sex with you, or the pain of the heat would have killed you. It wasn’t what we learned about in school, where a she-wolf would survive.” His tone is solemn, and for a moment I wonder if he is right. Memories of the last seven days come rushing in. My body felt like I was burning, that at any moment, flames would turn me to ash. But Lucas’ touch soothed the flames and the pain. Cooled it long enough for me to survive until now.

“You’re still too weak. Sit and eat,” he orders me. I growl back in defiance, trying to kick my legs back to injure him, but he surprises me by letting me go and sending me off balance. Before my face hits the ground, he catches me once more, and it is then I know that he is right. I am too weak, my body sore and exhausted from the forced heat, as well as from Lucas practically taking advantage of me.

“I didn’t take advantage of you,” he corrects, shocking me. I thought I hadn’t said those words out loud.

“You didn’t, but due to the circumstances of your heat being forced, I had to help you in the way only a mate can, and, well…the bond became stronger again. I can hear your thoughts, just like you can hear mine when you calm down,” he explains, helping me to sit on the ruined shreds of the sleeping bag. I say nothing as I close my eyes and focus on the mate bond. He is right again, as I feel it sparking and shining once more. It is not whole, thankfully, meaning we can still let it die and fizzle out, but the thoughts of happiness and love I feel coming from Lucas have me pausing. He wants to be with me, that much is clear from what I can feel from the bond.

“Here, you need to eat.” The scent of cooked rabbit is in front of me, and I open my eyes to see Lucas standing beside me holding two skewers. I take them with a silent thank you, as he returns to his spot on the other side of the fire where he resumes eating. With a sniff, I make sure that he didn’t poison the food before I devour the two skewers. Lucas chuckles, handing me another two wordlessly and I eat them as well.

“I didn’t mark you, if you are wondering that,” Lucas breaks the silence with this statement, and I once again find myself looking into his eyes. They are filled with regret and guilt, as well as hope and love. I pause from taking a bite of my fifth skewer and study him. He sits shirtless, with only a pair of pants on. The mark of a betrayer sits firmly on his neck where a mark would normally be, and the four claw marks I left still cover his face. There is no boyish charm left from the person I left months ago in Oak Fur. Before me sits a man that has been through something, and has a story to tell.

“I know. I would feel it if you did,” I shrug, returning to eating my food.

“What you don’t know is, I had to stop you from marking me in your heat haze.” I nearly choke on the rabbit meat with this news. Surely, he must be lying.

I search my memories, from the time I was rescued to waking up. Everything is a haze of flames and pain, but a snippet crosses my mind and I realize Lucas is telling the truth. I nearly marked him.

“Goddess, that serum is dangerous,” I mumble. Everything I know about a heat had been amplified, from the lust to the pleasure to the haze of the heat itself. All I can do is blame whatever Alpha Jordan injected me with.

“It was,” Lucas agrees solemnly.

“Your pheromones were really something; even I had to mentally fight to keep myself from marking you. If it weren’t for how intense this forced heat was, I wouldn’t have…helped you… the way I had to.” I catch a blush creep along the skin of his cheeks not marred by the scars, and I scent the air. He isn’t lying, and I sigh with relief. Lucas only did what he did to keep me from dying. I can’t fault him for that.

“Thank you, for saving me.” My voice is a whisper as I push my pride aside. This is still the man who rejected and hurt me. I know he did it for the good of the pack, to protect Oak Fur from Blood Oath, but it is still the worst thing he ever did—especially since he kept everything from me.

“I’m your mate. It’s my job to protect and save you.” My heart skips a beat, and I curse the mending mate bond.

“You’re not my mate,” I correct him with a growl, glaring at him. “You made that clear nearly three months ago.”

“And I regret that day with every fiber of my soul, Kaylee.” His eyes stare into mine once again. I can see the sincerity and the guilt inside them. I know I need to harden my heart against this gaze, and against the mending bond that threatens to pull me back towards him. With a scoff, I stand and stretch my sore body, Lucas watching me with concern.

“I need to get back to my pack. You can come, since Amelia told me all about how you volunteered to save me.” His face lights up into a smile and I growl, watching Lucas flinch for a moment.

“Don’t think that my invitation means I am considering getting back with you. You just earned your spot in Ivory Fangs as a warrior for saving me.” With that, I shift into my wolf, relishing in the feel of being on all fours. I watch as Lucas kicks dirt onto our fire, putting it out before he takes off his pants and stuffs them into a backpack. In no time, he has shifted and stands before me in his black wolf form, his body towering over my small, tanned form, with the backpack in his mouth. The scars on his face are still there, and I feel slight guilt before I shake my head and take the lead.

I don’t know how long I have been out of it because of my heat, but one thing is for sure, and that is I miss my pack.