Rejected and Regretted

Four

☆ AVRIL ☆

The alpha’s last sentence kept hammering in my head all night.

It didn’t make any sense. Koen became engaged to Nerine, the Beta of a prestigious pack, roughly a month before I was exiled. While it was true that I - thankfully - didn’t stay long enough to witness their wedding, everything was already planned. All everyone talked about was how in love they were. It used to make my stomach turn.

At first, I considered they might have had to call off the wedding, but Alpha Rockwell would never pass down his title to his son before he was mated. If Koen was the leader of Whispering Hills now, he must have claimed someone as his luna. Maybe something could have happened to Nerine…but the way Koen talked about it, it was almost as if she never even existed. Who would talk about their late loved one like that?

“I wouldn’t put it past him to be the one to end her out of boredom,” Kea suggested with disdain. “What does it matter to you anyway? Mated, unmated, divorced, widower - who cares,” she scoffed, though I suspected she sounded too bitter for someone who truly didn’t give a damn.

“I don’t care,” I let her know. “It just bothers me not knowing what kinda game he’s playing.”

From the way my wolf lowered her ears inside my head, I sensed her readiness to argue, but our conversation was abruptly cut short by the sound of a voice pulling me from my thoughts.

“This place is actually pretty nice,” Elijah exclaimed, his eyes scouring the endless hills Koen’s pack got its name from.

Instinctively, I stopped to look at our surroundings. The lush greenery blanketing the landscape was more resplendent than I remembered. Quaint wooden cottages matched the pack’s rustic and traditional vibe. In the distance, the rich cultivated fields, the mainstay of Whispering Hills’ economy, bloomed with abundance.

I once found these lands beautiful, too, but now all I could see were the rotting roots beneath this radiant façade.

“Agreed,” Theo chimed in, lowering his voice as he turned his attention to me. “Sure doesn’t look like the hellhole you described, alpha,” he teased.

Unimpressed, I coldly replied, “Stick around long enough, you’ll be able to see its true colors.”

“Talking about the duration of our stay…” my Beta continued. “When does our mission start?”

It was our first morning in Whispering Hills. Following my brief meeting with Koen upon our arrival, we got settled in our temporary rooms, only leaving them to have dinner. At breakfast today, Elijah voiced his desire to stretch his legs a little, a clear excuse to take a look around. As much as I didn’t care to make a nostalgic tour around the pack, it was a good opportunity to explore, and to find the item we were looking for.

“It already has,” I informed him with a short grunt. “But I’m afraid I don’t quite know where to begin our search.”

The reason I forced myself to return to my former home was to retrieve the ashes of an ancient, powerful tree. To most wolf packs, it was just a mere trinket, a token of nobility, but to us, it was an invaluable relic. It was just my luck that our shaman tracked it down to here. However, having never seen it with my own eyes, I didn’t know exactly where Koen’s family kept it.

“Shouldn’t it be inside the packhouse? I mean, it’s usually where most trophies are kept,” Elijah offered.

“If it’s there, it’s not in the common area,” I observed. “I’ve only found expensive paintings and vases adorning the halls.”

“Maybe it’s in a room on the upper floors,” Theo guessed.

“That’s what I’m thinking,” I agreed. “But I thought I’d explore all other possibilities first. It won’t be exactly easy to sneak into the upper floors, let alone break into locked rooms without being noticed.”

Most packhouses shared the same basic structure. The ground floor served as a communal area, where facilities such as game rooms, public libraries, and cinema were available to all members. The higher floors were reserved for the alpha, beta, and gamma, being accessible only to them and those personally invited by them.

If I ended up needing to search the rest of the packhouse, I would need Koen’s permission, and the only way to get it would be by spending time with him to gain his trust; I’d rather exhaust every other option before putting myself through that.

“Wherever it is, I’m sure you’ll be able to find it,” Elijah encouraged me, marking the end of the subject; it was risky to discuss it when so many ears surrounded us.

As we continued our tour around the pack, I eventually released my team from their duties so they could enjoy a nice walk by themselves. They deserved some quality time with each other, and I didn’t require any help with my task.

Once alone, I started paying more attention, rummaging my mind for memories that could help me in my search. Throughout my walk, I noticed my former pack mates shooting glances and whispering about me. They still looked at me the same way, as if they thought they were more than me. Surprisingly enough, none of them shouted insults at me, which was a significant improvement.

The words Koen spoke to me the day before echoed in my mind. He said he didn’t agree with the way his father ruled the pack, and he tried to be better. Could he have been telling the truth?

“People don’t just change like that, Avril.” Kea rolled her eyes at me. “He’s definitely up to something.”

“Whatever it is, we can deal with it,” I countered confidently. “As long as he doesn’t figure out what we are up to.”

Suddenly, a screechy feminine voice broke my concentration. “Look who we have here!” Turning in the direction of the sound, I found a tall brunette surrounded by her clique, staring straight at me with a sinister smirk on her face.

It seemed I had spoken too soon.

“If it isn’t the unwanted stray who was left at our doorstep,” she spat.

“Angelica,” I muttered her name unceremoniously, the hairs on the back of my neck rising in aversion. Still, I managed a fake smile. “Can’t say I missed you.”

Angelica and her friends were my main childhood bullies. They would constantly pick on me, going out of their way to get me into trouble. I honestly didn’t know why they hated me so much, other than because I was of lower rank than them. They probably messed with me just for fun.

“Oh, how I wish I could tear that stupid grin off her face!” Kea growled menacingly. She probably despised them even more than I did. Although she had been hibernating until I was eighteen, she gained access to my memories once our connection was established, so she knew exactly what these girls put me through.

“What are you here for, stray?” Angelica sneered. I stayed still as she approached me, trying to keep my alpha aura under control, which proved a difficult task with how furious my wolf was. “Did you come back to scavenge our trash? We don’t have any leftovers for mongrels like you!”

I sighed. She was still resorting to the same sixth grade insults.

“Don’t worry. I’m not after your trash - which is all you have here, by the way,” I scoffed, my eyes locked only on her even as her friends circled me, laughing, like a bunch of hyenas. “I have my own home, where we have plenty of food.”

Angelica furrowed her brows. It appeared she didn’t like to be talked back to. Too f*****g bad. I held back a satisfied smile. As a kid, I had been scared of her, but now I saw her for who she was - a pathetic, powerless bully.

“You think you’re important now because you found a pack who pitied you enough to take you in?” she continued, her grin gone as she tried - and failed - to appear more intimidating. “I bet you’re still just stupid omega who cleans bathrooms.”

I held my head higher. “Yes, I’m still an omega from Azure Smoke Pack,” I lied, managing a tone convincing enough to pass as truth. “But at least there all members are treated with the same respect, regardless of rank.”

In an instant, I noticed a subtle change in her demeanor. “Respect, you say?” She arched an eyebrow, as if she’d just had a malefic idea. “Let me teach you the real meaning of respect then, little omega, as it appears you’ve gotten it wrong.”

As I noticed her raising her hand, my first instinct was to catch it, but I stopped myself mid-way. I could easily deflect her lousy blow and use her own momentum to knock her off balance, landing a clean strike of my own afterward. However, they would never believe an omega to be so skilled in fighting. I needed to play the part, even if it went against my nature.

Since omegas were innately submissive, I decided to lower my head and close my eyes to wait for her slap, but it never came. When I reopened my eyes a few seconds later, I couldn’t believe the sight before me.

Koen was now standing between me and Angelica, his fist wrapped around her wrist.