Rejected and Saved by my Alpha

6

LILY

I looked at the man sitting before me, unsure whether to believe him.

“You’re Damien Carter?” I asked. “Well, how am I supposed to be sure about that?”

The guy chuckled, nodding and pointing a finger at me. “That’s a smart girl. Well, let’s see … I studied economics with your brother, Alexander Robert Cooper, at Columbia. Master’s degree. We graduated two years ago, but don’t ask me to remember the precise date – I was high as a kite the day before,” he recounted. “Alex and I met on our first night in, we were roommates, and then found out we even worked at the same pub. The Bull’s Eye. You guys’ father’s name is Robert, I think, and … your mom’s should've been Nicole. I’m also pretty sure you guys had a stepmother from hell …”

“Fine,” I sighed. “Okay, I believe you”.

To be fair, I’d stopped him mainly because I didn’t want to hear about that woman or her daughter ever again – but also because his story matched with what Alex had told me about his college years. Him being his roommate, them working at a pub, the Master’s degree … it made sense. It also explained why Alex had seemed kind of off at his graduation ceremony – clearly, those two had been high for the whole duration of it.

“Great!” he grinned. “And …”

“But I still want to know how you knew who I was,” I interrupted him.

Damien nodded. “Alex sent me a picture of you, yesterday night, asking me if I could let you crash at my place. I said sure, anything for my buddy. More so, anything for his little sister”.

I offered him a bitter smile as I sipped on my coffee.

Too bad he wouldn’t do anything for his little sister, I thought. Like, at least saying to her cheating fiancée ‘you know what? You’re an asshole’.

Fat chance. Alex was Connor’s Beta – he would’ve never compromised his position in the pack and among the family for me. Now I knew that.

“Besides,” Damien went on. “This is a small town. We all know each other here, so a new face gets people talking. And if you’re wondering why I was here instead of at home, waiting for you, is because I was out to get you some breakfast. I thought ‘hey, this Lily girl is taking a lot, better make sure she has something to eat when she arrives’ … but you beat me to it,” he chuckled. “Ehy, Bruce, put this on my tab, will you?”

“There’s no need for that,” I muttered. “I can pay for my own breakfast”.

It was bad enough that I had to rely on his hospitality – I didn’t want to rely on his money, too.

“Nonsense, you’re my guest,” Damien smiled. “Now, let’s eat and then head to my place. You look like you need a nap. Like, a three-hundred-year-long nap”.

I couldn’t really say he was wrong – I had taken a look at my face in the car’s rearview mirror, and it was safe to say that spending a whole night driving and crying my eyes out hadn’t really done wonders to my looks.

Do not, a voice inside of me warned me. Don’t go with him. Don’t trust him.

Startled, I gave another look at the man before me, because there was nothing about him that looked … off. He had a clean face, a nice, honest smile, smelled like any other normal werewolf, and, overall, looked absolutely average.

Maybe it’s just for our strange introduction, I thought, dismissing that strange feeling.

After all, considering how my life had changed in less than twelve hour, I was clearly not the best at judging a man’s character: the night before I was daydreaming of marrying what I thought was my real-life Prince Charming, and now I was in an unknown town, with my brother’s old junkie roommate, who was willing to take me in, because Prince Charming had decided to f**k and impregnate my step-sister.

Besides, it wasn’t like I could really refuse his offer, was it? I mean, he quite literally was the only chance I had to avoid sleeping in my car that night.

So, I smiled and nodded.

“So?” Damien asked. “What happened to you? Alex told me nothing – just that you were in a sort of emergency and needed a place to stay”.

I took a breath and then another sip of tea from my to-go cup. It was afternoon now, and Damien had insisted on taking me out for some tea and a tour of the town, which was really picturesque: the warm hues of the season definitely complemented it, adding the final touches to an already beautiful painting.

He was now leading me towards the river shore, which was, according to him, one of the most beautiful spots of the town – and the one he’d saved for last in our little tour.

Whatever doubt or fear I might have had towards him had vanished by now: sure, I was still a bit wary, because I didn’t know him, but I wasn’t downright terrified. Damien had welcomed me into his home with a big smile and a whole room to myself, as well as with a self-care basket carefully prepared for me by his fiancé, a lovely human woman named Dahlia (and the fact that another woman was living there with him had been key to ease most of my unspoken fears).

I’d spent what was left of the morning and a good chunk of the afternoon in that room, crying and sleeping: when I’d managed to crawl out of it, I’d found a Tupperware of pasta salad for me on the counter of the kitchen.

“Basically, I got cheated on, dumped, and kicked out of my pack,” I sighed, deciding to answer as quickly and with as less details as possible.

The pain, that the anger couldn’t quite mask, was so sharp, so terrible, it hurt to breathe, to walk, to speak: it hadn’t dimmed a bit ever since I’d read that text the previous night, and I didn’t want to worsen it by recounting each and every detail of the horror story that night had been.

Damien whistled. “Fuuuck,” he commented. “That’s bad. And you … I mean, you knew the other woman, I presume? You were in a pack, so …”.

I pursed my lips. “She was my stepsister, so I’d say I knew her, yes”.

This time, Damien had no more ‘f***s’ in his repertoire to let out. He just stared at me like I’d just said something unbelievable.

Believe me, man, I didn’t want to believe it myself, but life has a way of forcing you to come to terms with reality.

“Well, holy s**t,” he said, moving onto a different swear. “Talk about trusting your family. Or your man. f**k, going with your fiancée’s sister is so f****d up”.

I felt tears pool in my eyes, and I forced myself to blink them back.

For the first time since that shitshow had started … I had someone in my corner.

Someone who was taking my side and saying they were wrong.

“You need to get this sad excuse of a man out of your mind,” Damien declared. “That guy, and your sadness”.

Yeah – easier said than done.

When, moments after I’d woken up from my nap, I’d realized I was not in my own bed, and that Connor was not in it, I’d burst out crying like a baby.

I might have been angry at him, but I also missed him so, so much, and deep down, I just wanted to rewind the last 24 hours. I just wanted to go back to being the happy girl I’d been, trying on my wedding dress and daydreaming about the ceremony.

The pain was so bad I just needed my mate to hold me close, cuddle me, and tell me everything would be alright, as he’d always done … but he was not there.

Worse, he was the cause of that pain.

A glance at my watch was all I needed to feed that pain again.

We should have been cutting the cake right now.

My stomach turned when I thought that, most likely, my wedding cake was being cut at that moment – but by Jane.

“Hey, no tears. I mean it. You have no reason to be sad, girl,” Damien insisted. “You dodged a bullet, and he lost a gem. Dahlia and I are going to a party tonight – just some friends. You’re coming with us”.