Chapter 11

Winter POV I’m sitting in class, listening to the teacher, who I’ll admit was rambling a bit when the door to the classroom crashes open. I don’t even have to turn to know it’s the new Alpha everyone’s been talking about. The teacher thankfully falls silent and everyone begins to talk while I wonder what it is he wants. He smells nice, I think drowsily, like sandalwood and bergamot and I inhale deeply, my eyes suddenly narrowing as I work out why that is. There’s only one reason another person would smell this good to me and that’s if they are my mate. Sure enough, he points at me.

“You” he says gruffly and I try not to flinch at the authority oozing from his voice, “come with me.”

He strides back out and I’m forced to follow, the class erupting into giggles as I leave. Great. More fodder for the gossip mill.

I can’t help but stare at him in awe. His face is just so handsome, his green eyes round and dark, his black hair shaggy and down to his shoulders. He’s wearing a leather jacket that makes him look tough, as well as accentuates his muscled body. I swallow, feeling incredibly nervous all of a sudden as he turns to speak to me.

I’m not naive. I knew he’d brought me out here to reject me. After all, what guy would want a girl as broken and tainted as I was? I wasn’t the greatest looking and compared to him I must have looked awful. But I squared my shoulders, refusing to let him see how this was affecting me. I needed to get this over and done with, if only so I could get back to class and pretend this never happened. I’d dreamed of finding a mate since I was a little girl and as I’d gotten older, I’d hoped that mine would come along and save me. I should have known better.

“Listen, can we hurry this up” | mutter. “I need to get back to class.”

He looks stunned, almost as though he wasn’t expecting me to say something like that, but I meant every word.

The sooner the mate bond is severed, the sooner the pain will be gone. For a moment I’m grateful that I don’t have my wolf yet, which means the pain will be far less than if I had one.

He takes a deep breath and I wait for the inevitable words. “I, Johnathon of the blue moon pack, reject you Winter of the.”

“Silver Crescent” I supply and he nods and continues, almost forcing the words out.

“reject you Winter of the Silver Crescent pack” he finishes.

I try not to howl at the sharp pain in my heart. I refuse to let him see the pain he’s caused me.

“I Winter of the Silver Crescent Pack accept Johnathon’s of the Blue Moon’s Pack Rejection” I say dully and feel like I’m being ripped in two, trying to keep my breathing even, as I go through the most excruciating pain I’ve ever felt in my life. I force bile down my throat.

For a moment, he looks stunned and I know he’s feeling the mate bond sever completely. As an Alpha, he won’t feel it as much, not with the strength and power he possesses. I give him a tight smile and leave without a backward glance, fighting hard to keep my tears at bay when part of me wanted to scream out my anguish and let my tears flow. Crying wouldn’t do me any good. It never did.

My feet feel heavy and rooted to the floor as I went back to the classroom, feeling nothing but dread as I slowly turn the handle with a trembling hand. I forced myself to walk back into the room, casually, as though nothing had ever happened. The teacher looks at me and says nothing as I quietly take a seat and for a moment I think that “Looks like somebody got rejected” Jessica drawled from the back corner and I stiffened, accidentally giving away that, that in fact had happened. I can feel her malice and hatred from here.

“Just leave me alone” I whisper and she gives a loud snort of laughter. I hope the teacher will step in but they merely look away and I feel deflated. Even the teachers don’t care what happens to me.

“Did he hurt your feelings”, Jessica mocked, and I remain silent, breathing deeply in and out as I channel my anger, trying to keep myself from exploding. Why was it so hard for them to leave me alone? I was hurting right now and Jessica was taking delight in it.

“Winter got rejected” another student shouts and I groan and put a hand over my eyes as students begin to laugh at my misfortune. I should have gone home or pretended to be sick and gone to the nurses’

station.

“Well, who would want her?”

“Look at her. She’s ugly, of course he rejected her.”

“She’s pathetic, look at her.” “No way an Alpha would want to be anywhere near her.”

The whispers continued back and forth and I put my head on the desk and stare unseeing at everyone, violently wishing for the bell to ring and signal the end of the day. At this rate, I don’t even care that going home will be just as painful, I’m that depressed from everything that’s happened. The bell finally rings and I could almost jump for joy.

Finally, I can get away from this dreadful place and the taunts happening. Except that Jessica and her groupies don’t leave like the rest of the class do. I look up into her smirking face and gulp as she looks over at her friends.

“You know what to do” she tells them and I get up, try to run, only to get pushed to the ground, all of them kicking me over and over as I scream, feeling my ribs crack, my chest becoming tight as I struggle to breathe. I place my hands over my head protectively and wait for what seems like a decade until it’s over.

ver over, “Stay away from Johnathon b***h”, Jessica whispers from the doorway as she and the others leave.

I stay curled up in a fetal position and try to breathe. The pain is horrendous and I know that I’ll be lucky to get up on my own, let alone make it home. I uncurl myself slowly and sob as I get on my hands and knees, the room spinning around me. I barely make it to a standing position before I feel myself becoming lightheaded.

The last thing!

hear, before I fall back to the floor and darkness surrounds me, is his voice yelling at the top of his lungs “Get a doctor here now.”