Myths & Rejections

Chapter 9 - Surprise Visit

Word Count : 8420

Reese

"Are you sure you really want to do this?" Reese asked for the 14th time since they'd left the house. "I think maybe we should reconsider."

"Stop being a pussy, Reese." Callum said, earning a fierce growl from Reese that had him immediately backing down. "Sorry, Alpha. I just mean, stop worrying so much."

"We're going." Adam said firmly. "You can stay back if you want, no one is making you go.  I have to and Callum has to, but you don't.  Seriously, if it worries you that much, don't go."

"I don't think I have much choice at this point." Reese said. "I don't trust you two to leave if the girls tell you to.  Which is exactly what we are going to do, you say your piece, and we leave if they ask us to, and let the ball be in their court."

"Listen, they might do that off the bat, but we need to make sure..." Callum started.

"No." Reese said firmly. "That was the agreement, if they want us gone, we're gone. Period.  We're not causing them any more pain.  Remember?"

"Right." Callum mumbled.

"Yeah." Adam said with a sigh.  He wanted another shot at his mate, and he didn't think one meeting with her would be enough to get him one.  It had nothing to do with him never getting a second chance mate, it had everything to do with him never wanting to reject her to begin with.  She'd actually been the girl he'd wanted as his mate since he was little, he couldn't believe how stupid he'd been. 

Adam could still remember reading her letter after stealing it during the meeting.  Her heart had been so shattered, she'd thought he hated her.  She'd said it, she couldn't stay there and see him knowing he hated her.  He'd been shocked to find out she thought that he actually hated her, he couldn't let her keep thinking that.  Her letter had left him sobbing all that night, and many nights since, knowing he'd done that to his mate. The words 'I don't understand Daddy, I just don't understand what we did so wrong to deserve to be rejected' had haunted him since he read them and would continue haunt him for the rest of his life.  They didn't do anything to deserve to get rejected, either of them.

Only a few people knew he was the one who had rejected Celie, no one had seen him do it, and the guys had never told on him, but it ate him alive. Her father still came to the office every week and asked if they'd found her, if they'd heard anything.  Even after being told there was no hope, he still looked for his daughter, he never gave up, and never forgot his little girl.  Part of Adam couldn't understand how she had just stopped contacting her father and brothers, but another part of him knew she'd had to. If she hadn't stopped they'd been able to track her letters and emails.  She and Harper wouldn't have been able to escape, they'd have been found, and they'd have been brought back, and he knew that was the last thing they wanted.  The laws hadn't been passed then, the rules saying that they couldn't be forced back hadn't been put in place, so there would have been nothing stopping Reese from forcing them back.  Adam didn't think Alpha Lucas would have necessarily physically forced them to come back. But he and Luna Sophia would definitely have used any means necessary, guilt, coercion, or pressure, to get them back to the pack and that would have been just as wrong as dragging them back by force.

Adam knew firsthand how bad it was, shortly after passing the new laws a runner had shown up on their border asking for sanctuary, he'd been the one to go talk to her after she'd first crossed over and he saw what it did to her.  She'd been so weak he'd had to carry her back, and he'd stayed with her, become her friend, and helped her through it as much as he could.  Watching her pain, watching her suffer had truly brought home to him the horror of what he'd done so carelessly.  Her name had been Carrie, and she'd been an omega.  Adam and the guys had watched her slowly die, she'd only lasted a few weeks after getting rejected. Her wolf had died first, and she'd gotten weaker and weaker until she'd died too.  It had nearly killed him to watch it.