The Unlikely Mate

Chapter 3

"You can't just come barging in here" Luther said to her, glaring at her and taking in every detail of her appearance, while also restraining his wolf who knew his mate had arrived.

"Ummm...." She faltered, as this was not at all a reaction she had anticipated. "I think you're my mate," she said as she approached him. Her wolf continuing to urge her forward.

"No" he said with determination. "If you're who the Moon Goddess chose for me, she was very wrong." The statement was what Luther intended, but the wolf inside was fighting the words.

Jennifer froze where she was standing, the reality of the situation starting to make sense in her mind. Her wolf whimpering inside, realizing what was coming.

"But you don't even know me" Jennifer began, already feeling the tears beginning to prick her eyes. "Maybe if we just talked for a few minutes" she said, and then paused hopefully.

"I don't need to have a conversation with you to know you're not worthy to be my mate. You're just a little girl, immature, unattractive and an Omega." He said with disgust.

"But" she began, her heart already breaking from the unkind words her mate was saying to her.

"I, Luther Crane, Alpha of the Blood Moon Pack hereby reject you," and he paused catching his breath, as even saying the words to reject his mate were causing him physical pain from the wolf inside fighting against it, but he quickly spoke again, "what's your name?" he snapped, using his Alpha tone which compelled her to comply.

Jennifer who had already dropped to her knees, her heart racing and her body quivering as the rejection had begun, responded "my name is Jennifer Porter" and her tears began to flow.

"I, Luther Crane, Alpha of the Blood Moon Pack" he began again, "hereby reject you, Jennifer Porter, as my mate." When he finished speaking, they both collapsed to the floor in pain. Jennifer cried loudly, clutching at her heart. Luther beat the floor with his fist, both of them feeling the severing of the bond radiate through their bodies. The wolves of each howling internally as the shock of the separation rendered them both incapable of outward expression.

"Accept my rejection" Luther panted through his gritted teeth, again using his Alpha tone, forcing Jennifer to obey his instruction.

"I, Jennifer Porter, hereby accept" she began, stopped by another onslaught of tears that she gulped down between her gasps for breath amidst the pain, "your rejection."

Both of them began to whimper in pain for several more minutes when finally Jennifer's parents knocked timidly on the door. They had realized that Jennifer must have caught the scent of her mate when she left them upon entering the pack house, so they had given her time to find him and get acquainted. But when she didn't return with her mate, they decided to look for her, escorted by Luther's Beta who had first greeted them upon their arrival.

"Alpha, are you ok?" the Beta asked, quickly coming to the aid of Luther and helping him to his feet.

"Leave now!" Luther said to Jennifer and her parents who were helping her up off the floor. "Leave and never come back."

Jennifer's parents quickly pulled her to her feet, half carrying and half dragging her out of the room, through the pack house and out the front door to their car. They got in quickly, without a word and drove away, Jennifer weeping the entire time. They drove straight back to their own pack, not speaking verbally to each other the entire way. Although Jennifer could tell that there was an extensive and heated conversation going on between her parents via their mind-link with each other, she didn't care. The only though ton her mind was that her heart had been ripped out, her wolf was crying inside and her pain was unbearable. The memories she was reliving causing her body to again thrash about and shake violently.

"She still isn't healing right," the doctor said to the nurse who was helping to dress Jennifer's wounds.

"Is there anything else we can do for her?" the nurse asked softly.

"For now, until we either figure out what's causing her unrest or she gets through it on her own, I think all we can do is try to keep her sedated and comfortable, so that her body can try to rest."

Jennifer could hear the nurse and doctor speaking, but she was trapped in her own mind, reliving her past and feeling the torment of rejection all over again. When the sedative was administered, her mind once again picked up where the memory had left off, after she had returned home, rejected by her mate, Luther an Alpha.

For two days after being rejected, Jennifer didn't speak to anyone about what had happened. All she could was replay in her mind the hurtful things that Luther had said to her. She had never expected to be mated to an Alpha, it wasn't even something she would have wanted, but she wanted a mate. She wanted her mate, who she had fantasized about for as long as she could remember. But his words repeated themselves in her mind. He had called her a little girl, immature and unattractive.

It was during those two days of pain, misery and self-loathing that she decided she would never be called any of those things again. Maybe he was right, she knew she was immature, but she had never cared. She was young and enjoyed the responsibility-free life of youth. But she decided now was the time to grow up. He had also called her unattractive, and she felt that meant there was room for improvement, and she decided that she would to whatever it took to become beautiful. He hadn't deemed her worthy of his mate, because she was a lowly Omega, and she told herself that if the Moon Goddess had mated her to an Alpha, that must mean she was good enough to be a Luna. So after two days, she had come to a resolve, and she had decided that she would do whatever it took to become someone her mate would want and find worthy. She would grow up, become beautiful and worthy of the title of Luna, and by the Moon Goddess she intended to find herself an Alpha.

"I'm leaving" Jennifer said to her parents when she finally emerged from her bedroom.

"What do mean?" her mother asked, "Where are you going?"

"My mate rejected me, I wasn't good enough" she said, choking back a sob. "So I'm going to go and find a place where I can make myself good enough."

"That's not true, Dear" her father chimed in. "Of course you're good enough, the Moon Goddess mated you with an Alpha, which should tell you that you are."

"If I were good enough, he wouldn't have rejected me" Jennifer said with conviction.

"But where do you think you will go, why do you think you need to leave?" Her mother pleaded with her.

"I'm humiliated, Mom. I can't face the people of this pack. By now, I'm sure everyone knows that I was rejected by my mate. I can't live here with that over my head. I need to go, and make myself good enough."

"Sweetie, please don't talk like that" her mother begged. "You're our precious little girl, please don't feel like you need to run off. This will pass."

"It won't pass!" Jennifer said, her voice getting louder as she spoke. "And I don't want to be your little girl. I want to be someone a mate could be proud of. I want to be wanted, and that can't happen here." By this time, Jennifer was getting hysterical, and her wolf was pushing to the surface. "I need to shift and go for a run" she said, and the she walked out the front door.

Jennifer, reliving this memory in her wounded and sedated state groaned inwardly at her young foolishness and resolve. If only she could go back and speak to her young self and let her know that there had been nothing wrong with her then, and that Luther was the one who wasn't good enough. That he was a mean and awful Alpha and not at all worthy of even having a Luna. But unfortunately, there could be no changing the past.