The Rejection (NEW VERSION)

10 | Daydreams

The Moody Blues — Nights In White Satin

ten

I shook my head at the ridiculous imagery. What's wrong with me? Why would he kiss me? Do I want him to? God, why was I imagining that? I huffed lightly and tapped against the dark wood door of his office. The weather really must be messing with me.

The door swung open and shut just as quickly as I had imagined, and a hand grabbed my wrist to pull me just the same too. For a split second, it felt like deja vu and I waited for the electrifying lips to caress my own before snapping back to reality. Thankfully, the office was pitch black, otherwise Jason would have seen my cheeks that I could feel glowing the shade of a ripe strawberry. With crossed arms, I kept myself pressed against the door and as far from him as possible.

"What do you want?" I whispered, my voice shaking a bit to my own ears. Please don't notice.

"I thought I shou–what's wrong?"

My face was blistering hot at this point. "Nothing!" I hissed. "It's . . . hot out. I'm tired."

"Have you been resting? You know, since–"

"Yes. Just tell me why I'm up here."

My pulse was echoing my ears; I couldn't calm down and I wasn't sure why. My chest felt tight and my stomach was twisting.

Jason let out a deep breath. "Listen to the whole story before making any comments, okay?" My silence was confirmation; I didn't trust my voice anyway. "Clive is Courtney's dad. Well . . . adoptive dad. It's complicated. She was a young rogue and he took her in–whatever. Not the point. But, maybe it is? It's important to know, but–"

"Whatever the point is, you're not getting to it."

He huffed again and I could imagine the eye roll I'm sure he gave. "The point is that I'm wanting you to watch yourself around the pack downstairs. That's Courtney's dad and he's a terrible guy. This 'agreement' I mentioned out there is that he agreed to a partnership if I mated his daughter."

A bitter taste filled my mouth and the butterflies in my stomach turned toxic. I hated every word that came out of his mouth. Telling myself that it didn't matter, that we weren't together and never would be, that he treated me like trash and rejected me–it didn't matter. My feelings were a melting pot of anger, jealousy and hate, and all of them were directed at a specific tall blonde. My head was spinning.

          Jason took the quiet as a cue to keep going, though that was the exact opposite of what I wanted. "It's all a lie though," his voice growing more intense and more hushed, "Clive has been killing off small packs and stealing their land. Or at least, he's associated with those that are. And it's brutal. Your brother . . . He brought it to my attention about a year ago, because the other hunters think he's looking too much into it. They think they've just slacked on rogues and poachers, but I know he wouldn't say something like that unless he knew for sure. So, we came up with a plan. Klaus, when being boarded by the McDaniel pack, hinted that I was interested in getting involved and he sent his daughter as a welcome."

I clenched my eyes briefly as if it would stop the words. There's a bathroom up here somewhere. Is it the second or the third door on the right? "I don't want to hear anymore," I whispered and went to slip out of the dark office, but his warm hand grabbed my arm. I felt as if it was zero gravity and I was spinning in space. "I'm not joking, Jason, it's making me sick."

And it was. I ripped from his iron hand and ran further down the hall and to the door I, surprisingly, remembered was the bathroom. Slamming it shut, I ran and retched into the toilet almost violently. My body shook and a cold sweat beaded my forehead. It was like my body was trying to rid itself of the contradictory emotions my brain and heart were battling over. I didn't want to feel any of it.