Rejected.

"No!" I screamed and without needing to think it through I did what I knew I would do time and time again. I leapt in front of the weapon that would have ended Will's life and watched as it embedded itself into my chest instead of Will's.

"Shanan!" I heard the pain in his voice and couldn't fight back a smile. He might not care for me enough to yield but he cared enough to feel anguish over my death. My death. This was it, it was over now.

"Shanan don't you dare leave me!" He growled

"Your such a hypocrite you jerk, two seconds ago you were planning on ending your life and leaving me" that's right even in the final stages of death I had called him a jerk.

"Shanan I promise I won't ever leave you ever again" I suppressed a sigh, these were the words I had been dying for him to say and when he finally did it was because he didn't want me to die, great now his words didn't really count.

"Don't make promises you can't keep" I, of all people, knew that promises were made to be broken. I had promised my mum I would run and never come yet I had and when I did there had been nothing I could do to stop her death, just as there was nothing Will could do to save me.

"Fine if you stay alive I promise to yield" great so now he wanted to yield

"That would be great if I actually had a chance of surviving" I said sarcastically and he let out a growl

"You will not leave me!" He growled and there was no doubt in my mind that I wished his words were true. I didn't want to die, but better me than Will.

"There is one way to save her" a voice said timidly, I turned to the pack doctor, eagerly

"What is it?!" Will said impatiently

"You need to fulfil the first step of mating" no, yes, maybe. Crap I didn't know what I wanted. I felt my eyes drifting and when I felt Will's face move closer to mine I knew that I didn't have a choice and without further ado Will pressed his lips against mine. The same girl he had rejected four years back. The same girl who had accepted his rejection four years back. I felt my life force connect with his and all through a simple kiss. There was no going back now, I, Shanan Falls, had just completed part one of the mating with the one man on earth whom I hated whole-heartedly.

....

Humans say that love is powerful, they say love overcomes everything. They say love will prevail. They say love will always win.

I say a mates bond is strong enough to defeat death, yet doesn't necessarily mean the two people are in love. I say that two mates could hate each other but would always care for each other. I say that somewhere along the line fate had screwed up because I was the girl who had left my mate, four years back, without a second glance yet know, four years later, I was lying in a hospital bed because I saved the mate I had vowed to forget.

And that mate in question was lying, sound asleep next to me. He was the one who had rejected me, four years back, but had chosen to complete step one of the mating, to save my life.

Humans say to love is to sacrifice and I agree with that. But Will and I both sacrificed something for one another but we don't, and never will, love each other.

Right?....