Rejected Mate's Ascension

Chapter 7. A Wolf's Heart

"Julia, listen!" Harold's hand gripped my wrist. If he had crushed it with the bruising strength of a werewolf, I would have broken his hold, but he controlled it. More than that. His grasp was plushy, as if he was wearing a glove. So, I listened.

What else could I do? Even if it doomed me to more doubts than I wanted, he was finally talking. Someone had to listen, and we were all alone in the wilderness. Call it professionalism.

"It wasn't me. At least not altogether me, though I don't deny responsibility," Harold said. "I didn't put it together until now, but Monica had a crush on me for a while—"

I clicked my tongue. "When did you figure that out, genius?"

"Scarlett had brought it to my attention, and she wasn't kind about Monica's feelings. I knew it was wrong, Jules. I should have said something, opposed this relentless mockery...and I kept my mouth shut. I thought Scarlett was insecure because we had to hide our relationship."

Scarlett, insecure? I bit back a curse. They say love is blind, but Harold was on the next level. "You were head over heels."

"I was." The lost expression lasted only for a moment on his face—his human face. His hand on my arm was also a human's hand. At some point, imperceptibly to me, he had shifted. He looked oblivious that he did, a bad sign for any werewolf, let alone an aspiring Alpha.

"Back then, I never imagined it went beyond the japes in private, I swear. But now, with how Monica acts..." He swallowed. "Jules, she must have promised something to Monica. Not me, her."

It would be just like Scarlett, alright. However... "The Moon Goddess confirmed your fated mates' bond. How could it be, if Scarlett treated you like a bargaining chip in her game to become our pack's Luna?"

"The Goddess rarely interferes with what a wolf desires."

Unless your name is Julia Nielsen. Then, the Goddess ruthlessly takes away everything you hold dear, the very second you realize how precious it is to you. "I guess."

Harold's outline blurred as my eyes filled with tears, but his voice didn't waver. "I had never wanted Monica. I never will. When she asked me directly, that's what I told her."

My brows knitted together in a frown. "When?"

"Before our ceremony. She offered to be my Luna."

"And to warm your bed, no doubt." It shouldn't have annoyed me, because he wasn't mine, but it did.

"Yes. I told her I picked you as my mate, and that I had no interest in her, but it was too late. Scarlett's lies had twisted her mind. I don't know how to help her."

"It wasn't just Scarlett's lies," I mused. "It was the manner of her demise."

I couldn't say 'death', not when he looked at me the way he did. Not when he clasped my hand. He did. "Her death? What about it?"

The bitter irony of having to explain his she-wolves' feud! What a clueless jerk he was! What a pathetic fool was I! He brought a curse upon himself, and I was cursed with him.

Unfortunately, it had to be done, and a sigh that broke away from me be damned. "The traditional Goddess' ordained way, remember? Two she-wolves fight over a mate. The winner takes the prize. Don't you remember our friends fighting it out when they first went into heat? Only they never carried it to the death, not in our kinder age."

"Scarlett did when she went after Celeste," he replied.

Good, he was putting two and two together. I nodded, as if he was my student. "See, since Scarlett went hard core, Monica also had to do it, if she was to win you from her in a duel. After the kill, she's completely justified in believing the Goddess gave you to her as a fated mate along with the Mark of Luna."