Her Alpha

Chapter Three

Reagan's POV

Pacing solved nothing. I was beginning to consider giving into my urge to cry or maybe bang my head against the wall, but I had a hunch that neither would serve as helpful. Plus, crying in my room alone would only punctuate how pathetic I was. My mate wanted me as nothing and I had no friends to cry about it with? Pity.

I could tell my brothers, but then they would want to know who he was. Two problems there: I had no freaking clue what the guy's name was, and I did not want my brother intimidating him into mating with me. He didn't want me? Fine.

Maybe I should have rejected him. Taken away his chance to give up on me by pushing him away first. Sure, he hadn't straight up rejected me, but in a way this was worse--he was stringing me along. So really, he deserved a rejection.

But I couldn't bring myself to do it. Asshole or not, he was my mate, and I hoped to work things out. If I rejected him, there would be no chance for that. We'd just be over.

A knock sounded on my door, and I halted my pacing with a sigh. Did I really want to answer that?

It could be our mate, my wolf suggested hopefully. Now I really didn't want to answer the door. She'd surely be crushed when she saw it wasn't him.

Another knock landed on the door, paired with Lincoln's voice, "Open up, Ray. I know you're in there." Great. I'd skipped dinner last night, and had been aiming to duck out of breakfast this morning, too. Apparently they weren't letting me get away with it.

Taking my sweet ol' time, I walked over to the door and pulled it open. Without giving me a chance to greet him or anything, my brother nudged past me and into my room. "Come on in," I said sarcastically, shutting the door behind him.

He stood in the middle of my room, arms crossed and eyes studying me. "What's up with you?"

My eyebrows lifted. "What's up with me? What's up with you? You're the one forcing your way into my room at nine in the morning." Deflection. Couldn't hurt to try.

Judging by the intensity in his stare, though, it wasn't working. "Since when do you skip meals?"

Oh, goddess. Not this. "It was one, Lincoln. And I wasn't feeling up to it."

His head tipped as he considered me. "Are you sick? And two. Two meals. Or, you're trying for two, anyway. But you're not skipping it. I'll carry you down there over my shoulder if I have to. Smith's on call for backup if needed."

I forced out a weak laugh. Normally, that'd entice an actual chuckle out of me, but I was having trouble finding anything funny then. "Not necessary. If I knew you guys would blow a gasket, I would have come down and at least sat for breakfast with you."

His eyes narrowed. "No, you're going to be eating breakfast. Let's go." And with that he stepped back around me and to the door, holding it open for me to leave first. Only two options existed--I could either resist and then get hauled down there against my will, because I knew he wasn't bluffing about carrying me and about Smith on call, or I could comply. I figured it'd be better to give in and save the energy option one would require.

With me leading the way, we began heading toward the stairs so we could go to our father's suite, where we always had family meals. As we passed the door next to mine, Lincoln stopped and knocked. I had no time to ask him what the hell he was doing since two seconds later, the door flew open and Remington stared out at my brother, then looked down the hall at me. His eyes narrowed. "She trying to sneak out?" There was an unspoken again lingering on the end of his question that I was glad he didn't voice. If I could avoid talking about yesterday's outing and the result of it, I'd keep on for as long as I could.