Once Upon A Rejection

Grayson showed Talen and the other lycan to his office. I had missed the introduction for the other lycan with all of the commotion of Talen’s arrival and now it felt rude to ask him for it. I would just have to think of him as lycan number two and hope I didn’t run into him very often after this.

We sat around the table in Grayson’s office. I took my place next to Grayson while Talen took the place opposite me and lycan number two sat next to him. Talen was still staring at me, I rolled my eyes and turned away from him.

‘If he doesn’t stop staring then I am going to poke his damn eyes out.’ Scarlett growled.

“I should probably get my parents to meet us here.” Grayson said, more to himself than to us.

“No.” Talen shouted.

We all turned to look at him. He better had a good reason for his outburst otherwise Grayson would not be happy. Talen was lucky that Grayson was so level headed because many alpha’s would take an outburst like that as a challenge.

“Some of the things I am about to tell you are secrets that only lycans and their mates are allowed to know. We can work out what to tell your parents later.” Talen said, clarifying his position.

Grayson looked away. I could feel his discomfort, although he did a good job of hiding it from the lycans he couldn’t hide it from me.

“I don’t like the idea of lying to my family but I understand.” He said.

“Great. Where do you want me to start?” Talen asked.

“Let’s start with the part where you are related to the woman who has been stalking me.” I said, a little more aggressively than I had intended.

‘Oh well, he deserves it anyway.’ Jade said.

Talen let out a long sigh and there was a look of sadness in his eyes. This was clearly a difficult subject for him.

“The quick answer is that she is my aunt. She wasn’t always like this, she used to be nice but that was before her mate died.” He said.

I nodded my head. I know that the death of your mate can have a profound effect on a werewolf and I have heard that this is even worse for lycans. Even so, did that really excuse her behaviour and more importantly could I trust Talen?

He might have protected me in the forest but that could just be part of a plan to get us to trust him before he betrayed us. I would have to make sure not to let my guard down too much around them until I could be certain.

“What does she want from us?” I asked.

“That is more difficult. I think if it was up to her she would just want to never have to hear your name again but others have very different motives. At the moment I only have my suspicions who they are but I know for certain that they want you dead.” He said.

I shuddered, it was bad enough having a woman targeting our pack without having other known enemies after us. We were quite a little pack quite far away from the other American packs, we didn’t normally get involved in fights with the other packs.

“Why do they want to kill me? Our pack hasn’t done anything to the lycans.” I said.

“It has nothing to do with the pack. It is because of who your father is.” He said.

My heart skipped a beat and I felt a tightness forming in my chest. I had never been interested in finding out who my father was. He had never tried to find me or get to know me so I told myself that I didn’t care but that was a lie. I was scared.

I was scared of finding him and him not wanting to have anything to do with me. Knowing that he was dead didn’t take away that fear, if anything it made it worse. The rest of his family was out there somewhere and I was worried about them rejecting me.

“Who is her father?” Grayson said.

“How much do you know about lycan society?” Talen asked.

“Not a whole lot.” I admitted.

“I know that there are three houses that together oversee the rest of the lycans. I know that these houses are responsible for creating and upholding lycan law.” Grayson said.

I nodded my head in agreement. I was taught something similar when I was at school. Apparently the three houses thought themselves to be better than other lycans as they could trace their bloodlines back to the original lycans. I had always thought that it was a load of rubbish, not that I would say that in front of a couple of stuck up lycans.

“That is right and Molly’s father was the head of one of these households.” Talen said.

“Ok, but why would that mean they wanted to kill me?” I asked.

That was the part that I really didn’t understand. I was nobody of consequence, The future luna of a small pack with no ties to any of the larger packs. There was no reason to want me dead even if my aher was powerful. That power would automatically be passed to this woman’s children, not me.

“They want to prevent your father’s title from passing to you.” Talen said.

“Who are they and why would anything pass to me?” I asked.

I rested my head in my hands. This was all getting so complicated, my head was starting to hurt. Grayson rested his hand on my leg.

“He didn’t have any other living relatives and his mate couldn’t give him an heir.” Talen said.

“Couldn’t?” Grayson asked.

He was trying to work out if the rumours were true. For the last century or so lycan numbers had been dwindling. Some of it could be put down to fighting between themselves and between werewolves but that wasn’t enough to explain the decline. This has led to a lot of speculation.

Most of the theories that have been suggested are completely ridiculous but there is one theory that keeps coming up. That theory is that the lycans are having trouble with fertility and this is what was causing their numbers to decline.

Maybe that would explain why a lycan would have a relationship with a werewolf. Our kinds didn’t usually mix but if they were facing the extinction of their species then they might try something drastic to stop it.

“Yes Amelia couldn’t have children so your father found another way to create an heir. He kept all of you a secret, it wasn’t until after he died that we started to work out the full extent of what he did.” Talen said.

I looked away. I had so many emotions going through my head that I felt dizzy. I had other half siblings out there somewhere. I wondered if they knew about me and what they were like. Maybe I could even meet them one day.

“How many of us are there?” I asked.

“There are four that we know about but one of those didn’t survive their first shift and Amelia has already killed one of them. My sister is currently heading to your half brother’s pack to check out their situation.” Talen replied.

I nodded my head. I was still trying to process all the information that Talen had given me.

“You said that other people were manipulating this woman, who are these people?” Grayson asked.

“My father is the head of one of the other ruling houses. There are members of my family who don’t want to see your father’s position taken by someone who is only half lycan. They would rather see the house fail and the land and assets divided among the remaining two houses. I suspect that they have got together with other like minded individuals to organise this.” Talen said.

“If this is what your family wants then how do we know that we can trust you?” Grayson asked, letting go of me and leaning forward in his chair. He looked as though he was getting ready to launch himself over the table at Talen.

“It is only a few of my family that feel that way, most of us are not like that at all. Besides, I would rather die than let them hurt Molly.” Talen said, smiling in my direction.

“What?” I said. That seemed a little extreme. I know he was meant to help us protect our pack but he didn’t even know me. I could feel myself frowning in confusion.

“Isn’t it obvious?” Talen asked.

I looked around the table, everyone was staring at me. I shook my head, I had no clue what he was talking about. Grayson seemed equally confused by Talen’s behaviour. He took hold of my hand under the table and held onto it tightly.

“You are my mate.” Talen said.