Once Upon A Rejection

Grayson Ward’s POV

It was all just a waiting game now. I had informed everyone of the plan and sent people to scout each of the locations. We couldn’t do anything else until we heard back from them. Ezra had gone to spend some time with June so I was all on my own, worrying about what was happening to the werewolves that had been taken from our pack.

‘Go find our mate, she will comfort us.’ Bran suggested. He hated having Molly out of sight when so many bad things were happening around our pack. It didn’t matter to him that she was safe and with Talen, he wanted to have her close by.

‘Don’t put that on me, you want her too.’ Bran replied with a frustrated sigh. I wanted to deny it but I couldn’t. My father was gone and I didn’t know if I would ever see him again, the thought of that potentially happening to Molly and Talen made me feel sick.

‘Just check on them, we need to know they are safe.’ I knew that Bran wasn’t going to leave me alone until I did something to reassure him so I opened up a mindlink with Talen. Talen laughed at me when I told him my concerns but I didn’t take it to heart because I was sure that he would be the same as me if our roles were reversed.

After a few minutes of talking to him he invited me to join him and Molly for the rest of the day. I agreed immediately, even though I am sure that he only invited me to get me to be quiet. I didn’t care though, he couldn’t take back the offer now. Once I had taken a few minutes to freshen up and change my clothes, I set off to the location that Talen had given me.

The town that I was heading to was small and quiet. Even though it was one of the closest towns to ours, I had only set foot in it once before. It was quiet and there wasn’t much in the town to draw people to come here. I guess Talen was serious about wanting to get some time with Molly away from the rest of the pack. I wasn’t going to feel guilty about joining them though, the three of us belonged together, always.

They were still sitting in the cafe together drinking coffee when I walked in but there was a third person,a man sitting with them at the table. I could tell that he was human before I could even smell him, just from the way he held himself. I had no clue who he was but he was speaking to Molly as though he knew her intimately, Bran didn’t like that one bit.

It wasn’t until I had taken a few steps into the room that Molly became aware of my presence. When she saw me, a look of panic crossed her face. Who was this man to her and why didn’t she want me to meet him?

“Grayson,” she said, her voice a breathy whisper.

“Whoa, is that the same Grayson that you told me about?” The human asked, causing Molly to blush deeply and try to hide her face behind her hair.

‘Oh, now we have to find out all about this.’ Bran exclaimed. He was suddenly very interested in this human. Molly tried to signal to her human friend to stop talking as I sat down between the two of them.

“So, are you going to tell me what she told you about me?” I asked. Molly sat back in her seat, trying to hide herself from view but I wasn’t going to let her get away with hiding her pretty face from me. I shuffled closer to her and wrapped my arm around her shoulders.

“I’m not sure that is a good idea.” The human said, his eyes were darting anxiously between Molly, Talen and I.

“Wait a moment…. Molly, are you dating both of these men?” He asked. Most of the people in the cafe were openly staring at us now, I guess this must be something that is considered unusual for humans.

Molly nodded her head. She seemed nervous about the attention the humans were giving her. I didn’t understand that, she had nothing to feel self conscious about.

“Wow, that is awesome. I always told you that you were underappreciated.” His words made me realise that they must have been friends with each other before Molly moved away from the pack. I never knew that she used to leave the pack. I wonder how often she used to come out here and how she managed to get out of the pack unseen.

“She is perfect and I am very happy to call her mine. Now, will you let me know what she said about me?” I asked.

The human burst out laughing.

“She had such a huge crush on you when she was younger. She used to talk about you all the time but she told me that you never noticed her.”

Molly buried her face into my shoulder, I could feel her embarrassment strongly through our bond. Talen took hold of her hand and ran his fingers over her knuckles. It made me feel bad to hear how I made her feel when she was younger. I didn’t want to keep secrets from her but my dad was worried about putting pressure on her. I could have argued with his decision but I was struggling to keep my wolf from claiming her so it was easier to keep my distance.

Bran had never had much patience for my dad’s rules. If I had let him have his way then he would have marked her the moment she turned seventeen. I am not sure how the council would have responded to that. It was against the law to mark someone under the age of eighteen. They tended to turn a blind eye when omegas and unranked wolves did it but alphas and betas were held to a higher standard. I would have probably ended up losing my title to one of my younger brothers.

‘It would have been worth it.’ Bran interjected.

“I always noticed her.” I replied to the human while ignoring my wolf’s silly comments.

“See I told you that you were being silly. How could anyone ever ignore you? You are too much of a pain in a*s for that.” The human replied, making me laugh in spite of my better judgement.

“That means next to nothing coming from you.” Molly replied, in between bouts of laughter.

We spent the next few hours talking to the human. We talked until well after the cafe should have closed and the sun had gone down. It probably wasn’t the safest plan for us all to be out of the pack boundaries after dark and without any backup. However, I was sure that nobody would come looking for us in a place like this. Thank the goddess for that at least.

It wasn’t until Matty’s mother started clearing up the tables around us that we realised how late it was getting. Matty invited us to go to a bar with him but we declined and made our way back to the pack. Ezra was waiting for us outside our house by the time that we arrived.

“Why didn’t you pick up your phone?” Ezra grumbled at me as I stepped out of my car. Molly and Talen were just pulling up behind me in their car.

“I didn’t have any signal. Was there something you wanted to talk to me about?” I asked.

“We have had reports from the scouts that you sent out. When you didn’t reply to their messages, they got in touch with me.” He told me.

I pulled out my phone and started checking my messages. It seemed as though my scouts had made much better time than I had anticipated. The leaders of all three groups had already reported back to me with their findings.

There were no signs of lycans at the cottage that Vincent mentioned but the other two locations weren’t quite so empty. There were a few lycans at Dustin’s house but they were mostly women and children. It seemed as though Dustin himself was staying at the old palace with most of his fighters.

All of the signs pointed to that being the location where he was keeping his prisoners. There was no other reason for so many lycans to be at a palace which had been empty for so many years. He clearly thought that he had already won and been crowned as king, we would have to prove him wrong.

“We need to make a plan. I will call a meeting first thing tomorrow but I want us to be ready to leave straight after.” I told Ezra and anyone else who was listening. I needed to get my dad back before Dustin did all the things he was threatening to do.