Once Upon A Rejection

Molly Morgan’s POV

I had been awake since 5am trying to make sure that everything would be ready for our guests. I didn’t know much about them other than a few key facts and that they had some weight within the lycan community. If we could convince them to support us then it would go a long way towards making us royalty. I was still in denial about that part.

I wasn’t even sure I wanted to be queen, there was no denying that it would make some things easier. That still didn’t mean that I felt capable of ruling over them. The council didn’t even think I was capable of ruling a pack and there had been a few moments over the last few days where I wondered if they were right about me.

Scarlett growled in my head.

‘You need to stop letting those pieces of s**t get inside your head.’ She told me.

“You need to stop worrying so much sweetheart.” Grayson wrapped his arms around my waist and pulled my body into his.

“There is so much I need to do and they could arrive at any moment.”

“The house is fine and the food is fine. The only thing that you need to get ready is yourself.” He replied, kissing my neck as he guided me back towards our room.

“But what if they check the kitchen, there are pots and pans all over the place. Just let me wash those up first.” I whined, trying to pull myself out of his arms.

“What is going on here?” Talen asked in an amused tone.

“Someone has turned into a perfectionist overnight and needs to be saved from herself.”

Grayson continued to drag me towards our room but now Talen also had a hold on me and was helping him along. There were a few lycans in the hall who were helping us get ready for our guests, all of them burst out laughing when they saw me being dragged down the corridor by my mates. I tried my best to ignore their giggles and innuendos but I could feel my checks heating up.

“Stop fighting us Molly. They could be here any moment, you don’t want them seeing you with bleach down your top do you?” Grayson asked. His lips were still on my neck as he pushed me into the room.

“Maybe we have time for a little of something else.” I tried to use my most seductive tone but it didn’t seem to have the impact I wanted because Talen started laughing from somewhere behind me.

“I wish we had time for that honey but they will be here any minute.”

Talen looked as though he was going to add something else but he froze suddenly. He glanced at his watch then mumbles something under his breath before rushing out of the room.

There was something in the way he moved that told me that our guests had arrived ahead of schedule. Grayson cursed under his breath while I changed my clothes so quickly that even superman would have been impressed with me.

Even so, it still wasn’t fast enough for me to reach the reception room before our guests. When we got there Talen was already pouring them a cup of tea. They stood up to acknowledge our presence as we walked into the room.

I had only been expecting to see three of them but each of the lycans had brought someone else with them. Two of them had brought their mates while the final one, the only woman who was here because of her own influence, had brought two people who she introduced as assistants.

“So this is the girl I have been hearing so much about.” The oldest lycan said, looking me up and down.

His name was Trent. He was tall and had dark hair which was starting to grey slightly at the sides which meant that he was probably around 60 years old. He was dressed as though he was planning to go to a business meeting straight after this, even his mate was dressed in a formal business suit.

The research that I had managed to do on him before they arrived told me that he was a businessman who had invested in a number of successful human businesses over the years. But I knew nothing of his personal life, I didn’t even know he had a mate.

“She isn’t what I expected.” Beric added in an accent so posh that I swear he was putting it on to show off.

He was wearing jeans and a t-shirt paired with a tweed jacket while his mate was wearing a summer dress. I wasn’t able to find much information on Beric but Talen told me that he was some kind of lycan historian. I didn’t really understand what he did but that was nothing new. I had never been great at politics or history.

“Stop teasing her, you two.” Francesca rolled her eyes as she spoke to the other lycans. I had a feeling I was going to like her.

“Fine, let’s get straight down to business. I understand that you wish to be queen.”

Trent leaned forward in his chair as he waited for my answer. He was paying a lot of attention to my face and I was sure that he was looking for any kind of misdirection on my part.

“Not really, I am looking to take over my father’s house.” I replied.

“By doing so you will become queen, so my point still stands.”

“What is your point?”

Talen was glaring at Trent as though he was trying to convince his lycan not to murder him. Trent continued talking, completely ignoring the look that Talen was giving him.

“Before we agree to support you, we would like to know why you wish to become queen.”

“I want to protect the lycans in my father’s house. Finn betrayed his old pack and caused the deaths of many lycans and werewolves. I don’t want something like that to happen again.”

“Tell us more about this incident with Dustin. Why did he want to kill you?” He asked, leaning in even further.

I felt a little flustered by his question, I thought that the events were well known within both the lycan and the werewolf community. It didn’t make sense that he wouldn’t know about them, unless this whole line of questioning was designed to make me feel flustered and off balance.

“He didn’t really want me dead. He wanted to be king and killing me, Talen and Finn was the easiest way to ensure that it happened.”

“I agree. Do you know if he had other plans for once he took over? What about the werewolves, how would they have reacted if he became king? Do you think it would have ended in another war?”

Beric was animating wildly as he spoke, his enthusiasm was so intense that his words were running into one another. It seemed as though his travel companions were used to this kind of outburst because they didn’t seem bothered by it.

“Whoa, can I have just one question at a time please?” I asked.

Beric nodded his head, he took a couple of deep breaths before he spoke again. After that Beric managed to have a more reasonably paced conversation, even though I could tell that it was difficult for him to reign in his excitement.

The others remained quiet while he asked me question after question, making notes on a small tablet everytime one of us spoke. We must have been there for hours trying to answer questions on things we knew absolutely nothing about. I don’t know why he expected us to be able to answer questions about the mindset of the man who was trying to kill us. But he seemed disappointed that we couldn’t give him the answers he wanted.

Eventually, he seemed to run out of things to ask us and we went into the dinning room to have dinner. Everyone was silent as we ate, although the looks that they were exchanging told me that there was some kind of communication going on between our guests.

That was something I hadn’t been expecting. I knew that lycans had some kind of mental communication a bit like a werewolf’s mindlink. I had always assumed that it would work in a similar way and only allow communications between smaller groups.

Now that I knew a bit more about lycans I realised that their mindlink must work differently. I guess that would just have to be one more thing on a very long list of things I didn’t know about lycans for now.

I tried to put my concerns to one side and concentrate on my food but even that was difficult. Having them watching me and talking amongst themselves made me feel uncomfortable. I could barely manage to eat more than a few bites without feeling sick. So instead I pushed the food around my plate and chopped it into increasingly smaller pieces.

‘Molly, you need to eat something.’ Grayson told me via mindlink.

‘I’m too nervous to eat.’

‘If you don’t at least finish your vegetables then I will have to put you over my knee tonight.’

The squeak of a chair dragging against the floor as someone got to their feet brought my attention back to what was going on around me.

“We’ve made our decision. We are going to support your claim to your father’s house and the throne” Francesca told us.

“It isn’t going to be easy. Some of the others will take a great deal of convincing, but we will stay here to help you.” Trent added. I smiled at them, nodding my head in agreement. I really did appreciate their offer to help me, but secretly I was dreading having them stay around for so long.