Once Upon A Rejection

Grayson Ward’s POV

After getting ready in record time I helped to get Molly ready. Mostly I just got her everything that she asked for while offering copious praise. It wasn’t much but I think it helped. We were still late to the party but at least we only missed the pre-party drinks. My dad would have given me such a hard time of things if they had to delay the ceremony on my behalf. Especially seen as my mom tells me that he is having a hard time letting go of being alpha.

I walked to the front of the group, holding onto Molly’s hand tightly. Molly was smiling and making small talk with everyone who we passed while I remained silent, mostly to hide the fact that I was incredibly anxious. This was my first official event as the alpha of the pack and I was worried that I would do something wrong. Molly clearly had no such concerns.

Molly’s friend Ellie was waiting for us in the arms of her mate. She was playing with the hem of her dress but the huge smile on her face told me that she was excited. Her mate was whispering words of encouragement into her ear as they waited for everyone to take their places.

“I’m really sorry your parents couldn’t be here.” Molly told her friend.

She had invited her parents to see her ceremony, we had even made plans to make the whole day look like a human wedding. Unfortunately things didn’t exactly go according to plan. None of her family were very happy about her marrying a man who she had only just met.

They didn’t seem to understand how someone could fall in love so quickly and they were sure that she was making an awful mistake. As a result they refused to play any part in her wedding. Ellie was still rather upset about their absence, although she was trying not to let it ruin her day.

“It’s ok, you guys are my real family.” Ellie replied, blinking back the tears that were forming in her eyes.

Sensing her distress Hayden started moving closer to us. He wanted to come over and comfort his mate but Ellie glanced at him and shook her head. Hayden had been forgiven for his crimes against the pack but Ellie was still a long way from forgiving him for his crimes against her.

She had tried to get the moon goddess to remove his mark from her but it hadn’t worked. The spell is said to fail if there was any part of you that wanted to accept your mate. If that part existed then she had buried it deep inside because even after two months she was still pushing him away.

After being pushed away for so long I was actually starting to feel a little sorry for Hayden. She told him that she hated him every day and yet he kept coming back for more. It must have been so painful for him and I wasn’t sure how much longer she would be able to deny her feelings for him.

Turning my attention away from that drama, I started to address the pack. I barely got more than a few words out before a group of uninvited guests arrived. They walked around the side of the house into the garden, as though they knew exactly where we were going to be. I didn’t recognise any of them but they were so old that I knew who they would be.

I knew this couldn’t be a good thing but all I could think about was the speech that I had prepared. I had spent countless hours going over the words and trying to get everything just right for Molly’s friend. It was a shame that nobody was going to hear any of the damn thing.

Ellie, who was already anxious about the ceremony, had broken out into a fit of anxious tears. She was leaning into her mate’s shoulder as she sobbed but Hayden couldn’t hold himself back any longer. He rushed and wrapped his arms around her back while speaking soft words of encouragement. At least one person would be happy with the outcome of this little interruption.

“Welcome to the ward pack.” I greeted the council members as warmly as I could manage.

“This isn’t a social call.” One of the council members replied, stating the fricking obvious. I didn’t know why they were here but the way he was smirking at me was enough to make me feel uncomfortable.

“We are here to audit your pack.” He continued.

“Wait just a moment. Why are you auditing our pack?” My dad shouted as he came storming over towards us. People were darting out of his way as fast as they could but he still caught a few people with his shoulders on the way over here, almost sending them flying.

“There has been some strange behaviour in this pack over the last few weeks. Some people have even accused your pack of plotting with the lycans to take over nearby packs.” One of the council members replied.

‘What a load of bullshit.’ Talen shouted over our mindlink.

I wasn’t sure if he even knew he was broadcasting his thoughts to me, his anger was clearly getting the better of him. It looked as though every muscle in his body was tense and ready for action. I wasn’t any happier than he was about the situation but I was trying to hide my annoyance so that Molly didn’t worry.

My father was trying to reason with the council members, telling them that their information was inaccurate. He was fighting a losing battle, they weren’t listening to a word he was saying. I held my tongue as my father argued with them. If I opened my mouth right now then I couldn’t be sure what would come out of it. I didn’t think that their information was inaccurate, I thought it was manufactured.

The packs in Alaska were spread out much more than packs in other regions of America. Taking over nearby packs over these kinds of distances wouldn’t make sense. We also had good relationships with all of our nearby packs and I had been improving those relationships over the last few months. There was no way that any of them would accuse us of something like this.

There was one pack however that was struggling financially. They had borrowed a lot of money from the council in order to keep their pack running. It would make sense that they would do as the council instructed to wipe out some of this debt. It was the only explanation that made sense. Knowing that they were deceiving us was one thing but proving it was going to be a little tricky.

They would be looking for any excuse to dismantle our pack and I wasn’t going to give them anything they could use. We had to find some other way of getting to the bottom of what was going on but we couldn’t risk the council noticing us. They would be watching me and those closely linked to me very closely, it was clear that I was going to need some help.

“How dare you question the integrity of the council?” One of the council members shouted, he was so close to my dad that he was almost spitting in his face. A few of the younger werewolves that accompanied the council members stepped forward in an intimidating manner.

“I’m not questioning their integrity. I am questioning where they got their data from because it is clearly wrong.” My dad objected. He was too annoyed to realise that the smart move right now would be to back down and do exactly as they wished.

“Of course you would say that if you are guilty. You don’t want us to find out your secrets.” One of the younger werewolves growled, ramming his shoulder into my dad’s chest.

He acted as though he didn’t realise that my dad was an alpha. Or as though he realised and was trying to start a fight so they could justify taking more drastic action. I quietly stepped forward and placed my hand on my dad’s shoulder. He glanced at me before nodding his head and taking a step back. If I wasn’t mistaken, I saw disappointment in more than one of the council members’ faces.

“We are going to investigate everything associated with this pack. If any of you try to hide anything from us or get in our way then you will be arrested.” One of the council members told us, addressing the whole pack.

Once he had finished speaking he clicked his fingers once and started walking in the directions of the house. The other council members followed closely behind him while one of the younger werewolves held back.

“Please don’t challenge them, they want you all dead,” He whispered before following the others into the house.