Pregnant and Rejected by My Alpha Mate

#Chapter 36 Leave

Bastien’s POV

Axel hasn’t made a sound in days. Though he was all but feral from the moment I answered Danver’s phone call to the second Dr Kane uncovered Selene’s body in the morgue, he hasn’t moved a muscle since. I’ve found myself reaching out to him on the hour,

extending my internal feelers toward his shape just to make sure he’s still there.

More than anything else, his absence tells me that this nightmare l’ve been living is unfortunately very real. Selene – my sweet, perfect little wolf – is dead.

She ran from my home believing I thought her guilty of a terrible crime. She fled my protection because I made her think it was persecution, and died alone and afraid.

My father’s death nearly destroyed me, but my mate’s has annihilated me completely. Everything that used to matter to me, has ceased to be important. Suddenly I don’t care if I’m the Alpha; I don’t care if the pack falls to ruin; I don’t care if Arabella is found; 1 don’t even care if I live.

I do not recognize myself, and I don’t feel the need to find the man I once was, nor create a path forward for the wretch I’ve become.

At first I took to the forest, but when I discovered that I could not shift, I returned to the pack house, and locked myself in my rooms. My mother, Aiden and Donovan have all tried to persuade me to return to the land of the living, but I have no interest in being there without Selene,

Even now, when Aiden is outside my door with news that might have sent me running last week, I want nothing more than to disappear.

“The enforcers think they’ve found Arabella.” He calls through the heavy wood panel.

“Fine.” I respond blankly, refusing to pull my attention from the picture frame clutched in my hand. “Go get her.”

“Not without you.” Aiden huffs out a frustrated breath. “We need you to lead us.”

“You don’t.” I counter, tracing Selene’s shape in our wedding photo. “Just bring her home.”

your duty. You made a vow to Flynn and your father to care for Arabella, to safeguard the pack. Do not disappoint them this way.

a vow to protect my mate.” I lash out, flinging all my anguish and fury in their direction. “I broke the most sacred

yourself if something

i’ll have to take.” I snap, wishing I could pull my mate out of

and I don’t care enough to try. If you won’t do it for honor, do it for intel.” Donavon finally proffers. “If we can recover Arabella there’s a good chance she can lead us to the kidnapper. This is your chance to find your father’s killer, and

mind, even as I brush them aside. “If she could identify

they planned on letting her

hand through my hair. “What makes you so sure

announces assuredly. “We’ve already got eyes on

and patting

swollen and splotchy, her flushed skin wet with tears and her willowy frame shaking with fear and

clinging to Danvers’ burly shoulders. “He said he said he was going to kill me.

makes a soft shushing sound, helping her sit on a nearby park bench. “Can you tell us anything about the man responsible? What

Arabella swoons into another fit of sobs. I should feel guilty for not being more concerned, indeed, under any other circumstances I would be absolutely horrified by my

I’ve known for a long time that those feelings come down to my love for Flynn, rather than any

hadn’t been off looking for her, I would have been there when Selene needed me. She and Mom never would have gone to the cabin, she would never have been implicated in a

I spent worrying about Blaise Denizen, trying to protect her from bounty hunters and power mad dictators – and it was all for nothing. The real

lip caught in a trembling pout. “He said you don’t deserve to be Alpha. He said you have blood on your hands and he’s going to come at you until you know how it feels to lose

Selene’s POV

senses gradually return, filling in the world around me with crisp air, damp earth,

littered with fallen leaves and sprawling tangles of knobby roots. A fluttering breeze carries birdsong

myself up to examine this new plane of existence. It looks so

those beloved stomping grounds; that my afterlife should be spent in the peace of the virgin forest. The only things missing are the people. Where is my

my neck and stretch my aching limbs iņ confusion, a new thought plaguing my bewildered psyche.