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.”

voice sounds alongside my friend’s, deep and familiar; evoking memories of my father. “Alpha, this is 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. Do

their direction. “I broke the most sacred vow I ever took. How can you possibly think I

chastises. “You‘d never forgive yourself if something went wrong with the rescue and you weren’ t there to

wishing I could pull my mate out of the photo and into

ears, too low to decipher without strain – 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

of my mind, even as I brush them aside. “If she could identify them, they would

of their other targets have survived.” He reminds, “I doubt they planned on letting

I drag one hand through my hair. “What

Donavon announces assuredly. “We’ve already got eyes on

Arabella, wrapping her in emergency blankets and patting her back

splotchy, her flushed skin wet with tears and her willowy

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

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

concerned, indeed, under any other circumstances I would be absolutely horrified

don’t have room in my heart for anything but mourning Selene, and as fond as I am of Arabella, I’ve known for a long time that those feelings come down to my love for Flynn, rather than any true

of me blames Arabella for my mate’s death. It isn’t fair in any way shape or form. She didn’t ask to be kidnapped, but if I hadn’t been off looking for her, I would have been there when

spent worrying about Blaise Denizen, trying to protect her from bounty hunters and power mad dictators – and it was all for nothing. The real danger was right under my nose the whole time. I never saw

lock onto me, her lower lip caught in a trembling pout. “He said you don’t deserve to be Alpha. He said you have blood on your

Selene’s POV

eyelids as the afternoon sun bathes my skin in golden warmth. My senses gradually return, filling in the world around me with crisp air, damp earth, and the familiar smells of moss

appear when I finally open my eyes, the cold ground beneath my cheek littered with fallen leaves and sprawling tangles of knobby roots.

with languid bliss, carefully pushing myself up to examine this new plane of existence. It looks so like the forests around Elysium; the forests I grew up exploring with Luna; the forest where Bastien

the otherworld should take the shape of 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 mother? Where is Gabriel and

and stretch my aching limbs iņ confusion, a new thought plaguing my bewildered psyche. If this is the otherworld, why do