Alpha’s Thrice Rejectedd Mate By Ida Rowe

Chapter 40

As usual, with that minx mate of mine around, it made it hard to think. mother’s heavy-handed endorsement wasn’t helping, either. Goddess, what I

My wouldn’t give to sla ughter that witch in her sleep.

Giselle wandered her fingers up my bare chest, and I frowned in annoyance. I’d forgotten her presence in my bed. “What has you thinking so hard?” she asked demurely.

“Kora.” I muttered and smiled slightly when the name made Giselle not only flinch but go white hot with rage.

“Ugh! Kora, Kora, always Kora! What about me? I’M the one you’re f*cking!” Giselle screeched.

I shrugged, staring up at the ceiling instead of at my newest s*x toy. I was tired of her already. I wondered how Mason had lasted as long as he did.

Giselle’s nails dug into my thigh, and I yelped, slapping her hand away. I grabbed her by the throat and shook her until her eyes told me she was good and scared.

Only then did I release her and lay back down, an arm behind my head, musing up at the ceiling.

“I just wanted to know,” Giselle sniffled. “What’s the big deal with Kora?”

“Didn’t you ask Mason that?” I asked.

Giselle’s shoulders hunched. “Yes.”

“And what did he say?” I pressed.

Giselle’s l*ps twisted as though I’d just squeezed a whole raw lemon down her throat. “He said we were just f*cking. That Kora was his mate, and I was to respect her. Ha. Who respects a traitor?”

A chuckle rolled through my b*dy. She was an idiot. A grasping, cu nning little b itch, but an idiot just the same. “You’re absolutely right. Who respects a traitor?”

“Exactly,” Giselle said, not finding the irony in her own statement. She gave me a pout that was meant to be cute, but I just wanted to claw off her face. Manipulative tw at. “You respect me, don’t you Lyle-ie?”

I felt an explosion of pain behind my eyeball at the use of the pet name. “Do yourself a favor and never speak that name again.”

I must have sounded pretty dangerous because Giselle just paled and nodded.

A long, blessed silence fell between us until Giselle insisted on breaking it with more whining. “If you don’t respect her, then why are you thinking about Kora?”

“I never said I don’t respect her,” I smirked.

“You said you don’t respect traitors,” Giselle reminded me.

“Exactly. I respect her just fine. She gets kicked around like an unwanted puppy at Fullbright and still doesn’t want to betray them. No, I don’t respect YOU,” I said. Giselle gasped and sat up, gathering the covers around her. “What?!”

“You heard me. You get burned by one guy who isn’t even your mate, and you come running to your pack’s enemy? Not a good look,” I chuckled.

“Kora’s not worth the manure you scrape off your shoe,” Giselle snapped.

“Hmm. She’s worth more than that. A lot more. I think so. Mason thinks so. Seems the common denominator of hate here is you.” I grinned up at her.

Giselle folded her arms over her chest. That was fine. I mostly imagined Kora’s chest when I was fondling other women anyway. “What makes her so special? You could mate me, you know.”

I burst into loud, hearty guffaws. “Oh, that’s a good one. Mate you. Right. Like you ever stood a chance.”

Giselle brought back her hand to slap me, but I caught her wrist.

“Careful,” I growled. “You don’t want to be making mistakes with consequences you can’t live with.””

She wanted to give me some kind of sarcastic retort, but she had enough sense to swallow it. “You still haven’t answered my question.”

“I suppose Mason told you it was none

Your d*mn business.” I looked back 1 at the ceiling. “Kora is mysterious. She doesn’t give anything away. She was hard. to seduce back in the day, but she’s even colder now. She’s a challenge. A prize.”

“Well, you threw her away once, so how much of a prize can she be?” Giselle argued.

“Hmm. That’s complicated, my little traitor,” I said, grinning when I saw how pale and incensed she got when I called her that. “Kora is… distracting. I am not one to abi de by distractions. But she is also the most fascinating creature I’ve ever met.”

I could see the jealousy creeping over Giselle, and it tickled my sense of humor. I leaned up and booped her nose.

She wanted to bite me. To scratch me. To hurt me, as I was hurting her. But she didn’t do a thing but glower.

“Why doesn’t anyone ever pick me?” she mumbled, and I rolled my eyes.

“Because you’re a conniving, traitorous, selfish, man-eating harpy. And those are just the first of your sour traits that came to mind,” I said.

Giselle

bed.

gave me a sharp look. Then she threw a pillow at me and raced from the

1 grabbed the blankets as she was retreating, and she ended up having to run out of my room n*ked.

Shame. If you put her on her stomach, squinted the right way, and put a pillow over her head, you could almost imagine it was Kora.

Kate was on her way back to Fullbright territory to tell Eddie the information Shawn had garnered during his time with Shadowmoon. Jim had pointed out that the phones this close to Shadowmoon territory were probably not safe for relaying information.

That left Shawn and me. A two-man team going after our

not-quite-confirmed-what’s-going-on mate. Or at least Shawn liked to tease me

about it.

‘She’s not yours until you do a proper mating ceremony, Shawn smirked over the mind-link as we crept, in wolf form, toward Shadowmoon Castle.

Shadowmoon’s border security was a joke. But this close to the castle, I knew we couldn’t rule out magical defenses. Neither of us had had the pleasure of encountering a witch before. We weren’t quite sure what she would or could do.

‘Aren’t you supposed to say something like “I can’t believe I’m going back here”?’ I asked Shawn.

‘It’s Kora. I’d believe just about anything I’d end up doing to save her a*s, he replied.

I couldn’t argue that. I felt the same way.

We surveyed the castle from all sides, whispering our way through the bushes. Finally, a way in appeared-the se rvants’ entrance. One lazy guard was propped up next to it, smoking a pipe of some pretty powerful hashish. It was no wonder he couldn’t smell us approaching.

Shawn made short work of the guard, while I stuck my nose inside the door and sniffed the air. A myriad of exotic smells assaulted my senses. We were close to the kitchen, this much I knew, and the Shadowmoons were apparently fond of their expensive spices.

‘Anything?’ Shawn asked once we padded quickly inside.

I shook my head, then shifted, grabbing a ser vant’s uniform from a closet near the entrance to the kitchen. Shawn followed suit.

As we were both warriors and not household staff, the uniforms were a bit on us both, but we did our best to blend in just the same. I sniffed the air again once we were further from the kitchen. Shawn did the same.

snug

Just as I was about to suggest splitting up to find her, I caught her scent. I looked at Shawn.

He sniffed the air, too, ahd nodded.

We cautiously walked out into a long hall to a large set of double doors. I looked at Shawn. He looked at me.

Then we raised our hands together to push on one door each, only the doors swung open of their own accord, and we stumbled into some kind of… throne

room.

Lyle Shadowmoon was standing next to my Kora with a hand around Oswald Monroe’s throat.

Deborah Shadowmoon, Luna Regent-for it could only be her-smiled at us from her throne.

“Welcome,” she said. “We’ve been expecting you.”