Page 1 of His Rejected Fated Mate

Chapter 1 - Troy

I tapped my hands on the table, still feeling my head wasn’t on straight with all the news that was going on. If it wasn’t one thing, it was another. I was starting to wonder if we would ever get back to normal.

“You’re saying that you don’t have any issues?” Titus asked, looking at Riley with amazement. “Nothing? No problems yet?”

Riley shrugged. “I don’t know if that’s the wording that I would use. I just feel… calmer. More myself than I have in months. All of those sudden bursts of anger are gone. I haven’t had any issues.”

“Or is it all the sex you’re having?” Dustin asked, wiggling his eyebrows at him. “Maybe that’s been keeping you calm.”

I ground my teeth together, and Riley waved a hand. “I wasn’t the one who said it.”

“Can we move on to something else?” I asked, not needing to hear any more details about him and my sister’s sex life.

“Sure, how about we move on to why you’re so cranky today?” Dustin asked, leaning back in his chair. “I thought you’d be over the moon that your sister is back and happily married.”

It wasn’t that I wasn’t happy because I was. Janella was home, and she had everything I’d ever want her to have. I knew she was in love with Riley. I could see it in the way she looked at him. But that didn’t mean it made up for my years of being a crappy brother and not helping her more when I could have.

It was just part of the problem. I had a mountain of issues that were being thrown at me, and I couldn’t seem to get a gripon anything. It didn’t help that my emotions had been off lately. “I’m not cranky.”

“You seem cranky,” Titus piped in. “Need more coffee?”

“I need this meeting to move along because I have a very busy day and I don’t have all the time to sit here and yap about shit that doesn’t concern me.” I snapped the words, and even Riley’s eyebrows went up in shock.

I took a deep breath, knowing that my anger was starting to get the better of me this morning. I had slept like shit, which didn’t help the issue either. I thought a run before the meeting would help, but it hadn’t. Now I was physically exhausted as well as irritable.

“Has your anger been flaring up more?” Dustin asked, a serious expression now masking his face.

I clenched and unclenched my jaw. “Slightly.”

We all knew what it meant, and the space fell quiet. We had been concerned about Riley because his anger was getting the better of him. But he was naturally a little grumpy in general. This was unlike me.

“I still don’t understand how she was able to cleanse your entire pack,” Titus asked. “Why was it only your pack?”

Riley shrugged. “I don’t have all the answers. I just know everyone in my pack hasn’t been having any issues. Ever since we broke free from the darkness, the pack has had a calmness that settled over it.” Riley looked at me with concern for a moment, and I looked away.

“Janella had a feeling, a thought really. She thinks that the council isn’t being entirely honest about everything that’s going on.”

I snorted. “Really? Don’t we all have that feeling? They hide the cauldron from all of us. What makes you think that’s all?”

“A sketchy move on their end,” Titus added with a nod. “I’m glad it’s not in my pack. The damn thing looks like it’s nothing but a problem.”

Riley rolled his eyes. “It’s been calm, but whatever Janella was able to do did nothing to it.”

I had the twist in my gut. We all knew that the council wasn’t telling us everything, but we had no idea what. We couldn’t exactly accuse them of anything because it was just a feeling. But we all knew there was more to this story than they just ran across the cauldron.

I wanted a change of topic. “How has Janella’s training been going now?”

“She’s been good. We’re trying not to push it too far since she’s four months pregnant. The witches said she needs to conserve her energy to grow the baby. Otherwise, she’d probably be spending endless hours trying to use her magic to heal everyone in your guys’ packs.”

Another aspect I was still trying to wrap my head around. My sister was going to become a mom, and I was going to be an uncle. I wished it wasn’t during a time when we had no idea what the future held. At least their pack was safe.

“Your parents must be so thrilled about everything,” Dustin added.

They were. My mother cried, and my dad told everyone he was going to be a grandpa. They had already started shopping online for them because they wanted this baby to have the top-of-the-line for everything.

“Speaking of relationships, who do we all think is next for the match-up? Because clearly the council is matching us up.”

Riley glanced at me, and I swallowed. The council had never come out and said that was what they were doing, but we all knew, after what happened with Riley, that it was their plan. They matched Riley up, and he was healed. So, they were going to go down the line.