Page 46 of Rejected Alpha Mate

I tell myself it’s enough. That this amicability is better than the constant arguing and the emotional earthquake we were walking through before.

But every time she looks up at me from across the table, eyes soft in the morning light, I feel that familiar ache stir again—the same one that never really left.

“H-how is training?” I ask, clearing my throat when my voice sounds hoarser than I’d like.

Donna looks up after spooning a mouthful of cereal between her lips, a frown flitting past her brows with confusion.

I ask the same question every day, only because it’s the one link that’s left between us.

Training.

She’s training to fight off the dark lord and his minions.

I married her to protect her from them.

It’s the only reason she’s still here—especially to maintain appearances.

“Training’s fine,” she responds when she swallows the cereal, her eyes hesitating between her spoon and her hand resting beside the bowl.

When she isn’t looking at me, she’s pretty, and when she does look at me with doe brown eyes, she’s ethereal.

I gulp on that thought, because it’s inappropriate between friends. I’m not supposed to want more. Not after everything that’s happened. Not after we agreed to start over, but my fated mate sits across from me, believing that we’re nothing more than friends, while my chest physically aches to have her in my arms.

I’m dying inside.

“Have you thought about expanding your training?” I ask, devising a plan that my inner wolf agrees with—one that will allow us to get closer. Maybe. It’s a chance I need to take.

“Expanding? What do you mean?” she asks with a deeper frown this time, prompting me to straighten up in my chair and offer her my most charming smile to win her over.

“Combat training. Like one-on-training to strengthen your human body in case you’re not able to shift,” I suggest, and she scoffs.

“Dom put me through enough of that when I was younger,” she chuckles, rolling her eyes.

“Well, it could be beneficial to combine combat training with your magic. Sounds like a deadly combo,” I wink, and Donna shakes her head, so I continue. “I’ll train you myself. My strategies differ from Dom’s, so you can learn some new tricks.”

Donna chuckles wryly under her breath, sets her fork down into her empty bowl, and rises to her feet. “Gwen already has me on a tight schedule with training. I don’t think I can fit in combat training,” she says with a shrug.

With my ego bruised and my heart shattering into pieces on the floor at my feet, I lower my head and pick up my coffee. So, Donna doesn’t want my help with training, and it’s either because she doesn’t need me or she doesn’t want to get close to me again.

I watch her leave for her daily training before I stand up from the table and make my way to my study, feeling the void in my chest from not having her nearby.

The pull toward her feels heavier than it should, and I sigh once I’m inside the study, but it doesn’t bring me much relief—especially when I spot the small velvet box on my desk.

I’ve moved it a dozen times in the past two weeks, always telling myself I’ll put it away for good, but I never do. I take a seat behind my desk and flip open the lid of the box, the silver pendant with a simple teardrop moonstone on a thin silver chain glimmering as the sunlight filters through the blinds, as if it’s mocking me. It was supposed to be Donna’s graduation gift.

I bought it months ago, before the chaos, before Tobias, before our lives got tangled again.

Now, it just sits here, a reminder of everything we lost and everything we’re still pretending not to feel.

I run my thumb over the stone, sighing. “Could’ve been different,” I murmur under my breath, my wolf stirring restlessly.

Go to her, it whispers to me mentally.

“Not today,” I whisper in return. “She made it clear she needs space.”

My wolf doesn’t agree, growling in my head, but I ignore him, the way I’ve been doing lately. It’s the only way I’ll stay sane.

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