Page 53 of Rejected By the Alpha

My grin dropped for a moment as I realized that Cade hadn’t told him about me sneaking over to Davix’s place or about the wolf with red eyes who had saved me the other day. All of it had been kept under wraps.

Maybe Pavel didn’t know anything about werewolves either.

“Because he’s been crazy lately,” I murmured, looking down at my painting so he didn’t think anything of it. I did not want him to find anything out about Davix or Cade. “Kinda grumpy too. He’s taking this hospital thing very seriously.”

“Good,” Pavel said, sliding his phone into his pocket. “That’s what I hired him for.”

I furrowed my brows. “You hired him?”

That wasn’t what Cade had told me. I’d thought he was doing this out of the goodness of his own heart. He had … I assumed …

I furrowed my brows and stared over at my brother. If Cade was lying to me about this, what else had he lied to me about?

“Do you think he was going to do it for free?” he asked.

“Yes.”

“Rea—Cade doesn’t work for free.” Pavel grabbed his wallet from the table and messed up my hair like brothers always did. “I’ll see you at the house. I have a hot date with my girl, Janice. I’ll give you the details when I get back.”

After brushing off my pain, I pushed his hand away. “Don’t think I want any details.”

Once he walked out of the café, I returned to my painting and stared blankly down at the wolf I had painted.

Was Pavel really paying Cade to take care of me? Or had he lied? If he was, why hadn’t Cade said anything?

Maybe he had, but I had forgotten it …

Maybe …

A low sigh left my mouth, and I decided I couldn’t think right now, never mind work on this goddamn commission. It was the first one I had gotten in so long, and yet my muse … it wasn’t talking to me. Not with everything that had happened lately.

I had the background and a wolf completed—that was all.

After packing away my things, I walked out of Java Junction to be met by the foxes.

“Hey, little babies,” I murmured, stopping to squat down beside them.

This morning, they had followed us all the way to the medical center from our house.

I scritched their heads. “What are you up to today? Anything fun?”

They brushed their heads against my fingers, closing their eyes softly.

“I think I’ll call you Daisy and Pumpkin,” I said, heading down the path toward home.

Daisy and Pumpkin followed, sometimes running ahead to play with each other. My lips curled into a small frown.

Where was their mom? Had she gotten eaten by one of the wolves in the forest? Did werewolves do that? What if⁠—

A ferocious growl echoed through the air, and Daisy and Pumpkin jumped behind me. To my right, a huge wolf started running at me full speed. My eyes widened, and I barely had any time to react before another knocked me out of the way.

I landed on my stomach, getting a mound of dirt in my mouth. Pain shot up my arm from where they had pulled more blood from me this morning, and I turned over onto my side, hearing the howling from beside me.

Daisy and Pumpkin nudged at my head, doing what they could to help me up. And when I finally rose, I spit the dirt out of my mouth and wiped it off my lips, watching the wolf leap in my direction again, almost on top of me.

Before he could make contact, another leaped out and hit him in the side. The wolf slammed into a tree so hard that it cracked. Almost in slow motion, I watched it fall and crash against the ground, making it rumble.

The attacking wolf howled, as if in defeat, but the huge wolf who had saved me continued toward him, his back turned toward me, but I could see the saliva dripping from between his front legs. He leaped at the attacker and sank his teeth into his neck.