Rejection on the Alpha #1

13. Acceptance Is Key

(New and edited)
CHAPTER 13: Acceptance Is Key

"You know, they say women are too soft-hearted to rule."

The goblet in my hand stills as I look over to where Elias sits next to a guard of Nicolai Darkling's, a corrupt and perverse enforcer that stares at the breasts of the women around him like they're his next meal. Elias raises an eyebrow at him, "And yet you would not be here without one. Funny that."

The enforcer scowls, "I did not say we didn't need them." His nose looked riddled with past breaks, sweat from the heated air of the room where fire goblets hang from the walls this evening, instead of just the chandelier candles above. I purse my lips.

Nicolai cups the hand I had around a steak knife with a wooden handle, I snap my eyes to his impenetrable silver ones, he removes my fingers from the engraved hilt and holding my hand in his when I can't pull away but try hard to do so, "Jacob, change shifts with Liam at the prison cells. Now." He instructs aloud, not through the mind-link. I watch the wretched enforcer leave on order.

Elias studies me over the rim of his goblet, the red wine graces his lips, "You two will have your first open combat sessions this evening. Celestine, have you gotten use to the weather?" He asks me, while Nicolai takes a gulp of his drink.

I look to Elias, "No, I haven't gotten use to the snow yet." I murmur.

Nicolai strokes my hand gently, "Eat something." He urges gently, "Unless the food is not to your liking, my darling." He whispers against my temple, before his eyes glaze over elsewhere, he steps away and leaves with an apology on those lips. My shoulders droop in relief. Elias takes Nicolai's old position...every time I wish to call him Martin, I find myself hating it. He's Martin when he works hard to get us closer, that intimacy stunt last night cost me more so than him. And I feel as though I still didn't get everything.

"The food tastes like rotten deer, so I don't blame you." He gruffly says down to me. Robert tenses in his seat next to Reina, I almost forget they were all here next to me.

"Mind if we take a walk?" I ask of Elias.

He nods, gesturing to his company, "Can they follow?" He asks, I nod and he walks us out, taking the lead while his company of men follow silently behind us.

Elias cups his hands, "What plagues your mind, dear one?" He wonders, eyes roaming the halls yet he somehow sensed it.

I stop and face him, "I need to know if there is a creature on this planet, or even on any realm that can identify whether a false bond has been made by the gods." Is the first thing I blurt out to him.

He raises an eyebrow, "Your wolf is not electrified by Darkling's presence?" He murmurs, furrowing his eyebrows now.

I feel the weight of the pathetic black and gold dress I wear, a neck holder one with jewellery running down my spine, sleeveless in the fact a coldness on the outside could never touch within, "I am something more than just a wolf. No, I don't feel the sparks every mate should feel with their true bonder, that is not Nicolai for me, I don't understand it. He's uncontrollable and ferocious because normally mated couples are fully mated by now." I mutter.

"You're telling me you're still a virgin?" He asks me, hesitantly.

I blink at him, "I'm...what kind of question is that?" I grumble.