The Not So Sad Rejection

Chapter Seventeen

The First Time

~Five Years Ago~

It was snowing outside. Again. Big fat white flakes falling from the sky. I hate it. I hate here, I hate the snow, and I hate the cold. I miss Kate. She said that she would be back but it's been months.

"We'll find her, Trina," Lily said softly as she draped a blanket around me. "Jason and Tristan are out there right now with a team of trackers trying to find her. They will bring Kate home."

"No they won't," I said turning away from the window to look at her. "They won't find her."

Lily reached out, probably to touch my shoulder, but I moved out of the way. "Sweetie why would you say that. Kate is okay-"

"I know that," I said cutting her off. "Kate is fine. If she was dead they would have found her body by now." Lily grimaced. Kate would remind me that I was being crude. I didn't care. "They won't find Kate because she doesn't want to be found."

"Trina," Lily cooed gently. "She wants to come back."

"No she doesn't," I said curtly. "Jason and the other fighters, the Lupine-whatever you call them-"

"Lupᾰtor," Lily corrected with a slight smile.

I rolled my eyes instinctually and continued. "They rescued Kate from Blackwater months ago, then she disappeared. I highly doubt anyone made it to the pack house and took her from our room without me seeing them. None of you seem to want to accept the fact that she choose to leave. Which means she doesn't want to come back. She's gone." My voice broke on the last word and I sat down heavily on the couch and the tremors hit.

Lily sat beside me and wrapped her arms around me, probably in a failed attempt to comfort me. "Do you want to know why I'm so positive that Kate is going to return?"

I nodded as tears blurred my vision. "Yes."

"Because she made you a promise," Lily said as she wiped my tears away. "And I have never known Kate to break a promise. Especially a promise to her little sister."

I sniffed. "Little sister? We aren't blood."

Lily smiled and hugged me. "Ah, little one, blood and family are not mutually exclusive."

I turned my head to look up at her. "I don't understand."

Her smiled grew slightly. "Much like you, Kate has no blood family of her own."

"But she said that Jason was her brother," I interrupted.

She chuckled to herself. "He is, just like she is a little sister to the two of us. Did Kate ever tell you how she came here?"

I shook my head, "Only that her mate rejected her, a pack betrayed her, and she left. I didn't really understand most of it."

"No, I imagine not," Lily said. She wasn't trying to be, Tristan taught me the word, snooty I think it was. Lily wasn't trying to be snooty, she was just acknowledging that I didn't have their education. "Kate was forced to leave her blood family behind. She won't ever see them again."

"Like I won't see my parents again?"

Lily nodded sadly. "Yeah. Kind of like that. She was really sad too. But when she came here she found a new family."

"A replacement family?" I asked slightly revolted.

Lily shook her head. "No sweetie. I don't think anybody could ever replace them. It's more like Kate found she had more family she just hadn't met yet. Family is the people who love you and you love them. I know Kate loves you, Trina."