"Who are you?" I came awake with a jerk, disoriented and aching all over. 
A heavy male body lay beside me---we were both naked except for the sheet covering our bodies. 

I searched my memories of the night before, trying to figure out how I had gotten here while attempting to wrap the sheet around my body. I stopped when I realized I'd leave my bed partner totally nude.

I remembered myself saying over and over, "I'm your mate!"

I eased myself off the bed to look for clothes. I tried to be as quiet as I could so I didn't wake up the stranger. 

His scent was all over me, all over everything really. Rich and masculine, every time I breathed I felt as if I was being surrounded by the forest with hints of wood and a warm spice I couldn't name. I wanted to crawl back into bed beside him and never leave.

My wolf, Rayne, grumbled in my head, "We shouldn't leave! He is our mate!"

Rejected My Alpha Mate

I didn't have a chance to catch my breath as I was pulled into the apartment by Nathan Lewis. He held my upper arms in his grasp with a tightness I couldn't begin to fight against. I couldn't understand his terror. We were newly reacquainted and I had broken his heart when I'd ended our relationship three years earlier. Why was he so affected over a brief abduction?


"No, no, no! It was Tyler. He'd never hurt me," I tried to explain until Nathan shook me to silence me.


He shook me so hard my teeth rattled and my brain banged around in my skull making my head ache.


"You have no idea what he's capable of, Rachel! He's spent years flaunting his affairs with other women while you, his fated mate, sits alone at home. What kind of wolf can do that? He rejected you in anger. He doesn't even want your child!"


Chapter 42