His Rejection

Nova

Today is the big day, my wolf said waking me up.

The big day indeed. But don't get your hopes up... Who would want us as a mate?

There is nothing wrong with me. Now you, on the other hand, dress like you are in a convent.

My wolf was always criticizing me about my wardrobe and about the fact that I didn't talk to people other than my brother and why should I? My brother was the only one who looked out for me. He stopped people who teased me; he took care of me when both of our parents died; he was my mother and father, my brother and my best friend. He's my rock, and he's the only reason I stayed and endured the pain. I don't know what he would do if I was to just up and disappear, and I never wanted to find out.

Live his life. Just like everybody else would, my wolf joked. I tuned her out and got up to get dressed.

I walked to my stereo case where all my music was held. I looked around for my iPod but didn't see it. It was supposed to be on the iHome console where I had put it last night. It wasn't on my computer charging so that means there was only one explanation.

Alex, I thought. I sighed knowing that he was the only one who could've had my iPod.

I threw open my door and stalked to his room down the hall. When I got to his door, I could hear music being played, not my music, which mostly consisted of soft rock, pop, R&B, and some rap songs, instead, that horrible underground rap stuff was playing.

I banged on the door screaming his name hoping he could hear me over the music. About a minute later he answered his door with one of his dimpled smiles, the one that melted all the girls' hearts at school. I returned the smile as he pulled me to him and hugged me.

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY LIL SIS," he screamed in my ear and over the music.

"Thank you, Alex." I said in his ear holding him as tight as he was holding me. I decided to spare his ear of my screams since I could make him go deaf.

"Your welcome. Hey, why aren't you getting dressed?"

He had finally looked me up and down noticing that I was still in my jammies, while he was in gray Levi jeans and no shirt showing off his stomach and abs. His dark brown hair fell neatly around his ears in curls. It was apparent he had already showered, washed his face and brushed his teeth. His tan skin shone because of the oil he insisted on using. He said it made him super sexy and irresistible. I said it just made washing his clothes a nightmare.

"Well my iPod was missing, and I came to ask you if you had seen it," I asked sweetly knowing that he had it.

"Well, I was going to wait until a little later to give it to you but ugh, fine you wore me down," he said sighing playfully. He walked over to his bed and pulled out a small box wrapped in green paper. Green was my favorite color.

How sweet of him, I thought.

"Here," he said handing me the box.

I took the box and quickly unwrapped it, not caring about the pretty green paper. Inside the already opened box sat a new iPod touch. I pressed the apple button in the middle and it opened to a picture of Alex and me at a beach in California.

It had been just the two of us and none of his friends; we had a lot of fun that week. It was one of the happiest moments of my life. I smiled at the memory. I clicked on the music icon and saw that all my music was there. I smiled and looked up at Alex in approval. All my pictures, music and games were on there. I squealed and looked up at Alex, bouncing.

"Thank you. Thank you. Thank you! How d'you get all my things on here," I asked curiously. He wasn't the most computer or technology savvy person I knew. Hell, he could barely work his phone.

"I took it to the Apple store in the mall and asked if they could transfer it all. Oh, and you're welcome. Now go get dressed or we're going to be late. We have people to pick up this morning," he told me giving me one last hug and shooing me off to my room.

I walked back to my room happy and glowing. My birthday was shaping out to be one of the best days of my life. If only it would continue once we got to school. Hell, once we left the house. It was right then that my mood instantly went sour. I knew it would all end as soon as we picked up Alex's friends. They were horribly mean to me even though I never said a word to them.

I sighed to myself. "You have to start standing up for yourself Nova," I said to myself.

It if was that easy for you to stand up to them, then you would have done it years ago, my wolf added.

Maybe, but today's different. Today's is my birthday, which means it is literally my day and I won't let anyone bring me down, I vowed to myself.

Sure. Was all my wolf said before she disappeared in my mind. I happily took advantage of the silence.

Looking at the time, I saw I only had an hour to get ready, so I ran the rest of the way to my room and jumped in the shower. I washed and conditioned my hair. While the conditioner sat, I washed my body and then rinsed my hair and washed my body once more and then jumped out. Tedious, I know. I sat at my vanity and flicked the button to start my hands-free hairdryer. My brother and I were the richest people in the pack. Yes, we were that rich.

The pack altogether had at least five million stored away in various accounts, but my brother and I had more than ten million left to us by our parents. That money was an accumulation of her inheritance and ours together.

After my mother died giving birth, Alex said she had left us a large fortune in her will and left our cheating father nothing but her best wishes. Our parents were mates, so every time he went out and slept with another woman our mother felt it and it hardened her heart against him. With my father upset about not being left anything and riddled with grief that his mate was gone, he began to drink.

The drinking turned to drugs and then he started hallucinating, which eventually caused him to commit suicide. I was too young and sheltered by my brother to remember the drinking and the drugs, but I do remember me coming home from school early one day to find him in my room leaving a note on my dresser. I was young, so I thought that he was leaving me a present. I was excited to see what Daddy had gotten me that I didn't see the gun that he held tightly in his hands. I couldn't forget that day even if I tried.

He smiled at me and told me how much I looked like mother and how sorry he was for not being there for me, for us, Alex and I, and that he hoped in his next life, if there was one, he'd be a better father. It was hard to understand him because he was drunk, and slurring his words. He then pulled the gun from behind his back. He quickly brought it up to his chin and pulled the trigger before he could second-guess himself, or before I could even think to beg him not to do anything too rash.

Blood splattered everywhere, including on me, all over my face. It took me a while to register what had happened, and then the screams started. I sat there for hours trying to remember why I had come home from school. I don't remember when I had stopped screaming or when Alex had come in the house. I had lost track of time, only to find it again when Alex was in my doorway screaming and calling for help. He found me in the corner of my room, far away from the body.

"Nova, what happened," he asked me in a panicked tone. All I could do was shrug my shoulders. I couldn't talk. I didn't want to. I didn't know what to say. My mind was all over the place. I could think straight.

"Nova come on, you have to tell me."

Alex pleaded with me to open my mouth and say something, anything. Everybody from our pack walked in and looked at the grotesque scene and then looked at me. Alpha Ellis looked at me with a stern face and a serious tone.

Alpha Ellis had always been a stern and heartless man, even with his own son. All he cared about was how strong the pack fighters were. Using the Urathi as his own personal army. He would make them raid packs all over and take all the women, children and other Urathi.

Alpha Ellis wanted to have America's strongest pack, which would've happened sooner if a portion of the Urathi in the pack hadn't began a rebellion within the pack, spreading discord throughout the Urathi camps. Instead of wasting his time trying to negotiate with them, Alpha Ellis had them killed in the middle of the night. When the angry family members asked him about it, he said he had no time for a rebellion, and they would all get the same fate if they tried to rebel.

"Did you do this," he asked.

Everybody waited for my answer, but I didn't give one. People started whispering, and the Alpha's face turned bright red from anger. No one had blatantly defied him in front of so many people before. Well, at least not since I have been born. He grabbed my arm and dragged me to the body, shoving my face close to the body.

"Let her go! She didn't do it," Alex shouted as people held him back.

"Answer me!"

"No! I didn't do it. He did," I whispered the last part.

I pointed to the note on my dresser and snatched my arm from his hold and ran. I could hear Alex and everyone calling my name, but I ignored it and ran. I couldn't remember where I was trying to go but before I could even get there Alex caught me and brought me back to the house. Trying to soothe me and make sure I was OK, but it was already too late for that. It had already changed me.

"Nova! Come on we are going to be late," Alex shouted into my room, wrenching me from my thoughts.

"OK. I'm coming," I shouted back. I grunted knowing that I was going to have to just throw on clothes instead of plan them out as I had wanted. Today was a Urathi day, and I wanted to look like an eligible mate.

I pulled my hair into a messy bun and threw on my Levi blue jean shorts and a green tank top. I wanted to be casual but still, look good enough to impress my mate. Plus, no one has ever seen me dress like this. I would normally cover up my body and frump myself up so I wouldn't draw the attention of anyone. I wanted to wait for my mate. I mean seriously, what was the point of dating if you knew on your seventeenth birthday, you'd find your fated mate? I wouldn't want to put myself or anyone else through that pain.

I grabbed my mother's necklace that I always wore and slipped on my high top black and white Converses, grabbing my bag and iPod. I barreled down the steps and out the door and into the front passenger seat of Alex's car.

"You ready - whoa. What's with the normalcy today," he asked as he gave me the once over. I'd usually wear jeans one or two sizes too big and a giant hoodie that on me could have been mistaken for a dress.

"It's my seventeenth birthday and the day I meet my mate. The day when everything for me changes, so I figured I'd jump into my senior year with a new look."

"Uh huh. Well, good luck with that and just because you're smart enough to skip grades doesn't mean you can talk to me like I'm stupid," he said playfully pushing me. I laughed and ignored his statement as he threw the car into gear and drove to the packhouse.

During the ride, Alex kept glancing down at my clothes with a grimace on his face. I had to hold my breath to keep from laughing out loud. Alex always said he wished that I would try to put myself out there and get friends. He said it wasn't healthy to stay held up in my room by myself for hours. He always made me get normal clothes when we went out shopping, not to change me but to help me. I always took his advice and promised that one day I would give it a shot, but I think now he is wishing that he would've let me pick out my own clothes.

"Anything wrong Alex," I asked. A smile was teasing my lips, and laughter was threatening to spill from them.

"Nope fine. I just know that by the end of the day I'm going to have to kill a few people."

"Yeah right, Alex. No one's even going to notice me and if they do, they're just going to call me fat," I told him with a nonchalant attitude.

His friends and the people at school calling me fat didn't bother me anymore. I knew I wasn't fat. It was just that my metabolism wasn't as fast as theirs yet, so I still had some baby fat left.

"Keep believing that Nova," he said ending the conversation. The ride to the packhouse was a ten-minute drive from our house, so I decided to put in my headphones and drown myself in music.

While yes, Alex and I where part of a pack and didn't have any parents, we opted out of staying in the packhouse. After what happened with our father and then the Alpha, Alex didn't want to take any chances with me having a meltdown. So, he purchased a house a few blocks down the street but still on the packs' land. After we were tested positive for the Urathi gene, we were able to leave, but we had to be in attendance to every pack meeting and all the Mate Mixers we held with the neighboring packs (the ones that made peace treaties with Alpha Ellis).

I tossed my ear buds in and started my iPod on shuffle. Rihanna's S&M blared through the headphones and I lip sung the words with her. When we reached our destination, I turned my music down and stopped singing. Becoming the mousy girl everyone knew me to be. A part of me knew I wasn't going to be able to stand up for myself and I just proved that part right.

The first to get in the car was Alex's girlfriend (girlfriend not mate). She had come to the passenger side and saw that I was there, and she immediately put on the puppy dogface for Alex.

"Baby, how come she gets to sit in the front with you," she asked putting harsh emphasis on she, like I was an animal. Well, I mean I was, but I still had a human half just like she did.

"She was here first Nat," he replied calmly.

"You can sit here Natalie," I told her unbuckling my seat belt and opening the door. Alex grabbed my arm and whispered, "You sure?" I nodded and continue to move out of the way so she could get what she wanted.

"Thanks, fatty," she said. Her sickly nasal laugh grated on my brain, making me wish I'd stayed in the front.

"Natalie!" She flinched and looked at my brother.

"Apologize to her. Now," he screamed at her.

"Ugh. Do I have to?"

"You do if you want this relationship, that is my little sister. She comes first always, now apologize," he lectured her.

"I'm sorry," she mumbled. I ignored her and continued to move out of the way and get it the back seat.

"Wait, what are you wearing," she asked sounding shocked as she took in my outfit.

"Clothes," was my one word replied as I hopped in the back seat.

Alex pressed the horn signaling for the rest of the crew to hurry up. Not one second later they walked out the door. Emery with his mate Annie, Juan with his mate Vanessa, and then Maxon. Maxon was the Alpha-to-be and had no mate.

What would it be like to be mated with him? I would love to know, my wolf whispered longingly.

Yeah well keep dreaming, I told her.

Maxon opened the door and stopped dead in his tracks. I cringed waiting for it...

Maxon was my number one torturer. Whenever Alex wasn't around, he would literally make up for the lost time. One time, he had teased me so bad that I started crying and I cried so hard that I hyperventilated and had to go to the hospital. He made me swear that I wouldn't tell on him. I didn't. I don't know why. I just didn't want to be labeled as a snitch on top of everything else, I guess. I didn't dare look at him today though. Today was my day, and he wasn't going to ruin it.