The Lone Wolf's Rejected Mate (Five Packs, #3)

by Cate C. Wells

He definitely doesn’t wax for definition like the younger males in the pack.

HAWAIT WHUT?? 😂 THE GUYS WAX??? LMAOOOO nothing against guys waxing just didn’t expect it from these shifters!

If I like to play princess, she’s a genuine, pure-bred grand duchess—snoot in the air and prancing—but

Fate has to be playing a joke. My aesthetic is delicate, sweet, romantic, cottagecore. His aesthetic is—the pants I wore all last week are fine. No shirt, no shoes, no problem. Haircuts are for the weak. I kill things with my bare hands in human form. I’ve been through hell and seen the other side.

Pfft!

So, yeah, the world is cold and lonely and ugly, but I can buy pink dresses and fairy lights and big-ass hats like fancy ladies wear at horse races.

How I feel but with books too.

I’ve never seen a man look less casual.

LMFAOOOO ACT FOOL ACT FOOL ACT FOOL ACT FOOL ACT FOOL ACT FOOL

Annie gapes up at me. Kennedy visibly winces with secondhand embarrassment.

Omggggggggg Mari nooooooooo LOLOLOLOL

an oversized coffee mug in her hand that reads hocus pocus, this witch needs coffee to focus. A cigarette dangles from her mouth.

GAHAHAHAHAHA WHAT AN IMAGE. LOVE U ALBERTA

“Come on. YOLO.” Kennedy grins at me. I taught her YOLO.

he combed and cut his hair.

OMG did he clean himself up bc of Mari?

Mates aren’t supposed to leave each other once they find each other, not until the female’s knocked up. Darragh’s walked away from me twice.

):

Mates are supposed to be together forever, soulmates, right? But I can list at least a half dozen people off the top of my head who are either stepping out on each other or strictly-for-heat.

Tragic.

“You feel it, don’t you? That we’re mates?” Without hesitation, he jerks a sharp nod.

Why do I care about being ladylike in Darragh Ryan’s murder shack? Patriarchy. It’s the only explanation.

How come no one wants me? How come I’m so expendable? How come—when it comes to me—mothers and fathers and mates are all like “screw the biological imperative, I got issues, fuck this chick.” What is so uncompelling about me?

Oh no... Mari 🥺

He’s done something with himself. Washed and combed his hair. Gotten someone to even it up and trim his beard. He’s wearing different pants.

His hair is combed back neatly. I don’t like it. I want it messy, falling in his face. I want to run my fingers through it. I want to pull it. I do?

We need to get to safety. My wolf shivers in a dark corner, but that’s okay, I’m going to take care of us.

🥺

“I’m not some side chick he can do on the DL.” “I don’t know what that means.”

LMAO

I learned a long time ago that people do things that are incomprehensible, and in the end, there is nothing you can do but rely on yourself. You have to dress yourself, tie your own shoes, make your own way to the brand-new alpha’s cabin, knock on his door, and tell him your dam is dead, and you’re hungry, and you don’t know what you’re supposed to do. You have to sew yourself back together again.

I hold my breath until my lungs burn because the part of you that wants to be loved is so very, very fucking hard to kill.

It’s Darragh Ryan. The mate who wasn’t, but who won’t quite go away.

Killian’s cooler now that he’s with Una, and they’ve got a pup, but he’s still a massive dick with the emotional intelligence of a bag of rocks.

LMAOOO he means well... Most times anyway

That’s Annie. It’s as natural for her to build other people up as it is to give herself a hard time.

I need Annie's book. And Kennedy's too.

the scent of sunshine at midnight drifts into my bedroom on a breeze, teasing my nose and unfurling the ball of nerves in my belly. My wolf calms, her twitching limbs still, and we both fall fast asleep.

He's out there watching over her... ❤️

After what I did to her, I slept chained for years until I was sure I wasn’t going to shift in the middle of the night.

Damnnnn bro wtf... Sad asf

He knows I’m tuning in—because he’s been tuned in the whole time. I don’t know how I know, but I do. Is the bond so strong because of him? Because he’s been tending to it all along?

When it comes to the bond, somehow she figured out how to stick her fingers in her ears and sing la, la, la.

LMFAOOOOO

I don’t know how, but even when she’s not in heat, Mari’s scent makes me think of pretty shit—like rainbows and snowflakes and butterflies. It’s insane, but hell, so am I.

“You like books,” I say. “You do, too.” I hum a yes. “What do you like?” “Anything that has a happy ending.”

“You want me,” I whisper. “Yes.” “A lot.” “Like air,” he says. My lips curve, sad and rueful and bittersweet. “Nobody wants air.” “They need it.” “You don’t need me.” He walked away. He stayed away. “Like air,” he says again with a note of finality.

“Oh, Mari,” he growls. “I want to do things to you.”

He prods her flank with a paw. She plays dead.

LMFAOOO

She’s given him his due, recognized his gift. He’s content.

LMFAOOO THATS HIS APOLOGY GIFT TO HER????

She gazes up at him, and with the last of her energy, she yips at him, snapping her own teeth, cranky and tired and no longer the least bit afraid. His jaw shuts.

LMAO SHES LIKE IM FCKN TIRED OMG STOP

I hear her belly gurgling and smell the meat in his pants.

Lmao what kind of meat??

Some scars, man, we give them to ourselves.”

“There’s been no one since I noticed you.”

While he was preoccupied, no one came over or even shot me a glance. It’s like there’s a bubble around me or an invisibility cloak.

Its cause if they look then they gon die by Darraghs claws LMAOOO

He couldn’t talk to me, and I couldn’t listen. A fated pair.

He leads me through a back door, up a pair of floating stairs to a platform with no walls, only a peaked roof and a carved railing.

Okay yall as cute as this is Im fckn scared that the house will collapse...

This male belongs to me. He came for me. He bailed, but he didn’t leave me. He’s been around.

“He’s part of you. That means he’s mine, too.”

“You’re mine,” he whispers against my cheek. “You’re mine,” against my temple. “You’re mine,” on my forehead, along my hairline. “Yes,” I exhale,

It’s a dream. I don’t have them anymore. But I could. If I were brave enough. If I dare.

Fallon and Lucan are at a respectable distance out on the porch, but as soon as he disappears down the path, they slip inside to play video games with Kennedy.

PFFT-GAHAHAHAHAHAHA

he busted out of our skin like the Kool-Aid man and tore off for Mari’s cabin.

LMFAOOO

and then he circles the place a few times, sniffing the foundation and pissing on the flower beds.

Gahahahaha smh 😂

“But you came back.” “I’ll always come back.” His fingers still, and his eyes find mine. “I will fuck up, but I’ll come back every time. If you’ll have me.” His jaw tightens. “I’ll come back even if you won’t.”

“Because you’re the light of my fucking life. I would do anything for you. Stay away. Come back. Anything. You’re my heart, Mari Ryan. You make it beat.”

Sigh... I want that...

We both know that nothing’s solved, nothing’s fixed. We’re a mess. But it’s perfect all the same.