Rejected by the Alpha (Alpha Shifter Collection)

Chapter Three

One week later

“You look way too smug,” Blueberry said.

“I am not smug. I’m simply enjoying working in your shop. I don’t have a clue what half of these things are,” she said, picking up a bounded unit of sage.

“And you have no desire to hear about herbal medicine. What did you do?” Blueberry asked, taking a crystal from her hand and putting it back on the shelf.

“I didn’t do anything, okay?”

“It’s a Friday evening. You’ve been at my shop every single day this week. Has the diner not needed you?”

She shrugged.

“The town hall?”

Another shrug.

“I have a bad feeling about this,” Blueberry said.

“You’re not going to ask about all of the other jobs I do.”

“Now, you do surprise me, Misha. I didn’t think you saw the life you live with the pack as a job.”

Misha groaned. “I don’t, okay? You know I love helping everyone. It’s why I don’t have one specific job. I like to be available to help everyone and everything.” She loved the pack and had from a young age. Even though, when she was younger, some of the caregivers hated kids, and hated them, she had still loved everyone else. “I need to leave.”

“Why do you have a sudden desire to leave? You’ve stayed for three years with no real issues. Where is your passion coming to leave?”

She stared at Blueberry and went to her. Taking hold of her hands, she smiled at the older woman.

“I know you have sworn off relationships and all men, Blue, but believe me, I … I want to have a family. I want to fall in love and to know what it is like to bear a child.” She dropped her hand to her stomach. “Living here, waiting, watching. No one is willing to ask me out on a single date.”

“You’re twenty-one years old.”

“I know, and I don’t want to miss a single moment of my life. I’m getting older, and I want to have children. I want to be a mother and help raise children with my mate.” She let Blueberry go and stepped back. “No man wants me here. My time of watching Decker, of waiting for him to change his mind, is just too torturous to me. I’ve got to move on somehow, and if that is by making his life uncomfortable, then so be it.”

“How will you not doing your jobs around the pack make his life uncomfortable?”

“Because, without my help, they have to go to the alpha for his help and advice. There is only so much he can do, and well, with you needing my help, there’s not a whole lot he can do.” She shrugged.

“I believe you’re playing with fire,” Blueberry said.

“Fire or not, it’s what I have to do. He will have no choice but to let me go.” Even as she said it, the very thought of being let go, of being abandoned, was enough to make her sick to her stomach. She didn’t say that to Blueberry.

Part of her wanted Decker to let her go. To finally cast her out of the pack, and the other part, the part of her that hoped and prayed he would finally mate with her, didn’t want to leave.

No, the truth was that she wanted Decker to finally come to his senses and to see that they could be good together. Better than good.

“Are you okay?” Blueberry asked.

“Yes, I’m fine.”

“I’m about to close up for the night. You know I have to take additional rests after each full moon.”

Misha didn’t argue with her friend. She gave Blueberry a hug, grabbed her bag, and left the shop.

The sun had been high up the sky this very day, and it had made for some really hot weather. She loved the heat. She loved the rain and the snow. There were many things about life she loved.

Pulling the strap of her bag onto her shoulder, she made her way toward the town.

Misha kept her head down as she passed the town square, heading around the back of the library, and across the parking lot, toward her small apartment. She lived on the ground floor because she hated heights, and anything too far off the ground terrified her.

She was near her front door when someone grabbed her arm and spun her around.

“Do you think this is funny?”

She came face to face with Decker. His touch set her body on fire. In an entirely good way.

She shouldn’t care for his touch. With the way he rejected her and kept his distance, her body should at least not betray her. Only, she craved his touch.

Gritting her teeth, she hoped to keep control of all her senses and not to beg him for more. She would never live that down. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?” she asked.

Glancing down at where he held her, she made sure to glare at that very spot.