Chapter 30

**Justin’s POV**

Fuck. I hope she is okay. I should have stopped the fight earlier than I did, but I did not want to come off as too demanding or make her feel like she was not capable of making decisions on her own.

Alpha Michael and I rushed to the pack hospital’s emergency area.

Leigh was waiting at the front desk, waiting for us.

“Please tell me she is alright,” I pleaded with Leigh.

“Justin, she is fine. She needs a blood transfusion and we are technically not allowed to give out transfusions without permission from her parents or, in some cases, their mate, especially when she is still underage. She lost a lot of blood from the fight. A couple of her wounds needed dissolvable stitches until her wolf could fully heal her.”

“Of course, you have permission to give her the transfusion,” Alpha Michael told her.

The Alpha and I took a seat in the waiting room while Leigh rushed off to give Kat the transfusion.

“She will be alright, you know. She is strong. She will overcome this.” Michael told me.

“I know she is. I just am not looking forward to when she comes to and realizes that everyone knows about me being her mate. She was adamant that no one was to find out until if and when she was ready.”

“Kataleya will live. Maybe this will push her to get to know you more before thinking about rejecting you.”

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Several hours passed before Leigh came back out.

“She is awake now and is doing fine. She has requested to speak with both of you, but she wants to do it individually.”

“You can go ahead and go first, Justin, I will wait.”

I followed Leigh to the room that Kataleya was placed in. She opened the door for me before leaving.

I walked in and Kataleya was sitting up, drinking water.

“Hey.”

“Hey yourself. Can we talk for a moment?” She asked me.

“Sure. What’s up?”

“I was not ready for everyone to know that you were my mate. I cannot handle the pressure of being your mate when I am not sure that I want a mate, that I want you.”

I just stared at her, arranging my face into a clear canvas. I don’t want her to see how much her words were bothering me. I knew this was coming. I hope she doesn’t reject me, but if she does, I won’t accept it. I will continue fighting for her.

“I know this is not what you wanted to hear, Justin. I am no good to you. I will just hurt you. Break you. You deserve someone that can give you their all and I just can’t. I have too much going on in my life. I have had too much happen to me…”

I finally couldn’t take it anymore. I cannot continue listening to her talk about herself negatively. She is already giving up. She isn’t even trying to give us a chance. What happened to wanting to give us a chance? “What happened to giving us a chance? What happened to not wanting to upset Skye? If you reject me, I will not accept it. I will continue fighting for you, for us. I am sorry that I accidentally outed you…I did not mean to. I couldn’t continue watching them hurt you. Then, if I had done what I wanted to, I would have been disqualified and then punished. When I was watching Gael stalking towards you, that was when I snapped. He could have seriously injured you and I was expected to sit back and watch that happen. Only to come to the realization that I have three more fights to watch you go through. You cannot expect me to just sit back and watch you get hurt. It kills me! What makes it ten times worse for me is the fact that you 100% expect me to sit there and watch it happen and not do a fucking thing about it. I fucking told them this god damn challenge was fucking unfair and no one would fucking listen to me.” By the time I had finished, I was yelling.

Ares whimpered in my head. ‘It will be okay, bud. We will not accept her rejection. We will make her see reason.’ I told him softly.

“Justin, do not make this any harder than it is. I understand where you are coming from. I know that it was wrong for me to expect you to be completely fine with the first challenge. I understand that the male wolf in you is protective over your mate. The fact is, I am too broken, Justin. You do not want someone that is broken. Damaged. I cannot be what you need.”

“You cannot tell me what I need and what I don’t need. I can be the judge of that and I know what I want. I want you. Only you. No one else. Please just give me a chance. I will do whatever it is that you need to show that I am not going to leave if it gets hard. It is unfair for you to say that I will leave you or judge you because you think that you are broken and damaged when you will not tell me what happened to you to cause you to feel this way. I could help you if you would just let me in. Let me love you, Kat. Let me be there for you. Don’t shut me out because you are scared to take a fucking chance on something that is unknown to you. I am already falling in love with you, Kat, and no, it is not just the fucking mate bond. I was already falling in love with you before I knew you were my damn mate. Please. Just give me a chance. That is all I am asking for.” I finished. I heard my voice break at the end. I did not want to sound desperate and I did not want to feel or sound weak in front of her, but she needed to hear it. She needed to know how I felt.

“This would break me…" I whispered. I wasn’t sure if she heard me until she looked at me with sadness and guilt in her eyes.

“Good luck with the rest of your challenges. I will be watching and cheering you on. I will try not to get upset or freak out during the challenge.” I said as I walked out the door. At least if I left before she could do or say anything, then she couldn’t reject me.

I stood outside her door, leaning against the door. I felt the tears running down my face…I never cry. Crying is a weakness that I never show. I stood there for a few minutes trying to compose myself.

Once I think I am fine, I make my way to the waiting room and tell the Alpha that she is ready for him before I walk out, not saying another word to him.