15

Tino's POV

My head was facing down as I rummaged through a stack of papers on my desk. I tried extremely hard to focus but the conversation from last night kept replying in my head.

I agreed to give him three months. I agreed to be his friend. I wasn't thinking. I was being too hasty...yet again. He had this weird way of making me forget all my inhibitions and worries. He made me want him, and he didn't even realize it.

There was a knock on my office door and I muttered a quick 'Come in'. Q walked in with a smile on his face as he plopped down on the chair in front of me. I looked up at him through my eyelashes, already annoyed with whatever stupid shit he was about to say.

"Your mate is back." The way he said it was almost like a giggle, with a giant goofy smile on his face.

"Okay." My voice was short and my eyes never left the stack of papers. Even though I have read the same paragraph at least twenty times. Nothing was getting done today.

"How do you feel? He looks good yeah?" I groaned at him and glared daggers at him and his comment.

"What is this Q?" I sighed, throwing in the towel. He wasn't going to leave me alone so might as well entertain the conversation. I leaned back in the chair and sighed finally looking at him.

"I'm going to tell you something. Something I haven't told you yet." He sighed and leaned in the chair. "About my rejection day."

My breath caught in my throat and my eyes went wide slightly. He never talked about the rejection. I barely even know the after. He stayed in his room and never came out until 6 months later. Like nothing ever happened. He always refused to talk about it...until now.

"Alcander didn't reject me that night like most people think. Like I've led on. It was worse. He rejected me after we--um--we had spent time together. A week." He cleared his throat, and I could see his eyes begin to water.

"Q, you don't have to--"

"Yes. I do." He took a deep breath in and continued.

"I was happy. I saw how you accepted your mate being Lycan and a male so easily that I wanted to follow in your footsteps. I didn't fight him. And he didn't fight me. I thought things were good, great even. But I was very wrong..."

****Flashback****

Quintons POV

I woke with a smile on my face, I rolled over to find his body gone but his scent still lingered. It lingered everywhere. Even on me.

Honey and Caramel.

I slowly rose from the bed but there was sharp pain right to my backside that caused me to still. The memories of last night flooded my mind. I hadn't expected to feel so strongly about him so fast.

I thank Koa for that.

If he hadn't left to wherever the hell he went to, he wouldn't have come to me for comfort. And we wouldn't be where we are now.

We spent all week together before Koa's disappearance. I knew there was much more to learn from Alcander, but I could see that he missed his best friend. The way I would miss Tino if he did the same.

I slowly rose from the bed and got dressed. Not wanting to shower quite yet, I wanted his scent to linger on me.

We didn't mark each other, no we just had sex. Made love. Though I couldn't help the disappointment that arose with it.

I don't know why I was disappointed, I had sex with my mate. Every guy's dream. But something was off. It wasn't sweet, gentle, and caring like how I expected our first time to be. My first time to be. No, he was rough and chaotic and aggressive.

The worst part, it felt like he didn't want to look me in my eyes. He only hit it from the back like I was some random bitch. And when I tried to turn around and tried to look at him he would just push me back down.

Maybe I was making things up. Maybe I just had too high expectations about something I had only learned about days before. Maybe this is what gay sex was like.

'Let's not ruin this moment.' Luther, my wolf spoke up. But I could hear in his voice he didn't believe it himself either.

'I'm not trying to. I just--I just expected something different.'

'As did I.'

I sighed and started to walk to the living room, hoping to find Alcander, and he was there. On the phone. Doing what he has done every day this week. Calling Koa.

Jealousy rose in me as I watched him pace back and forth as the phone rang. It was the morning after we mated and he was calling another man. Truly I didn't care that it was his best friend.

"You need to call me. I can't--we can't leave things how we left them. Call me, please." Alcander spoke, his voice smooth and velvety but full of emotions.

"What's going on?" I asked him as I walked closer to him. For a moment it looked like he tensed at my voice. Which hurt me in a way.

"Nothing, just trying to get a hold of Koa." He said keeping his eyes down and staring at his phone, sending him a text.

"I don't know, just seems like he doesn't want to be found," I muttered as I walked closer. "I mean if he hasn't answered Valentino then he probably won't answer you," I said as softly as I could, I didn't want to be harsh, but it was the truth.

"Valentino is nothing compared to me." I looked at him confused putting my hand on his back.

"He is his mate, mates are the most important thing in a wolf's life. You are to me." I told him truthfully, my eyes sparkling with adoration as I looked at him.

He grabbed my arm and moved it off of him as my touch burned him. I was taken aback by the action but I stayed silent.

"We hardly know each other, don't say such things." I thought I knew what pain was. I was wrong. Because at this moment I am experiencing real pain for the first time.

"Last night--"

"Last night was just sex, Quinton. A distraction. From who I was thinking about and wanting."

Tears began to well in my eyes as I looked at him. "What do you mean by 'who'?"

"I mean, the actual love of my life. The one person who I thought I was going to be with is now missing. And won't answer my calls." He huffed in annoyance and stood up.

"Valentino is his mate--" Alcander cut me off with a growl when I said Tino's name.

"That child is nothing to Koa."

"But we spent the week together?" The tears were falling at this point, but I wasn't sobbing. No, not yet. I was stuck. I was numb. I was bleeding inside.

"You were there. That's it. I just needed...something. And that's what you gave me. So if you can't accept that then. I don't know." He sighed and crossed his arms.

I stood up, anger searing through me. No there was no way I was going to give up him. Give up on us. I can get over the fact he has feelings for someone else. I can.

"No. We are mates. We are each other's souls. Meant to be. You have to give me a chance." I walked forward and rested my hands on his arms but as he did he snatched them away.

"DO NOT TOUCH ME!" He yelled at me, causing me to flinch.

"Alcander, plea--"

"Are you that desperate? I don't want you. You are ugly. You are useless. You are wasteful. You are a filler space until my Koa comes back." He seethed leaning over me. As he spoke spit flew from his mouth to my face but I can't help but think he was doing it on purpose.

"What did I do? What have I done to you?"

"You were fucking born, that's what." He scoffed and backed away.

It was a strange feeling. It was like my body had been frozen. I couldn't move, I couldn't run. I couldn't do anything but stand there and take the verbal abuse. Abuse that was going to scar my heart for the rest of my life. That's if I survived this. And I don't think I would.

"Koa is supposed to be mine. Do you know what it's like to pray to the moon goddess every day for a person to be your mate? Only to be let down when the day comes. I had a future for us. A plan. Neither of us had our mates and we were going to be together." He took a deep breath and started pacing back and forth. "Then we both met our mates within days of each other and everything was ruined. You ruined it."

He looked at me with such hate in his eyes. And all I could do was stand there and take it.

"Then that kid--Tino--had to have him so whipped already. I was too late. He had my Koa wrapped around his finger." He grunted out.

"Alcander--" I whispered out.

"SHUT UP!"

And before I knew it, was on the floor, I felt the blood trickling from my eye. The pain stinging through my face. I look up and see him hovering over me, his fist clenched. He was breathing long and hard as he stared down at me. Seconds later his eyes went wide with shock as he looked at me. My hand flew to my face and I held my bleeding cheek.

"I didn't--I didn't mean--" He huffed and unclenched his hands and walked back a few steps. "I Alcander Reginald, reject you, Quinton Braxton as my mate." His voice was low, and there was a hint of regret as he said it. But I knew it wasn't him. It was his Lycan.

He stepped over me like I was nothing. Leaving me on the floor, bloody and broken. It was seconds later when the sobs came rolling out of me in waves. My breathing couldn't keep up with the pain I was feeling. It felt like I was being burned alive. My intestines were being ripped apart nerve by nerve.

This was the worst pain I had ever experienced. The pain in my heart my the pain of my aching face feel like a slight pinch.

I began to hyperventilate. The pain was too much, unable to control my body.

Somebody. Anybody. Help me. Make it stop.

Luther was whining wildly and howling in pain, rolling around uncontrollably in my head. I couldn't take it. This is why rejected mates die. The only way some of this pain would stop is I had to reject him too.

Though, after everything he has said I was still hesitant to give up. To deny him. I would never have another chance at a mate again. But I needed some of the pain to stop, or I would surely die. Here and now.

I Quinton Braxton, reject you, Alcander Reginald, as my mate.

The pain to strong for me to speak. But all I needed was the thought. And I felt it break. The mate bond. The link. I screamed out in agony. Cursing, praying, and asking for help. The pain felt like a million knives were shoved into my back.

Then it all stopped. I felt nothing. My sobs ceased and I was finally able to catch my breath. But in feeling nothing...I didn't feel myself. I felt empty. I didn't feel Luther. He was dormant, or away, or somewhere. I don't know. He just wasn't here.

I slowly rolled onto my back, pulling myself out of the cradle position, and stared at the ceiling.

What have I done to deserve this?

*****End of Flashback****

Valentino's POV

"I'll kill the bastard!" I growled out, my fangs extended and I was ready to run out and find the guy and rip him to shreds.

"Tino, no calm down. That's not why I told you that." He sighed. "I told you because I know what it is like to reject and be rejected. It is the worst pain I can imagine." He stood up and walked to the desk. "I don't want that for you dude."

Q was an idiot some days. But there were days like this when he was the best kind of friend a guy could ask for.

"I told him I would give him three months and we'd be friends. Then at the end of that, we will see what happens."

"Okay, that is good! But you know what that means?" I looked at him confused and waited for him to continue.

"You have to be around him." He clapped his hands loudly which caused me to jump slightly. "We are going to invite him and Kona out tonight. Let's go somewhere and eat. I'll go, of course, Jonah will be there. Then you and Koa, and Vin and Kona. It will be fun!" He started walking to the door pulling his phone out of his pocket.

"Wait what? No. Stop."

"It's already decided. I already texted them. See you at seven." He winked at me and left me in the room. Mouth wide open.

Goddess. Help me.