3. Rejection

Kiara’s POV

For a solid 20 seconds, Asher stood frozen in disbelief. His complexion turned pale, resembling someone who had encountered a ghost. While everyone else seemed perplexed by his reaction, I understood all too well. My heart pounding within me was deafening, and I dreaded its intensity tearing me apart. This couldn’t be real. It simply couldn’t be happening.

“Babe, are you alright?” Leslie touched her boyfriend’s face. “Why do you look so scared?”

“I…” He was at a loss for words, “Leslie…”

I could see that Asher lacked the courage to confront the truth, let alone admit it to his girlfriend. What did this mean for us? Asher has a girlfriend, and I end up being his mate? How are we ever going to resolve this? Will Leslie even let us be together? Will Asher fight for us?

A million questions were racing through my mind. As Asher struggled to compose himself in his newfound reality, I shook with the fear of endless ways this was going down.

I watched as Leslie wrapped her hands on either side of Asher’s face trying to bring him to answer her question. A foreign sensation gripped my heart as if someone were poised to snatch away what rightfully belonged to me. I could no longer endure the sight of her hands on him. Asher remained hesitant to disclose the truth to her, yet I felt prepared. I didn’t want to keep her in the dark anymore.

“I am his mate,” I said in a low tone.

As soon as the words slipped my mouth, Leslie whipped her head to look at me, “What?” She shrieked, “What the fuck are you talking about?”

“It’s true,” I breathed out. “I am his mate.”

With her mouth agape, she looked at Asher, “Please tell me this is a load of bullshit. No way she’s your mate,” she said.

Asher slowly faced Leslie, and his guilty eyes spoke of the words he was afraid to speak, “She is right, Leslie.” He slowly mumbled, “She is my mate.”

A feeling of warmth rushed through my veins at his declaration, and I couldn’t help but feel elated. It was finally happening. I found my mate!! I knew he was not completely ready to accept it yet, but I was glad that he at least admitted it in public.

“How is that possible? There must be a mistake,” Leslie said, almost crying. Despite what she did to me, I truly felt sad for her for a moment. In what way could she possibly come to terms with the revelation that her boyfriend was, in fact, another person’s mate?

In quiet disbelief, I shook my head, struggling to comprehend the situation fully. Leslie’s boyfriend was my mate? The future alpha of our pack was my mate? How could such a seemingly impossible connection exist? And what did this revelation mean for me? Observing Asher’s expression, I could empathize with his initial shock. While I understood his surprise, I couldn’t help but yearn for a glimmer of happiness to surface within him.

His lack of emotion scared me. I dreaded entertaining the possibility, yet it incessantly nagged at the recesses of my mind. I longed for him to break the silence and acknowledge the situation. It became increasingly clear that discussing this matter privately with him would be the wiser course of action.

“Asher, can I talk to you in private?” I asked.

“Of course not,” Leslie hissed, sliding her hand around his arm. “He is not going anywhere with you. I will kill you if you try to get anywhere close to him.”

I frowned at her proximity to him as I expected her to keep her distance after knowing he was my mate. I wanted to open my mouth and ask her to back off kindly, but I was never given a chance. Instead, Asher finally seemed to have found his voice.

“That won’t be necessary, babe,” Asher said with a slight distaste. He tried to open his mouth again, but it seemed he had no words to spare.

Finally, when he found his voice, his words shattered my heart. “I reject her,” he uttered, leaving me devastated.

The concept of heartbreak had always seemed abstract to me, but at that moment, I was experiencing its tangible reality. Asher’s gaze locked with mine as he uttered those words, and it felt like his words pierced my chest like a sharp dagger. Instantly, a profound sense of emptiness engulfed my being, as if a vital part of my soul had been irretrievably lost. In many ways, it had. I had lost my soul. I lost my mate.

Tears started surfacing in my eyes, and there was no way I could hold them back. Unable to look at Asher, I turned away and started walking toward the exit. A small part of me hoped that perhaps he would follow me. But he didn’t.

Once outside, I started running to my dorm room. I didn’t stop until I reached my room and opened the door. As soon as I hit the bed, uncontrollable tears flowed down my cheeks. My throat hurt from sobbing hard, but I couldn’t do anything about it.

It hurt. It hurt everywhere.

Why would he do that to me? Was I really so bad that he couldn’t accept me as his mate? We were destined to be together, but he thought rejecting me would be easier than being with me.

It was perhaps because of the lies Leslie had been feeding him. But even then, how could he reject me without trying to get to know me better? Ever since I discovered he was my mate, it felt like a piece of me had already united with him. But he didn’t waste a minute to destroy everything I had at that moment.

In retrospect, I felt like a fool to have waited for this day all my life. Ever since my dad died, my only hope was my mate. I was sure I would eventually find someone loving and caring for me. However, I had never considered the possibility that they would reject me.

The more I thought about what had just happened, the more Leslie’s offensive words kept playing.

“Your father should have dragged you into the pit with himself. It would have been good riddance.”

Her voice echoed in my head. I never thought about it before, but perhaps she was right. Maybe I should have died with my father that night.