Rejected Me Too!

CHAPTER TWO 

Derrick Moore 

Everyone there stared at us. My heart raced so fast and loud that I feared it would echo in the room. 

From the corner of my eyes, I noticed Anya taking a step back. She must be as anxious as I was. 

I held her hand and gave it a reassuring squeeze. I needed the touch to help me steel my nerves more than she did. I hoped she was too occupied in her thoughts to notice my hands trembling.

My inner wolf beckoned to me trying to get me to relax. I knew he was just worried that I might lose control and I knew letting something like that happen was a big no.

Anya looked up at me with worried eyes but I fixed on a fake smile and mouthed to her that it was going to be fine.

I scanned the room carefully and I was quick to spot someone waving at me from the group of guys discussing around a table. 

I walked toward the group to have a closer look at the guy grinning at me. He didn't look familiar at all in his rich cream suit and clipped brown hair.

“If it isn’t Ricko.” He said stretching his arm out for a shake.

I took his hand with a shaky smile on my face while I tried to figure out who the fuck he was.

“It's me. Jake.” He said with a smile that was too big for his face.

Jake…Jake…Jake. I tried to recall and then it hit me. Jake!

He had been in the orphanage even before I got there. He was adopted three days later. He had been my bunkmate and had taught me the harsh realities of the place known as Shayne Branford’s Memorial Orphanage.

"I almost didn't recognize you, man,” I admitted with a silly chuckle. "It's been what? Ten years?”

“Fourteen years, seven months, and twenty-one days.” He said with a fearful amount of certainty.

You can take the weird geeky boy out of the orphanage but you can't take the weird geekiness out of the boy.

A thick arm rested on my shoulder. I stared into the face of a blonde guy that smelled of strawberries. I recognized him immediately. It was Carter, the cute asshole.

“The girl you came in with.” He pointed his glass toward where Anya stood by the table where the drinks were. "Is that Anya?"

"Yeah." 

A sinister smile touched his lips. I didn't like the way he smiled when I confirmed it was Anya. I also didn't like it when he excused himself and began to move towards where she stood with a strange guy pestering her. 

I was about to call him back to give him a piece of my mind when a scent clouded my senses the same moment a woman walked past.

Her bare back was exposed in the gown she wore. My eyes followed her to the corner where she stopped to laugh at something her friends said.

I stared at her with so much intensity it made my heart beat faster. My whole body shook with a need that I had never experienced before. This could only mean-

She turned around and stared at me. Our eyes held for a long moment. I knew who she was. Hayley Arres!

Hayley had been in the orphanage as one of the top tiers and she had gotten adopted fast by a wealthy family. The families had literally gone through an auction just to get her.

She stared at me with the same amount of intensity I used to stare at her. It was as if at that moment everything else had ceased to exist living just both of us there.

Then something completely unexpected happened.

She whispered to her friends while keeping the visual connection we were having and then she started walking towards me.

At first, I felt the need to run away before she got to where I was but I stood at the spot unable to move. The only thing that worked properly was my eyes. Even my brain was having a hard time making out rational thoughts.

She got to where I was and stopped. Her cologne hit me with the same potency her scent used to send my senses into a frantic state.

"Hi," I said with an awkward wave to go with the awkward statement.

She watched me with a gentle smile touching her lips. There was something odd about the smile but I was too dumbstruck to pick it up.

"Can we talk?" She asked in a voice that would make an angel fall from the clear skies.

"Sure. Sure." I said faster than I should have.

Hayley led me to the only part of the auditorium that wasn't bustling with people- the doorway.

We got there and she moved closer, stretching toward my neck. 

She sniffed at my flesh. My whole body reacted to what she had just done. I felt cold to the bone yet something burned deep within me.

"My mate," I whispered voicelessly.

She was so close to me that kissing her luscious lips would be the easiest thing to do.

Hayley pulled away.

She laughed at me for a long time. It was so long that I felt something break inside of me by the time she was done.

"I know we are mates." She smirked at me.

"But it's faulty judgment from the Moon goddess to choose that I stay with a bottom feeder."

Her words cut through me sharper and more effectively than any stabby murder weapon would do.

"Now I have a chance to make it right." She smirked.

Before I could regain enough control to protest what was going on, she said the words and rejected me. I felt the link we had broken into nothing. All I could do was gape in awe.

"Hayley-"

She raised a finger to stop me from completing what I had to say.

"Be glad I saved you the embarrassment of doing this openly for everyone to see." She meant every word of it.

“Your plaything is here,” She said, turning to give Anya a cold look.

Hayley walked away. I tried to stop her but she acted like I didn't exist. 

I swore in a fit of rage and threw my fist at nothing in particular.

“What was that about?” Anya asked, a little confused.

I didn't know how I was going to answer her question. I stomped my feet trying to expel some of the anger before I could speak.

“She, sh- " My voice shook.

"She rejected me!”

Anya sighed and her eyes were cloudy with tears. I lost my anger immediately.

"Hey!" I touched her arm. "I'm fine, Anya. It's not worth crying over."

She shook her head. "It's not that."

A tear escaped and moved a shaky line down her face.

"Anya, what's wrong?"

She closed her eyes in what I could only guess was an attempt to stop the tears but more came out instead.

Her mouth opened to form words but all I could hear were whispers. Something was wrong.

"Carter rejected me too."