68

Wyatt swallowed and waved his hand at me to stop. “Don’t do that. Don’t talk negatively about yourself. If I had to guess? This rejection sounds like normal pack politics. His shitheel of a father probably found him a better match in a higher-ranking pack, and then they cut you loose. You deserved better. Did you ever get the chance to confront this so-called mate about this rejection?”

I cleared my throat. Things were getting real. It didn’t feel like we were on a show. Wyatt sounded sincere. Did he actually believe these things? Ever since Jayson rejected me, all I’d experienced was shame. Shame, anger, and self-loathing. Nothing I said to myself ever got those emotions out of my head. A small part of me continued to believe that I was at fault, that I’d somehow ruined the mate pairing. Hearing Wyatt sticking up for me and trashing Jayson and his family should have been petty and childish, but it lifted my spirits and made me feel less broken.

“I never really had the chance,” I said