Chapter <b>16 </b>


    ** Remy’s POV **


    Fuck this.


    Fuck her.


    Fuck Callen.


    Fuck them all.


    Why are they all pandering to this little human?


    What’s so special about her?


    Why does she get to be mated to Callen?


    She isn’t good enough for him. She doesn’t deserve him. She can’t handle him, not like I can. She isn’t even a shifter. She’s a weak human. She can’t be our pack Luna, not really, and if the Alpha’s and my brother want to pretend she can, then I want no part of it.


    Parker looks after the kid like it’s his own. I get it, he’s our Alpha Heir, he’s Ryder’s, he’s pack. But I’m not a damn baby sitter. I’m not looking after the kid whilst the Alpha twins try to seduce his mum.


    I watch my brother dote on the boy. He’ll make a great dad one day, when we find our mate and have pups of


    our own.


    He’s acting strange today, he seems… happier, rather than the usual grumpy bastard he is. Which is odd considering how wild today has been. I expected him to be stressed out.


    Listening to Callen upstairs, trying to calm his mate and earn her trust, is killing me, yet I can’t bring myself to stop listening. His tone is soft, and it makes me sick to hear him talk to her that way. That tone has always been reserved for me, for our private moments, usually when we are both still naked, and he holds me in his arms as hees back from finding euphoria with me. When he has those few minutes of weakness and shows me the affection I crave from him. When we break our own rules.


    I knew this would happen one day. That one of us would find our mate, and it would all be over between us, but I never thought it would be this hard. That it would urt this much. I feel like someone has reached into my chest, crushed my heart and then ripped it from my body.


    I listen as Callen tells her they were made for each other and my knees almost buckle. I’ve lost him. She is taking him from me, and there’s not a single thing I can do about it.


    The human walks down the stairs like she owns them, and I guess she does. She will take this house from me, too. When she leaves out the front door, I have a moment of hope.


    Did I miss something? Is she leaving?


    The kid’sughter from the sitting room shatters my illusion. I might not know much about her, but she made it clear she would never leave without her son.


    I hear more footsteps on the stairs and I look up to see the Alpha twins heading down. My eyes meet with Callen’s for the briefest moment, and it feels like a punch to the gut. I can’t face him, not yet. I turn and bolt towards the back door, barely holding my human form ong enough to get off the back porch. I shred my


    second set of clothes in the space of an hour as my wolf bursts from me in a sh.


    “Remy, wait up,” Callen says through the mind link as plough ahead, needing to put as much distance in the least amount of time as possible from Callen and his perfect little mate.


    “Fuck off, Cal, look after your human,” I snarl.


    “No. You clearly need me more than she does right now he says, and my steps falter.


    Does he mean that? Does he care?


    I feel his wolf brush up against mine. As an alpha, his wolf is bigger, faster, and stronger than mine. If I run, he will catch me. If I fight, he will beat me. I slow my pace; the fight draining out of me. What’s the point of even trying?


    “I don’t think you should be out here with me alone right now, Callen. I can’t… I can’t be around you,” I say, d we are using the mind link, because if I was in my human form, I wouldn’t have been able to get the words out without breaking down.


    And I won’t break down! I’m the Beta of the Phoenix Moon Pack, and betas don’t cry, especially over men they can’t have.


    “Remy, you’re my Beta, you can’t not be around me. You’re also my closest friend and I need you,” he says, and the word friend feels like a p.


    I stop moving, turning my head to look at him. “Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t realise how hard of a day this was for you. As your friend, I should have been more supportive. I mock.


    “It’s okay, Rem. It’s been a tough day for us all.”


    Is he serious?


    An anger like no other bubbles within me, ready to burst out of me likeva from a volcano. A low dangerous growl sounds out, and it takes my brain a moment to realise the sound ising from me. The second I realise, I copse onto the floor in my human form, my wolf abandoning me for the very first time. I get why my wolf did it. I was so angry I was in danger of challenging my Alpha, but I still feel betrayed he left me like that.


    “Are you okay? What happened?” Callen asks, crouching beside me in his human form now, too.


    I don’t answer him for a moment. I can’t. Instead, I curl into the fetal position on the damp ground, wishing he would just disappear and let me deal with this alone.


    “Remy,” he says, cing a warm hand on my bare shoulder that makes me flinch.


    I crave his touch as much as I despise it right now. I want him to hold me and tell me everything will be okay, just as much as I want him to stay away from me.


    ‘Go back to your mate, Callen,” I say, my tone just as biter <i>as </i>I feel.


    I need him to leave before I say something I’ll regret, but of course he doesn’t.


    Instead, he crouches there silently, close enough for his scent to mess with my head, but not close enough to touch me again. I hate he is finally keeping that boundary in ce, the boundary we set and then repeatedly crossed for thest four years.


    “I can’t leave you like this,” he says softly.


    “You already have,” I snap, lifting my head. “You left the moment the fates delivered your mate to you.”


    “It’s not like that…”


    “Don’t!” I cut him off, dragging myself into a sitting position and hugging my knees to my chest. My whole body trembles, but I hold his gaze. “Don’t lie to me. Not now.”


    Callen tenses his jaw and he looks away, like he can’t bear the truth. He’s never been good at facing the damage he causes.


    Iugh, and ites out bitter and broken. “You think this is hard for you? You get her. Eventually. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but she will give in. They always do. You get a mate, a future, a damn legacy, and what the fuck do I get?… Nothing but a broken fucking heart!”


    “I didn’t ask for this,” he whispers, still not looking at me.


    “Neither did I!” I shout, my voice cracking. “I didn’t ask you to make me fall for you. To keeping back to me every time you were lonely or angry or needed someone to warm your bed. You made me believe I was more than just convenient. You made me believe we had something.‘


    >>


    Callen finally looks back at me, and for a second, there’s something there in his eyes. Is that guilt?….. Good. I hope it haunts him.


    “Remy,” he breathes my name, and it sounds like a prayer, like it still means something.


    “Do you love her?” I ask, needing to hear him admit it.


    “No, I’ve known her for five minutes. I don’t even know her yet.”


    I stupidly let his words spark hope inside me. If he doesn’t love her yet, then it’s not toote for me. He can deny it all he wants, but I know he loves me. I feel it in our moments alone. I see it in the way he looks at me. We don’t just fuck. We make love.


    “Let’s run. Reject her and we will leave. We will find another pack, one that will ept us and allow us toplete a bonding ceremony,” I plead, rising to my knees.


    He closes his eyes and his breathing hitches as I reach for him, my hands gripping his hips.


    “I can’t. I’m Alpha, I can’t abandon my pack. No one would ept us, even if I wanted to. They would see us as deserters.”


    “Then give me onest time,” I say, my hand gliding over his thigh, making him shudder under my touch. “We can’t,” he says softly but makes no move to stop n


    If I can get him to ept me now, then I have a shot of convincing him I’m what he needs, not her. I push to my feet, stroking my hands over his bare chest.


    “She hasn’t epted you yet,” I murmur, leaning close “You’re not bound to her, not until she epts your im, so it doesn’t count. Not yet.”


    “It always counts with you. That’s the problem,” he says, eyes still closed, like he can’t bear to look at me. “Then stop pretending it doesn’t,” I whisper, brushing my lips against his jaw.


    His hand grip my arms, not roughly, but firmly enough to stop me going any further.


    “If I let this happen, then I’ll lose her before I’ve even had the chance to earn her trust.”


    “And if you don’t. You lose me,” I say, my voice crackin as I blink back the tears I swore I’d never let him


    see.


    His eyes open then, locking with mine, and I see his pain I see the soul deep agony that mirrors my own.


    “I think I already have,” he says quietly, letting go of my arms and stepping back, putting a bitter cold distance between us.


    My heart shatters into a million pieces as Callen turns away from me. I drop to my knees, watching him shift and disappear into the trees without even a backward nce like a coward.


    I fall forward, catching myself on shaking hands, and then I scream. It’s a raw, primal, broken sound and I


    don’t care who hears it.


    Callen was never mine to lose, yet I lost him all the sam