Rejected, Then Reborn
Chapter 22

No.

No, no, no.

This couldn’t be happening.

She couldn’t stay here?

Staying in the Alpha King’s room? With no one to interrupt them when things got heated and a f*****g mate bond pull that had her wishing he was rooted deep inside her, filling her to the brim with his hard c**k and hot seed? That was going to be even more torture than staying in a f*****g dungeon for crying out loud!

“Please.” Lacy begged sorrowfully, scrambling further away from the bed, for she found that with her failed attempt at escape, her fear of the creature had come back with a vengeance, and the fact that it had morphed into a hairy, wolf-like version of Groot in his full form on top of all that was not helping things either. “Please, your Eminence, let me go back to my room. I will stay there, you will never hear that I have gone out of line again, you’ll see… just give me a second chance, please.”

But Ace reached for her, grabbing her by a leg and pulling her close, even as he knelt down at the edge of the bed, a hairy clawed hand reaching for her creamy neck and squeezing hard, choking the life out of her, his head c****d to the side as he observed her in interest, “I. Have. No. Idea. What. Reed. Sees. In. You. You’re. Just. A. Puny. Human. Reeking. Of. Nothing. But. Fear.” He snarled, breath hot and terrifying against her face. “I. Want. Nothing. More. Than. To. See. You. Limp. And. Without. Breath. At. My. Hands. But. I. Will. Spare. Your. Life. Because. Of. Him.” He let go of her neck at those words, and Lacy took in a large gulp of air as she scooted backwards fearfully, coughing violently as her airways cleared once more. She watched in a daze as the half man, half beast creature began to shift once more, bones cracking and rearranging, and then the Alpha King was kneeling in front of her again, surprisingly clothed, though visibly very tired and very pissed.

“What the f**k is wrong with you?” Reed seethed, blue eyes shining with so much anger. He simply couldn’t understand the girl, no matter how hard he tried sometimes, “Is it that you have a death sentence or something?” His eyes shot down to her left leg, noting how she winced when he pulled her forward and accidentally touched it. He drew the dark sweatpants up only to be met with a badly bruised shin which seemed to be swelling by the minute, “You’re hurt.” In that moment, the sparks he had felt as his fingers touched her were long forgotten at the sight of the injury, all he wanted to know was if she was okay.

“Why do you care?” The human girl rasped tiredly, bitter at seeing his handsome face once more, especially when just a few minutes ago, she had been so close to freedom that she could almost taste it. She couldn’t even be angry at him for being choked to death a few seconds ago for if anything at all, she actually had him to thank for being alive.

“The fact that I want nothing to do with you in the way that you want does not mean that I have to be an a*s about it.” He calmly replied, but if his words had been meant to calm her down, it rather achieved the opposite result, “Well, there are more ways than one to being an a*s, your Eminence,” Someway somehow, she made the honorary title sound even more insulting than normal words would. “You’re the one who’s betrothed, so why the hell are you going about signing s*x contracts with people you want nothing to do with, huh?” She shot back at him, her green eyes shining with so much anger and hate. It was funny how she could tell Reed whatever came to her mind, even if it would get her into trouble… but when Ace was around, she was a silent, stuttering, crying mess. “I’m assuming Anaya told you this.” He stated, expression blank.

“Damn right she did.” The human glared at him, “Does your betrothed know about your dirty little secret? Makes one actually wonder what else you’re hiding, you know? Want to know what I think?” She didn’t even wait for him to reply, continuing with her opinion anyways, “I think that someone needs to tell her. Make her see how much of a mistake it will be to marry a ruthless, evil man like you.” She spat in his face.

“ALRIGHT, THAT’S ENOUGH!” He boomed angrily, standing up and heading into what Lacy was assuming was the bathroom. He came back a few minutes later wielding a first aid kit, proving that her earlier assumption had been right, and then he went right back to his former position right at the edge of the bed, right at her feet, “You don’t know me, human… so don’t go about thinking you have me all figured out, because you don’t. The very fact that you’re still breathing and able to spew nonsense at my face time and time again should tell you this. But my patience is seriously wearing thin, and it won’t be long before you have me snap, and trust me, that will not be a beautiful sight. Stop testing me.”

This time his words shut the human girl up, leaving her subdued and a little bit confused, for this Alpha King was nothing but a whole a*s cocktail of mixed signals, one time saying one thing, the next doing the other, contrasting and contradicting himself time and time again and leaving her in a state of vertigo from the whole spin.

Take now for instance, his warm hands were lightly brushing across her rapidly swelling leg, occasionally pressing hard to see where and how she was hurt, invoking the sweet soothing feeling of healing while making the butterflies in her stomach giddy with excitement.

And then he’d turn and go off about how she meant nothing to him,

“I didn’t know you had knowledge in dressing wounds, but why am I even surprised? I suppose if you know how to torture people to death it is imperative to have some knowledge on dressing wounds just in case you need them alive after all.” He didn’t say a word. “Look, you can just take me to the clinic so Xavier can look at it,” She whispered softly but he lifted his gaze so fast that her breath got caught in her chest, “So you take that chance and try to escape again? Not a chance, fiery one.” He deadpanned.

Fiery one.

She rather liked the new nickname, but she actually couldn’t tell if he had a problem with her trying to escape or with her meeting the chief healer.

“You… you confuse me, Lacy.” The ruthless Alpha King admitted softly as he cleaned her delicate skin with alcohol and gauze, said confusion shining bright in his striking blue eyes. It shocked Lacy greatly that he was allowing himself to show some kind of emotion, allowing himself to be this vulnerable, especially with the stunt she had pulled earlier, “I—I feel things towards you that I have not felt before, things that I should not be f*****g feeling,” His gaze was locked on her lips even as he said this, and Lacy couldn’t help it, she suddenly had this inexplicable urge to lick her lips, so she did exactly that, “No,” Reed g*****d frustratedly. “f**k, no, don’t do that.” He was fully convinced that the human girl had some vixen or succubus qualities, for in that moment, he had no idea if she was intentionally doing it… leaving him hot and bothered, turning him so desperately on, while under the guise of being some innocent, infuriating girl.

His frustration had Lacy’s panties drenching, but she clenched her thighs, willing herself to focus on his first words and not his reaction to her licking her lips. “You should believe me when I tell you that it is the mate bond doing all this. Why is that so hard to believe?”

“I do not want to have this conversation with you, human,” He deadpanned. On a normal day, that would have worked, but today was different. Lacy was still reeling from the adrenaline rush from earlier, and she found that it made her quite more daring than usual, “I actually want to have this conversation with you, Lyken…” She shot back in the same manner he had addressed her, “Only gods know when I’m going to have this chance again, knowing you and you penchant for disappearing on me when things get too uncomfortable,” She smirked when she saw his jaw visibly drop, not quite used to seeing him out of character like that, it was honestly fulfilling to watch. “Tell me something,” She continued, “Do you have any idea of how to reject the mate bond?”

“There you go with the mate bond nonsense again,” He rolled his eyes, like literally rolled his eyes. That was certainly the most non-Alpha King-like thing the human girl had ever seen him do. “What gave you the impression that I was going to talk about anything else?” Lacy scrunched her eyebrows.

“Uh, I don’t know, maybe the fact that I literally told you that I did not want to have this conversation with you?” He shot right back.

“Come on, don’t you want me to stop bothering you with all of this?” She asked resignedly. “There’s literally a way for all of this to end, and that’s through the rejection process. I literally have no idea how it all works, like I would have done it all on my own, but I’m pretty sure you know something about it,” Lacy could see the Alpha King inching closer and closer to her, but she was too caught up in presenting her own arguments to make any sense of it, even though the heated daze in his eyes should have been a dead giveaway, “Though iff you have no idea about it too that’s fine, I’m pretty sure we can find someone who can help us out around—”

“Ah, f**k it,” That was the only warning she got, and then the Alpha King was pressing his lips against hers, pulling her in for a k**s.