Rejected, Then Reborn
Chapter 27

Reed had always known that allowing the human girl to work with his best friend was a bad idea.

He hated being proved right.

Just two days into her starting her shift, and they were already dining and lunching together like best friends who f*****g did everything together?

What was next?

Were they going to get married by next week, pregnant with a set of twins in the third?

Reed tried to calm himself down.

Why was he so worked up anyway?

It was a good thing that she wasn’t focusing on him now, right? It had been all he had wanted all along… hell, he had told her time and time again that she meant nothing to him, so why was there suddenly this ache in his chest at the sight of her actually taking his advice and moving on?

The Alpha King had no idea.

His legs started carrying him over to them even before it registered in his head, and he willed himself to school his face into a blank mask of indifference, so much so that by the time he made it over to them, he was the epitome of cool and calm, though he was furiously raging underneath that cool façade. He was like a dormant volcano, seemingly asleep, but actively bubbling within, preparing to astound everyone with an abrupt release of lava, (or in his case, emotion). “Your Eminence,” He ignored how in sync they came across when they bowed their heads in submission, acknowledging his presence, “Lunching together, I see.” If there was an accusatory tint in his voice, it was certainly not lost on Xavier, for he knew his best friend like an open book and knew very well that the Alpha king was bordering on being jealous.

Once again, he was intrigued.

He, had not exactly ruled out Lacy’s claims of being his friend’s fated mate, for he liked to think objectively sometimes, and that line of thinking made him realise that it made absolutely no sense for the human girl to submit herself to this line of humiliation and disgrace just to prove a point if she did not believe it to be true. Take that, and the way the Alpha King was suddenly becoming filled with warmth—well, not enough to make people notice—but enough to make him as a best friend suspicious, and boom. The girl could actually be right.

Because no, really… think about it.

Reed Alderon Winchester, all powerful in his vengeance, unforgiving of any form of betrayal or disobedien no matter how little. Put a tiny little human into the equation, and there he went, handing second chances left and right. Hell, he had f*****g forgiven her for trying to escape just like that! There had been no signs of decapitation, no form of torture… f**k, she was not even thrown in the dungeons. Instead what did she get for her disobedience? She was free to come and go as she pleased.

If that did not scream completely drunk in love, Xavier did not know what else did.

In that moment, the Healer Supreme wanted nothing more than to rile the Alpha King up as much as he could, just so he could confirm his theory, but on second thought, he decided to let it slide, especially when he did not want to put the girl in any trouble should his findings turn out to be wrong after all.

“Xavier was so kind that he invited me out to lunch since I’m still settling in and all,” The doctor heard the girl say, snapping him out of his reverie.

“It’s nothing, Lacy…” He shot her a perfect, toothpaste commercial smile, “A beautiful woman like you deserves to be wined and dined and more,” Okay, he knew he had said he wasn’t going to rile the intimidating beast up, but f**k, that opportunity had been too hard to turn down. And the light blush that coated her cheeks at his words made it all a thousand times better.

Lacy seriously wished the ground would open up and swallow her.

It was almost as if Xavier wanted to put her in trouble for crying out loud.

“You—you can join us,” She tried cheerfully, wanting to mend broken bridges, even though his heady scent was making her dizzy with desire, pushing her to seize the moment like he had the last time and claim his soft pink lips like he had done hers. But hey, they were in public.

And she was not sure that her daringness would be met with the same approval it had two days ago.

Besides, she was no longer slave, she was now just… human. She was just Lacy Smith—scratch that, Lacy Reynolds.

It was going to take some time to completely forget her past life as rejected Luna. But for the first time since she had agreed to the Goddess’s arrangement, she was starting to accept that being Reborn was not such a bad alternative.

“I’m afraid I can’t join you today, perhaps another time.” Even though the words were meant for her, the Alpha King’s gaze was stuck on the good doctor, something about it promising retribution… but for what, Lacy had no idea.

It was quite dull after Reed had left, with the two of them mostly stuck in thought as they finished their lunch, and then Dr. Mendoza had been paged for an emergency case, leaving Lacy all alone with a promise to redo lunch another time.

Lacy was just about finishing up when Simone crashed her comfortable silence with her overly cheery visit. “Hey girl!”

“Hey.” Lacy smiled faintly, briefly wondering why she just couldn’t simply have her lunch in peace. It wasn’t as though she had a problem with the dark skinned she-Lyken per se… it was just that she wanted to be alone, for a little bit. To revel in silence, and mull over her thoughts. To take a step back and regroup, while thinking of ways to better fight the mate pull. Was that too hard to ask for?

“What’s your deal, Lacy?”

Her deal?

What was that even supposed to mean? “What are you talking about?”

The she-lyken smirked, nudging the human lightly, “Come on Lacy, don’t be daft.”

“Okay, I honestly have no idea what you’re talking about,” Lacy was starting to bristle in irritation, but she took a deep breath and tried to calm herself down, “Care to elaborate?”

“Fine.” Simone conceded, the stupid light not leaving her eyes for one damned minute. “Just one day of you working here, and the Alpha King shows up in our cafeteria,”

Lacy raised an eyebrow, “Okay? And what does that have to do with me?”

“He has never showed up here, not even to visit his best friend who just so happened to be sitting with you anyway.”

Oh.

“I still don’t see what it has to do with me, perhaps his Eminence had something important to tell his best friend?”

Lacy tried not to focus on the giddy flutter in her belly at the new information, willing herself to focus on other matters instead.

So Reed and Xavier were best friends.

It all made a lot of sense now.

Why the Alpha King and the Healer Supreme seemed to have this easy-going rapport that transcended their roles. They were friends.

And best friends at that.

It all made sense.

“Perhaps.” The she-Lyken conceded begrudgingly, a shamefaced smirk making its way onto her face, “I’ve been reading too many investigative books lately; it’s been making me see possible cases everywhere even when there’re none. I’m sorry for taking it out on you.”

Lacy laughed at her admission. “Even then, don’t you think you need to carry out some investigations first before you pour your accusations on your suspects?”

“Now where’s the fun in that?” Simone joined in on the laughter. “You know, I didn’t have the chance to tell you this, but you won my approval and everyone else’s when you stood up for yourself like that against Sierra.” She said when the laughter had died down, a proud smile on her face, “Thanks to that, you’re officially part of the squad.”

Oh, okay.

“Uh, thanks, I guess…” Truly, Lacy was thrilled, but if it took simple acts of self defense like that to win friends over, then Lacy was pretty sure that her circle would have well entered the thousands by now. She relaxed comfortably in her chair, not really bothered about being late to return to duty even though lunch break was long over, for she had not been paged yet, and she didn’t really need to check on her existing patients until after two hours.

“Speaking of Sierra, what’s her deal anyway?” She asked, genuinely curious.

“Just ignore her. She’s just a mean girl with daddy issues who just f*****g takes it out on anybody she catches even a whiff of weakness from. It’s a real good thing you put her in her place, for now… she’s not gonna bother you no more.”

“I see.” Lacy was doing a lot of seeing lately, but it was expected when one found herself in a new environment, so she wasn’t really worried about it.

“So… lunch with sexy doctor Xavier Mendoza though, am I right?” Simone threw out there suddenly, startling Lacy into laughter. “Where are you even going with this, Simone?”

“Oh, nowhere,” Simone grinned, light shining in her dark brown eyes, “Just know that he’s the crush of many of the nurses over here, so I’d be careful if I were you.”

“Xavier’s just my friend, Simone,” Lacy chuckled good naturedly,

“I know, I know… I could sense it,” She confessed, “I’m just not sure the other nurses will see it that way though, especially Sierra.” She winked devilishly causing a loud g***n to erupt out of the human girl, “Don’t tell me she has a crush on him too,” She deadpanned.

“Oh, she does. The biggest. Get this, she practically thinks the two of them are in a relationship of sorts at this point,” Simone scrunched her mouth in pointedness, “And with the way you put her in her place today, I will totally not be surprised if you become her biggest enemy when this reaches her ears. I’ll be very careful if I were you.”