Rejected, Then Reborn
Chapter 42

Apparently getting her home meant taking her right to her parents’ doorstep.

The journey through the forest had been unpleasant to say the least, but luckily, she, and the young man, Ash seemed to be dressed for the occasion. And though it was in broad daylight, there was just something about the forest that caused the hairs on Lacy’s skin to stand at full attention. There was some sinister chill in the air, as though the woody space housed nothing but pure evil.

A sigh of relief she didn’t know she was holding had left her lips when they crossed into a part she remembered from when she had still been with her camping team, and she had excitedly told Ash her findings, but he had only let out something close to a grunt and continued leading her on. It was at that point that Lacy had completely given up on trying to initiate conversation with him. “You don’t talk much, do you?” She remembered asking him, but he had only said yes, and continued walking on, leaving her to her many thoughts. In that moment, Lacy couldn’t help but wish that his brother, Rannulfus had been the one to come along with her instead. He was the one she had easily bonded with, after all. And also, the most handsome among them.

“Are we going to go in any time soon?” Lacy heard the dark-haired man ask, the words taking her out of her reverie as they both stood staring at the huge house the cab had dropped them off at. She shot him a look of irritation, noting that aside the hair color he shared with his older brother, they totally looked nothing alike at all, “Can you give me a moment to let it sink in?” She snapped at him, her brain trying to make sense of everything.

Something did not seem right.

Why would her camping team leave her all alone if she was lost?

It was so unlike them. They had been on so many expeditions together, and never—not once had they ever left someone behind. Lacy even remembered one time when only two members of the team had ventured out on one camping trip like that. One had fallen and broken her leg, the other had banged her head pretty bad, but she had stubbornly stuck with her friend until help had come eventually. Yes, it was an unspoken rule of sorts among all ten of them. Never leave anyone behind.

It was why Lacy was convinced that something wasn’t quite adding up.

“It looks so different,” She whispered softly as they stared at the gated mansion. “Just how long have I been gone? It certainly can’t be more than a week, right?” She mused out loud, but her musings got no response.

“You can leave me here, you know that, right?” She glared at Ash when after what seemed like ages of silence, he let out some kind of disgruntled sigh.

“Not a chance. His—Rannulfus would want me to see you in someone’s hands at least, before I take leave of you, ma’am,”

“Why, are you his lap dog of sorts?” She couldn’t help but lash out at the poor man, her emotions a little too complicated for even her to decipher, “Sorry, Ash,” She apologized shamefacedly, “That was harsh.”

“It’s fine.” He accepted her apology. “Come on, let’s just go in, I’m pretty sure whatever has happened, your folks in there would be your best bet in getting answers to all the questions you may have.”

He was right.

“Come on,” She said, “Let’s go in.”

*****

“But how wasn’t she able to scent me like she’s always been able to?” Reed asked the Mother of Thorns, unable to hide his confusion.

“Well, I masked your scent, your Eminence.” The old Hex confessed, “Something as strong as that could have just as easily triggered and reprogrammed her memories, bringing back everything we had gotten her to forget and rendering all of my work useless.” She explained softly, stopping right in her tracks. “Now, if we’re done here, Your Eminence, I would like to take my leave.” She sought permission, one that Reed absentmindedly granted, barely noticing when she even started to walk away, her cane making a thumping sound against the floors.

To be very honest, the whole thing had completely gone sideways.

You see, the Alpha King had been banking on the hope that just like the Rejection Ritual had failed, the Mind Cleansing would fail too, and so it had really taken him by surprise when the girl had come to with absolutely no memory of him or her time in his Clan, but it had made one thing clear,

That now more than ever, he had to let her go.

Despite how desperately he had wanted to still keep her, this time, it was all kinds of wrong, because this time she had no idea who he was to her. This time, she didn’t feel the connection that was between them, this time, she was truly the naïve little human he had initially thought her to be, completely ignorant of the Supernatural World and its ways.

They were back in the Castle now, and already, her absence was very much obvious.

His sister had angrily stormed off right before he could talk to her for one, and Xavier and the nurse, Simone had had to head over to the Clinic for a serious emergency that required all hospital staff on deck, leaving him all alone with his weird emotions.

For the first time since he had become a hardened young man, this was the first time that Reed was feeling something that wasn’t amusement, determination, anger, or irritation.

No, this was a much deeper feeling, this one was like pain, mixed with a little bit of sadness all at once. He didn’t like it one bit.

Wanting to get rid of the weird feelings no matter what, the once ruthless Alpha King decided to hit the sparring room to blow of some steam… and of course some emotions too.

Reed had barely stepped out of his wing when he bumped into Rieka Howard, a pleasant look of surprise on her face. “Hey! I was just coming to check up on you. It’s been a hot minute. You know, I came to check up on you to see how you were doing, I heard you sent the human girl back to her world today.”

“Why would you need to see how I’m doing because of that?” Reed was astounded, because up until today, he had barely spoken much about Lacy to his betrothed, and so it came as a little bit of a surprise. “Uh, I don’t know, because we haven’t employed Synn Gloom’s Mind Cleansing services in a long while?” The Gamma General mused, “Reed, are you sure you’re, okay? You… well, you haven’t really been yourself in the past few days,”

“What do you mean I haven’t been myself in the past few days?” The Alpha King knew he was getting crankier by the minute, but he just couldn’t help himself it seemed. “I’ve been perfect, just perfect, I really don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Now answer me this, and answer me truthfully, Your Eminence, when was the last time you came by to the sparring room for a session?” The blonde girl with the pixie cut asked, all traces of the pleasantness she had come with gone.

Reed sighed shamefacedly, already getting the point she was trying to make. “Two weeks.”

“Right. Now you tell me if that’s anything like you.” She sighed deeply, pinching the bridge of her nose, “Look Reed, I thought we were in this together, you know… thought that being betrothed meant that if something was bothering one of us, we could go to the other party without fear of shame or judgment. I thought there’d be no secrets between us, thought that before anything else, you and I are friends, and so if you can’t come to me if you have a problem of any sort, and would rather prefer to be on your own, stewing and being cranky for no reason, then what in f**k’s name are we doing?” She sighed deeply, and turned to leave, “I’ll leave you be, Your Eminence; you know where to find me when you’re ready to talk.”

Reed watched her walk off a few steps, and then before he could even make sense of it, he was calling her back.

“What?” She turned to face him.

“Listen, I think we should have that talk now, if you don’t mind. Can we talk in my study?” His tone was pleading, his blue eyes even more so.

“Alright.”

The Alpha King led her back into his huge space and took her to his study, taking a seat after she had done so too. “Okay, so what exactly did you want to tell me?” Rieka Howard asked her betrothed, a weird feeling developing in the pit of her belly.

You know, the Gamma General didn’t really know why, but she had been feeling kind of insecure lately, and she wasn’t sure why, but her guess was that it had something to do with the little beautiful human girl.

One would actually think that now that the girl had returned to her own world, that feeling of insecurity would disappear, and for a while, it actually had, until she had come to see her betrothed that is, and then his gloomy look had completely brought it back with a vengeance.

“Well, I’ll be brief.” He started, “The human girl, Lacy as you know her turned out to be my mate.” The Alpha King dug straight in. To his chagrin, his betrothed only burst into laughter at his confession, leaving him in a complete state of confusion, for all the while he had been playing out this very moment in his mind, not once had she laughed when he had broken the news to her.

“Wait, you’re serious?” The laughing stopped abruptly when Rieka realised that Reed wasn’t joining in. “Wait, you’re serious.”

Reed nodded.

“B-but how?”

“That was exactly what I asked.” Reed murmured softly, proceeding to tell the Gamma General a little bit about his interactions with the human girl… how he was drawn to her, how Ace surprisingly couldn’t stand her… he was careful with not being too explicit, because if there was one thing he knew, it was that his once female friend had feelings for him. One would have to be the most oblivious person in the world to be able to miss that, and thankfully, he still had an iota of humanity left to be able to catch that little fact, but as a result of it, the Alpha King found that he didn’t want to hurt her in any way.

“Wait, I don’t understand.” Rieka scrunched her face in confusion, “So if it all turned out to be true, why did you send her back to her own world then?”

It was exactly what Reed was trying to figure out himself.