Rejecting, Your Broken Promises
Chapter 21

Heath’s POV

Ever Green

I am angry right now. I hated we had to do it that way, but Stephanie was not going to show her hand until I took the pack away from Percy. She had been setting him up this whole time, and I kept reminding him what he needed to do, but he wasn’t listening to me or Von. We tried to tell him so he would know he was making bad choices, and he kept downplaying it and sneaking out like I didn’t know about it. Too many knew about it, and I should have stepped in sooner, but he is a grown man and he needed to come to it on his own, or he would have just kept sneaking out to be with her.

Von was upset because Peyton was there with us because Percy didn’t want for her family to bring her here tomorrow, as I had suggested to him. He wants her with him all the time, and I get it. I love Von more than my own life. I know how it is when you find your mate, your other half. They are your everything, the reason for your next breath, but he should have listened to me when I told him that Stephanie was not going to go away quietly. I knew who we were dealing with, as this whole thing became a big life lesson for him. It wouldn’t have happened if he had done as I had asked. I hate that I was not able to protect Peyton from the pain I know that she experienced with this sideshow that Stephanie created.

I am just glad that it backfired on her, and she showed the actual opinion she had of Percy, but I hate that it had to play out in front of Peyton like that. Gabi was in on it, as was Tanner, and Stephanie never even thought of the fact that they would be kept apart if Gabi had to actually take over. That wasn’t going to happen, but I appreciate my granddaughter Elena piping up to dig the knife in harder. Made it more real for Stephanie. Percy will still get the pack, we just had to get the leech off of him first. She had attached herself, and we needed to put plenty of salt on her for her to come off of him. He probably got his feelings hurt, but it had to be done.

I know he is upset, he knows he hurt his parents, and me and Von, but most importantly, he hurt Peyton. He may not have known she was his mate while he was with Stephanie, but he knew better than to mess with the girls in his own pack. I drilled it into him as well, but he did what he wanted and now here we are. I glanced back at him as I held the door to the packhouse open, and he looked like he was in a lot of pain. Good, he will learn from this moment. Everyone headed to the dining room, although I am pretty sure no one was as hungry as they were when they got here earlier tonight.

I heard a noise at the front door and glanced over into the lobby. I see Percy has taken it upon himself to get all of Peyton’s bags from the SUV. Smart move, he needs her to see herself living here, and he is giving her a little time to get past the episode outside. I sent him a mindlink of which bedroom she had got, and I could tell he was disappointed that she was not going to be staying in his room. After the show, he should be thanking us for thinking about this, but I know he is suffering, not knowing if she will forgive him or not. I hope she does as well. What he did was in the past, and he wanted her as soon as he scented her. There is no other choice for him unless she chooses to reject him, and then maybe he might get another mate, but after defying his parents, and us, he might not be blessed with one.

I would do anything to protect Peyton. I am very good friends with her father, and I remember when she was born. Just a tiny little thing, and so precious. She used to follow me and Von around when we were there in her father’s pack, and Von used to tease me about my little admirer. She was a lovely child, and never caused any problems. That is why I couldn’t understand all that she has had to deal with. First Jasper trying to get her, when he was almost double her age at the time, and then her ending up being abused because he had found her and sent men to get her. The Luna and Peyton’s security escort dying was never part of the plan. Alpha James telling them that she was dead, was also not factored in. This brings my anger at him back up and I remember our little visit to him this morning.

FLASHBACK

B***d Claw pack

We are waiting for Alpha James and Timothy to get to the gate. The Beta, Arthur Mitchell, was a good man. I have dealt with him on a few occasions. I just realized more and more of the dealings had been after Luna Victoria had died. I knew he had taken it seriously when he jumped into his truck and drove at a high rate of speed back to the packhouse. I knew it was because of Sebastian, but I was feared as well, and the two of us being here was not a good sign for the pack.

At exactly the five-minute mark, the truck roared back up towards the gate, coming to a stop about 30 feet away from us, as the truck had slid forward about 40 feet. Beta Mitchell and Timothy got out, but Alpha James was noticeably not present. This was a huge insult to Alpha King Sebastian, and his growl sounded out, causing everyone to bow down to him. He has a lot of power as the Alpha King, and he was using it to sound out for all to hear, his displeasure at Alpha James.

“Beta Mitchell, I take it that Alpha James did not care to join us here at the gate?” King Sebastian asked.

“I did relay the message King Sebastian, but he refused to come to the gate” Beta Mitchell said back, without raising his head up to look at him. I felt bad for him, as I know Alpha James was a good Alpha before his mate died. Apparently, he had changed so much that he didn’t care about his life anymore. King Sebastian released them, taking back the power that almost had me bowing to him as well, and allowed them to straighten and approach the gate.

“I will relay this to both you and Timothy then, and you can pass it along to him. This is a very serious matter, and maybe it is better that he didn’t come because if I had seen him, I would probably have killed him, so this may be for the best. I need someone to go get me the two medical files for Katrina Andrews”, King Sebastian said to them, and I saw their eyes widen in fear. I see sweat start on both their brows and I already see Timothy linking with his father and telling him that they have a really big problem. Beta Williams sent a warrior from the gate to the pack hospital to get the medical files.

“It has come to my attention that Alpha James lied to me 6 years ago, and we now have a VERY large problem. You see, I sent my daughter here 7 years ago, to be protected in this small pack. She was being hunted by another Alpha who wanted to claim her at 13 years old, because of who she was, and what she could do. Not because he loved her, or because they were mates. She was brought here by my top female warrior who was friends with Luna Victoria, for her to be protected here at B***d Claw, while I dealt with him. A few months later, we called to check on them, as we hadn’t gotten our weekly call saying that everything was fine. I don’t know how he found her, but rest assured I will be finding out. The person responsible for it WILL be punished, by death, for all that my poor Peyton had to endure here at the B***d Claw”, King Sebastian told them.

“We didn’t know King Sebastian. I did try to defend her, but Alpha James would not listen to me, or Katrina, telling them that they were not rogues that attacked. Why didn’t she tell us that she was your daughter? I could have spared her all this and brought her back to you for you to protect her”, Beta Mitchell said to King Sebastian.

“This whole thing was done to keep her safe. She was bound by a spell to keep her from accidentally saying something she shouldn’t. Normally, I would have sent her to Heath, who would have protected her with his life, and I wish now that I had sent her there. But since you were small, and no one would have suspected her being here, it worked out because you were under the radar. He never came here, but he did go to Ever Green to look for her. My daughter was punished, in the very worst way, for 6 years. I am trying my hardest not to just come in and kill every single one of you except the one person who was kind to her and helped her, Abigail. The rest of you hurt her, some more than others”. King Sebastian stopped to glare at Timothy, who visibly gulped.

“I am sorry, King Sebastian. I cared for her, but dad hated her, and he had said that she was the reason for getting my mother killed. At the time, I believed him because I was young and naïve. I was hurting from losing my mom, and it was easier to blame her for losing my mom. I realized after I came back from Alpha Training that she was not to blame and couldn’t have helped them against the four wolves who came to get her back. We didn’t know. I am sorry, King Sebastian. I will tell dad and get him to stop this vendetta he has against Katrina”, Timothy said, and it was a mistake to tell King Sebastian that it really was a vendetta.

King Sebastian roared out his anger, causing everyone at the gate except me, to drop to their knees from the power that he was putting out. “My daughter was hurt, over and over again, by the people who were supposed to protect her. I know that Luna Victoria couldn’t tell Alpha James why, but I know for a fact, because Nina told me, that if anything happened to either one of them, you and Alpha James had vowed to take care of her. It shouldn’t have mattered that she was my daughter. She was an innocent young girl and abused because she had to be hidden from a madman who was after her. Only to be in the clutches of another man who went mad from the pain of losing his mate”. I could see that Sebastian was really trying to control himself now, to calm himself down, and he was struggling. I don’t blame him, if someone messed with Gabi, they would also be dealt with harshly.

The Warrior came to the gate with two folders, one of them looking like a book. I am stunned that this young woman had a medical folder that was about three inches wide, and the other one was an inch wide and was the “new” folder that they had advised us of. Beta Mitchell looked to see what I was staring at, and he closed his eyes because he knew it was going to be bad if we had asked for it, but you could tell that he was not aware of all the injuries that she had sustained. Timothy looked to be greatly upset by what he saw as well. These large folders told the tale of all the abuse that Peyton had suffered, alone, for the last 6 years. I am almost ready to call in my warriors and help Sebastian deal with this pack. The folders were passed through the gate to me and I had to hold them as they were too big and bulky to slide under my arm.

Sebastian regained his calm and said, “I just came to tell B***d Claw that, as of right now, you are all on notice. I will be going to the werewolf council and seeing what the punishment will be for everyone involved. I know you and your dad didn’t get the men to come here to B***d Claw, but someone tipped them off, for whatever reason. I will be getting the information that I need, and I will be back. I also want you all to know that NO one will be allowed to leave this pack for the next month, while I investigate what has happened. I want you both to know that anyone who attempts to leave here, will be killed by the warriors that I have already placed outside your perimeter. I wanted to look Alpha James in the eye when I said this, but I know that you two will be relaying the information to him, and the whole pack. I will not rest until I have Alpha James and the man responsible for them finding my daughter here at B***d Claw to be dealt with. I can assure you both, that whatever punishments she received, they will receive as well”.

“King Sebastian, I wanted to say that I am sorry for rejecting her. I didn’t know that she was your daughter. I wanted to claim her, but my father wouldn’t let me. He said if I did that, he would kill her. I was just protecting her from him when I rejected her. I was sorry to do it, and I told her in the kitchen that if she would just beg me to keep her I would, but she refused, instead accepting my rejection and left. I want to get her back. I still care for her and want to make her my Luna, despite what dad wants”, Timothy said, and Beta Mitchell looked at him in surprise and shock. I guess he didn’t know that Timothy had been mated with Peyton. I think that Timothy has also forgotten that Fallon is Beta Mitchell’s daughter and his chosen mate.

“No, she has a mate. I have heard that she has already found her second chance mate and it is Heath’s grandson, Percy. We will find her ourselves, and she can accept him if she so chooses, or she can come back home to her mother and me. She has accepted your rejection, so you are done with her at this time. I can only assume that you want her now because you felt her power after she got her wolf. She is a very powerful she-wolf and would have been an excellent Luna for you, but you didn’t want her. You will have to live with that now. She got her wolf and became unbound because she found her mate. So, I guess I will thank you for releasing her from her spell. I will tell you one more time though, if I see or hear that your father is still hunting my Peyton, I will be back here, before the month is up, to deal with him, and give him the punishment that he so rightly deserves. I will deal with the person who ratted her out to Jasper after that. But both of them will get the punishment the council allows me to give them. May the Goddess have mercy on them both because I can guarantee you that I won’t”, King Sebastian said, and we turned away from the gate to go back to the waiting SUV.

The ride back was silent, with both of us thinking about what had happened. I know that Sebastian had called the head of the werewolf council to tell them what happened and get the ball rolling on opening up the investigation on Jasper again. Even if they were not aware of who she was, they had committed to her protection and well-being. She was an innocent victim and there would be punishment coming to them for it. Everyone had thought that Peyton was dead because Alpha James had told us that. That she was killed in the attack at B***d Claw, and that was what had been relayed to all the packs.

It was the very reason that Jasper had stopped looking for her, as he saw firsthand the grief that the whole family went through, anyone could tell that they were not faking the pain that they were in. Jasper moved on and found another Chosen mate, and she ended up dying, mysteriously as well, two years after she was made Luna. Just like his first Luna did. I think we should revisit that first investigation, as well. Now that Peyton is back, she may not be safe if he finds out. We will need to deal with that and get him taken care of. The first investigation had resulted in proof that he had killed her. He may have done the same thing to this poor Luna as well. We need him to be dealt with, and then Alpha James. Only after that can Peyton truly be safe.

Flashback Ends

I looked around the dining table and I was happy to see that 10 minutes after the show out front, everything was back to normal, with, talking and laughing with my family. I saw Percy in the doorway and I motioned him over. His brother saved him a seat, and Percy grabs a plate and slides into his seat. I can see him glancing over at Peyton several times, but she has drawn in on herself since he got to the table. It is going to take a little time, but I believe that she will give him another chance. She does love him, and she knows that he loves her. They can get past this, but he needs to be totally honest with her from now on if they are going to make this work.