Rejecting, Your Broken Promises
Chapter 83

Gabi’s POV

Rogue Camp

I saw Heath speaking to the Leader of the rogue camp, and I assume that he was waiting for his men to get finished with their interviews before he comes to get in line. I could tell that he was a good man and that he cares for all of the men who were entrusted to him. He probably hand-picked them all, and with the exception of Terry, who was a strong wolf, but had issues, he had a pretty good crew. All of the men had been honest, and we would be taking them all with us, and we had literally halved them if Jerry goes to Ever Green. I had to smile at the teenager who wanted to go with Percy. I was so proud of Percy for seeing what was about to happen and placing himself in front of that teenager. I was happy to see that the teenager was immediately attached to Percy and thankful for him saving him. He knew I did it too, but Percy going and stepping in front of him, and putting his back to him, showed the teen that Percy had faith in him too.

Heath wanted me to come over and speak to the leader in private. I hope that there is no issue with him wanting to go with us. Heath had told me that he already wanted him at Ever Green, as one of his men. I could feel the strength radiating from him, I can also now feel discomfort and unease as we stepped up to Jerry to talk. I still get a good feeling from him though, so it can’t be as bad as he thinks that it is. I have conducted thousands of these interviews for my pack, and others, and so far, I have not had anyone that I had approved to join any of our packs come back as wrong so far. I feel like I need to comfort him, as he is around my son’s age, and I feel like he needs it. I need to get him to calm down, I don’t know if he will appreciate a hug, but I know Tanner won’t want me to hug him either. Even with us together for 21 years now, he still gets jealous of other men, especially unmated ones around me. He doesn’t have to worry, Tanner is the love of my life and I adore him, there will never be anyone else for me, and I turn to give him a smile. Tanner, as anticipated, is watching us carefully he knows that there is a problem, he just doesn’t know what it is yet, and he is always protective of me. If he needs to come and protect me, he will, and I already knew that I could depend on him to be protecting me. Even if I had my back towards him, I know that I can always depend on him to protect and take care of me.

“Jerry, I can feel the good in you. I know you are stressed out, so whatever you need to get off your chest, just tell us. It cannot be as bad as you think it is, and we can help you, we WANT to help you. Plus, your men already look up to you and will need you to be there with them as they transition to their new packs. You will be needed to travel in between the packs, several times in the next few months, this is just a formality so just say it. I think telling us will help you work through this, I really do” I tell him, he nods stiffly, but he waits another minute before he starts to speak.

“I was the new Beta for the River Walk Pack. I had grown up in another pack, and Alpha Jared found me when I was 16. I was still in an orphanage as I had been found near their pack. I was little, I was told that I had been found as a pup and was either 2 or 3 years old when they took me into the pack. I got stronger each year and they allowed me to train. When Alpha Jared asked me to come to his pack I did. He had told me that I had the opportunity to train, and then take over as the beta for his pack, and I have to admit I was excited about it. I trained hard, and then when it came time for the 4 strongest men in the pack to fight for the title, I came out as the victor. Alpha Jared was ecstatic about it, and he has 3 daughters. The oldest is 19, almost 20, and was mated to one of the men that I fought for the Beta position. His daughter Karen was soon to be 18, but I could already tell that she wasn’t my mate, as I was already 18. I have been waiting all my life to meet my mate, I wanted to be a good mate to her when I found her. One night a few days later, I felt hot after I ate dinner. I felt like my heart was racing, almost beating out of my chest and I was having a hard time controlling my wolf, Chase. Karen had come to my room in a robe, and when she opened it at my door, she was naked underneath it. I tried to kick her out, but it was like I was uncontrollable. I ended up sleeping with her, but she wasn’t my mate, and she got around the pack a lot. She had hit on me several times before, but I always turned her down, I wasn’t interested in her at all. She always kept trying after every one of my rejections. She was an attractive wolf, but I just didn’t want anyone but my true mate” Jerry told us, and he stopped and looked at Heath and me, not seeing any judgment on our faces, he decided to continue on telling us the story.

“The next morning at 5 am, Alpha Jared, her sister’s mate that I had beaten the day before, and the Gamma were at my door. They slammed it open and came into my room. Karen didn’t seem surprised, but I was. Alpha Jared told me that I had to mate Karen now, that I had to take her as my chosen mate because I had slept with her. I felt nothing for her, and I didn’t know why I even wanted her the night before. It should never have happened, I have never lost control of my wolf before, or since, that night. I told him that I was waiting for my mate and that I was not going to take a chosen mate, even if she was his daughter. Alpha Jared had the other 2 men hold me and then hit me numerous times before he finally broke two of my ribs, and some other injuries, but the broken ribs were the worst part of it. He then told me that I will be fighting him that day. He also told me that if I lost the fight, I would have to take Karen as my chosen mate. She was smiling about it, and was really happy, I wasn’t. I wanted my mate, and I still want my mate. We fought 20 minutes later. He thought, at least I believe that he thought, that since he had hurt me earlier while they held me, I would be in a weaker state, and I was. But, I was fighting for both my mate and myself, I was not going to take someone who had slept with so many of the men in the pack. I would never be able to trust her and be able to know that our pups, were our pups unless they favored me, or had my scent to them. Plus, I wanted my Goddess-given mate. He couldn’t beat me and was scared that the whole pack would find out how he tried to trick me, and that I had beaten him in a fair fight, despite already being injured. So, he banished me from the pack. I had felt guilty for sleeping with her, as she wasn’t my mate, and I took it as my deserved punishment for being kicked out of River Walk. He keeps tabs on me, I see pack members occasionally pop up and threaten me. He has warned me that if I ever join a pack that they won’t allow me to stay there safely because of what I did. I cannot go with either one of you, he will find out, and he will cause problems for your packs. I will be OK on my own, I have been totally on my own since I was 18. She came with them the last time around, as she is almost 20 now, and she is not my mate. I have 2 years of experience as a rogue under my belt, I will be OK, I just wanted them to be taken care of. I cannot thank you both enough for allowing them to join your packs. They are good men, and they will be good additions to your packs” Jerry told us.

“Jerry, I believe that you were drugged, so they could pressure you into taking her as a chosen mate. You were hand-picked for being strong and had beaten all the other potential choices. I know Alpha Jared personally, he is a conniving lowlife, that takes advantage of others. We do not have a treaty with his pack, and he will NOT be rolling up to cause problems with me, or with B***d Rose if you would rather go there to start. You will be safe there, and if he does decide to try to cause you problems, I will then take care of it for you. I can almost guarantee you that he will not be approaching Ever Green. He cannot afford to offend me, or my contacts. Look around, Jerry, you do see who is here right? Two of the strongest packs in the state, and the soon-to-be Alpha King. We are not weak like River Walk, Alpha Jared is a lot of talk, and because he rejected his true mate, he lost a lot of his own strength in the process. He wanted a chosen, and he is within his rights to do so, but he actually made himself weaker for it. He cannot make you do the same as he did though. You made the right choice, and I would be very glad to have you at Ever Green. I believe that with a little training, you will be able to take over and become a co-Beta at our pack. We have experienced a large increase in pack members, and we need 2 Beta’s now as the workload is just that high. I think you are the second man for the job, and my gut is usually correct.” Heath told him.

I nod in agreement with all that Heath had said to Jerry. That sounds accurate, he wanted his mate, so his losing control of his wolf was probably a result of him being drugged. He wouldn’t have been able to control what happened to him, at that point. From what he said, and didn’t say, I know that she had to have tried and failed numerous times for them to have been driven to drug him like that, but I know of Alpha Jared too. He values strength, but he is not a very strong wolf himself. Taking a chosen mate had indeed weakened him, despite his best attempts. His original mate was a warrior and would have strengthened both Alpha Jared, and his pack. I don’t know why he made the choice that he did. We may never know why, but no one is better for you than your mate. There are a few instances of bad wolves, who cheat on their mates continually. Knowing the pain that they are giving them when they choose to do that is sickening. It is like they want to hurt them both emotionally, and physically. They could have just rejected them and gone on to find another. Deaths from rejection are very rare. The pain is horrendous, but most don’t die from it unless the rejected mate feels the true mate completing their mating with another. It adds layers to the pain. The pain of rejection, plus the pain of feeling the betrayal of their mate, and then their mate marking another. That combination can be deadly if the rejected one chooses to accept it and doesn’t want to live anymore. You have to fight it, and try to overcome it, otherwise, you might die from it, but it is extremely rare for the “perfect storm” of rejection to happen.

I remember the pain of my own rejection. Some traumas stay with you your whole life. That betrayal didn’t define me, I was glad that Derek had rejected me. He has betrayed my trust and friendship and allowed others to hurt me too. When he got greedy enough to want to cut me loose to increase his packlands by taking a chosen mate, that really hurt. So much so that I passed out when he did reject me. I know that I will remember my feelings of pain, and anguish, about my mate not loving me enough to want me, until my dying day. I am sure that my second chance mate was the perfect choice for me. Sometimes you have to go through some bad experiences to get to the right destination. That kind of happiness at finding your true mate, the one made exclusively for you, for them to be able to crush and betray you like that, it was absolutely heartbreaking. I can now acknowledge and accept that Derek, although being my original and true mate, was not my best option. Tanner is the love of my life, and our bond was even stronger than the original one that I had with Derek. This poor young man was so upset at being drugged and not having the control to wait for his mate. He believes that he deserved this horrible punishment when he truly does not. My heart is breaking for him, I can feel the pain in his voice, and I am so glad that even with the difficulties that he has been dealt, he is still a good man. I can see Jerry staring at Heath like he couldn’t believe what Heath had said to him. He needs to know that we both feel that way.

“Jerry, I agree with my father. He was 100% correct in what he told you. Either of us would be glad to have you in our packs, but I know that dad wants you to be his Beta, and then Percy’s Beta when he takes over. The current Beta’s son, Reese, has already been set to take over when his father retires, he is already in training now. I know that you should be as well, and I am sure that dad will get you in there quickly as Beta Eli was worried about Reese having so much to handle at such a young age. This way both of you can be trained at the same time, and you can trade out weekly. One week of training and interaction with the pack, and the other week on paperwork and phone calls with other packs. This will keep you both up to speed, and neither of you chained to a desk. You need both aspects of the job to be successful. Trust me when I say that you have been Goddess sent to us in this” I told him, and I am completely serious. Dad needed to have two men that he can completely trust, and now he has them.

“Jerry, you have a great deal of strength in you. We both believe in you, and we can both tell that you are a good man, one who was used by Alpha Jared to try to force you into a situation that you didn’t want to be in. I will be calling the Werewolf Council about this or get with the Alpha King first to see what he wants me to do, he may handle it for you. It may be Alpha Jared’s right to kick anyone out of his pack, but he didn’t have an actual valid reason, and he can’t just drug people to try to make them compliant to bend to his will. What he did was wrong, and what his daughter did was also wrong. They both need to have this noted against them, even if we don’t take it further than just notifying them that it happened. That way, if and when it happens again, the next young man may be able to get a fair shake, more fair than you were ever given. Alpha Jared has overstepped and done illegal activity and I will be glad to make sure that it never happens again. I want you as one of my co-Beta. Will you accept my invitation and come to Ever Green?” Heath asked him with a serious expression.

“Dad, we need to head to B***d Claw right now. My Father said that Peyton is insisting on confronting Timothy there and that they are heading that way now. We need to get there before them to help protect my family. We need to move now” Christian called out and everyone started heading to their vehicles. Christian and the royal guard started heading with Percy as they headed for the SUVs that were parked at the camp. I headed over to ride with the second vehicle, to give them directions, in case they needed them. I see Tanner and Heath coming with us, and Jerry is headed to go with Heath. We took all four vehicles from the camp with us. I knew that the rest of our crew were now running through the woods to get to where the other SUVs had been parked at the strip mall and then they would be right behind us. Time is of the essence right now, and we need to get to B***d Claw to protect them as soon as we can get there.