The Failed Rejection
Chapter 52

Noah pov

It had been around a month since Noah had seen Penelope at the club and life for Noah had continued as normal. He worked his long hours in the ER as a trauma surgeon and spent the rest of the time with his parents. Noah ignored the woman altogether both human and shifters.

Noah decided to go back to his home pack for the first time in years. His brother Nick had begged him to come as it was a party for his nephew. Noah thought it would be fun as he had nothing else to do for the weekend. So he went. When he crossed over the pack border Niko started to act odd, he started to pace back and forth.

He looked around the pack he hadn’t been in for years and everything looked different. They had rebuilt and advanced so much. Noah was quite decidedly impressed.

Noah parked in front of the packhouse, parking behind his brother SUV, he had to hurry as he was late. His shift ran late in the hospital, then the king drive out of the city. Noah ran out back and saw the whole pack out back to celebrate his nephews birthday. It apparently didn’t matter if it was January and freezing balls. Noah greeted his brother and asked where the birthday boy was. He didn’t bring a gifts, but money should suffice. He asked Nick where the birthday boy was. Nick pointed out a group of kids playing together, the ages varied. Noah saw a little boy Nick had shown recent pictures of him. Noah hadn’t seen him since he was a baby due to his residency and move to Illinois and finding his mate/ex-mate. Noah’s gaze somehow shifts to the right and sees the prettiest little girl in the world. Noah immediately knew the pup was his, his wolf purred at seeing his pup, but what Noah didn’t understand was how. It was so hard for supernaturals to have kids with anyone other than your fated mate. It did happen in rare cases, but not often, and only when both wolf’s were young and unmated. In regards to Noah that could be anyone. He admittedly was a man-whore.

“Hey Nick?” Noah asked.

“Yeah?”

“Whose daughter is that playing with your son?”

“Oh that’s Cassidy’s little girl Cassie,”

“Cassie,” his wolf hums in happiness. Noah himself remember Cassidy herself they f****d like bunnies the summer before his residency which would make his daughter close to four or five.

“Didn’t she leave the pack several years ago?” Nick shrugged not really sure. Noah looked around for Cassidy and eventually found her talking with a warrior. Noah assumed the man was her mate. Noah walked up to her, and saw her laughing until she saw him. Cassidy’s smile faded,

“Hello Noah.”

“Hey Cassidy.”

“Noah this is my mate Mike. Mike this is Noah.” Mike seemed to know who he was and gave him an awkward wave.

“Why did you never tell me?” Noah asked Cassidy. She let out a sigh,

“My family switched packs and I’m ashamed to say I wasn’t one hundred percent who the father was until she was born. When I saw her I knew she was yours. Then when I called and your brother told me you were gone to do your residency.”

“Why didn’t you try later?” Noah asked understanding but confused.

“Well I did when Cassie was two and then I heard you had a mate by then. I’m sorry.” Noah let out a sigh,

“No, it’s not your fault it’s mine. I was too busy being a self-absorbed a*****e. It’s how I lost my mate.”

“I’m sorry to hear that.” Noah nodded at Cassidy’s condolences.

“So do you have any other kids?“ Noah asked and Cassidy shook her head.

“No we just recently found each other.”

“So I have to ask, can I meet my daughter?”

“Yes, but I’d like to ease her into this new living situation.”

“That’s fair, can I at least meet her?” Noah asked and Cassidy nodded. Cassidy went to go wrangle their daughter.

“Our daughter,” Niko puffed again. Cassidy came back holding the precious bundle.

“Mom!!! I want to play!”

“Cassandra,” Cassidy gave in the warning mom voice. They two approached him and Noah stood their dumb and silent. “Cassie, this is an old friend of mine I wanted you to meet. This is Noah, he’s brothers with Beta Nick.”

“It’s nice to meet you,” Cassie said and held out her hand to shake. It was the cutest thing Noah had every seen. Cassie turned back to her mother, “now can I go play?” Noah couldn’t help but laugh and Niko rumbled in contentment.

“Yeah sweetheart go play.”

.

Seth pov

Seth was driving on the interstate headed to meeting a Beta that Killian met at an auction. It took over a month to track the pack down and talk the beta into a meeting. The Beta was too terrified to meet anywhere on pack territory let alone the packhouse so Seth was meeting him in an IHOP off the interstate. The beta suggested a hotel, but Seth felt a public place was more appropriate. He also had to drive all the way to bum f**k Arkansas in the first place and he was starving.

Seth normally stayed behind at the packhouse so this was new for him. He liked staying home, his mom died a few years ago in the attack with the rogue king. Seth had four younger siblings so he helped his father as much as possible. Killian understood and would send Holden on any trips away, but with what was going on now Seth volunteered this time. Seth wasn’t told the full details of Holden’s situation, but he didn’t need to know. His friend needed to stay with his mate.

There were a lot of people in the pack that felt sorry for him for being twenty-four and mateless. The truth was it didn’t bother him as he felt it wasn’t the time in his life for a mate. Seth’s youngest sibling was ten years old and the oldest just turned eighteen. He spent all of his spare time with his siblings and Seth felt that if he had met his mate then he wouldn’t have given her all of him like she deserved.

Seth believed in the moon goddess’s plan for him and would meet his mate when the time was right. Seth finally pulled into the IHOP parking lot and headed inside. He wasn’t sure if the beta was there, but he decided to get seated. Seth just got done ordering food when another werewolf walked into the restaurant. He knew it was the one he was looking for by his incredibly nervous behavior. It made him stick out like a sore thumb, the man’s constant looking around and twitching. Seth finally waved the man over, before the humans got suspicious.

“Hey I’m Austin,” the beta said as he sat down and looked around nervously.

“I’m Seth, Alpha Killian’s beta. I was told you met him-“

“Don’t say it!” Austin interrupted in a loud whisper. “You don’t know who’s listening in. Seth thought the guy was paranoid.

“Look aren’t you overreacting?” The other beta shook his head.

“I wasn’t even supposed to be beta. The last one disappeared over night.”

“Then why are you risking it now?” Seth asked. “My alpha has been reaching out for over a month.” Seth watched as a pain flashed across the man’s face.

“They do something to your mate?” Seth hazarded a guess and Austin nodded,

“They took he for the experiments. She’s all I had, now I have nothing to loose.” Austin looked around before leaning in to whisper.

“Look I don’t know what happened that night, but ever since we got back things have been different.”

“How?” An odd looked crossed Austin’s face.

“It’s hard to explain…They started taking more people for experiments. They don’t just use werewolf’s they would come in black vans. The vans started showing up all the time. Then overheard a conversation with the alpha the other day. He refused to shut down operations…he said…he said” the beta started to cry.

“It’s okay, just tell me.” Seth tried comforting the poor man.

“He said that the subjects were too valuable to be lost. They would have to wait until it was done before scorching.” s**t. They were going to kill everyone.

“Look we have to know where the location of the lab is before we can get everyone out. We can’t go in there blind.”

“What do you suggest I do?” Austin asked.

“You need to show me where the lab is.” Austin started to freak out,

“No they will kill me!”

“If we don’t do something, they will kill your mate.” Austin nodded,

“I brought this map, thinking it might be enough.” Seth shook his head, but took the map anyway.

“No I really need to see the lay of the land, so I can tell my alpha the best way to get in and out.” It was pretty clear this man was not born of Beta b***d, that meant the pack was weak. He wanted to call Killian and ask if the alpha was an alpha when he met the man. Seth took one good look at the man in front of him and knew the second he left his sight Austin would run away.

That is how Seth found himself scrunched in the bottom backseat of this Austin guys SUV. Seth wasn’t too worried about going alone on a recon mission. Brad had been working on the arsenal as well as teaching him and Holden how to make silver bullets. Seth had his gun in case things went sideways.

“We are crossing the border now, be quite and pray the masking spray works,” Austin hissed. Seth rolled his eyes as the guard came up. He could feel the guard was an omega, Seth doubted the guard would have noticed him even without the masking spray. When the car got moving again Seth spoke up,

“For the record the masking spray was made by a witch that’s over three hundred years old. That omega wouldn’t have been able to scent me even if I made the damn stuff myself.”

“Whatever.” They drove a little bit further and Austin started talking. “I’m going to turn right up here, then I’m going to stop. You need to get out and I’ll continue on. To get to the lab you will need to back track onto the main road and take a left. The lab will be a mile up ahead.” Austin barely finished speaking when he slowed to an almost stop and Seth knew that was his cue to get out. He jumped out and sadly it wasn’t a smooth tuck and roll like in the movies. Seth’s foot got caught and he fell in a heap. He quickly got up and assessed his surroundings. Seth was in a dense forest area, the road was actually a simple dirt road. Seth quick backtracked and found a gravel road then continued on down that road. His wolf was on full alert as the woods has thinned out significantly. Seth’s first thought was the pack was a poor one, as a weak one.

“Noise up ahead, we are coming up on a structure,” his wolf warned him. Seth slowed down and got off the main road. He circled until he could find the best entry point. Seth pulled out his phone to take pictures of everything. One never knows what is important. Then he started slowly approaching and the structure finally came into view. It honestly looked like an old shady army base in the movies. There were trucks, fences, surveillance, and s**t was that a helicopter? Killian wasn’t going to believe this. Seth continued to take pictures and looked for his best exit.

Seth knew it would be the way he came as the guard was clueless. Then once past their border Seth shifted, slung all of his items on his back, and ran back to his car. The alpha had to know what was going on in this tiny little pack.