The third call came at 1:07 in the morning.

By then, the rain had turned the glass doors of Ravencrest Hotel into dark mirrors. The lobby lights were too bright. My smile had been fixed in place for so many hours that my cheeks hurt. I had already checked in two delayed flights, handled a drunk human tourist who could not remember his room number, and explained three times to the same Beta guest that the kitchen was closed.

I could do all of that.

I could stand behind a marble desk in a fitted black uniform and pretend I was just another night clerk.

What I could not do was pretend I had not recognized the man in Penthouse 2101.

Kael Blackthorn.

My former mate.

The Alpha heir who should have been my death and my home and my future, all at once.

The phone on the front desk blinked red. One sharp flash. Then another.

My coworker, Mila, glanced over from the reservation terminal. Her brows lifted. "Penthouse again?"

I did not answer right away.

My hand had gone cold around the pen I was holding. Deep inside me, Elara lifted her head. My wolf had been quiet for most of the night, trapped under medicine and exhaustion, but the moment that red light blinked, she pressed against my ribs with a thin, wounded whine.

Do not answer, she begged.

But I had a job. I had rent due. I had a surgery deposit I still had not finished paying.

So I picked up the receiver.

"Front desk. This is Aria. How may I assist you?"

For one breath, there was only silence.

Then his voice came through.

Low. Careless. Familiar enough to break something inside me.

"You sent the wrong sheets."

I closed my eyes.

He had called the first time a little before midnight. Champagne stain, he said. Send housekeeping.

He had called the second time twenty minutes later. The replacement sheets were too rough, he said. Serena had sensitive skin.

Serena Voss.

The woman he had walked in with, her hand tucked into the crook of his arm, her mouth painted red, her scent sweet and sharp beneath the false heat perfume clinging to her throat. The woman who had smiled at me as if I were part of the furniture.

His future Luna, according to the whispers already running through the hotel staff.

I forced my voice to stay level. "Mr. Blackthorn, housekeeping is off duty for the night. I can send fresh linens up, but there is no one available to make the bed until morning."

"Then come up and do it yourself."

Mila's head snapped toward me.

The lobby suddenly felt smaller.

I gripped the receiver so tightly my knuckles went pale. "I am the night front desk clerk, sir. I am not housekeeping."

"I know what you are."

The words were soft.

That made them worse.

My pulse jumped. Elara scraped at the inside of my chest. Behind my collar, at the back of my neck, the old scar where my mark had been severed began to sting.

I swallowed. "I can leave the sheets outside your door."

"No." His breath was slow, almost bored. "You will bring them in. Serena is tired. I do not want her disturbed by staff fumbling around in the hallway."

Serena is tired.

A simple sentence. A blade pushed in without effort.

I looked down at the smooth black surface of the desk, at my reflection in it. Pale face. Tired eyes. Hair pinned too tightly. A woman who had once been promised a place beside him in the Moonlit Sanctuary, now standing in the hotel lobby while he asked her to change the bed he shared with someone else.

"I am sorry," I said, and hated how thin my voice sounded. "I cannot leave the desk unattended."

"You can."

"Sir—"

"Aria."

My name in his mouth stripped the air from my lungs.

For three years, I had imagined hearing him say it again.

In some versions, he shouted it in anger.

In others, he whispered it with the old tenderness, his forehead against mine, his wolf wrapping around mine until Elara stopped shaking.

I had not imagined this. His voice smooth with contempt. His future Luna waiting in his bed. His command falling on me like a collar.

"Come upstairs," he said. "Now."

I hung up.

The click sounded too loud.

Mila stared at me, her mouth half-open. "Did you just hang up on Penthouse 2101?"

I put the receiver down carefully. "Housekeeping is closed."

"Aria." She leaned closer, lowering her voice even though no guests were near. "That is Kael Blackthorn. Do you know who that is?"

Yes.

I knew the shape of his hand in the dark. I knew the scar near his left ribs from a training accident. I knew he hated bitter medicine but never complained when he took it in front of the younger wolves because he did not want them to fear pain. I knew the sound his wolf made when he was happy.

I knew too much.

"He is a guest," I said.

Mila gave a small, nervous laugh. "He is not just a guest. He is the Blackthorn Pack's Alpha heir. If he complains, Mr. Grayson will throw both of us out before sunrise."

"Then he can complain."

My voice did not shake that time. I was proud of myself for exactly two seconds.

Then the manager's line rang.

Mila answered it because I could not make my fingers move.

"Front desk, this is Mila." Her face changed almost immediately. "Yes, Mr. Grayson. Yes, sir. She's here."

Her eyes slid to me.

The old scar at my neck burned harder.

"I understand," she said. "I'll tell her."

She hung up slowly.

For once, she did not look excited by the gossip.

"He said you have ten minutes to get to 2101 with fresh sheets," she told me. "Or you can clear out your locker before your shift ends."

I looked toward the elevators.

Gold doors. Soft lights. A quiet ride up to a room where the past was waiting with wet hair and cold eyes.

Elara trembled.

We should run, she whispered.

I almost laughed.

Run where?

Three years ago, I had run across an ocean with Lucien Ashford holding my medical files and my body barely healed from surgery. I had run from Blackthorn Pack, from the name they spat like a curse, from the mate bond I had cut open with my own hands.

I had run until my wolf grew too weak to dream.

And still I had come back.

Because two months ago, a doctor in a white room had folded his hands and said the second reconstruction might fail. Because Lucien had asked me what I wanted most if time was running out. Because I had stood on a foreign street under a clean blue sky and said the truth before I could swallow it.

I want to see him once.

Just once.

Not speak to him. Not touch him. Not make him know what I had done.

Just see him.

The Moon Goddess had a cruel sense of humor.

I went to the service closet behind the front desk and pulled out a sealed pack of white sheets. My hands moved automatically. Top sheet. Fitted sheet. Two pillowcases. Linen bag.

Mila hovered near the door. "Do you want me to come with you?"

"No."

"Aria—"

"Someone has to watch the desk."

It was an excuse. We both knew it. But she let me have it.

I slipped one hand into my uniform pocket and touched the small injector hidden there. Noctis-7. Cold metal. Lifeline and poison.

The medicine kept Elara's fading scent from leaking through my skin. It made me pass as a tired, low-ranking Omega instead of a dying one. It also left my mouth dry, my limbs heavy, and my emotions wrapped in cotton until the bond pain broke through.

The last dose had been four hours ago.

Too early for another full injection.

Too late to go upstairs without one.

I stepped into the employee restroom, locked the door, and pushed my sleeve up. The inside of my wrist was already bruised from old needle marks. I pressed the injector to the skin and closed my eyes.

Click.

The drug entered fast and cold.

Elara whimpered as it wrapped around her.

I am sorry, I told her.

She did not answer.

By the time I stepped back into the hallway, my breathing had evened out. My scent dulled. The pain at my neck softened from a burn to an ache.

I carried the sheets to the guest elevator because Penthouse guests did not like service carts in their private corridors. The ride up was silent except for the hum of the cables and my heartbeat.

Twenty-first floor.

The doors opened into a private vestibule with thick carpet and warm light. No other rooms. No witnesses.

The door to 2101 waited at the end.

I stood before it for three seconds longer than I should have.

Then I rang the bell.

He opened the door himself.

Kael Blackthorn filled the doorway like a memory that had learned how to hate.

He wore a dark robe loose at the waist. His chest was bare beneath it, skin still damp, black hair pushed back from his face. The cedar scent of him rolled over me, deeper than the false perfume in the room, stronger than the medicine in my blood.

Elara woke with a broken cry.

Mate.

No.

Not anymore.

His amber eyes moved over my face with a slow, merciless calm. If he noticed the way my fingers tightened around the linen pack, he gave no sign.

"You came."

"I was ordered to."

His mouth curved slightly. Not a smile. "Still good at obeying when your survival depends on it."

I lowered my eyes because looking at him hurt too much. "Where would you like the sheets?"

He stepped aside.

The room smelled of champagne, expensive smoke, Serena's perfume, and him. The mixture hit me hard enough that I nearly swayed.

From the bathroom came the sound of running water. A woman's voice hummed faintly under it.

Kael closed the door behind me.

The click of the lock slid through my body like a warning.

"Bedroom," he said.

I walked past him.

I did not look at his hands.

I did not look at the sofa where his jacket lay thrown over the arm.

I did not look at the open bottle of champagne, the two glasses, the silk scarf on the floor.

I kept my eyes on the bed.

That was worse.

The sheets were twisted, damp in places, scented so heavily with Serena's perfume that my stomach turned. I knew enough about scent-forging oil to recognize something was wrong. The smell was too deliberate. Too layered. Real intimacy left traces that blended into skin and breath. This sat on the surface like spilled syrup.

But my wolf was too hurt to care about logic.

Elara curled in on herself.

I set the clean linens on the chair and began stripping the bed.

Kael sat on the sofa and watched.

He lit a cigarette from a silver case. He had quit smoking when we were together because I hated the smell. I remembered him tossing his last pack into a trash bin behind my dorm, laughing when I applauded like an idiot.

Now smoke curled between us.

"Serena is particular," he said. "She cannot sleep on dirty sheets."

My hands paused for half a second.

Then I pulled the fitted sheet free. "I'll be quick."

"You always were."

I did not ask what he meant.

I tucked the clean sheet around the mattress with careful, practiced movements. My arms felt weak from the drug. The linen bag on the floor seemed to grow heavier every time I glanced at it.

The bathroom water kept running.

Kael kept watching.

When I finished, I gathered the used sheets into the bag and turned toward the door.

I made it two steps.

Then he was in front of me.

I did not see him move.

One moment he was on the sofa. The next, his hand closed around my wrist and the linen bag dropped from my arms. I stumbled back against the bed.

His body caged mine.

Not touching everywhere. Not enough for anyone to call it an embrace.

Enough that I could not breathe.

His cedar scent flooded me.

Elara pushed weakly toward him before the medicine dragged her back.

Kael's eyes narrowed.

"Your scent is wrong."

Panic moved through me. "Let me go."

"What are you taking?"

"Nothing."

His fingers tightened. "Do not lie to me."

A laugh almost escaped me. Not because it was funny. Because if I did not laugh, I might cry.

Do not lie to me.

Three years too late.

From the bathroom, Serena called, "Kael? What was that?"

He did not look away from me.

My heart pounded so hard I could feel it in my scar.

"Your companion will misunderstand," I whispered. "Move."

His gaze dropped to my mouth, then back to my eyes.

For one terrible second, I saw something raw beneath the coldness.

Then it was gone.

"Companion," he repeated, as if tasting the word. "Is that what you called Lucien when you crawled into his arms?"

I went still.

The bathroom water shut off.

Kael leaned closer. His voice lowered to a whisper meant only for me.

"Tell me, Aria. When my wolf was dying, did you feel anything? Or had you already cut me out of you by then?"

The room blurred.

I had felt everything.

His pain. His fever. His wolf fading under silver poison. His hand in mine when he begged me not to leave him. The way his bond had clawed at mine as I severed it so he would not feel the surgery that saved his life.

I had felt so much that a part of me never stopped bleeding.

"Kael," Serena called again, closer now. "What is going on?"

He held my gaze.

I shook my head once. Small. Begging.

Not for mercy.

For distance.

His jaw tightened.

Then he released me.

"Nothing," he called, voice smooth again. "A stray little cat wandered in. I am sending it out."

I grabbed the linen bag with shaking hands and moved around him.

I did not run until I reached the hallway.

The door closed behind me just as Serena laughed softly and said something I could not make myself hear.

At the elevator, I pressed the button again and again.

My wrist still burned where his fingers had been.

Elara was crying inside me.

I pressed my forehead to the cool wall and told myself to breathe.

He hated me.

Of course he hated me.

I had made sure he would.

But knowing that did not make it hurt less when the elevator doors opened and I saw my reflection in the gold.

A night clerk with pale lips.

A rejected mate with a dying wolf.

A woman who had come back for one last look and found out that one look could kill her all over again.

Rejected After Saving My Alpha Mate — Chapter 5: A Stray Little Cat

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