Rejected, but not Broken
Chapter 41

Tanner’s POV

I hope that guy takes the hint, as when he started begging Gabi to come back, I was ready to kill him. Why would he do that? He already had his chosen mate, and believe me, she was furious when she heard him talk too.

Almost as mad as I was with him, offering to give up being an Alpha to be with her. He can take that sh!t and keep rolling, because she is mine, and I will not let him take her from me.

I remember what Gabi had said to them, talking about pain and what all had been done to her, and I cannot imagine what she had been put through in her young life. Why was she allowed to be abused like that? Why didn’t the Alpha stop it?

Punish the pack members who had done it? I have nothing but disgust and anger at that Goddess’ forsaken pack, and I do not want Gabi going there for any reason, I looked over at the restroom to see if Gabi was coming back and I saw that young Alpha Derek standing there looking at Gabi, but not approaching her.

I see his mother approach him and put an arm on his shoulder and that snaps him out of his staring match with Gabi. I could see him say something and then turn and head back to his table.

I see the sadness written all over his face, he knows that he messed up badly, and he will be weaker because of it. Nothing makes you stronger than your true mate, and that is why they are so valuable.

I see Gabi standing there and she is upset. I see tears in her eyes, and then she straightens her shoulders and puts her head up, and heads for me. I don’t know what he said to her, but I will be the one to comfort her from now on.

When she gets to the table, I hold my arms out to her, and she gets on my lap again and snuggles into me, and I can tell that she was very upset. I leaned down to her ear to keep it private between us and said, “Do I need to ask the young Alpha outside?”. Gabi glanced up at me and said, “No, he just told me that I looked beautiful tonight” and snuggled back into me.

I needed to know so I asked her, “Why did that upset you, baby, you do look beautiful tonight”. Gabi smiled sadly at me, and I saw the tears springing back up in her eyes again and she said, “because he just reminded me of the sweet boy that was my only friend I had growing up when he said it”.

I looked over in his direction and saw him watching me holding Gabi with no attempt to hide the jealousy that he had in his eyes from me when he saw me looking at him.

I narrowed my eyes at him to let him know that I would not be letting her go, and I saw a little half-smile at the corner of his mouth. That c0cky little b*stard. If he thinks that he will get a rise out of me, he is mistaken. I will not be letting Gabi go at all tonight, and that gave me an idea.

“Heath, I hate to ask this, and I know on the front end of it, it will sound inappropriate, but hear me out first. Due to Taylor hopping into my bed the last time I was there, I only made plans for us to have 2 rooms, as we only needed one for the men, and the other for the women to get ready.

I was not planning on staying here overnight unless one of us met their mate. Now that I know Taylor is upset with Gabi staying here, and her first mate being here, it is making me a little concerned about his heartfelt plea for her to take him back. I was wondering if I could stay with Gabi tonight, with Luna Liz as a chaperone. I can sleep on top of the blankets if that will make you feel better about it.

But I don’t want to leave her with Taylor, those two horrible girls over there, and Derek all here overnight. No offense to you at all, Luna Liz, as I know he is your son, but I heard him when he pleaded with Gabi, and he really did want her to give him a second chance”, I asked Heath.

Heath arched an eyebrow at me and then looked at Von who was smiling at him, and he turned back grinning at me, and said, “I appreciate you asking me, son, but the person who you need to ask is in your lap. Gabi is 18 and can handle her own affairs.

We just want to provide safety and guidance for her, but she can call her own shots. But we don’t have a problem with it. You have declared your intentions and you fought to keep her, despite Taylor twisting the truth. I am proud of you, you handled yourself well in a tough situation, and am happy that you and Gabi are mates”.

I looked down at Gabi and asked her quietly, “Would that be OK with you, Gabi?” Gabi smiled and nodded at me, and I am so happy that I can sleep in the same bed with her and won’t have to worry about Derek coming to her in the night. It was him that I was worried about as he clearly still had very deep feelings for her.

She could handle herself against Taylor, Piper, and Heather, as only Heather out of the three had ever trained. Gabi would kick all of their as*ses. But with Derek, I wouldn’t give him the opportunity to try to worm his way into her heart.

She had obviously loved him at a point, and he had been a true mate to her as well. So, it wasn’t a stretch for him to take a shot, as he clearly wanted her back enough to give up his own pack to get her back. That was a serious act, and I didn’t want her to give up one centimeter of space in her heart back to him.

Gabi danced with me a couple more times tonight and then we all headed back upstairs to the rooms. My parents would be taking the one with the king in it, and my brother and sister would take the one with the two full beds in it. I went to change into sweatpants and a t-shirt for me to sleep in, and my brother and sister couldn’t wait for me to come out of the bathroom after changing and brushing my teeth.

“You HAVE to be the luckiest guy that I know, Tanner”, Gavin tells me.

“Yes, your mate is gorgeous and a great fighter. She will definitely be making our pack stronger. I think she could even make Gavin’s dream come true of having our own pack have a training team”, Alicia said to me, and Gavin grinned widely at her. I knew that was why he was so excited.

“Yes, I would like her to help me get a team together. Maybe she can get the guys to come to our pack and help us train and get a team together. That would be great for our pack, we would be even stronger”, Gavin tells me, and I can’t help smiling at his excitement.

“That was quite a little show of wanting to sleep in the same bed with your mate. She has Alpha Heath and Luna Von on one side of her room and two really big, highly-trained men on the other side of her. She is highly trained herself and Luna Liz is also very strong.

I sense another reason for you to be concerned. One happens to be tall, blonde, and handsome, which is the root cause of you wanting to make sure that she is not alone. Like his mom letting him into the room for a quick visit before bed, perhaps?” Alicia teased me, and she hit the nail on the head.

That was the exact reason I wanted to spend the night in her room. Luna Liz was his mom, and even though she facilitated Gabi and her team to come onto packlands to accept his rejection. She could also change her mind by hearing that he was serious enough about it, to give up his pack and give him the support of going after Gabi again.

“You are right Alicia, it is all over his face. Do not worry Tanner, I can see that Gabi loves you already. You just keep being her rock, and she will be in our pack in no time”, Gavin said.

“I hope you are right because hearing that she will be going to his pack, to help train, makes me a little worried. You didn’t hear him. He loves her too, and he has changed his mind about wanting his chosen Luna. He is willing to give up his pack for her.

That is actually really big, and it is something that might make her want him again. I cannot take the chance. I hope that they can get the Luna So I ceremony completed, as when he marks her, that will be the end of it. But I am sure he is going to try every trick in the book to get her much already, I want to mark her right now, and I will as soon as she is OK with me doing it.”

I told them both and headed back into the bathroom to brush my teeth one more time as I plan on k!ssing Gabi several times before bed, and I want to have fresh breath and a clean mouth to do it with. I used the mouthwash twice too and was ready to go.

“I have never seen you this nervous over a girl before, Brother. I remember when you turned 17 and were out of control with going through them until you suddenly stopped when you were 18. You never put any effort into it at all. I am glad you already have such a strong bond with your mate”, Gavin told me in all seriousness.

He is right, I never cared about any of those girls. They wanted me because I was next in line to be Alpha, and they wanted to be my Luna. I had a mental note that when I got back to my pack there was only one girl who I would need to speak to, and since she was a warrior, she would have already been informed that I had found my mate.

I had only slept with 4 girls, and three of the four were now happily mated from when I went haywire at 17. Mom finally sat me down and straightened me out, but the damage had been done. Dana Tyler was one of my top female warriors and she rejected her mate, who was also a warrior, because she was convinced that we would end up being mates, and she was wrong.

She feels like I owed her the Luna position for her rejecting her mate, to try to be my mate when I didn’t ask her to. I didn’t even know she had found and rejected her mate. That was all her doing, as I knew we were not mates.

Other than me coming out to watch their training occasionally, I have not seen her in over a year. I had been avoiding her because the last time I saw her she told me that she thought that we would be together one day. She told me if I hadn’t met my mate by the time that I turned 30 that she would be honored to be my chosen mate.

Dana is definitely going to have a problem with me finding my mate. I am so thankful that Gabi knows how to fight. But I don’t want it to come to that. Dana is low, she reminds me a lot of Taylor in how she acts. I don’t ever want her putting her hands on Gabi, and if I have to, I will either Alpha command her not to touch Gabi or banish her if she does.

I will also tell Gabi, as I want to be totally honest and upfront with her about my past. I am not thrilled to tell her, and thankfully, even though my numbers are low, especially compared to Derek, it will still be a hard conversation.

My phone pinged with a text alert, and Gabi was looking for me, so I said goodbye to my siblings and headed her way. I am a lucky guy.