Rejected, but not Broken
Chapter 67

Derek’s POV

I swear Piper is an i****t. I also swear that Piper is deliberately trying to make me look bad now. The whole dining room was watching that show, and it really pisses me off that they would try to embarrass Gabi like that when she is here in an official capacity.

I am sure I am going to hear about this tomorrow when my uncle Heath gets here. He is going to want to know why? My only excuse is that my soon-to-be Luna is a moron who can’t think for herself.

She can’t, I just saw it. She was so jealous that I might have slept with Gabi, and I am sure they implied that too, to realize that the two vipers in her ears are the ones who have slept with me.

Gabi is going to have a hard time here, and I guess I am just going to have to tell her if she gets challenged by someone here. Especially, if they will not stand down, to just go ahead and kick their as*s. I am quite sure they will deserve it and I already know that tomorrow will be a hard day for her.

They will be out there training my people, and someone is going to talk some st. I already know that it will probably be either Heather, Jack, or both of them.

I don’t think Piper will cause any more problems as I went with her back to the dining room and spoke to her. I told her, that nothing has ever happened between me and Gabi. I didn’t qualify it with “and nothing ever will” because if I can get lucky, something WILL be happening between us.

I want to talk her into staying here, rejecting Tanner, and being the love of my life and I will be using every single quiver in my arsenal available to me. I finished dinner with Piper and went to my office to finish my paperwork for the day.

A few weeks ago, dad started me doing it so I would know what all was going on, and so far, it has been pretty smooth. I only occasionally have questions and he will help me, but I have been handling the day-to-day for the last two weeks now.

I locked up my office and I headed to our room and check on her. She is undressing to go take her bubble bath and the tub is overflowing with bubbles.

She will get in and relax, and the bubbles will get all over the floor, but she is predictable, and she is just getting in now, so she won’t be out of the tub for an hour.

I looked at my watch and tell her I am going to go check on the patrols really quick and be back when she gets out. She tells me to be careful and I leave to head to the hospital. I get to mom’s room and the light is low and I know Gabi is probably sleeping as the room is dim.

I enter the room and wait for my eyes to adjust to the low light, and I see a sleeping form on the couch and, head over to them. I am right next to the couch when I hear, “I wouldn’t wake him up if I were you” coming from the chair next to mom’s bed.

I look over and I see Gabi looking at me with a smile on her face, I look back at the couch and see Tanner now turned and looking at me with anger in his eyes. “I was just going to talk to you, I didn’t realize that Tanner was going to be here,” I said to them. “What did you want to talk about?” Gabi asked me and my mind froze.

What the hell am I going to say now? “Gabi, I want you back”. “Would you consider sleeping with me on a regular basis?” “Would you come back to me?” “Would you live with me in a house with just the two of us and our beautiful children?” “Would you consider coming back to me, because I love you and cannot live without you?”

“Piper would still be the Luna, but you would be the love of my life”. “Why did you allow this piece of st to mark and mate you?” That last one would have really gotten to get my as*s kicked.

“Um, I can’t remember right now Gabi, I will come back later, or I will just mention it to you on the training field when I remember what it was,” I told her.

I walked up to the bed and leaned over and told mom, “I love you, don’t leave us, I will be needing help running the pack, and I can’t trust dad”. I give her a k!ss on her head and then squeeze her hand. I feel like she squeezed my hand back and I look at her hand and I spoke to her again, I asked her to squeeze my hand again, but she didn’t do it again and I was disappointed.

I see Gabi watching me carefully, and I told her that I felt like mom squeezed my hand and she got up from the chair to come over to the other side of the bed and take mom’s other hand.

She holds it for a little while, and then shakes her head at me, as she didn’t feel it, but I know what I felt. Even with all my flaws, and believe me, I see them.

My mom has always been a constant in my life, she loves me despite myself sometimes, and I love her and don’t want to lose her. I know I felt it, and I have hope that she will be OK. The door opens and my father walks in and seems surprised that Gabi and I are both in here.

“I was just coming to check on my wife, how is she doing Derek?” dad asks me, and he seems kind of nervous. I hear the heart rate on mom’s machine go up with hearing his voice and both Gabi and I are now looking at him.

He keeps both his arms down and turns to leave when Gabi asks, “What is your hurry Alpha Monty? You can stay and visit, we won’t bother you”.

“I was just going to talk to her alone Gabi, I will come back in later on tonight and talk to her” dad said, and I frowned at him, he really was acting weird.

“You can stay Alpha Monty, I will be here with her all night, so whether it is now, or later on, I will be in here with her regardless,” Gabi tells him, and he stiffens up and turns to her.

“Since when are you in charge of this pack little girl?” my dad asks and heads to Gabi’s side of the bed. Dad is focused on her and didn’t see Tanner laying on the couch.

“I am not in charge of the pack, and I never said I was.I am just running Security for Luna Liz until I get relieved” Gabi tells him and doesn’t step back when he stops about a foot in front of her. Dad doesn’t train anymore, but he is still in impressive shape and at 6’2″ he is five inches taller than her, but she keeps looking him in the eye and doesn’t back away.

“Why? What is the issue?” my dad asked her.

“The issue is Luna Liz needs to be protected until she wakes up, and I will be doing that for her. Do you have a problem with me watching over your wife, Alpha Monty?” Gabi spits Alpha out like it was a bad word and she didn’t want to give him any respect and he heard it in her voice.

Dad took another step forward and they were now toe-to-toe with each other, and I was starting to get concerned. Dad is not a fan of Gabi and hasn’t been since she turned 10.1 know she is a trainer now, but he used to allow her to be tormented and really hurt bad, and I can’t allow him to hurt her again.

“And you got assigned this duty?” my dad asks.

“She protected me, and now it is my turn to protect her,” Gabi told him and I almost flinched as remembered what my mom protected her from, Jack and me. I hate being lumped in with that it, but I was an i***t too, and I hate that Gabi had to be taken away from here for her to be able to heal.

“And you are going to protect her all night?” my dad asked her.

“All night,” Gabi told him and nodded when she said it, and she isn’t blinking. She is not scared of him, and I don’t know how she is standing up to him. He scares me sometimes, but he used to hit me when I was a child growing up, so I would be tough like he wanted me to be. I know he will hurt people at will, and I cannot allow him to hurt Gabi.

I go to speak, and Gabi holds her arm out to me to tell me to wait. I just wanted to break the tension in the room and just ask dad to leave with me, but Gabi is staring him down, it is like she knows something, and she is fearless right now.

She looks beautiful as she stands there with no fear on her face at all and looking like she is about to take my dad out, permanently. I do not know how she will do it, because he has five inches and over a 100 pounds on her. But if I had to bet, I would put my money on her.

My dad steps back and slides his hands into his pockets and said, “I look forward to seeing the training being conducted in the next few weeks. I would love to see you in action Gabi” and then turns and walks out of the room.

The words were innocent, but the way he said them like he would like to see her in another kind of action hung in the room, and my stomach turned hearing it. I look over at Tanner and he was standing now, I don’t know when he got up as I was watching my dad that closely, and he came to Gabi and hugged her and then sniffed her neck.

I imagine my dad was closer to getting attacked than he realized because Tanner had semi-phased and his hands were in some very sharp claws, and he was ready to tear my dad apart from the look of it. I know he heard the same thing I did, and I felt like Gabi needed to be apologized to as I felt unclean after that interaction.

“I am very sorry for what my father said to you. He was wrong to say that, and he made it sound dirty and I will speak to him about it” I said and turned to exit the room, closing the door behind me, and heading to catch up with my dad.