The Failed Rejection
Chapter 31

Penelope pov

Penelope watched Brax walk off devastated. Penelope knew that feeling very well. She felt the same when she found her mate screwing another she-mate for the first time.

Penelope tried so hard to give Noah a chance, but that memory was seared into her brain. It will never go away, no matter how much she wished it would. Penelope followed after Braxton tentatively. He was walking aimlessly in the woods.

“Come on out Penelope, I can smell you a mile away,” Brax said all of a sudden.

“Sorry,” she said sheepishly as she approached him. “I was worried about you, but I wanted to give you your space.” Penelope approached Brax slowly, he was sitting on a fallen down log..

“Why would they lie?” He asked her. Penelope sat next to the large bear shifter, and let out a sigh.

“Power. You’ve got it Braxton and it will always be something people want.” The couple sat there for a few moments,

“That doesn’t mean it’s right,” he said after a few minutes. Penelope shook her head,

“No it’s not,” Penelope added. The two of them just sat there in the woods. It started to snow lightly, Penelope loved the snow. It always reminded her of Christmas.

“Do you want to head back?” He asked her. Penelope shook her head.

“No, I love the snow. It makes everything look so magical.” Brax turned to look down at Penelope,

“You are so gorgeous, inside and out.” Penelope couldn’t help but blush from his compliment. Braxton tucked her hair behind her ear and leaned in for a k**s. So slowly their lips met in a gentle k**s. Penelope swore she could feel faint sparks where their lips met. But it could be her imagination. Butterflies however were very present in her stomach. The k**s was sweet, but soon turned passionate.

Penelope was the first one to pull away.

“What’s wrong?” Brax asked her.

“While I do have feelings for you, it doesn’t feel right… not like this,” Penelope stated. A look of anger came over his face.

“You mean your mate?” Braxton asked, and Penelope nodded.

“But not just that. You don’t have your memories.”

“I don’t need my memories to know how I feel about you,” Brax said resolutely.

“It doesn’t feel right, not to end my bond with my mate first,” Pen said firmly, which caused Braxton to smile.

“You plan to reject your mate?”

“Well technically I’ve already rejected him. He just has to accept the rejection.” Braxton looks thoughtful,

“I didn’t know you rejected him already.”

“Yeah,” Penelope said nodding. “I rejected him the night I met him. He just refused the rejection, thinking we would work it out.”

They talked for a little while longer, Braxton skirting anything about his mate, and family. Penelope didn’t push, she didn’t want to talk about her family either. The snow finally started falling heavily enough that it would be too much for them to navigate back.

“We better head back,” Penelope suggested. Braxton nodded,

“I forgot that your just a tiny wolf, and can’t make it through the snow like us bears,” Braxton teased her. Penelope laughed.

“I’ll have you know Koko is a beautiful brown wolf.” Penelope thought about it, “you know I’d love to see your bear.” Braxton smiled down at her, and started taking off his clothes. Penelope covered her eyes, she was training to become a doctor and a wolf. She was used to nudity, but this was Braxton. Penelope could hear his husky laughter, which sent arousal straight to her core. Then the laughter turned into a growl, Penelope turned back to look. Her jaw literally dropped. Braxton was a f.ucking white bear! The rarest of all bear shifters. He was the equivalent of white wolves.

Braxton obviously saw her shock, and c****d his ginormous bear head at her. Which was super adorable.

“Braxton look at yourself,” she told him. Braxton looked at one of his paws, and clearly saw it was white. It shocked him enough to shift back.

Penelope turned her head away, she didn’t like watching people shift, it always looked so painful.

“I can’t believe I’m a white bear,” Penelope heard him say. Penelope waited a moment before she turned around and saw him putting on his shirt.

“We have to tell Killian,” Penelope told him. They quickly headed back to the pack house, which wasn’t far but they were slowed down as the snowed was piled high. It was almost a foot now. Without warning Braxton picked her up and threw her over his shoulder.

“Braxton! What are you doing?!” Penelope shrieked, which only caused the giant of a man to laugh at her.

“You were taking too long to wade through the snow! This saves some time,” Braxton said and Penelope couldn’t help but giggle. Penelope didn’t disagree with him. Penelope was undeniably short, especially for a shifter. Penelope was only like five foot and six inches tall. Several of the women were closer to five foot eight.

They finally made it back to the pack house, and Braxton set her down. Penelope’s breathe caught when she saw the way Braxton looked at her. Braxton leaned in to k**s her, but was startled by someone coming out of the pack house. That snapped Penelope out of the spell Brax had her under.

They walked up to find Killian, Penelope knew he would be in his room calling her sister. She walked up to his room, which was right next to her own. She knocked on the door,

“Hold on.” Killian called.

“It’s me,” Penelope called, and quickly Killian opened the door. Sure enough Killian was on the phone with her sister.

“Penne? Is that you?” Penelope heard her sister call out. Killian smiled indulgently at her and handed her the phone. Penelope took the phone and immediately saw her sister plus the kids. The kids started screaming her name.

Penelope saw out of the corner of her eye that Killian and Braxton were quietly talking. She couldn’t hear them because the kids were still screaming at the top of their lungs.

“Hey kids, calm down,” Liliana was trying to quite down her kids. When the kids were quite, the two alphas had already wrapped up there conversation.

“Aunt Pee when do we get to see you?” Callum asked.

“Soon, we should leave in a couple of days,” Penelope told her nephew.

“See I told you aunt Penelope would be here for thanksgiving,” Liliana told her son while giving him a hug.

“I got to go, I’m going to hand the phone back to your dad okay?” Penelope said and the kids clamored about her leaving. Killian gave her a quick hug as she handed him the phone.

“It was good to see you Penne,” Killian said using the nickname Lili gave her.

“You too,” she said as she pulled away. Penelope didn’t miss hearing the growl that left Braxton. Penelope gave him a look.

“He’s my brother-in-law.” Penelope decided to leave the room without further comment.

Penelope returned to her assigned room when her phone rang. It was from an unknown number, but she went ahead and picked it up.

“Hello?”

“Hello is this Penelope Braxton?” An unknown males voice responded.

“This is she, can I help you?” She asked politely.

“This is Nick Logan, Noah’s brother.” The man on the phone responses surprising her. How did he even get her phone number?

“Penelope?” He asked after her silence.

“Yeah, I’m here. I was just curious how you got my number.”

“Noah gave it to me,” the voice responded.

“All right, why are you calling me?” Penelope asked trying not to sound bitchy. Nick must of noticed her attitude and didn’t like it.

“Noah was in an accident, he is being transferred to to the states in a couple of days. I thought as his mate you should know,” he said snidely. Penelope didn’t take to the insult laying down,

“Well I’d be more open to the mate bond if I didn’t feel the betrayal pains,” she snapped back. That seemed to shut up his brother.

“Text me the information. If he gets back before my break is over I will visit him.” Penelope said and then hung up.

Penelope let out a heavy sigh. She probably shouldn’t have said all of that stuff. Well she didn’t feel the betrayal pains lately, but that didn’t mean she never felt them.

Penelope didn’t understand why his family didn’t like her, Noah never introduced her to his family. Case in point why Penelope didn’t think their bond was all that strong. Penelope knew Noah had a close relationship with his family, but he had never taken her home to meet them. Penelope never broached the topic, and now she was expected to sit by his bedside to play nurse? While wading through this family drama. That went against the grain, Penelope didn’t know what the right move was.

Authors note: so a facepalm moment, I just realized I named our werebear the same name as Penelope’s last name lol. Oh well!

Sorry for taking so long to update, I’ve been dealing with some personal stuff. Side note: should she be with her mate?