Rejected by Wolves (Hate to Love Shifters Book 1) Read online

  © Copyright 2021 by J.L. Wilder- All rights reserved.

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  Rejected by Wolves

  Hate to Love Shifters

  By: J.L. Wilder

  Table of Contents

  Rejected by Wolves

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Chapter Thirty

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  Chapter Thirty-Seven

  Chapter Thirty-Eight

  Chapter Thirty-Nine

  Chapter Forty

  Chapter Forty-One

  Chapter Forty-Two

  Chapter Forty-Three

  Chapter Forty-Four

  Chapter Forty-Five

  Chapter Forty-Six

  Chapter Forty-Seven

  Chapter Forty-Eight

  Chapter Forty-Nine

  Chapter Fifty

  Chapter Fifty-One

  Chapter Fifty-Two

  Chapter Fifty-Three

  Chapter Fifty-Four

  Chapter Fifty-Five

  Chapter Fifty-Six

  Chapter Fifty-Seven

  Chapter Fifty-Eight

  Chapter Fifty-Nine

  Epilogue

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  Rejected by Wolves

  Chapter One

  XANDER

  “You’d better not embarrass me out there.”

  Xander glanced over at his eldest brother, Mitch. Mitch wasn’t looking back at him. He was looking out over the field of combat instead, and Xander was sure he was already envisioning the moves he would use in his first fight.

  “I don’t know why you’re making me compete at all,” Xander said. “If you’re so worried about me embarrassing you, why didn’t you just let me stay at home?” God knew he had never wanted to take part in the Alpha Games. He’d known all his life that Mitch would take over as alpha when he and his brothers were old enough and his father stepped aside. There was no need for Xander to compete. He had no real chance at the role, and he didn’t want it anyway.

  “You have a responsibility as one of the males of this pack, and as a member of our family,” Mitch said. “You have to set an example.”

  “That’s not it,” Xander said. “I think you just want me in the Games so you can officially say you’ve beaten me, and you won’t have to worry about me challenging you for power in the future.”

  Mitch burst out laughing. “You?” he said. “The runt of the family? Challenging me for power? That’s about as likely as a heat wave in December, Xander. Trust me; nobody’s worried about you challenging me for power. You’re not any threat to me.”

  Xander fumed silently, but he said nothing. As much as it hurt to have his brother rub his nose in it, he knew that Mitch was right. Xander had been born a runt—small and underdeveloped—and his two older brothers had been beating on him and putting him down all his life because of it. Whereas Mitch had been born with strength and bulk and everything that a rising alpha needed to be a good leader.

  Since childhood, Xander had worked hard to leave his status as the family runt behind. He’d eaten big meals to help him bulk himself up, and he had worked out constantly. And it had made a difference. Instead of tiny and runty, he now had the wiry musculature of a distance runner. He’d also grown to over six feet.

  But he couldn’t match Mitch for sheer beefiness. He knew he never would.

  He’d stopped letting it bother him a long time ago. But the fact that his brother was entering him in these games—he was making a show of Xander. He was flaunting the fact that he could beat him in a fight. And there just wasn’t any need for it. Everyone knew that already.

  “You’d better get out there,” Mitch said. “Derek’s waiting for you.”

  In the first round of the Games, Xander would have to compete against his middle brother, Derek, who was just as beefy as Mitch was. Derek had never antagonized Xander to quite the same degree, but still, this wasn’t going to be fun.

  Better to just get it over with, Xander thought miserably.

  He walked out into the open field to jeers from the crowd. He tried not to look up at his packmates, sitting around him, waiting to see him fail.

  Instead, he focused on the thing that had always made him feel most centered—the wolf that dwelt within him.

  Xander might have been weak, but the wolf was strong. The wolf didn’t care about cruel older brothers or what other people thought of him. The wolf knew his own strength.

  Xander closed his eyes and allowed the animal to rise to the surface, allowed himself to become his inner wolf.

  When he opened his eyes again, he was facing his brother—but Derek was also in his wolf form. The two wolves circled each other, each looking for an opening to attack.

  This is such a waste of time, Xander thought. I don’t know why I’m letting them embarrass me in front of the whole pack. I should just let him pin me so I can go back to my life.

  Then a voice called out from the crowd— “Go home, runt!”

  And suddenly, without warning, Xander felt his blood begin to boil.

  All these years of being picked on. All these years of being told he wasn’t worthy. And now he was supposed to roll over and make a show of himself as part of his brother’s coronation?

  No.

  He lunged at Derek, filled with rage and righteous determination, and Derek was so caught off guard that he stumbled backward, allowing Xander to gain the upper hand.

  The brothers rolled over and over one another, teeth snapping, legs flailing. Derek caught Xander in the shoulder with a claw, and Xander felt a hot rush of blood spill over his fur, but he didn’t allow it to distract him.

  Instead, he leaned into his brother, driving him onto his back, putting all his weight on Derek’s shoulders.

  Derek tried to throw him off, to roll free, but he couldn’t do it. He was stronger than Xander, but Xander was on top, and he had the element of surprise on his side. Derek hadn’t been expecting this to be a fight.

  You shouldn’t have underestimated me, Derek.

  He heard the sound of a whistle—the sound that indicated the end of the match—but he hesitated a moment before backing off. He wanted everyone to remember this moment. He wanted the image of him standing over his brother to be burned int
o their minds.

  The whistle blew again, fiercely this time.

  Derek had gone limp beneath Xander. He was clearly conceding the fight.

  Xander took a step back, allowing his brother to get to his feet, but kept his wolf form.

  A voice rang out. “The winner of the first bout is Xander Massey!”

  There was no applause. There was only stunned silence.

  But then Xander heard a whoop of jubilation. And though he couldn’t see who had made the noise, he nevertheless knew exactly where it had come from.

  Chapter Two

  Five Hours Earlier

  XANDER

  “I think you should blow it off,” Lacey murmured.

  Xander turned his head and kissed her thigh, wondering whether she could feel the fact that he was smiling. “You just want me to stay here and keep doing this all day.”

  “Mmm...yeah, that sounds good to me.”

  He buried his face between her legs again, tasting her, licking, enjoying the sound of her moans and the way she rocked her hips up to meet him. For a few moments, he was able to forget about what the day had in store.

  He crawled up her body to lie between her legs, and she brought her knees up and hooked her ankles behind the small of his back. He thrust against her, not entering her yet, just enjoying the friction.

  “My brothers would lose their minds if they knew I went down on a woman,” he mused.

  “Yeah, but it drives them crazy that you bother with me at all.”

  “True.”

  “Besides, all that says to me is that they don’t know how to please a woman.”

  He kissed her. “Don’t let them hear you saying that.”

  “If the Alpha Games were to determine who could make a woman come the hardest, you would win every time.”

  “You sure about that?”

  “I don’t mind letting you convince me.”

  He kissed her again and slid into her, and she gasped with pleasure, as she always did when they made love. It was as if he was always a surprise to her. She never seemed to get used to him.

  And he felt the same way. Even though they had been together for three years now, and friends for even longer than that, he knew he would never stop being amazed that this was his life.

  Her body reacted to his as if they had been made for each other. Her hips rose to meet his on every thrust, rocking and grinding in a way that was so intoxicating that if he hadn’t been half-mad with need, he would have wanted to sit back and study what she was doing. As it was, it was all he could do to maintain his rhythm.

  “Xander,” she moaned, wrapping her arms around his neck, her thighs squeezing him tightly. “Xander, don’t stop.”

  He shook his head. He had no words—there were never words when they were together like this. But he couldn’t have stopped if he’d been paid to. If his brothers had walked in right now, he probably would have ignored them and kept on fucking Lacey right in front of them. The pleasure of her body was the only thing in the world that had ever been able to make him forget the things they put him through.

  When he was with Lacey, none of it mattered.

  She was gasping now, trying to get a grip on his skin, her hands slick with sweat. “I’m close,” she breathed.

  He felt a surge of animalistic pride. Damn right.

  He took her hips in his hands and pulled her to him. He knew just the angle she liked. He knew exactly what to give her, how hard and how fast, to make the pleasure build and build until she screamed.

  She’s right. If the Alpha Games were about making my girlfriend come, I’d win in spades.

  Her body broke into tremors and she let out a cry of ecstasy, clinging to him, shaking. He felt her grow tight around him and groaned with exquisite satisfaction as his own orgasm overtook him.

  For several long, satisfying minutes, he lay still, not pulling free of her, just resting with his head on her soft breasts, his skin still up against hers, their sweat intermingling.

  “Stay,” Lacey murmured. “Stay, Xander. Don’t go to the Games.”

  He sighed, wishing she had allowed him to stay in his moment of bliss just a little bit longer. He didn’t want to think about the Games. He wanted to think about her, and about how tired and satisfied he felt.

  “You know I can’t do that,” he told her quietly.

  “What are they going to do about it?”

  “Honestly? Probably come find me and drag me out there,” he said. “And it’ll look that much worse if I don’t go willingly. It’ll look like I was afraid.”

  “You don’t have anything to prove, you know,” she said. “Everyone already knows Mitch is going to be our next alpha. We’ve always known that. The Alpha Games are just an excuse for him to show off.”

  “I know that.” Xander pulled out of her arms and sat up, feeling disgruntled. He had been so happy a moment ago, but now he was kind of annoyed. Why did everyone always have to bring up the Alpha Games? It was bad enough that he was going to have to participate. He didn’t want to waste time thinking about it on top of that.

  Lacey sat up and put a hand on his arm. “We can go somewhere,” she suggested. “We can shift and go spend the day in the woods, just the two of us. Then they won’t know where to find you.”

  He shook her off. “Are you sure you’ll even be able to shift?”

  She sat back and stared at him, clearly shocked and hurt.

  He felt a pang of guilt. That had been mean of him.

  Lacey had trouble shifting. She always had. And the prevailing theory among the pack was that her troubles were caused by her controversial bloodline. As a half-breed—the daughter of a wolf mother and a bear father—she had low status in the pack.

  Xander had never cared about her status. As the pack runt, he had no room to judge anybody.

  But he shouldn’t have called attention to it now. He knew he was one of the few people in the pack who had never made her feel unworthy.

  He should apologize.

  Instead, he grabbed his pants and tugged them on. “I’ll see you after the Games,” he said gruffly.

  He’d make it up to her then.

  Chapter Three

  LACEY

  The crowd around her was so quiet that Lacey could hear the wind moving through the grass. She was really regretting the loud cheer she had let out when Xander had won his match. She knew she was being stared at.

  In this pack, someone was always finding a reason to stare at her.

  But she had been feeling absolutely sick about the way she and Xander had left things that morning. They should have taken the time to make up before he’d gone out to the Alpha Games.

  It’s my fault. I knew he was stressed about the Games. I shouldn’t have tried to talk about them.

  She had worried that their fight might make him tense up, distract him when he should be focusing on what he was doing.

  But now, he had won his first bout. Against all odds, he’d defeated Derek.

  Finally, the silence was broken by Cynthia. “Well,” she said, “he must have cheated, right? That’s the only possible explanation.”

  “You think?” Gina sounded doubtful, but Lacey knew she wouldn’t go so far as to contradict Cynthia. Nobody contradicted Cynthia.

  “Think about it,” Cynthia said, warming to her own idea now. “He’s the runt of the pack. Remember when we were kids? He was smaller than we were. Even when we were teenagers, he was a runty little thing. Couldn’t have been more than ninety pounds when we were sixteen.”

  “He’s more than ninety pounds now,” Evelyn said.

  “Yeah, now he’s built more like a normal person,” Cynthia conceded. “But look at Derek! He’s got to be two hundred fifty pounds of solid muscle.” She said this as if describing a work of art by a great master.

  Lacey had to fight not to roll her eyes. Cynthia couldn’t have been any more obvious about her infatuation with Derek if she’d had his name tattooed across her forehead.

 
Not that she’d ever do that. Members of the pack all had the same tattoo—a wolf paw on their right bicep. No one ever got any other tattoos. It was tradition.

  But it wasn’t a rule. Lacey hadn’t broken any rules when she had gotten additional tattoos. There had been no disciplinary action; it had just made the pack think less of her than they already did, if such a thing were even possible.

  Cynthia was still holding court. “Xander definitely cheated,” she said. “This round was supposed to be nothing more than a formality, like when Peter fought Mitch in the opening bout. The final was supposed to be Mitch against Derek, and everyone knows it.”

  Lacey couldn’t take it. She was tired of hearing them talk about Xander as if he was nothing more than an opening act, a sacrifice for Derek to show off with. “That doesn’t make sense, Cynthia,” she snapped. “How could he have cheated at this? We all watched the fight. What do you think he did?”

  Cynthia turned to glower at her. “Nobody was talking to you, half-breed. I don’t know why you’re even sitting with us.”

  “Where am I supposed to sit?” Lacey asked. She had grabbed a patch of grass near—but not exactly with—the women of the pack, as she so often did. They had always made it clear that she wasn’t one of them. But there was nowhere else that she belonged more than she did here.

  “I don’t care,” Cynthia said. “Not my problem.”

  “There’s no way to cheat in a straightforward fight,” Lacey said. “Not without everyone seeing what you’re doing. He didn’t use any illegal moves. He didn’t even hurt Derek. Derek hurt him.”

  “Derek didn’t do anything wrong!” Cynthia snapped. “You’re just defending the runt because he’s fucking you.”

  The other women burst out laughing.

  “Personally, I wouldn’t let him anywhere near me,” Cynthia said. “But I guess he’s the best you can do, being a half-breed.” She laughed. “The two of you deserve each other.”

  “At least I have someone,” Lacey said tightly. “At least I’m not hung up on a guy who wants nothing to do with me. A guy who just got defeated in combat by the pack’s runt.”