Pursuing My Rejected Luna by Cara Anderson novel Chapter 15

Chapter 15

Skye

“What kind of rumors?” I ask Jaxon, even though I can guess.

“That I abandoned my Luna for my ex-lover.” The words come out clipped, angry. “That I prioritized Cassandra and her son over my own mate. The elders are asking questions, Skye. They’re blaming Cassandra, and the fact that the doctors couldn’t find anything wrong with Liam’s head hasn’t helped matters. This looks bad.”

“I see.” I pause, letting the silence stretch. “And does it look bad because it’s not true, or because it is?”

His nostrils flare. “That’s not fair.”

“Isn’t it?” I tilt my head, studying him. “You did leave me there. You did choose to take Cassandra and Liam to safety while I waited in a dead car for help that never came.”

“The patrolling station was supposed to send someone-”

“But they didn’t.” My voice is calm. Flat.

Something flickers in his expression-guilt, maybe, or anger at being confronted. “You volunteered to stay.”

“Did I? Or did you just expect me to?”

“Don’t twist this around.” His Alpha aura flares, just slightly. “You made a choice. A selfless choice that any Luna would make for her pack. But now you’re dragging it out, making yourself the victim to punish me.”

I stare at him. “Dragging it out?”

“You were in the hospital for a week, Skye. A week. For what the doctors are calling ‘severe exposure and exhaustion.’ You’re a warrior. One of the fiercest fighters in this pack. You shouldn’t have been that fragile.”

The accusation hits like a slap.

He thinks I stayed in the hospital on purpose. To make him look bad. To arouse guilt in him and sympathy for myself. Because clearly, I’m just that manipulative.

How naive have I been?

The thought crystallizes in my mind with devastating clarity. He’s always wanted Cassandra, even when he knew she wasn’t his fated mate. He said she left the pack on her own, but he’s never defended me when rumors about how I chased her away spread through pack gossip. And the moment she came back, he named her son his heir without a second thought.

I should have known. Long before the storm, before Liam, before any of this. I did know, somewhere deep down. But it took getting abandoned in a blizzard to finally admit it to myself.

What’s evaporated over the past week isn’t just my hope for this marriage. It’s the naive childhood crush I mistook for love. That desperate need for Jaxon Vale to choose me, to see me, to want me the way I wanted him.

It’s gone. Burned away by fever and cold and the brutal truth of being left behind.

And without it, he can’t hurt me anymore.

“I’m fine, Alpha,” I say, my voice perfectly even. “As you can see, I’ve recovered. I’ll resume my duties starting

tomorrow.”

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+15 Bonus

The formal address makes his jaw clench. “Skye-”

“Is there anything else you need from me?”

“Yes.” His voice rises slightly, frustration bleeding through. “I need you to stop acting like you’re the only one affected by this. I know you’re upset-”

“Why would I be upset?”

The question stops him cold.

“What?”

“You said I’m upset.” I adjust my bag, meeting his eyes without flinching. “I’m asking why you think that.”

“Because-” He gestures sharply. “Because of what happened. Because you were left in the storm. Because you nearly died, and now the whole pack is talking about it like I’m some kind of monster who abandoned his mate.”

“You did abandon me.”

“I didn’t have a choice!” The words burst out of him, raw and defensive. “Liam was sick. Cassandra was panicking. The betas wouldn’t separate, and someone had to stay. What was I supposed to do?”

“Cole had a choice,” I say quietly.

Jaxon freezes. “What?”

“Cole. And Everett. They had a choice about whether to leave each other. They chose to stay together. Even when you, their Alpha, tried to order them apart.” I pause, watching the realization dawn in his eyes. “They chose each other. Without hesitation. Without question. Because that’s what mates do.”

“That’s not-”

“I’m not upset, Jaxon.” And it’s true. I feel almost nothing as I say it. “I understand exactly what happened that day. You had to choose between your son’s comfort and your mate’s safety, and you chose him. Anyone would have made the same choice.”

“Then why are you acting like this?” His hands curl into fists. “Why are you being so… so calm about it?”

“Would you prefer I scream at you? Throw things? Make a scene?” I shake my head. “I’m done with scenes. You made your choice, and I’ve accepted it. So I’ll ask you again: why are you upset?”

The question hangs between us, and I watch him struggle with it. Watch the confusion and frustration war across his face. He doesn’t understand that seeing me standing here, bandaged and exhausted but not broken, not begging, not needing him-it’s forcing him to confront what he did. What he chose.

And he hates it.

“This conversation is over,” he says finally, his voice cold. “Get some rest. You look like hell.”

He turns and walks away, his footsteps heavy on the stairs.

I stand in the foyer for a long moment, listening to him go. Listening to the sound of a door slamming somewhere above me.

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