The Triplets' Rejected Disabled Mate Chapter 116

Colt's POV

Kate was so light, she felt like she was weighing as much as a feather in my arms.

I could mold her body to my will and move with her without anyone noticing that I was making her body move with mine.

"You are an exceptional dancer," I whispered in her ear when the music stopped. "I would like to have the first dance at our wedding ceremony one day."

Kate gasped and turned crimson. I could feel the fluttering of her heart pounding against her chest and the heat in her face touching mine.

I could understand why she was reacting like that; werewolves usually don't marry their mates. The marking was enough as a symbol of unity.

But I wanted to be different. I wanted to make her feel extra special. I wanted her to feel the love she deserved, that she belonged, and to understand that even when she believed she was broken, we all wanted her.

I swallowed hard against the lump forming in my throat.

If only she knew that she had mended us. We were the ones who were broken. We were the ones who needed her to mend and repair us.

My hand softly rubbed the side of Kate's face, and a smile followed on my lips.

Her green eyes were still huge out of surprise and disbelief.

"I mean every word," I said, pecking her rosy lips.

Kate kept quiet, unable to utter a word.

"Brother," Grey said, coming closer. I knew he wanted his turn, and I would let him have it.

I nodded and waved him closer.

"Kate, my love," Grey said, holding out his hand. "May I have this dance?"

Kate looked at me, unsure how to respond.

"Go ahead," I said. "Grey is just as good as I am. You will have fun."

Kate nodded.

"Thank you for..." she said.

"It was only a pleasure to have the first dance," I said, cutting her off and handing her over to Grey.

Grey lifted Kate into his arms, and she squealed, leaving another broad smile on my lips.

Grey was more the slow romantic dancing type. He had pulled Kate into his arms and was slowly moving with the music.

"She looks beautiful tonight," Sam purred next to me. "You made a great choice choosing that dress."

I nodded, keeping my gaze on Kate and Grey. It wasn't a difficult decision to make. I had a picture of her in that dress in my head before I saw it and ordered it.

"She does look particularly beautiful tonight," said the familiar voice next to me. "Do I know her?"

All my hair raised on my body, and I automatically balled my hands into fists.

Ray released a fierce growl in my mind and started scratching at the surface.

"Ethan," Sam greeted, coming closer and shaking his hand.

I slowly blink, taking a deep, even breath. We had hoped that Ethan would change his mind and not come and was happy to hear that his trip was delayed.

I guess he managed to be on time for the rest of the festival.

"It's Alpha Ethan, now," he corrected Sam.

"Still as cocky as always," Ray growled.

"So I assumed you found your mate then?" I asked, ignoring the formalities.

Ethan was no Alpha of mine, and I wouldn't show him any courtesy, not after what he did to Kate.

"No," Ethan said. "I haven't taken my mate..." His voice trailed off, and I met his gaze.

"He is here to take Kate from us!" Ray growled.

"I will not let that happen!" I said, making Ray quiet.

Ethan's cold blue eyes were lighter than usual, and his ash-blond hair was now tucked up in a bun. But that wasn't what caught my attention; he looked much older than his twenty-five-year-old self.

"Is that what rejection does to you?" Grey mind linked me. He had steered Kate deeper into the crowd, keeping her away from Ethan.

Did Grey notice what I did?

Was he thinking the same thing?

Would we have ended up looking like that if we rejected Kate?

I shivered at the thought.

"Then how did you obtain the Alpha position?" Sam asked, curious to know.

The elders always wanted the soon-to-be Alpha to be mated before he took the Alpha position.

It is believed that the true mate strengthens the Alpha, the pack, and the future offspring.

"I negotiated with my elders," he simply answered. "I need to find my mate in the first year of being Alpha; otherwise, my brother will take the Alpha position, and I will settle to be his Beta."

Was he serious right now? Why would he make such a deal?

I narrowed my eyes at him, and my thoughts wandered off.

Ethan wouldn't just make a deal with the pack elders if he knew where to find Kate, and my thoughts shifted to what she told us at Latinos.

I wanted her to tell us every detail about her encounter with Ethan. We needed to know so that we could protect her from him.

"I introduced myself," Kate said. "And I told him from which pack I originally came."

"What was his response?" Sam asked, listening intensively.

"He wondered why I was so far from home," Kate said, dropping her head. "When he saw the wheelchair, he went ballistic and threatened to make my life miserable if I didn't accept his rejection."

I shift uncomfortably in my chair.

I knew there was more behind these words. Kate was leaving out what he said to her, and my wild guess would be that he thought she wasn't worthy of being his Luna. Kate swallowed hard, and her fingers brushed over her eyes, wiping away the tears.

I guess we were opening old wounds, and whatever Ethan said to her was too horrible for her to repeat.

I sighed.

I couldn't imagine Kate being the Red Moon Pack's Luna. She was too pure. She had so much love and patience to give. She would have been too good for them, and they would have destroyed her beautiful inner beauty.

Maybe, in the long run, it was better that Ethan had rejected her. His father, our uncle, and my mother's brother were famous for mistreating his pack members.

Ethan was believed to be just as cold and cruel as his father.

My gaze snapped toward my mother, standing on the opposite side of the room, her arm interlocked with my father's, observing us.

Was it her idea to invite Ethan here?

Would she have gone that far?

I knew my mother picked up bad habits from her former pack.

Would she use this despicable method to get her way and drive Kate away?

"And how is your search going?" Sam asked, breaking my chain of thought, and his gaze moved to me as he narrowed his eyes. "Are you any closer to finding her? Did you get a whiff of her scent?"

"What are you thinking?" Sam linked, watching Ethan's gaze follow Grey and Kate deeper into the crowd.

"I was just wondering if our mother was the one who persuaded our father," I replied. "We all know what Father's thoughts are about them."

"Interesting," Sam said.

"I will find out from Beta John if he knows something," Grey said.

Ethan turned his attention to Sam when he couldn't see Kate anymore, and a smile followed on his thin lips.

"It seems like I just found her," he answered.

****