Rejected by Fate: A Mated in Silence Novel Read online

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  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  Rejected by Fate

  A Mated in Silence Novel

  Copyright 2021 by Mazzy J. March

  ISBN: 978-1-68361-476-0

  All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work, in whole or in part, in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means now known or hereafter invented, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher.

  Published by Decadent Publishing LLC

  Table of Contents

  Academy Books from Decadent Publishing You Might Enjoy

  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

  Rejected by Blood

  My lips are sealed about my past. Sealed so tightly that I haven’t spoken in since...well, I can’t even remember.

  Life is simple for me. I forage for food. I do my duties by the pack even though they keep me at a distance like I’m contagious.

  Then I find him, a rogue wolf in the forest. I can’t leave him there. He’s scared and alone. And it seems like he has never shifted before.

  I should run, but the magnetic pull to him is undeniable.

  The pack will have my head for this. Maybe it will be worth it.

  Rejected by Fate is the first book in a paranormal reverse harem shifter series featuring a strong, feisty female wolf shifter who has forgotten her past and cannot speak and the three male wolf shifters who all want to be her fated mate. It is a why choose werewolf romance with a slow burn buildup sure to make your toes curl. Relationships develop over the course of this supernatural series and, of course, Mazzy guarantees an HEA.

  Academy Books from Decadent Publishing You Might Enjoy

  The Lycan Academy by Mazzy J. March

  First Howling

  Second Growl

  Third Snarl

  Jaded Love

  The Academy of Fire and Ash by Mazzy J. March

  Betrayed by Dragons

  Coveted by Dragons

  Mated to Dragons

  Alien Academy by Jenna M. Jett

  First Contact

  Second Sighting

  Third Encounter

  Shifters of Consequence

  Survivor

  Legacy

  Triumph

  Dominion

  Torn

  Tether

  Tremble

  Tinsel

  Mated in Silence

  Rejected by Fate

  Rejected by Blood

  Dearest Readers,

  As we move into the first months of 2021, we do so with great hope for our world and the wish that 2020 taught us grace because it sure was tough for us as a country, a planet, and as people. Our characters also have their share of difficult and tempering experiences and so much to learn. But love, as in real life, is the centerpiece of what helps them to survive. We wish you love, comfort, good health, friendship, success in all your endeavors, and the gift of kindness from those who pass your way.

  Book 1 of the Mated in Silence series, Rejected by Fate awaits. Please enjoy!

  With love,

  Mazzy J. March

  Rejected by Fate

  By

  Mazzie J. March

  Chapter One

  Jillian

  Silence was golden, especially in the caves that surrounded our pack. The familiar drip-drops of water as it melted and splashed into the puddles below was like a symphony to me. The sun barely grazed the edges of the cave, making the crystals that peeked out from the rock glimmer and gleam as though they were communicating with me, welcoming me to their sacred place.

  I’d come to the woods to gather some mushrooms the autumn coolness had provided, along with some herbs for Magda, but no matter how determined I was to stay on task, these caverns always drew me in like a moth to a spider’s web. One step inside, and I was caught.

  Putting my basket on the nearest rock, I whirled around, taking in the place while the sun hit my legs, warming me. I had only one tattered coat and I’d foolishly decided the evening wasn’t quite cold enough for the covering.

  I should’ve known better.

  Barely pulling myself away from the magnetism of the cavern, I picked up my basket and turned, determined to make it back to my tiny cabin before nightfall. Stew was bubbling in a pot over my fire, and my bed was already calling my name.

  Basket in hand, I whirled and waved to the cave before getting back on the path that would take me home. I’d worn a trail into the dirt from all my time coming to this place, so getting back was nothing.

  My footsteps were the only sound until a scratching and whining from my left made me freeze in place.

  Someone was out here with me. I didn’t scare easily, and most probably it was one of the pack cubs who had lost his way, but I wasn’t allowed around them unless I was working.

  They would have to find their own way home.

  A bush next to me moved, and I jumped back, holding my hand to my chest. Two breaths later, a wolf emerged from the thorny bush. He was yelping for help and, as I crouched to put my basket down and get a better look at him, I realized it wasn’t any wolf I recognized.

  This one was rogue.

  Extending my hand, I waved my fingers, trying to coax him toward me, but the male wolf was shaking in fear. And my own wolf was preening inside me, pacing with anticipation. Somehow, she knew this wolf even though I had no recognition.

  I patted the ground next to me as I sat down, hoping the more submissive posture would let him know that I wasn’t a threat. On bloody paws, he crept closer but only a few steps.

  To my right, the sun dipped low in the sky. Night was falling. This wolf was in no shape to stay outside alone, and the autumn winds would nip at him through the darkness, letting him get no sleep. I had to do something, even though taking someone into my domain screamed against ever fiber I was made of.

  Still, the wolf called to me in ways other than his whining.

  He needed me. And my wolf knew that somehow he was important.

  Maybe he would be more willing if I shifted. Showed him I was the same as him.

  I shrugged off my sweater and ripped jeans and shifted right there as he watched. He backed up a few steps before coming near again as my wolf took over my body. The male wolf sniffed me and gave a tiny yelp.

  Come on. Follow me. We don’t have all day. In fact, we have little day left at all.

  I barked once, a command for him to pay attention,
and he heeded. I took my basket handle in my teeth, along with my clothes, and began a slow walk toward my cabin. I hoped he would follow, but if he didn’t, well, I wasn’t going to stay in the cold all night wishing he would.

  Using my sharper wolf vision, I looked back several times to see him now following me, slowly, but still, making the trek. When we arrived at my cabin, I transformed back to my human self, taking my finds in with me. I pushed the door open wide, beckoning him to come in. This was either a young wolf or...maybe a wolf who hadn’t shifted before. The fear poured off him like warm molasses. He scented of pine and molasses, actually. Like tang and sweetness all mixed together.

  Huh. Hadn’t come across that scent before.

  Hitting the door with my hand, I signaled for him to hurry up, or at least, that’s what I hoped it conveyed.

  As I shut the door, closing us both inside my warm cabin with the crackling fire, the consequences of my actions blanketed over me. I would get in some real trouble for having a rogue inside my home.

  Still, I couldn’t just let him be cold and frightened outside. That kind of callous behavior just wasn’t in me.

  I knew how it felt to be cold and alone. It wasn’t a feeling I would wish on anyone else.

  The wolf was shivering in place and I sighed. This shifter was clearly having trouble making the transition back to human.

  With a sigh, I shifted back to wolf right in front of him and then back to human. I did this several times while he watched in awe.

  After the fourth or fifth time, he finally made it happen.

  “Thank you. You helped me. Thank you.”

  I beelined for my room and pulled out a pair of baggy sweatpants to cover him. I wasn’t shy about nakedness, none of us shifters were, but this was a male and I was alone at home. No male had ever come into my cabin, much less a naked one.

  “Oh, thanks. I shredded my clothes when I...I’m Dean, by the way.”

  He stuck out his hand. I swallowed against the rock in my throat, tamping down the desire to take his hand in mine, to touch him and be touched. It had been so long since I’d been touched.

  Instead, I lifted my hand and waved, like a complete loon.

  “Not much for words, huh?”

  I breathed out and shrugged one shoulder.

  It wasn’t just him. I didn’t speak to anyone. It wasn’t like I didn’t want to—I simply couldn’t.

  I’d never spoken, as far as I could remember.

  Trying desperately to change the subject, I pointed at my stew still over the fire. My cabin was only one bedroom and tiny at that. In a few steps, I’d gotten him a hand-carved bowl and spoon and was dishing him out warm venison stew that steamed and filled the space with its decadent scent. My cabin was made of logs from the forest around me, and I survived on what I could find from the land. Being a wolf who hunted certainly helped, but my belongings were few, and my life was simple. I kind of liked it that way.

  “Oh, thank you. This smells really good. Aren’t you going to eat?”

  I shrugged and nodded. Yeah, I was going to eat. Right after I got some clothes on. In my haste, I’d remembered him but forgotten I was stark naked.

  Not talking and naked. What a sight I must be to him.

  Almost to my bedroom, I stopped in my tracks when I heard him take a first bite and groan at the taste. He liked it. It warmed him and fed him.

  Tomorrow, I would make him leave before I got into trouble with the alpha. Tomorrow, he would be gone. And, for some reason, that made my heart ache.

  Chapter Two

  Jillian

  My guest didn’t seem to have any idea how he got here or what was happening to him, and I didn’t have any answers for him. At least none he might believe. You are a wolf shifter, like me… Even if I had the ability to speak to him about it, I had no more information than that, and as he sat at one of the two chairs at my little table—the one nobody had ever sat at because I had no guests—I worried that the rickety furnishing might not hold his weight. Not that he was fat. Or even overweight at all. While I’d tried not to stare at him, I’d have had to be blind not to notice how handsome the strange, lost shifter was when in human form.

  Wolf form, too, although he’d been hurting, but I could tell, the next time he shifted, he’d be magnificent. But as a man, with those long, straight limbs and broad shoulders, eyes as blue as the midsummer sky, and black hair with lighter tips. Natural, because his wolf had similar coloring.

  I checked the pot hanging over the fire and hoped there was enough stew for him to have another serving. It didn’t matter if I ate any, despite what I’d said or rather nodded. My visitor probably hadn’t had a good meal in some time. Of course, that was a guess, but his bloody paws told me he’d been in fur and on the move for miles and miles. Where had he come from?

  Was someone missing him?

  “It’s kind of you to take me in.” His voice, coming from behind me, was startling, but I didn’t turn around. “What’s your name?”

  I bit my lip, wondering how to respond and decided to do it by refilling his bowl. Silently.

  “Thank you, but where is your serving?” He arched a brow with his question. They were also black as a raven’s wing with the same silvery ends to the hairs. I’d never seen anything like it before but it was intriguing. “I don’t feel comfortable eating your whole dinner.”

  I waved toward the pot and picked up my other spoon then dipped it in and took a bite of what was left. In truth it was very little, but I didn’t want him to know that, so I tried to fake it.

  He seemed to buy it, which made me happy. I was rather proud of my stew, and the fact I’d brought the deer down myself with a single arrow, and the herbs and things were mostly foraged. After I’d faked enough spoonsful, I grabbed an armload of the least ragged comforters and a pillow I’d made and stuffed myself. I made up a pallet in the corner opposite my own bed, which was in fact little better. I did have a bedframe I’d made myself, and I would have offered it to him if I thought my stretched ropes under the straw mattress would support him.

  “So, I’m Dean, and last I remember, I was attending a local college. Maybe not local to here. I have to figure out where here is.” He ate some more stew, continuing to talk until finally he stopped, cheeks flushing. “But I am totally dominating the conversation. You must think me awfully rude.”

  I shook my head.

  “I know you don’t talk much, but what is your name? Can you tell me that, since you’re being so kind to me, I’d like to know.”

  Well, shoot. I didn’t want to have him know just how poorly educated I was. I did communicate by writing sometimes but only with those who I thought wouldn’t make fun of me. Which almost everyone did. But somehow, not having him know my name seemed wrong. Then I spotted a piece of paper where I’d been practicing writing my name. I thought if I could at least do that well, I’d be able to sign anything ever required of me.

  Even if I couldn’t imagine what that might be. But I picked up the page and showed it to him.

  “Jillian? Is that what it...it’s so dark in here.”

  My cabin, like most of the ones in the woods around here, didn’t have many windows, and it did have thick walls. With only the kerosene lantern and fire to see by, I hoped he’d think that was what made it hard to read my writing.

  To my dismay, Dean—what a nice name!—took the page from me and held it close to the lantern on the table. “You were writing your name over and over?” He flashed me a smile. “I like to doodle as well, Jillian. Especially in philosophy class when I’m bored out of my mind.”

  Philosophy. He had said he was in college. He would think I was so unintelligent or at least uneducated, and he’d be right.

  After eating the last bite of stew, he pushed the bowl away and sighed. “You’re a great cook. It can’t be easy cooking over a fire like that. But I have a question for you?”

  I nodded.

  “Jillian, would it be horribly rude if I turned in? I
see you made me up that very comfortable-looking bed near the fire, and I can barely keep my eyes open. But can I help with the dishes or anything before I sleep?”

  I shook my head and took his hand then led him over to the pallet. I was always so nervous around people, ready to jump out of my skin and, while I wouldn’t say I was entirely comfortable with Dean, I liked the feel of his hand in mine.

  A little while later when I was tucked in my own bed, I cast a glance across the room at where he was resting with one arm on top of the covers. I didn’t know if he’d be there in the morning, but for now, things felt right. Maybe I was just pathetically lonely. But a new shifter and one who seemed to not have any idea what it meant to be one would need a friend who understood.

  Maybe I could be that friend.

  And maybe he would be mine.

  Chapter Three

  Jillian

  He was there the next morning, his mouth slightly open, one arm slung over his forehead as though he just couldn’t deal with life. It was all too much for him.

  After making him some pancakes with my last scant cup of mix, I dressed in my overalls and white shirt and headed for the fields.

  But before I did, I took one last look at him. He was out cold, that much was certain. I remembered my first shift, back when I was just hitting puberty. It had been a violent phasing, bloody and painful, and not at all the way my tattered romance novels portrayed it. Not at all. So, I knew what he was going through. After my first shift, I had slept for a few days and eaten my weight in whatever I could get my hands on.

  After that, the pack moved me to my cabin. I wasn’t told why, just that the alpha had commanded it. I didn’t have many belongings, even back then, so I packed my things and did as I was told. That’s what shifters in a pack do—they obey the commands of the alpha without question.