Chapter 7

Jamal Beaconsfield POV

I watched helplessly as Jordy ran out of the woods with a speed that was shocking even to me. I couldn't blame him for running away from me in that manner. After all, I had just rejected him and the strange man behind me had called him his mate. How did that even work?

I mean, I had heard several times of people being mated to two people at a time, but I had never seen it play out in front of me until now. I wanted to run after him, just to make sure that he was okay. No matter what had happened, no matter what was bound to happen, Messiah Jordy was still my best friend, and he would always continue to be.

After sometime, when the strange man had disappeared into the woods as well, I went out I search of Jordy. I thought that the first place he would have gone to hide would be our little secret hideout not so far from the lake. But when I got there, Jordy was nowhere to be found.

I waited around for a while and used the opportunity to look around the area. I strolled to the lake, just to see if he would have opted for a swim to clear his head. I was wrong. He was not at the lake.

I followed the bush paths and headed back into the party. It was starting to get dark and I was yet to find Jordy. The crowd of people on the dance floor made it difficult for me to navigate through them. I knew that Jordy would not be among the girls, boys, men and women dancing. He hated to dance.

"Jordy! Jordy!" I screamed, but my voice was no match for the loud music in the garden. It was as though the live band was planted at every corner of the circular garden. I asked Zachary if he had seen Jordy anywhere but neither Zach nor his puny little sister admitted to seeing Jordy anywhere.

I spent my entire night searching for him, until I eventually gave up and decided to return home. I felt bad for what I had done, but I had no choice.

I did not have a problem with Jordy being my mate or being Jordy's mate. Not at all, he was my best friend and we always did everything together. Our mate bond would have only brought us closer and make our bond stronger. But immediately my wolf identified Jordy's wolf as my mate, my father, the beta, mind-linked with my wolf and asked me to reject her immediately. He said it would be unwise for me not to do so, seeing as Jordy was a male wolf. And I had no choice but to agree with him.

However, I was also very keen on knowing why he wanted me to reject Jordy so quickly. I had tried to speak, I wanted to tell him that it didn't matter what anybody said or thought. Jordy was my best friend, and I was going to stick with him till the end. But my father would have none of it. I could hear the violent snarl of his wolf as he ordered me to reject him immediately.

So, I went into the forest in search of him and rejected him, just like my father had said. But when I got home that night, I wanted to know why. I needed to know why my father had insisted that I caused Jordy that sort of pain.

Him of all people knew how much it hurt to be rejected, he had been a wolf for far longer than I was. If I was going to put my best friend through that sort of pain, I needed to know it was for a very good cause.

But there was an issue. When I questioned him about it during dinner, neither he nor my mother had anything to say for themselves. My father had only said I did not need to be mated to him, while my mother said I deserved someone better, someone more beautiful and less complicated.

"He has a lot of issues, we just do not want you getting associated with someone like him. It's bad enough that you two are best friends, but mates? That's a match made in hell."

My father spoke as he casually sipped his glass of champagne, as though he did not know he had just created a huge dent in my friendship with Jordy.

There and then, on the seat I was seated, I knew I had made a mistake, one that I had to correct with immediate effect, before someone else beat me to do it. When I thought about the "someone else," the face of the man who had called Jordy his mate rushed through my mind, and jealousy filled me up and caused me to lose my appetite. I kindly excused myself from the dinner table.

The next day, I got ready to see Jordy as early as 7am. When I arrived at the alpha's palace, I found Jordy seated by the water fountain. He liked to feed the pigeons seeds by the edge of the fountain, and watched them stick their beaks into the fountain for water. He loved animals and nature so much, it was one of the many things I loved about him.

"Jordy, hi." I called out, when I stood in front of him. I wore a nervous smile on my face because I wasn't sure how he was going to react to seeing me.

He looked up at me and I noticed he neither frowned nor smiled, but he didn't look pleased. I knew he wouldn't like me to waste his time, so I had to go straight to the point and strike the bull's eye with my dart pin.

"Hey." His reply was as dry as his expression. I cleared my throat and started to speak.

"Hey, Jordy. I'm really sorry about yesterday..."

"You don't need to apologize."

"But I do." I stubbornly continued.

"I need to apologize because I was a big fool and I made a very huge mistake. But I'm here now Jordy. I'm here because I want to correct it." I could feel my heart hammer against my chest as I spoke.

Shit. Why was I being so nervous? I had known Jordy all my life.

"Please, let's cancel the rejection. I want us to be mates again." I blurted out. I was hoping I would get a positive reaction and I was partially confident that I would.

Until he scoffed.

"We cannot be mates anymore, Jamal. You looked me in the eyes and you rejected me. I accepted your rejection, and I would continue to accept it. I do not wish to cancel the rejection, we do not need to be mates."

With every sentence he uttered, I felt my heart shatter into a million pieces.

Jordy was not going to take me back. He wasn't going to let us renew our mate bond and I knew why. It was all because he had a second mate, one who was older than me.

I couldn't believe he would do that to me, that he would forgot our friendship in a heartbeat, and for what?

A total stranger!

"If that's what you want, then it's fine." I blurted out. I turned my back to him, hoping he would call me back and stop me. But he didn't. Jordy allowed me walk out of his presence and out of the palace gates.

I did not know why it hurt so much, as though I was the one who had been rejected. But I was so angry, I could taste my bitterness at the tip of my tongue.

I had never thought Jordy would choose a stranger over me. Never.