The Failed Rejection
Chapter 22

Noah pov

Noah continued to check his email, looking for something from his mate. But there was nothing. Penelope hadn’t emailed him in over two weeks. Noah knew he shouldn’t feel so hurt, he was the one that pulled away first. This was all on him, but he couldn’t help but wished Penelope fought more for him. Noah wished that Penelope was less independent.

“Not mates fault, your fault for being so dumb.” His wolf started yelling at him, and Noah realized he was right. He continued to screw up his life.

Then finally after spending the day refreshing his emails. The email was there.

Noah

Sorry I haven’t returned your emails I’ve been dealing with a lot. It’s good to hear that you are safe. Please stay that way, I have to run to class.

Penelope

Noah was glad to hear from her, but what did she mean? Noah remembered the first semester of medical school, it was brutal. Is that what she was referring to? Or was it something else? Something more? Was she pulling away from him?

Noah had been distracted all day. He had been thinking about Penelope all day, and his wolf wasn’t helping any. He was lucky it was a slow day.

Gideon walked up to him later that day with his phone in his hand.

“Hey you said your mate was from the Howlers pack right? In Illinois?” Noah perked up.

“Yeah, what about it?”

“My cousin he works for the council. There was a huge rogue attack there a couple of weeks ago.” Noah’s stomach sank in dread.

“Are the leaders okay?” Noah asked thinking of his mates family.

“Now Im not supposed to have any of this information, but it’s all stuff they send out to all the alphas. The report says the leaders are fine. However, a former Gamma Braxton was killed.”

“Mates father.” Niko whimpered in his head. Why didn’t she tell us about any of it? Noah knew they had a strained relationship, but she had to be dealing with some form of grief. Her father was dead, Noah read the report again. It didn’t say anything about the gamma dying during the attack. Just that he was reported dead. What did that mean? Noah’s head swam with all of the possible information.

Is there anything else that she is dealing with by herself? Noah grabbed Gideon’s phone, and read the report. The councils report simply stated the facts.

There was an explosion, at 4:15pm allowing hundreds of rogues to infiltrate the pack grounds. The rogues were under the command of form Alpha Rafael.

“Really? A former alpha was a rogue, that’s unusual,” Noah commented.

“Yeah there are rumors that he has a bastard kid in the Howlers pack. It doesn’t matter anymore I guess,” Gideon told him.

“Why not?”

“He was finally killed, by the Luna I think,” Gideon said off handedly.

“Doesn’t surprise me, Penelope’s sister is just like her. Strong,” Noah told him.

“Her sister is the Luna?”

“Yeah, their family is the Gamma family,” Noah didn’t mention the whole mess of the trial. It wasn’t his family laundry to be airing. Noah finished reading the report, there wasn’t that much information in there. Information that was relevant to him anyway.

Noah couldn’t fight the feeling that something was wrong. Why she didn’t tell him about the attack.

Penelope pov

Penelope finished up with her classes and took an Uber to the hospital. Penelope made her way to the bearshifters room and walked in. Penelope sat down her bag, and took a seat on the empty chair. Penelope looked to the mystery mans face, and still saw that it was covered in bruises. She grabbed her phone and snapped a few quick pictures before anyone came in. Penelope sent them to Alpha Axle, and then put her phone away.

Penelope knew she should leave, but something inside of her couldn’t move from her seat. Penelope picked up her bag and pulled out her notebook. She started transcribing todays lectures, while she looked over the unknown alpha.

It was at least an hour later when her phone started buzzing in her pocket. Penelope looked down and saw an unknown number. She decided to pick it up.

“Hello?”

“Penelope Braxton?” The deep baritone voice asked.

“This is Penelope, who is this?”

“This is alpha Axel. You weren’t lying about the picture.”

“No I wasn’t. He’s not doing very well, I thought maybe if we replace his family…” Penelope trailed off.

“Yeah I hear you. I called the closest bear packs, and they aren’t reporting any missing members. Did you see any tattoos that could help identify him.”

“Sh.it I forgot about that. Let me look, hold on.” Penelope put her books in her bag, and approached the man in the bed. Bear shifters had tattoos on their body, and they told a story. To a bear shifter their tattoos were sacred. Penelope didn’t know that much about the intricacies of their tattoos. She only knew certain ones told of the bears pack, the statues in the pack, and victories over ones enemies. Axel wanted pictures because any of these things could help identify the man.

“Sh.it,” Penelope cursed after she pulled back the man’s hospital gown and saw his chest.

“What is it?” Axel asked her over the phone

“I think who ever attacked him intentionally burned some of his tattoo’s off.”

“F.uck.” Axel cursed along with Penelope.

“I can’t tell without taking the bandages off, there are some tattoos visible along his arms. But the ones you are looking for on his chest. Those are covered in gauze. I don’t know how long they will take to heal.” Axel continued to curse.

“Go ahead and send me pictures of his arms, that may give me something.” Axel instructed.

“Okay, will do,” Penelope said and hung up. She quickly did as he asked. Penelope didn’t want to be found by staff taking pictures. It was a close call, Penelope heard steps coming down the hall. She quickly put her phone away, and sat down just as the door opened.

Penelope didn’t recognize the CNA, but the woman gave her a dirty look.

“Visiting hours are over.”

“Fine,” Penelope snarked right back. Penelope picked up her bags and went to the unknown. She took his hand,

“I’ll try and be back tomorrow.” Penelope went back to her dorm after picking up something to eat. She unfortunately wasn’t able to make it back to the hospital the next day as she had study group. Penelope didn’t understand why it tore her up to be away from this mysterious man. She went home and caught up on her other classes. She had an upcoming test she needed to focus on. When she was done with studying she decided to check her email. Penelope saw the email from Noah and hesitantly opened it.

Penelope

I just found out about your father, I am so sorry. I wish I could have been there for you. You don’t have to be so strong. Please let me love you my dear mate. I am here for you always.

Love Noah

How did he even replace out about that? Killian and Nathan kept the attack under wraps. Only Brad had reported it to the council as he had to. Penelope only found out because Jackson had mentioned it randomly. Penelope had a bad feeling about this. However, with everything going on Penelope could just be paranoid. Penelope decide to just email Noah and ask him how he found out about the attack.

Penelope had enough for a week. She needed sleep. She fell into bed and had a restless sleep. Penelope dreamed of a faceless man covered in tattoos.