Word Count : 8420

Reese

"Are you sure you really want to do this?" Reese asked for the 14th time since they'd left the house. "I think maybe we should reconsider."

"Stop being a pussy, Reese." Callum said, earning a fierce growl from Reese that had him immediately backing down. "Sorry, Alpha. I just mean, stop worrying so much."

"We're going." Adam said firmly. "You can stay back if you want, no one is making you go. I have to and Callum has to, but you don't. Seriously, if it worries you that much, don't go."

"I don't think I have much choice at this point." Reese said. "I don't trust you two to leave if the girls tell you to. Which is exactly what we are going to do, you say your piece, and we leave if they ask us to, and let the ball be in their court."

"Listen, they might do that off the bat, but we need to make sure..." Callum started.

"No." Reese said firmly. "That was the agreement, if they want us gone, we're gone. Period. We're not causing them any more pain. Remember?"

"Right." Callum mumbled.

"Yeah." Adam said with a sigh. He wanted another shot at his mate, and he didn't think one meeting with her would be enough to get him one. It had nothing to do with him never getting a second chance mate, it had everything to do with him never wanting to reject her to begin with. She'd actually been the girl he'd wanted as his mate since he was little, he couldn't believe how stupid he'd been.

Adam could still remember reading her letter after stealing it during the meeting. Her heart had been so shattered, she'd thought he hated her. She'd said it, she couldn't stay there and see him knowing he hated her. He'd been shocked to find out she thought that he actually hated her, he couldn't let her keep thinking that. Her letter had left him sobbing all that night, and many nights since, knowing he'd done that to his mate. The words 'I don't understand Daddy, I just don't understand what we did so wrong to deserve to be rejected' had haunted him since he read them and would continue haunt him for the rest of his life. They didn't do anything to deserve to get rejected, either of them.

Only a few people knew he was the one who had rejected Celie, no one had seen him do it, and the guys had never told on him, but it ate him alive. Her father still came to the office every week and asked if they'd found her, if they'd heard anything. Even after being told there was no hope, he still looked for his daughter, he never gave up, and never forgot his little girl. Part of Adam couldn't understand how she had just stopped contacting her father and brothers, but another part of him knew she'd had to. If she hadn't stopped they'd been able to track her letters and emails. She and Harper wouldn't have been able to escape, they'd have been found, and they'd have been brought back, and he knew that was the last thing they wanted. The laws hadn't been passed then, the rules saying that they couldn't be forced back hadn't been put in place, so there would have been nothing stopping Reese from forcing them back. Adam didn't think Alpha Lucas would have necessarily physically forced them to come back. But he and Luna Sophia would definitely have used any means necessary, guilt, coercion, or pressure, to get them back to the pack and that would have been just as wrong as dragging them back by force.

Adam knew firsthand how bad it was, shortly after passing the new laws a runner had shown up on their border asking for sanctuary, he'd been the one to go talk to her after she'd first crossed over and he saw what it did to her. She'd been so weak he'd had to carry her back, and he'd stayed with her, become her friend, and helped her through it as much as he could. Watching her pain, watching her suffer had truly brought home to him the horror of what he'd done so carelessly. Her name had been Carrie, and she'd been an omega. Adam and the guys had watched her slowly die, she'd only lasted a few weeks after getting rejected. Her wolf had died first, and she'd gotten weaker and weaker until she'd died too. It had nearly killed him to watch it.

Adam didn't think Celie would have suffered like that, she was from a strong gamma family, so she had a strong wolf, but the way Carrie had suffered had brought home the severity of rejection. They had all suffered with her, Reese, Adam, Ben, and Callum had taken turns staying with her while she was in the hospital and struggling to recover, but she hadn't been strong enough to pull through. When she'd finally died they had been devastated, and Reese had written a letter to her mate, informing him of what had happened to Carrie. His letter detailed every day she was there, he told him of the death of her wolf, of her suffering, pain, and slow death. Reese had been furious, and he'd wanted the bastard to know every single moment of his mate's suffering. The man had shown up a day later, refusing to believe it, demanding to see her body. They hadn't cremated her yet and so they'd shown him to the morgue and watched him fall apart over her corpse.

A week later they had found Ben hanging in his room. Watching Carrie suffer, finally understanding what his own mate had probably gone through because of him, had been too much for him and he'd taken his own life. Just more evidence of the consequences of rejection, not just for the one rejected, but for the one who had rejected them.

Adam didn't feel sorry for himself; he'd done this, he was the only one to blame for it, but he could testify that the rejectors also suffered, at least some did. He still felt the pain he'd felt when he said the words, and he knew Reese did too. It was not as intense, but his chest still ached with the pain of it, even after all these years it had not eased.

His wolf had never fully recovered either, he would still hear him, late at night, howling and calling for his lost mate. Maybe only the ones who regretted it still suffered or the others just refused to admit they did. But the fact was that no one seemed to know the true cost of rejection.

No, he hadn't been paying that much attention in class when they talked about rejection and second chance mates. He'd only paid attention in passing to what others said about it, which was, if you get rejected, or reject someone, you get a second chance mate. No one talked about the severity of the pain suffered, no one talked about the long term effects, no one talked about the true cost of it. If any of that had been stressed in his classes, if any of that had truly been talked about, he would have remembered at least a little of it, he would have thought about it a little more, and he would never for any reason have done it to Celie.

Adam was nervous, biting his lips until they bled on the never ending plane ride to Miami. Goddess, the girls couldn't possibly have gone any further away and still stayed in the US. He was kinda excited to go there. He'd heard it was a beautiful area, with clear blue water, and miles of beautiful beaches. It had obviously been a good place for them, they'd both thrived there, despite what had happened to them. He remembered looking at their pictures online, once they'd found the girl's fake names they'd been able to find social media for them. Pictures of them at parties for the gallery, having drinks with friends, hiking, boating, diving, and at the beach. They were stunning. Not that they hadn't always been beautiful, they had been, but now they were breathtaking, with their golden, sun kissed skin, brilliant eyes, and bright happy smiles. He couldn't remember ever seeing either of them smiling as they were smiling in these pictures, and he knew that was because they'd been so unhappy at the pack that it was impossible for them to smile so brightly. Again, guilt and pain caused his stomach to clench at that thought. He, like Reese, couldn't figure out why in the hell any of that had happened. What they had all been thinking to treat the girls like that? There was no reason or excuse for it.

Callum had managed to hack into the pages of Harper's clinic, he'd found copies of Celie's business license, and found their address. It seemed that they still lived together, sharing a house on Key Biscayne, one of the barrier islands just south of Miami beach. A very posh exclusive area, where only the well to do could afford to live. Yes, it seemed the girls had definitely done well for themselves far away from the pack and their constant harassment.

**

The sweltering heat and blinding sunlight that met them when they stepped out of the Miami airport caused them all to stop and stare at each other.

"Wow, some like it hot." Callum joked. He was smiling brightly though, the thought that he was only an hour away from seeing his sister again made him almost giddy.

"Well, it is July in FL, which from what I read is one of the hottest times of the year. Hopefully it'll be a little cooler closer to the beach where there's more of a breeze. Goddess, how do the girls stand it? I'm already sweating, and we've only been here like 4 minutes." Adam said, but he was excited too. He pictured Celie in her bikini and couldn't help smiling, he could get used to the heat if she wore one of those things all the time.

"Where is the hotel you booked us in? Is it close to the beach?" Reese asked. He would definitely be relieved if they were staying somewhere cooler. Living in the north west didn't give you any tolerance for steamy heat.

"Yeah, the girls live on Key Biscayne, the only hotel out there was the Ritz and it's like $800 a night for the cheap rooms." Adam said. "But I thought it would be better if we were close, so I didn't get us rooms on the mainland. Sorry man, but you're in for one hell of a hotel bill when we check out."

"Mainland?" Reese asked.

"Yeah, Key Biscayne is one of the barrier islands. Pretty swanky too, I looked at real estate out there near the girl's address and the houses are worth millions. So being an artist/gallery owner and a pediatric surgeon must pay really well." Callum told him as they got into the rental car.

**

Reese, Callum, and Adam, exchanged surprised glances when they arrived at the house listed as the girl's address. It was enormous enough that it was verging on a mansion, the gate to the drive had been open so they just drove up to the house and parked at the front entrance where there was a lattice gate as the front door.

There was no button for a bell so they just knocked as loudly as they could, they got no answer for several minutes. But they could hear music and voices outside, so they assumed there were people out at the back of the house.

"Maybe we should walk around to the back, sounds like there are people here, they probably just can't hear us knocking." Callum said.

"I don't know." Reese was eyeing the area. "I don't really want to get arrested for trespassing. This doesn't seem like the kind of area where they welcome strange people to just walk around and make themselves at home."

Frustrated, and not wanting to admit Reese was right, Adam turned and banged on the door with all his might. Then he heard someone yell 'come in' so he opened the door and stepped into the foyer just as two figures entered from the back of the house.

"What the hell..." Celie said, stunned, staring at the boys as if they were ghosts.

The guys looked them over carefully, shocked into silence at their appearance. They were both barefoot and covered in tan oil, and smelling like sweet coconut.

Celie was wearing cutoffs and a red halter bikini top. Her skin was golden brown tanned, the freckles on her nose and cheeks even more pronounced and cute. Her dark blonde hair was streaked by the sun and spilled over her shoulders in thick slightly frizzy mass down her chest, her hazel eyes were wide, moving between the three of them.

Harper was wearing a sapphire blue triangle bikini top and a pair of white board shorts showing off her impressive figure, tiny waist and long tanned legs. Her dark hair was pulled back into a thick ponytail that hung halfway down her back; her bright aqua eyes were narrowed at them; she was clearly not happy to see them at her doorstep.

Reese felt a wave of emotion sweep through him at the sight of her. She was breathtaking. His wolf surged within him and the bond flared so powerfully that he almost swayed. But she was staring at him with pure fury and hate in her eyes.

"What do you want?" Harper snapped. "You're not welcome here."

"How did you find us?" Celie asked, her voice barely above a whisper.

Callum opened his mouth to answer when a shirtless built guy with tousled blonde hair and vivid blue eyes stepped into the foyer behind them. He looked curious about their visitors but not concerned.

Harper turned to him and he took one look at her face and his featured went hard.

"Who the fuck are you?" Matt said, putting himself between them and the girls.

No one said anything for a few seconds and Matt got pissed.

"I asked you a fucking question. Who the fuck are you?" Matt snapped.

Reese stepped forward, he didn't like being disrespected by this human, but they were in his house, so he needed to remain calm.

"Reese Crawford, Adam Monroe, Callum Young." Reese introduced them and Matt's eyes went even harder and he looked them up and down insultingly.

"Ah, the girl beaters and bullies have arrived. Wonderful." Matt spat at them.

"We never beat them." Callum said defensively.

"That's what you're going with? Really?" Matt gritted out. "Slapping, shoving, and kicking isn't beating? Right. Let's not forget how you stood by watching and laughing while everyone else did it too. It's the same fucking thing asshole."

"I said you're not welcome here." Harper said, stepping forward and putting her hand on Matt's arm. "Just leave. Now."

"Harper, just give us a second." Callum said, his face pleading. "We only came to apologize, that's all. We just want to tell you how sorry we are."

"How sweet of you, dear brother." Harper sneered and tossed her head. "Today must be my lucky day."

"We didn't come here to start trouble." Reese said. "We really did just come to apologize for our behavior. We realized how wrong what we did was, we realized it as soon as you left. We looked for you, we've never stopped looking for you."

"Why?" Celie asked softly, still staring at Adam with a pained look on her face. "You never wanted us there, we were nothing but garbage to you."

"That's not true, Cel." Adam stepped forward, he looked like he was about to start crying. "That's not true at all. I'm sorry, Celie, I'm sorry for what I did. I didn't want to do it, I wanted you for my mate, I always wanted you. I was just stupid and scared and I'm sorry."

"You just left me there, kneeling in the dirt, crying, and begging you not to do it. And you expect me to believe you didn't want to? That you wanted me for your mate?" Celie asked, her voice getting stronger, her anger returning. "If you wanted me for your mate, if you cared about me at all, you wouldn't have been able to do it. Not just wouldn't have wanted to, but wouldn't have been able to."

"I'm sorry." Adam said. "I was going to go to you and beg you to take me back, I was going to take back my rejection, I was."

"Yeah, right." Harper snapped, her anger for what he did to Celie, for all the pain he'd caused her coming out. "You just found out you don't get a second chance mate, didn't you? That's why you're here; because you threw away your only shot and now you regret it." She turned to Reese, "So Alpha, where's your Luna? Didn't Charlotte the harlot want to see me? I'm hurt, I really am."

"I don't have a Luna, and Charla is no longer in the pack, I asked her to leave not long after the new laws were passed." Reese said slowly, realizing they knew nothing about the packs or what had been happening. "Can we please just have a few minutes of your time? A lot happened with the pack after you left, we'd like to tell you about it and say a few things to you. We've thought you were dead for all these years, Adam and Callum never stopped looking for you. Even though we were told countless times there was no hope, we just want to say what we have to say. Then we will leave, and never come back if that's what you want."

Harper's initial reaction was to just throw them out, but she knew Celie needed closure. She knew Celie needed to hear what they had to say, and then accept Adam's rejection to move on with her life. Harper glanced at Matt, and he knew exactly what she was thinking, his eyes moved to Celie sympathetically. He wanted to throw them out too, but he worried for Celie, and he didn't want to see her alone and suffering anymore.

Harper asked her through the link.

Celie didn't respond but Harper knew the answer.

"Fine, I'll give you time to say what you have to say. Then you will leave, don't expect to be invited back. Welcome to our home. May I introduce my husband, Matt Maris." Harper gestured to Matt. She had to admit the look on their faces were priceless. "Nice to see how shocked you all are that this pathetic loser found someone to love her." Harper said in a hard voice, as she turned to lead them into the living room, putting a protective arm around Celie's shoulders as they went.

"Harp..." Callum started, he looked queasy.

Reese tensed; she was married. His mate was married to someone else. He should have expected it, he should have prepared himself for it, but he hadn't, and it hurt. Noah howled within him. What made it worse was the fact that the man she'd married was a very attractive, tanned, and buff guy who looked like a professional surfer. Reese knew he had no right to get mad or jealous, he'd rejected her, in the cruelest way possible, and she'd accepted it, now he had to accept it.

"Can I get you something to drink?" Celie asked slowly, even with these guests she was still nice.

"Some ice water would be great if you don't mind. Goddess, I don't know how you take this heat." Callum said, trying to lighten the mood. It succeed a little when Harper gave a little snort.

"We like it." Harper said as she turned to go with Celie to get a pitcher. "Nothing like being able to wear a bikini every day and never change."

"I'll second that." Matt chuckled, knowing it would piss Reese off he smacked Harper on the ass as she walked past him leaving the room, making her smirk over her shoulder. "Nothing better than my wife in a bikini."

"So, uh, Matt, what do you do for a living? Are you a doctor too?" Callum asked, taking a seat.

"Nope, I'm a wreck and cave diver." Matt said. "I find sunken ships, do some salvage, an occasional rescue operation, and I've mapped most of the sea floor, and underwater cave systems in this area."

"Wow, isn't that dangerous?" Callum asked.

"For some people." Matt shrugged.

"Where did you guys meet?" Callum asked.