Roman was doing Alpha work when he heard his mate screaming screaming. He bolted from his office. He ran following the sound until he found himself in the dungeon he tried to get to Virgil as quickly as possible, but he was grabbed by  a pair of hands. It was his brother holding him. He growled threateningly at him as he heard Virgil whimper in pain. 

“Relax Roro, he is just shifting. He is fine.” Remus tried to relax his brother. It worked a little Roman did calm down some when he saw what Remus was saying was the truth. 

“He is better than fine.” Cassidy stated surprise in his voice. “It has only been like five minutes and he is almost done. That’s like record speed for a second shift.” 

“Why didn’t you guys tell me you were doing this?” Roman questioned frustrated.

“Sorry, Ro, forgot.” Remus said with a shrug. 

“Next time give me a warning please.” Roman stated.

“Yeah sure, sure…” Cassidy said distracted. “Look!”

They all looked at Virgil to see him fully shifted laying there panting on the floor. 

“He’s already done!” Remus and Roman stated in shock together. 

“So it seems.” Cassidy replied. 

“Virgil is it still you?” Roman asked cautiously moving closer to the cell. He knew Anx was pretty volatile right after shifting last time so he moved slowly. 

At the sound of his name Virgil’s ears perked and he lifted his head slightly looking at Roman. “Blink twice if it is still Virgil there.” The wolf blinked twice. Roman let out a sigh of relief and walked closer to the cell. The wolf pushed itself back as far as he could manage and gave Roman a look that screamed ‘go away’. 

Roman sighed, “Yep definitely Virgil.” Ever since Virgil had first shifted and figured out the whole mate thing, he has been avoiding Roman like the plague. Whenever Roman entered a room Virgil was in Virgil would get up and leave immediately. It was starting to tear at Roman’s nerves. He backed up and leaned against the wall opposite the cell, and let Cassidy and Remus take over. It was clear Virgil didn’t want him to help. He would have left completely but his adrenaline still hadn’t settled since the screaming coming from his mate. He is instincts were still kicked into overdrive to make sure Virgil was okay. Even if he could see with his own eyes that he was fine. 

“Okay Virgil, are you ready to try and shift back?” Cassidy asked Virgil who had finally seemed to recover from the first shift. Virgil ducked his head in what seemed to be a nod. 

“Alright try what I told you.” 

________

It wasn’t long until a panting and exhausted Virgil layed on the floor. His hair stuck to his forehead from sweat and his face was flushed bright red. His body shaking from all the physical exertion. 

Without much thought Roman opened the door and attempted to help Virgil up, but as soon as the electric sparks coarsed through Virgil he panicked and shoved Roman off. “No… don’t, don’t touch me.” He said while trying to catch his breath. 

Roman didn’t know why, maybe it was his frustration or him lashing out because he was hurt but something snapped. “Oh. My. God. You are ridiculous. I have never met a more frustrating and inconsiderate individual on this planet. You are so selfish! This isn’t fair to me! I have wanted romance in my life for as long as I can remember. I have dreamed about getting my mate for years. And I get someone who won’t even let me touch them! This isn’t fair! What did I do to get someone like you! I should…” 

“Roman let’s take a breather here…” Remus tried to calm his brother down but Roman didn’t listen. 

He really should have.

He should have stopped.

“Maybe I should just reject you and save us both the trouble.” Roman slammed his hands over his mouth. Virigil who was now in a sitting position sat there stunned. He didn’t even know how to respond to all that.

Cassidy was the first one to move. He walked over to Roman his eyes flashing bright yellow before he punched Roman in the face. Roman stumbled backwards and landed on his ass. 

Despite not accepting Roman, Virgil’s instincts went into hyper drive the moment his mate was hurt. He tried to push himself up only for a gentle hand pushed him back down. He looked up and Remus ready to growl at him but stopped seeing the fire burning in Remus’s eyes as he glared at his brother. 

“He deserved it.” Remus said through gritted teeth. Virgil looked at Roman to see him on the ground. He didn’t retaliate at all he just stayed on the ground. His head bowed. A very odd thing for an Alpha to do. But he was ashamed. He didn’t say a word as he stood up and walked out of the room. 

Once Roman left the room Virgil’s instincts to protect him left with him and then the full weight of what had been said set in. All the words running on repeat through his head. Roman was right. Virgil wasn’t being fair, and he was being selfish, but one phrase stung more than others. He didn’t know why, but it actually felt like a physical stab to the chest with a rusty knife. 

‘I should just reject you.’ That phrase was like it was stuck on repeat in his head. He didn’t know what it meant really. All he knew was the mention of it broke something inside Virgil that he didn’t know he had in himself to break. 

Tears started spilling from his face as he stared blankly at nothing trying to process it all. 

“Hey, no don’t cry.” Remus said not great at comforting crying people and knowing that Cassidy wasn’t much better at it. “It’ll be okay, Roman… he’s just is having a hard time with all this. We know he didn’t mean it. Right Cas?” Remus looked at his mate, his eyes begging for help.

Cassidy was about respond when Virgil started talking. “He is right though. I am being selfish. So, so selfish. It’s not fair to him. He’s right.” Virgil stopped.

“What is rejection?” Virgil asked.

The two looked at eachother. They looked like they had a whole conversation with their eyes. No they weren’t mind linking they just knew what the other was thinking by looking at each other. After a beat Cassidy sighed and Remus nodded sadly. 

“It is possible to break off the mate bond.” Cassidy stated. “If one mate rejects another the bond is severed. The other mate has to accept the rejection for it to be truly complete, but… It’s considered a horrible thing to do. Wolves who are rejected and don’t accept it… they don’t do well. They either die from a literal heart break or they go crazy. Their is the rare occasion that the mates do fine and the bond is severed without and an issue and the two mates go their own ways, but this is extremely rare. Near impossible. The one doing the rejecting is fine though. It doesn’t affect them at all. But it is a painful process for the one being rejected.” Cassidy explained. 

“So, in short I pissed him off so bad he wants to leave me.”  Virgil said his body started to shake with sobs. 

“Guess I managed to push him away like I wanted.” 

But he wasn’t so sure what he wanted anymore, but this wasn’t it.