Beyond Beta's Rejection

The day had finally come. It was 11pm the night before the Midsummers Ball and Harper’s 18th birthday. At this point, I was all but certain that she was my mate. I had spent the last couple of years keeping my distance but watching her. She had grown into a beautiful woman. Which meant that I had to warn off a few of the guys who had attempted to take a chance with her.

I was agitated and wanted to go out for a run, but I had waited all day. My plan was to run down to her house and wait for her to finally turn eighteen. Then I would know for sure. In the last three years, the only other person who knew about this was Damien. He said he would keep my secret. He had been punished pretty badly when he had rejected his omega mate. The Alpha of her pack had been furious, and so had Damien’s father. The girl was too weak, and the rejection caused her wolf to disappear altogether. I was told that she had spent weeks in agony before finally going crazy. That wasn’t unfamiliar. Our wolves are a deep part of us, and I couldn’t imagine losing mine. The Alpha of the other pack had called for Damien’s life, but Alpha Daniel had made some sort of different arrangement instead. My guess was he had offered one of the live products in that latest shipment instead.

Damien g*****d from his place on my sofa.

“Seriously dude,” he said, “You need to chill.” I glared at him and then up at the clock. It felt like each minute was at least double. Damien sat up on the sofa, his face serious.

“What are you going to do if she is your mate?” he asked. I tried to shrug it off, but I was already tensing up as I knew where he was going with this. He had talked about this several times in the last couple of years.

“I mean, think about it,” he said. “Not only would you have the ride of your life, but you also wouldn’t be tied down and p***y whipped like half of these guys are when they are mated.” I shook my head at him and rolled my eyes.

“You know you are still gonna end up mated, right?” I asked him. After the crap with the fated mate, Damien’s Dad had decided that he would pick Damien’s mate. We already knew the plan was for him and Louise to be mated after she finished school this year. Not that she knew anything about it.

“Yeah, but it’s different with a chosen mate,” he said. “You have more control.” I shook my head again and checked the clock. How was it only ten past the hour?

“You’re not actually thinking of claiming her, are you?” Damien asked, and I scowled at him.

“Would it really be so awful?”

“See, you’re whipped already,” Damien scoffed, and I glared at him. “Dude, just think about it. This is the only time you are gonna be able to feel the two extremes so naturally.” I sighed.

“I’m going for a run,” I said and stood up to leave.

Once I was out of the pack house, I shifted into my wolf form. I shook out my brown fur and crunched the ground beneath my paws. Canyon whined in my head because he wanted to take control. But between him and the other guy, they had constantly given me a hard time every time Damien brought up rejecting Harper. They both said that they would make my life a misery if I went ahead with it. Part of me didn’t care. My life was already a misery, especially where the other guy was concerned.

I ran down through the woods on the edge of town until I hit her street. There had been many nights that I had been here, sitting outside her house, just watching. If anything, it kept the other guy at peace, which helped. I’m not sure how, but maybe he was less pissed off at me, so was more quiet.

I got as close to the house as I could and settled in. I could see her light on and some movement behind the curtain every now and then. I started to doze when I felt something. Like a snap of something. I looked around me, startled, but there was nothing there. Then Canyon whined in my head.

“Mate,” he said, and I felt a rush through me. It was confirmed. It must have been after midnight. Because now the only thing I could think of was Harper Kirby. I stayed there, feeling the hum of the connection between us. But eventually, after her light had been turned off for some time, I sighed and headed back home.

When I got home, Damien was waiting for me.

“So?” he asked as I emerged from the trees. I shifted back to my human form and nodded.

“It’s her,” I said. He shook his head.

“Congratulations, I guess.” He turned around and headed into the house. We hit the Beta floor and I could hear crying. I furrowed my eyebrows at Damien and looked down the hall.

“They were at it again.” Damien shrugged. I closed my eyes briefly before setting a determined face and heading down the hallway to my mother’s room. I opened the door and saw my mother on the floor against the wall. She had tears flowing down her face. Alice, our Luna, was sitting next to her, trying to comfort her. She looked up at me with a glare, although her features softened when she saw it was me and Damien.

“What do you want, boys?” she asked. I looked at my mother again. She was staring into space. She didn’t acknowledge that we were even there.

I shook my head and felt the fury run through me. I knew what had happened. It was no coincidence that the ranked men of this pack liked to share with each other. I remember Uncle Nate once explaining to me because of our bloodline that it was almost a need for us. But even though the bloodline was my mother and myself right now, it seeped out and infected others too. That almost desperate need for more and never been fully sated. Uncle Nate had found that the orgies he had taken part in helped to sate his hunger. And it wasn’t long after my parents had mated that my father had taken advantage of my mother’s need. But the older men of our house were rough with it and this wasn’t the first time that I had seen my mother or Alice in tears afterwards. Hell, Alex’s mum had jumped ship years ago so she could get away from it.

I forced a smile onto my face and nodded to Alice. I stepped back and closed the door, leaving the women to heal. I was so furious, though, that I couldn’t move from staring at the door. I felt Damien come up beside me.

“So do you think your little mate will be up for that then?” he asked. “You know what you like. How well do you think she will manage?” I grimaced at his words. The idea of one day it being Harper there crying on the floor made me want to smash things. I couldn’t bear the thought of it. I heard a growl in my mind, but it wasn’t Canyon.

“Don’t you even dare think about it,” the other guy said. That was another thing. Did I really want to bring Harper into my f****d up existence where b***d from the fires of hell ran through my veins?

No, Damien was right. I couldn’t even consider pulling my sweet mate into that life.

“Fine,” I said and turned and headed down the hallway to my room, “I’ll reject her.”

***

The next day was a busy day. It was the day of the Midsummer Ball. So the pack house was a whirlwind of activity. On top of that, it was also a Circle shipment day. We had a massive shipment of the usual stuff coming through town around 8pm. Because of the ball, Damien, Alex, and I were set to supervise it. We would get to the ball late, but that didn’t matter because no one would question it when we broke the rules.

Damien was excited about my rejection plans and was insistent that I took the opportunity he didn’t. I will admit that I was rather enticed about it myself. We planned to get Harper away from the party and for me to coax her back to hers. The last thing I wanted was for my father to find out what had happened when a distraught woman went running around the pack house. Plus, it would probably make her feel more comfortable in her own place. We also planned to let slip enough that her friends would notice her disappearance from the party. That way, when I rejected her, she would have her friends or family to help her through it. I really didn’t want to cause her harm, but if I was a bastard, then maybe it would be easier for her to hate me and accept it.Contentt bel0ngs to N0ve/lDrâ/ma.O(r)g!

I thought about it all day. I couldn’t wait to finally touch my mate, even if it was only going to be for a short time. The other guy and Canyon had continued to go on in my head. They had both been constant noise and threats since I made the decision last night. But it wouldn’t matter because by the end of tonight, Harper and I would be over, and she would be safe from my f****d up life.

***

The shipment went well. We did the usual checks and ensured the girls that were in there were fed. I wasn’t a fan of that side of things, but my father always said that all this was to make me Alpha, and if it wasn’t for the Circle, then we would still be under the tyrannical rule of Samual Kirby. I hadn’t known that the Kirby’s had been in charge at one point, and I didn’t know the details of what went on.

Damien signed off the paperwork and then turned and grinned at me.

“Time to party,” he said with a wink. I grinned back and my body hummed with anticipation as we headed back to the pack house.

I caught her scent the second I walked into the main room. I scanned the room and quickly laid eyes on her. She was wearing a white lace dress and her beautiful brown hair was in curls. Everything about her glowed. Her full attention was on Alpha Daniel as he gave off all the usual bullshit that people ate up at these types of events. If I hadn’t been so intent on watching her, I wouldn’t have seen the slight stiffening of her frame. But as it was, I saw the moment she realised I was here.

I nodded to Damien, and he set off in front of me. Harper was standing with her omega friend and Damien promised to play distraction with the blond trollop while I got my hands on my little mate. I watched her struggle not to turn around and look for the source of the bond. I came up next to her and ran my hand down her arm. Feeling the amazing sparks of the mate bond the second I touched her. I slid my hand down her arm and entwined my fingers in hers.

Everything about that moment was perfect. Her eyes were closed, and she was trying desperately to steady her breathing.

“Breathe, Strawberries…” I said, my voice husky with the need for her. I leaned in and whispered against her ears.

“Open your eyes. Let me see you, mate.” It felt like she was on the verge of a panic attack, so I did what seemed to work for my mum. I rubbed against her thumb to calm her nerves. She slowly opened her eyes and looked up at me with her stunning grey-blue eyes. I knew the moment that our eyes met, I was completely in love.