Beta Bully (F/M) - Chapter 21 (Early Access) (Patreon)

Priors & Permissions

“Five minutes,” Darcy repeated, closing the classroom door behind her. They were alone in the room.

Luca stepped back, giving her a few feet of space, and tucked his arms behind his back. “I just…” His expression was sheepish. “I wasn’t sure if I made you uncomfortable this morning.”

Darcy’s body freeze-framed. “What?” she sputtered.

“I thought I was being funny and…” He shrugged awkwardly. “Flirting. But you ran away and I figured I’d done it again with the teasing. Are you okay?”

“Um, yeah,” Darcy eventually managed to squeak out. “It was too much.”

His pointed brows scrunched inwards and his perfect lips pulled down. “I’m sorry,” he said. He sounded so sincere, it actually hurt her to hear him so remorseful. Stupid soul bond. “It wasn’t meant to be rude. I kept going cause your scent was-”

“Yeah, I know,” she interrupted with a raised and trembling hand. Her face was on fire. The worst part of being a werewolf was the super-strength nostrils. Only Luca would have been close enough to smell the horny teenager hormones on her, but it was still horrifyingly embarrassing. “I was just… surprised. And wary of everyone else around. And I never know how genuine your threats are, so also a little afraid.”

“I wouldn’t really make you cry,” he reassured her, a little too quickly. “I mean, unless you’re one of those girls that cries when they cum.” A golden glint hit his eyes and Darcy’s entire body heated a few degrees. Her hand drooped. Luca kept going. “And I would definitely eat your ass if you were cool with that-”

“Luca, I am begging you to stop talking,” Darcy gasped.

“New topic?”

“Anything but this, please.”

He took a single step forward and bent his head down a little, until he was only a few inches above her. “Why don’t you want to come to my birthday party?” he asked with a tilted head and a friendly tone. Darcy could sense a trap. There was no solid excuse for her to draw from the deck. So she improvised by doing what she does best, becoming flustered and rambling.

“Well, you see, the thing is-” Six words deep and she already wanted to kick herself. “My dad is very protective over where and when I go out, because I’m an omega.” Starting off with a bold-faced lie. Fantastic. But it’s not as though Luca had any means of fact-checking her. Best to double-down on it since he hadn’t called her out. “It’s dangerous out there. Other packs are dangerous. I could get lost. And then eaten.” Luca didn’t react to any word so far. He simply stood and stared at her. It made the babbling even worse. “And if I get found, I won’t know who found me. I don’t know anyone in your pack. I’d spend the party all alone. I have nothing to wear. And this is probably all just a prank anyway.” A deep-rooted insecurity bursting to the surface. Apparently Darcy hadn’t brushed off as many vulnerabilities as she’d thought in the last few weeks. But it was too late, her motor-mouth kept running. “You’re only inviting me to laugh at me with your stupid friends. Even if I came it would just be as the butt of your joke. You’re so cruel to me, but you pretend to care and it seems so real and that makes it worse. It’s not real for you, you’re just playing house!”

Luca listened diligently until she finally ran out bluster, clinging onto her dignity by a thread. She had barely kept herself from bursting into tears. It had felt cathartic to let the last of her bubbling insecurity out. He closed the remaining gap between them, only a mite of air between their bodies.

He gave a her a pause, checking that she had nothing else she wanted to spew at him.

Then, he spoke incredibly softly. “First of all, it’s my mate maturity birthday, so my mate is staying with me the entire time. I won’t lose you, especially if I’ve bought your outfit. Although, as for being eaten, I may take a taste.” He winked and poked the tip of his tongue out, a sharp tooth blinked out of the corner of his mouth with it. “Secondly, your friends are already invited. One already even RSVP’d.” Darcy knew without needing to ask that it was Melody. “Thirdly, I’m more than happy to meet your dad for him to grill me all he wants about how I intend to take care of you.” His expression slipped to a sad and gentle yearning. “And finally, most importantly,” he whispered, coaxing her to inch up onto her toes, the only way she could physically get any closer. “If anyone laughed at you, at my birthday party, I would drown them in the pool.” Darcy sucked in a surprised breath, but his desirous eyes held her silent. “You don’t have to believe me when I say I care about you so much it hurts, and you have every right to ignore me after our beginnings, but I’ll still speak my truth. And after this summer, we’ll get to play house every day, forever.”

Darcy was a fool. As much as she told herself she didn’t, she believed him deep down in her gut. Absolute moron. She stumbled back a step, watching him warily.

He watched her with kind eyes as she processed his words. After a few moments he lifted his arms, beckoning her into them. Her body moved without permission, slamming back into him and earning a winded sound from her mate.

“My dad won’t grill you,” she mumbled into his chest.

“What?”

“That part was a lie,” she admitted. “He’s a massive softie. And pro omega independence. He’d never tell me I couldn’t go somewhere I wanted to, unless it was actually unsafe.”

Luca ruffled one hand through her waves while the other pressed into her lower back. “I promise you’ll be safe with me,” he said.

“I can’t believe I’m stupid enough to believe you,” Darcy sighed. She nuzzled her face into his shirt. He smelled incredible. Luca pulled her in just a little tighter and she could almost feel his scent soaking into her skin and clothes.

“I know I have priors, but I’m trying to do the possible rights now. Cause it’s impossible to change the wrongs that have already happened.”

Darcy tipped her head up to pull a disbelieving face at him. “Did you get that off a cat poster?” she teased.

“No,” he laughed. “I wish the things I said had that kind of credibility.”

Darcy dropped her head again and laughed into his shirt. He scrubbed his hand through her hair deeper, tickling her scalp. Clutching her head against his heart.

After a minute or two in comfortable embrace, Luca asked,“so, do you really not have a swimsuit?”

“I haven’t gone swimming since I was a kid, my old one won’t fit any more.” A half-truth. Her swimming costume was old and she did get it when she was younger… but it definitely still fit, unfortunately. The style of it was not the kind an eighteen-year-old wanted to be seen in, though. Especially at a pool party where she was to be hanging off the beta birthday boy’s arm.

“I’ll take you shopping after school one day this week, we’ll get you a swimsuit and a cute dress to wear over it.”

Darcy flushed. She wouldn’t class herself as materialistic by any means, but the thought of her mate buying her a cute outfit to wear and show off by his side… it made her feel warm and nervous inside.

“Does that mean you’ll get the final say on what I wear?” she asked, half-joking.

“You can have whatever you want, I’ll just be there to hype up everything you try on.”

“Thanks,” she mumbled, dropping her eyes submissively.

Luca groaned into the top of her head, bumping his nose against her clip. “Can you do me a favour and try to look less fucking adorable? You’re getting me ha-”

The bell for the next lesson rang and Darcy stumbled back, skin burning red. She pretended not to see the tent pitched in the front of his trousers.

“S-see you later,” she called over her shoulder and dashed out the door to her class.