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

Priors & Permissions

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

Luna stepped back, giving her a few feet of space, and tucked her arms behind her back. “I just…” Her 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…” She 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.”

Luna's pointed brows scrunched inwards and her perfect lips pulled down. “I’m sorry,” she said. She sounded so sincere, it actually hurt Darcy to hear her 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 Luna 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,” Luna reassured her, a little too quickly. “I mean, unless you’re one of those girls that cries when they cum.” A golden glint hit her eyes and Darcy’s entire body heated a few degrees. Her hand drooped. Luna kept going. “And I would definitely eat your ass if you were cool with that-”

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

“New topic?”

“Anything but this, please.”

She took a single step forward and bent her head down a little, until she was only a few inches above her. “Why don’t you want to come to my birthday party?” she 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 Luna had any means of fact-checking her. Best to double-down on it since she hadn’t called her out. “It’s dangerous out there. Other packs are dangerous. I could get lost. And then eaten.” Luna didn’t react to any word so far. She 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!”

Luna 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. Luna closed the remaining gap between them, only a mite of air between their bodies.

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

Then, she 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.” She winked and poked the tip of her tongue out, a sharp tooth blinked out of the corner of her 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.” Luna's expression slipped to a sad and gentle yearning. “And finally, most importantly,” she whispered, coaxing Darcy 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 Luna’s 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 Luna deep down in her gut. Absolute moron. She stumbled back a step, watching her warily.

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

“My dad won’t grill you,” Darcy mumbled into her 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.”

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

“I can’t believe I’m stupid enough to believe you,” Darcy sighed. She nuzzled her face into her shirt. She smelled incredible. Luna pulled her in just a little tighter and she could almost feel her 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 her. “Did you get that off a cat poster?” she teased.

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

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

After a minute or two in comfortable embrace, Luna 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 girl’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 her 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.

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

The bell for the next lesson rang and Darcy stumbled back, skin burning red.

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