Beta Bully (F/M) - Chapter 31 (Early Access) (Patreon)

The Last Night

“Welcome to my room, Darce.”

Darcy stepped through the door first and Luca closed it behind them. She listened out for the lock, the words of her dad flickering in the back of her mind. If he broke their agreement, she could call him. She could leave any time she wanted. The door didn’t lock, and Luca stepped round her to plop her backpack onto his desk.

“What do you think?”

It was huge, like the bedrooms of teenagers in movies. A double bed took up the centre of the room and it had been made surprisingly well. Built-in wardrobes were tucked into one corner and a desk in the other. The shelves above the desk were filled with old tattered textbooks and notebooks. Luca lounged in a beanbag in front of the long windows. The curtains were drawn back to fill the room with natural light. It gave him a fluffy halo where the sun shone on the back of his head.

“It’s way bigger than my room,” Darcy admitted. “You have so much stuff!”

Luca laughed. “We’ll get a bigger one once you move in.”

Darcy felt her heart flutter. They would be living together after graduation. Once she was officially an adult, moving in with her soul-mate was expected. It made her so deeply happy she wanted to spin around on the carpet like a kid on a sugar high. She ran towards him, ready to take a flying leap into his lap, when she noticed a half-open door.

“Is that an en suite bathroom?” she cried. “I’m so jealous!”

She skidded to a halt and threw the door open, inside was a toilet, basin and shower. Luca cackled behind her and she pulled a face at him over her shoulder.

“Don’t laugh at me for being excited!”

“I’m not! It’s really cute.”

Darcy shook her head and jumped on him, doing her best to squash him under her much smaller body. He howled with more laughter. His arms squeezed her in close and he rolled them back and forth on the bean bag. When he stopped, they were both breathlessly laughing.

Darcy’s tummy gurgled loud enough for them both to hear over their panting, and they laughed harder.

“We’re not allowed to eat anything from the kitchen because it’s for the party tomorrow, and my mother will murder us,” Luca advised gravely. “But I bought us our own snacks and I’ll order pizzas for dinner.”

Darcy beamed. “And where can I find those snacks?”

Luca opened the doors of his wardrobe and pulled free a plastic bag, filled with delights.

“You crack into those and I’ll get the pizza menus,” Luca called over his shoulder as he pulled the door open.

Darcy stuffed her hand inside the bag and helped herself to some peanut butter cups. She used her other hand to wave goodbye to him.

While he was out of the room, she couldn’t help but snoop around a bit. With her mouth filled with chocolatey goodness at the same time, of course.

It was fairly neat and tidy. Especially for a boy. She had been expecting underpants on the floor and a distinct smell of gym sweat. She was super jealous of the tv, she wasn’t allowed one in her room. The bed was tempting her, she wanted to throw herself on it and see how much it bounced. She had almost convinced herself when Luca burst back into the room. He waved a brochure in the air triumphantly. She grinned and took it from him.

Darcy scanned the menu quickly and picked a small pizza, Luca read over her shoulder and picked a large. He put in orders for a few others in the pack who had messaged him asking to get in on the delivery. Apparently, no one could ever be bothered to walk all the way down the drive to collect the food off pack grounds. If one person was going, everyone wanted to add to the order.

Ten minutes after ordering, he was off to collect. The walk was long, so he told her to stay put. Darcy jumped on his bed for twenty minutes before she got too tired and flopped onto the bean bag. After another twenty minutes, Luca returned.

The heavenly smell of pizza had Darcy cheering his entrance. Luca grinned and laid two boxes on his desk. Darcy followed him like a puppy, hungry and excited. But first, she needed to get something off her chest. Something that could cause her soul-mate to choke on his cheese if she waited another minute.

“About that thing I needed to tell you-”

“Sorry, babe, bear with me just a minute,” he said distractedly. He had popped the lids open and was inspecting both pizzas. “I think I got given the wrong box - you said extra cheese and green peppers, right?”

“Yeah.”

He sighed. “Sorry, let me go sort this out. I’ll be right back and then you can tell me, okay?”

“Sure.”

He hurried off with her pizza and Darcy perched on the edge of his bed awkwardly until he returned.

“Sorted!” Luca yelled from the door and kicked it closed behind him. He handed her the box and took his own from the desk. They sat on the floor to eat and Luca filled the conversation with tales of his fellow beta, Oli, and his many feasting feats. Apparently, the gentle giant of the Pearl Claw could devour more food in one sitting that Darcy did in a week. Tomorrow she would be getting introduced to him, and the alpha. She asked, in a chewing pause, what he was like.

“Nico? She’s tough as nails, but I think she’s fair overall,” Luca answered carefully.

“Your alpha is a woman?”

Luca tilted his head cutely. “Yeah, you didn’t know?”

“I guess I should have done my homework beforehand,” she said with a shrug. If he didn’t think that a female alpha was a rarity, she didn’t want to act like she was ignorant, but she had never met one before.

Luca laughed and stuffed his face with more cheese and pepperoni.

Once Darcy had cleared all but one piece of her pizza, she pushed the box away and stood up to stretch. She felt uncomfortably full. With a sigh she sunk into the centre of the bean bag. Her eyes were half-lidded as she watched Luca polish off every last bite of what had been left on the cardboard. He licked the tips of his fingers and Darcy’s lower tummy clenched. He looked over her once he had finished. It did not help with the unwanted arousal.

“Shouldn’t I be the one getting sleepy?” he teased.

“Too much food,” she groaned.

“Let’s watch a movie while your stomach settles.”

Darcy nodded happily and put her hands out. Luca pulled her out of the bean bag gently and pushed her towards the bed. She climbed on and bum-shuffled to the side. He hopped in next to her with a tiny remote in his hand.

“What do you want to watch?”

She cuddled into him and shrugged. She didn’t care, she just wanted to be close to him. And if a movie was playing, it would be bad manners to interrupt it with her confession. She had just earned herself two hours of peace.

By the time the credits rolled, the room had gone dark. Luca flicked on his bedside lamp.

“PJ time?” he asked.

Darcy flushed, but nodded.

He gave her full use of the bathroom first and she took her sweet time, nervous to go to bed. Face washed, cream applied, clip removed, hair brushed, clothes off, pjs on, teeth brushed. They traded and he was done in five minutes. She would need to get him onto a skin care routine as soon as she moved in to preserve that perfect face of his.

He bounded out and caught her around the waist, forcing giggles from her. He spun her, hugged close to his body, and dove back onto the bed. They tumbled across it together and his minty laughter brushed her forehead. He threw up the blankets and they wriggled underneath. He rolled onto his side, his wide shoulders blocked out half the light of the lamp. Darcy mimicked him, pressing the side of her face into the cool pillow.

Luca stared into her eyes for a few moments. His excitement was palpable. It healed and hurt her in equal measure.

“We should do this for your birthday, too!” he said. “Like our special ritual or something. We can move all your stuff in the day before, and it will be our first night living together because we’ll both have graduated by then!”

Darcy opened and closed her mouth a few times before replying, “maybe.”

Luca deflated. “We don’t have to do that,” he offered quietly. “I didn’t mean to come on too strong.”

“It’s not that,” she murmured awkwardly.

“What is it?” He sat up against the headboard. “Are you not having fun?”

“I am!” She followed him upright. “We just can’t…”

He was quick to bounce back. “We can do something different for your birthday, babe. Anything you want.” He was getting himself over-excited again. Darcy’s heart began pounding in her ears. “A big party or a small celebration. It’s less than two months away so we can start planning-”

“My birthday isn’t in August.”