Beta Bully (F/M) - Chapter 37 (Early Access) (Patreon)

Sweetheart Suite

Alpha Marshall hefted the last of Darcy’s cardboard boxes into the back of the van Luca had borrowed from a member of his pack. Her new pack. Their pack. Darcy shook her head, she just needed some practice and she would stop forgetting that she wasn’t a member of the Charred Crescent anymore. Not from today.

Luca slammed the doors shut with a grin and the pair high-fived. Darcy watched them from a camping chair that was plopped nearby for her to supervise the heavy-lifting. And also yell at Luca for having a nice bum when Alpha Marshall was out of ear-shot.

In the weeks since Luca’s party, the alpha had been far friendlier to Darcy specifically, and sought her out often whilst on Charred Crescent pack grounds. Apparently she was worth more as a beta’s mate than she was as his own alpha assistant. She understood that he needed to maintain healthy pack relations, but it seemed strange that he would suddenly be so eager to gain her approval before she had even left. Playing the long game, she supposed.

He had even offered her special alpha permission to bring Reece and Melody onto Charred Crescent lands, but Reece had been less than impressed with the offer. He said he smelled bribery. How the alpha even knew her best friends’ names, Darcy didn’t know.

At the time, exam season had been upon them for their final year. So it wasn’t like the trio had much time for anything but studying anyway. Reece was particularly fed up and grouchy at all times.

And then it was over. They walked out of their final exam and spent the next few weeks adjusting to the fact that they were now, as far as the werewolf community was concerned, adults. And it was terrifying. Reece and Melody were expected to start applying for jobs within their pack and Darcy would be starting her life-long role of alpha assistant in Luca's.

Graduation came and went in a blur. Her mother’s phone was filled with sappy photos of Darcy and Luca cuddled up in their gowns, being generally intolerable to all the non-mated wolves around them. No more school. No more bus. No more homework. No more bully.

Now that they were down to the final van-load of her belongings, her move-in was complete. She had her pack transfer documentation signed and stamped. She'd hugged and kissed her parents a few thousand times. Thanked her alpha, and Alpha Marshall, who would be soon taking over as the leader of the Charred Crescent pack.

And now she was waving out of the window at them, wondering when she would next be back.

Sat in the passenger seat of the van, it all began to sink in. She wasn't taking a vacation to her boyfriend's lands, she was officially the omega of the Pearl Claw. Even with so much forewarning, she wasn’t prepared for this much change. Her thoughts began to spiral.

While Darcy experienced an existential crisis in the seat next to him, Luca drove the van with a wide grin and an off-beat rhythm in his fingertips where he tapped them on the steering wheel. He had been a ray of sunshine since his birthday, less a wolf and more a golden retriever.

It took the entire journey of deep breaths to bring herself back down. She was fine. There was no reason to be nervous. A wolf pack was a wolf pack. It would feel like home. Luca always felt like home.

When they passed through the pack gates, Luca was practically vibrating in his seat.

“Are you really this excited for me to move in?” she asked with a breathless laugh. She was tempted to tell him just how nervous she was, but she held her tongue. She didn’t want to ruin his good mood.

“I’m excited about that,” he said slowly, bouncing his head from side to side as though weighing something up in his mind. “But I’m really excited to show you our new suite!”

“What?” Darcy sat up straighter in her seat and gawked at him. “I thought we hadn’t been placed yet?”

Most adult wolves took up residences on the pack grounds once they met the requirements of having found their soul-mate and at least one of them having a job. Being titled pack members, Luca and Darcy were both required to live in the main pack house with the alpha and other beta. Luca had moved into the pack house already because his father had died, and after a few years without her soul-mate, his mother had decided to move in with a friend for support. It seemed pointless for Luca to move and then move again when he was older, so he was placed in the pack house.

However, the room he had wasn’t fit for an adult, even less so for a couple, so the application had been made for one of the suites. They knew they would get approved, but it was a matter of when one was cleared out and assigned to them.

The suites were for adult title-holders, their direct descendants, and visitors from other packs. And although Darcy hadn’t seen one, she had heard they were basically mini apartments. They would finally get to play house together, just like Luca promised.

“Beta Oli got it pushed for your move-in day!” Luca exclaimed. He slapped the top of the wheel in another messy rhythm. “Darce, it’s huge! We’re gonna have so much space.”

“Oh my god!” Darcy squealed. She wiggled in her seat at the sight of the red-brick house appearing at the top of the drive. That was technically her house, she thought.

“All your other stuff is still in my room, though. I didn’t have time to move it after I got the keys because I needed to come get you.”

“That’s okay. I’ll get to see it all big and empty first!” She grinned at him so hard she thought her cheeks were going to burst.

Luca laughed. “You can enjoy the big emptiness while I do the heavy lifting,” he offered gentlemanly.

“I think I can manage a box or two,” she said, feigning offence at the notion that she was a puny omega.

“The empty ones, sure,” Luca teased.

They left the van packed to the brim and Luca lead her inside by the hand. His was so big she wrapped her other hand around it, creating a chain with her hands around his. His fingers snapped open and closed like a venus fly trap, snatching up both her hands inside and shocking a laugh out of her. It echoed through the empty halls of the main pack house. She knew very few people lived in the enormous building, but it still felt strange to not bump into a single other person on their way. They climbed up three floors and walked to the far end of the house.

The door was adorned with a small gold plaque, almost out of Darcy’s reach. It read ‘Alder Suite’.

“They’re all named after trees,” Luca explained. He used his free hand to pull out a pair of identical keys from his pocket. “Here’s yours.” He let her hands go and dropped one the keys into her cupped palms. “Want to do the honours?”

Darcy nodded and unlocked the door carefully and slowly. Savouring the moment. She felt Luca’s breath on her neck and shivered. He chuckled into her ear. It filled her with the urge to swing around and latch herself to him like a bush baby. The hormonal urges that came with finding her soul-mate had not subsided even a little since his birthday. Sometimes just his scent soaked her underwear.

She shook her head, clearing the cobwebs and the dirty thoughts. Fresh start. It was time to see her new home.

With a tentative push, the door swung open and revealed a huge open space with a number of doors leading from it. It was decorated in neutral tones, cream carpet and white walls, but already Darcy’s mind was racing at the possibilities for how she could change it. It was their home, they could do what they pleased with it.

She raced inside and began pulling doors open. One contained a half-bathroom, for guests she assumed. Another had a small room with lots of windows, Luca immediately called it for a home office. There was a mini kitchen, which Darcy hadn’t been expecting given there was an enormous one on the ground floor of the pack house anyway. Another small room on the opposite side to Luca’s office, which he offered up to her. Darcy would probably use it for storage until she worked out what she wanted to do with it. Maybe in a few years it would be a nursery. The final door lead to the master bedroom, with an en suite that would serve as their main bathroom.

“Luca,” Darcy breathed, spinning in a slow circle in the living area. “It’s so big!” Having a place that was theirs from the first day had renewed her excitement. She wasn’t moving into someone else’s space. She and her soul-mate were carving out their own home.

“I know! Good thing seeing as we have so much crap,” he teased.

“Better get to it, then,” she laughed, flapping her hand at him to send him on his way. He laughed with her and snatched her up by the waist. Darcy looped her arms around his neck and pressed their foreheads together.

“I’m so happy you’re here,” he said softly. His golden eyes glittered so beautifully, she wished she could pause time. Keep him exactly how he was in that moment. Staring at her with so much adoration in his eyes. “I love you, Darce.” His lips took hers, slowly and gently. She let her eyelids fall shut.

“I love you, too,” she moaned into his mouth. Her hands bunched into his shirt, pulling him just a little closer. Her feet dangled a foot off the floor. The warmth of his body radiated through both their layers of clothing, it reached the deepest part of her. Lighting a fire inside.

His mouth was so soft, but his tongue always so rough. Pressing into hers and dominating the space between her lips. She cracked her eyes open to watch him. He was staring at her with a ravenous gaze. A fluttering began in her lower belly and she whimpered softly.

The knock of knuckle on wood cleared the fog around them. Luca spun, Darcy still balanced in his arms, to greet their first visitor.