Beta Bully (M/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. Darcy’s new pack. Their pack. Darcy shook his head, he just needed some practice and he would stop forgetting that he 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 him 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 him out often whilst on Charred Crescent pack grounds. Apparently Darcy was worth more as a beta’s mate than he was as his own alpha assistant. He understood that Alpha Marshall needed to maintain healthy pack relations, but it seemed strange that he would suddenly be so eager to gain Darcy’s approval before he had even left. Playing the long game, he supposed.

He had even offered his 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 his 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 his life-long role of alpha assistant in Luca's.

Graduation came and went in a blur. His 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 his belongings, his move-in was complete. He had his pack transfer documentation signed and stamped. He'd hugged and kissed his parents a few thousand times. Thanked his alpha, and Alpha Marshall, who would be soon taking over as the leader of the Charred Crescent pack.

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

Sat in the passenger seat of the van, it all began to sink in. He wasn't taking a vacation to his boyfriend's lands, he was officially the omega of the Pearl Claw. Even with so much forewarning, he wasn’t prepared for this much change. His 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 Darcy the entire journey of deep breaths to bring himself back down. He 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?” Darcy asked with a breathless laugh. He was tempted to tell him just how nervous he was, but he held his tongue. He didn’t want to ruin the good mood.

“I’m excited about that,” Luca 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 his 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, he 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. He wiggled in his seat at the sight of the red-brick house appearing at the top of the drive. That was technically his house, he 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!” He grinned at Luca so hard he thought his cheeks were going to burst.

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

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

“The empty ones, sure,” Luca teased.

They left the van packed to the brim and Luca lead him inside by the hand. His was so big that Darcy wrapped his other hand around it, creating a chain with his hands around Luca’s palm. Luca’s fingers snapped open and closed like a venus fly trap, snatching up both of Darcy’s hands inside and shocking a laugh out of him. It echoed through the empty halls of the main pack house. He 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 Darcy’s hands go and dropped one of the keys into his cupped palms. “Want to do the honours?”

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

He shook his head, clearing the cobwebs and the dirty thoughts. Fresh start. It was time to see his 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 he could change it. It was their home, they could do what they pleased with it.

He raced inside and began pulling doors open. One contained a half-bathroom, for guests he 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 Luca offered up to him. Darcy would probably use it for storage until he worked out what he 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 his excitement. He wasn’t moving into someone else’s space. He and his soul-mate were carving out their own home.

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

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

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

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

His mouth was so soft, but his tongue always so rough. Pressing into Darcy’s and dominating the space between his lips. Darcy cracked his eyes open to watch him. He was staring at him with a ravenous gaze. A fluttering began in his lower belly and he 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.