Beta Bully (F/F) - Chapter 46 (Early Access) (Patreon)

Beta Bottled Up

The clatter of a mug in the sink beside her had Darcy dragged from her thoughts, and halfway out of her skin in shock.

“Sorry, Omega, didn’t mean to startle you,” said Beta Oli with raised palms and a sheepish smile.

Darcy stared at the beta for a moment as her soul rejoined her body. Then she dropped the cloth she had been using to wipe down the counters and babbled, “Beta Oli, I’m sorry- I didn’t-” Her breaths felt like hiccups. “I didn’t see you- I didn’t mean to see you, as well-”

“Darcy, it’s okay!” Beta Oli interrupted with a hushed tone. Her hands fluttered a little in the air between them in a calming motion. Darcy snapped her lips shut and swallowed despite her dry throat. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to drop your title there,” she added awkwardly.

“I don’t mind,” Darcy replied. “We’re alone.” She hoped they were, at least.

Oli’s face slid into a mild smile. “I hope you’ll speak informally to me, too, then.”

“Sure,” Darcy mumbled.

“I wanted to talk to you.” She glanced about the room as though checking the exits for eavesdroppers. As a beta, she would be able to smell anyone nearby anyway, but Darcy was glad for her caution all the same when she continued, “about yesterday.”

“I’m so sorry.” Darcy kept her voice down but couldn’t keep the pleading from it.

Oli shook her head and flapped her hands again. “Don’t worry, it was an accident. Now we’re even for when I interrupted you and Beta Luna on your first day.” She looked amused at the memory. Darcy probably looked like a fish in an ice box.

“You’re not angry?” she asked carefully. Her back was still up. The hairs everywhere but her head were lifted.

“Over that?” Oli tilted her head with scrunched brows. It did nothing to lower her enormous stature.

Darcy knew she shouldn’t say the next words that came out of her mouth, but as usual they tumbled out too quick for her to catch. “Alpha Nico was angry.”

Oli sighed and scratched the back of her neck where the shaved section of her hair began. “I don’t know what to say to defend her anymore,” she admitted. For the first time, a tinge of weariness crept over her face. She let her weight lean back until she was balanced against the counter and sighed again. “I’m sorry this has been put on you, but please don’t tell anyone about what you saw. Only one other person knows-”

“Riley?” Darcy blurted. She immediately felt ashamed for being so nosey.

Beta Oli nodded with a grim smile. “She was my best friend- our best friend. When Nico and I reached mate maturity and neither of us were her mate, she was not happy. When we told her we were mated to each other… it was ugly.”

“Even though she knows about the two of you, she still wants Alpha Nico as her soul-mate?” Darcy guessed.

“She wants the public identity of being her soul-mate. And I-” Oli looked away suddenly, face crumpled.

Darcy gasped softly. “I-I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to pry.”

“No, it’s okay. I haven’t had anyone to talk to about this.” She shrugged, visibly uncomfortable. “I feel like I’m putting even more problems on you, though. Problems that you clearly don’t need when you have Nico to deal with on the daily.” She laughed bitterly to herself and scrubbed her hands over her face. “I love her. She’s my entire world. But fuck me, she isn’t easy to handle.”

“If she’s an alpha and you’re a beta, would it not be expected that she should be… handling you?”

“Nico is the submissive mate.”

Darcy did her best not to look completely flabbergasted. Failed. And cooed an uneasy, “Oh.”

“In public, she’s dominant, of course. But our bodies… make it very clear in their urges behind closed doors.” Her ears grew red from the tips downward, spreading to her cheekbones. “It’s not because I’m bigger than her,” she tacked on tersely. The topic had her hackles up just enough for Darcy to notice and back up a step.

“I didn’t assume that,” she reassured. She pushed the conversation back onto its original tracks, hoping to alleviate some of Oli’s discomfort. “What were you going to say about Riley wanting your place publicly?”

Oli hesitated before answering. There was a vulnerability in her eyes that caused a twinge in Darcy’s chest. “I’m getting the sense that… she’s wearing Nico down. That she’s seeing the benefits in her proposition. I don’t think she ever intends to go public with our relationship, so why not take on a fake one to cover her back?”

“Why do you hide your relationship? You’re soul-mates, what is there to be worried about?”

“We’re both dominants, for one. You can’t say you’ve ever seen that before.”

Darcy shrugged in concession. She hadn’t heard of an all-female led pack before The Pearl Claw, either.

“We’re both titled wolves, too. People might think we are orchestrating the relationship for power.”

For a moment, Darcy was tempted to remind her that she and Luna were titled, but then she remembered that only one of their titles held any power. If anything, her title was in the negative when it came to authority.

“With our positions, it will only draw extra interest in the dynamic between us, and I don’t want nosey wolves sniffing around our personal affairs. We can barely find a room to fuck in without being interrupted.” The second part was punctuated with a laugh and a wink. Darcy flushed with guilt again.

“You’re not making a great case for why Riley shouldn’t get to play pretend at being Alpha Nico’s mate,” Darcy advised her gently.

“Because she’s mine.” Oli’s chest rumbled and Darcy could sense a growl being restrained. She backed up another step.

“I hear you loud and clear, Beta,” she assured her.

“Sorry.” She relaxed back against the counter again. “Obviously, from an unbiased perspective, I can see the advantages. But I am biased, right down to my soul.”

“And that’s the right way to be,” Darcy consoled her. She tried to sound both sympathetic and hopeful. There was going to be a way to resolve things, she just didn’t know how. “If you were willing to step aside without caring, that would be time to be concerned. She’s your soul-mate. Riley is your friend, and no matter what she does, she can’t fabricate a soul tie.”

“I’m not even sure she’s my friend anymore.”

Darcy scoffed in agreement. “She wouldn’t be mine if she tried to take my soul-mate. She did accuse me of trying to seduce yours, though.”

“Little shit,” Oli grumbled. “You ignore her, Darcy, she can’t do anything but wind you up with her words.”

“Thanks, Oli.”

Oli grinned. “Thank you. You have no idea how good it feels to be able to talk about all this.”

“It’s been bottled up inside for a long time?”

“Years.”

“Don’t let it get that along again,” Darcy said tenderly. “I’ll be on cleaning duties for the rest of eternity, so I’ll never be far if you need to vent.”

“I was going to ask why you’re cleaning the counters. You know we usually just clean up after ourselves in the main house?”

“Alpha Nico put me on cleaning jobs permanently as punishment for walking in on you two.”

Oli shook her head with raised brows and an eye-roll. “I’ll have a word with her,” she said, the weariness from earlier slipping back into her voice.

“I’d appreciate it, but don’t feel obligated to get yourself in trouble-”

“What? No room in the dog house for me, too?” Oli laughed. “Where’s your troublemaker hospitality?”

Darcy snorted and waved her off with her grimy cloth. She fled the room in mock terror.