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

Beta Bottled Up

The clatter of a mug in the sink beside him had Darcy dragged from his thoughts, and halfway out of his 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 his soul rejoined his body. Then he dropped the cloth he had been using to wipe down the counters and babbled, “Beta Oli, I’m sorry- I didn’t-” His 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. His hands fluttered a little in the air between them in a calming motion. Darcy snapped his lips shut and swallowed despite his dry throat. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to drop your title there,” he added awkwardly.

“I don’t mind,” Darcy replied. “We’re alone.” He 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.” He glanced about the room as though checking the exits for eavesdroppers. As a beta, he would be able to smell anyone nearby anyway, but Darcy was glad for his caution all the same when he continued, “about yesterday.”

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

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

“You’re not angry?” he asked carefully. His back was still up. The hairs everywhere but his head were lifted.

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

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

Oli sighed and scratched the back of his neck where the shaved section of his hair began. “I don’t know what to say to defend him anymore,” he admitted. For the first time, a tinge of weariness crept over his face. He let his weight lean back until he 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. He immediately felt ashamed for being so nosey.

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

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

“He wants the public identity of being his soul-mate. And I-” He 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.” He 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.” He laughed bitterly to himself and scrubbed his hands over his face. “I love him. He’s my entire world. But fuck me, he isn’t easy to handle.”

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

“Nico is the submissive mate.”

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

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

“I didn’t assume that,” he reassured. He 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 his eyes that caused a twinge in Darcy’s chest. “I’m getting the sense that… he’s wearing Nico down. That he’s seeing the benefits in his proposition. I don’t think he ever intends to go public with our relationship, so why not take on a fake one to cover his 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.

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

For a moment, Darcy was tempted to remind him that he and Luca were titled, but then he remembered that only one of their titles held any power. If anything, his 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 him gently.

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

“I hear you loud and clear, Beta,” he assured him.

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

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

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

“Little shit,” Oli grumbled. “You ignore him, Darcy, he can’t do anything but wind you up with his 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 his head with raised brows and an eye-roll. “I’ll have a word with him,” he said, the weariness from earlier slipping back into his 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 him off with his grimy cloth. He fled the room in mock terror.