Beta Bully (F/M) - Chapter 50 (Early Access) (Patreon)

Walkies I

Darcy woke slowly and groggily, sheltered in the cove of Luca’s body. Weary golden eyes were staring down at her.

“Are you okay?”

Darcy nodded, but her eyes welled and her lips wobbled against her will. In an instant she was bawling against his bare chest.

“Darce, my love, I’m so sorry.”

“You scared me!” she wailed.

He stroked her hair with gentle fingertips. “It scared me, too,” he said, still sounding it. “I’m sorry, babe.”

Darcy sniffed and hiccuped a few breaths until she could stammer out, “what was that?”

“I don’t know.” He shook his head with a dazed expression. “But you know when you’re in a dream and you just know something is true, even if it makes no sense?”

Darcy nodded.

“I knew if you left, I was going to lose all control. I felt like my wolf form was trying to push through my skin. Like my fur was prickling just beneath the surface.”

“Why if I left?”

“Because the thought of you out there, alone in the dark, it was setting off all these alarm bells inside of me. I don’t normally get those kind of instinctual warnings unless I’m sensing some kind of danger, like if I see a rogue wolf getting too close to our lands or something.” He shook his head again, like a dog drying itself.

“I think I was getting a… wolf sense, too?” Darcy looked away awkwardly. “I don’t normally get the natural instincts that other wolves do.”

“Oh, yeah.” Luca nodded thoughtfully. “You don’t feel comfortable in your wolf form,” he recalled.

Darcy shook her head. “And that’s why. I’ve never understood all the… cues that come with being in that form. But last night it was like I could sense there was something to be afraid of that wasn’t you. Like I was more scared of whatever was scaring you than your weird behaviour.”

“Pack mentality. You don’t need to know what’s wrong, you just need to notice when your pack-mates are giving off warnings.”

“Well, that was my first, and probably only, experience with it,” Darcy said as lightly as she could. She hoped it was the last time she felt such an intense reaction to the unknown. Ignorance really is bliss.

“Why don’t we practice? Go out for a run in ou-”

Darcy cut him off irritably, “I don’t like my wolf form.” She shouldn’t have to repeat herself for her soul-mate to hear her.

“We could do with some fresh air after fighting,” Luca reasoned, putting on his charming voice to convince her. “And there’s no way we can work today after last night.”

“We can’t just take the day off to go run naked in the forest,” Darcy replied flatly.

Luca pulled his phone from his back pocket and tapped furiously for almost a minute.

“Don’t piss off Alpha Nico by-”

“I let her know we won’t be working today. We had a rough night and we’re going to spend some time in the forest to get better.”

It may sound like a hysterical human woman being sent to the seaside to recover in Victorian times, but wolves did believe wholeheartedly in the healing power of the outdoors. Especially woodlands. For him, it would probably be a perfectly acceptable excuse for the day off.

Darcy crossed her arms with a grumble. “That’s nice for you. I’m the one whose going to get it in the arse for skipping work.”

“How can Alpha Nico yell at you if she’s avoiding you?”

“I’ll give you that,” Darcy said dully, rolling her eyes at his self-satisfied expression. “But I’m not shifting out there.”

“Let’s get washed and dressed and grab some snacks-”

“And then spend the day on the sofa.”

“And then go to the woods, where you can decide once we get there if you want to join me for a four-legged wander.”

Darcy pulled a face.

“You can stay on two feet if you think you can keep up with me,” Luca offered. He pulled her up onto said two feet with a one-armed hug. When he was stood straight, her legs dangled. He dropped her carefully onto the carpet.

“Luca, I couldn’t keep up with you if I had wheels and an engine strapped to my butt.”

“Less flattery, more washing.” He gave her a soft shove towards the bathroom. It didn’t budge her an inch, but she started walking.

“Are you saying I smell?” she called behind her.

“I’m saying you’re trying to waste time.” Before she could get three steps from him he snatched her blouse and yanked her back against him. The thick muscles of his arms squeezed her into his chest and his nose inhaled deeply against her neck. “For the record, you smell amazing,” he groaned.

“That’s the smell of stress,” Darcy quipped petulantly.

“Sorry,” he mumbled against her throat. She extended it instinctively, inviting him to mark the skin.

He took the invitation more than gladly. His tongue danced down her neck, sucking at her skin every few centimetres. When he reached the crux of her collarbone, he sucked the flesh into his mouth so hard Darcy gasped.

He released her, panting, and gave her another nudge in the direction of the bathroom.

Miraculously, they managed to drag themselves from Alder suite, washed and dressed, before midday.

Luca lead the way through the house and across the pack grounds to the nearest forest entrance. Darcy followed reluctantly.

“On your own, of course, please never wander around in your wolf form,” Luca called back to her. “But when you’re with someone else, you’re probably more safe than most people.”

Darcy huffed and skipped forward to be in line with him. “That doesn’t make any sense because they would also be in wolf form.” She rolled her eyes at her mate’s lack of understanding for her situation. “Which is their stronger form. That’s more dangerous than walking around everyone in human form.” She scoffed. “I’d rather fight ten humans than one wolf, wouldn’t you?”

“But you’re an omega,” he countered. “So you have permanent puppy status.”

Darcy rounded on him, stopping him in his tracks and scowling up at him. “Is this a joke to you?” she snapped.

“No.” They stared each other down. “Your parents really should have taken you out for walkies more as a kid,” Luca added.

Darcy stared at him with silent fury.

He sighed. “Puppies get special treatment,” he explained slowly. “They get whatever they want with a side order of protection from whoever they’re with. It doesn’t matter who you were out with, as the puppy, you would be first priority.”

“I’m not a puppy.”

“If it looks like a duck and it smells like a duck, then we’re probably having hoisin wraps for dinner.”

“Is that how you see me?”

“A tasty meal?” His eyes flashed with desire. The tip of his tongue ran over his left canine, almost threateningly. Darcy would not be distracted, though, no matter how hot her blood was burning through her at the sexual hunger he didn’t have the modesty to hide.

“A puppy.” Darcy hated the word, it was an insult to omegas. One her ex-bully had used on her more than a few times.

It was possible that he could sense the old wound that was splitting back open, because his tone softened. “Not like this,” he said quietly, appraising her with obvious attraction. Darcy looked away, unable to bear his heated golden gaze on her for too long. It was like looking directly into the sun.  “But in wolf form, it might be different.”

“I don’t want it to be different.”

Luca seemed to snap out of his horn-dog fog. He rolled his eyes. “Stop clinging to excuses and let’s get going.”

Darcy continued to grumble to herself, but followed his lead. They were only a few metres from the edge of the forest, and Luca didn’t hesitate entering. When he pulled his shirt over his head, Darcy yanked hers off a step behind. When he stepped out of his shorts, she did the same. He’d brought a small backpack with him, and once they had stripped fully, he stuffed their clothes into it and hung it from a low branch.

Taking off the clothes was the easy part, putting on the fur was where the difficulty came.

Luca gave her naked body a lingering once-over. Darcy pretended to kick him deeper into the woods. He laughed and leapt forward, shifting before his feet could hit the dirt. Now they were paws.

Darcy scurried behind a tree to shift more slowly and awkwardly. It wasn’t so much painful as it was… a creaky sensation. As though she were coming out of a coma and trying to bend her joints for the first time in years.

She continued to hide behind the wide trunk of the tree long after she had shifted. Eventually, a whine sounded from the other side. Darcy huffed back.

An enormous golden muzzle peeked around the bark and Darcy skittered back a few steps. Their size difference had become even more comical than it was when they were humans. Omega were the only wolves that became smaller after shifting.

The ground was littered with rocks and twigs that pricked her paws as she tried to find her balance on all fours. Luca watched her with a tilted head and floppy ears. What he was waiting for, she didn’t know. This was his idea, after all.

Darcy huffed again, put her nose to the air, and climbed over the mountainous tree root that was blocking her from what looked like much softer terrain. A patch of grass, open to the sun with a gap in the tree branches, glowed green and lush ahead. That was where she would happily plonk her small, furry butt. Luca could run buckwild and she would watch him from a nice sunspot. Like a cat in a conservatory.

Her legs were a little shaky, but she was slowly getting the hang of it when she stepped her delicate paw pads onto the soft grass. A small relief. She sighed happily and flopped onto her side. The sun warmed her fur delightfully. Maybe once she had relaxed a little more she would lie on her back and sun her tummy and toes. She shook her head once, feeling the tips of her droopy ears whap her face. She was definitely getting ahead of herself.

Luca was a step behind her, still observing with that curious lopsided look. Darcy watched him back through squinted eyes.

He made a snort sound, possibly a laugh, and jumped back. He was light on his paws and he took off like a rocket, running the perimeter of Darcy’s small circle of solace a few times in a continuous loop. Darcy rolled her eyes, and then closed them. If her soul-mate wanted to impress her, showing off his ability to chase his own tail was not the way.

A shadow came over her, blocking the warmth she had been happily bathing in.