Beta Bully (M/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 him.

“Are you okay?”

Darcy nodded, but his eyes welled and his lips wobbled against his will. In an instant he was bawling against Luca’s bare chest.

“Darce, my love, I’m so sorry.”

“You scared me!” he wailed.

Luca stroked his 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 he 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.” Luca 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 his 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 he could. He hoped it was the last time he 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.” He shouldn’t have to repeat himself for his soul-mate to hear him.

“We could do with some fresh air after fighting,” Luca reasoned, putting on his charming voice to convince him. “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 him 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 Luca, it would probably be a perfectly acceptable excuse for the day off.

Darcy crossed his 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 he’s avoiding you?”

“I’ll give you that,” Darcy said dully, rolling his eyes at Luca’s 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 Darcy up onto said two feet with a one-armed hug. When he was stood straight, Darcy’s legs dangled. He dropped him 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.” Luca gave him a soft shove towards the bathroom. It didn’t budge him an inch, but he started walking.

“Are you saying I smell?” he called behind him.

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

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

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

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

He released him, panting, and gave him 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 him. “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.” He rolled his eyes at his mate’s lack of understanding for his situation. “Which is their stronger form. That’s more dangerous than walking around everyone in human form.” He 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?” he 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 his blood was burning through him at the sexual hunger his soul-mate didn’t have the modesty to hide.

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

It was possible that Luca could sense the old wound that was splitting back open, because his tone softened. “Not like this,” he said quietly, appraising him with obvious attraction. Darcy looked away, unable to bear his heated golden gaze on him 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 himself, 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 his off a step behind. When he stepped out of his shorts, Darcy 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 Darcy’s naked body a lingering once-over. Darcy pretended to kick him deeper into the woods. Luca 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 he were coming out of a coma and trying to bend his joints for the first time in years.

He continued to hide behind the wide trunk of the tree long after he 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 his paws as he tried to find his balance on all fours. Luca watched him with a tilted head and floppy ears. What he was waiting for, Darcy didn’t know. This was his idea, after all.

Darcy huffed again, put his nose to the air, and climbed over the mountainous tree root that was blocking him 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 he would happily plonk his small, furry butt. Luca could run buckwild and he would watch him from a nice sunspot. Like a cat in a conservatory.

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

Luca was a step behind him, 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 his eyes, and then closed them. If his soul-mate wanted to impress him, showing off his ability to chase his own tail was not the way.

A shadow came over him, blocking the warmth he had been happily bathing in.