Beta Bully (F/M) - Chapter 54 (Early Access) (Patreon)

Reports & Revelations

“-and the rocks and sticks hurt my paws!” Darcy finished with a wail.

Luca nodded, wide-eyed and baffled-looking.

“Well, that’s a long list. But to start from the finish - have you seen those little booties they put on dogs these days?”

“Luca!”

“I’m not joking!” He was grinning, though.

Darcy scowled at him. “Did you not hear the part about being stared at like I’m a freak show? You think cosplaying as some rich white lady’s dog is what will help?”

“I’m sorry.”

Darcy huffed and plopped into the space beside him on the sofa.

“Really, Darce. I’m sorry you’ve had so many things to worry about and that I haven’t been noticing.” His long arm curled around her waist and pulled her into his lap. “I’m sorry for pressuring you with your wolf form, I’m sorry for not noticing that you were struggling with Alpha Nico, I’m sorry for not trying to step in sooner, I’m sorry you haven’t been able to see your friends in too long, I’m sorry you’ve had to be the messenger for my mum… what have I missed?”

“The strip search when Oli saved me from a horrific head injury?”

“Sorry for that, too.”

“Riley,” Darcy added, almost growling.

“I won’t apologise for him, but I will do something about him,” Luca assured her, stroking his fingers along her back soothingly. It sounded like a threat, but Darcy didn’t care this time. Riley would get what he had coming to him from both betas.

“And intimidating the guards?”

“I’ll apologise to you for that, but not to them. Being grown and manner-less is their own problem. You get what you get when you act like a fool.”

Darcy gave him a look of exasperation. “How much of your anger is actually about poor etiquette, and how much is petty jealousy?”

“I don’t care if people think I’m petty,” Luca replied haughtily. “I have no shame in admitting that I’m jealous of everyone that gets to look at you for even a second.”

“Luca, my love,” Darcy cooed. She shifted in his lap to face him and took his cheeks in her hands. “You have no reason to feel jealous of anyone.”

Luca leant forward and offered a gentle kiss. Darcy met him halfway and pushed his lips open with her own. The warmth of his mouth consumed her tongue. She moaned into it and the tips of his fingers began to trail her sides. She widened her knees either side of him, offering herself to be ground against. Instead, he broke the kiss with a loud wet noise. Darcy pouted.

“I hate to ruin this perfect moment,” he said on a panted breath. “And every moment with you is perfect-”

“You’re so cheesy,” Darcy laughed. But she rewarded him with a quick forehead kiss anyway.

“But when you mentioned your friends, it reminded me that I had something to give you.” He lifted her from his lap and placed her carefully back into her own seat.

Darcy curled up against the pillow, mildly disappointed that their sofa snog had been cut short. “Something to do with my friends?”

Luca called over his shoulder as he jogged to his office, “Melody!”

“Oh!” The red-headed woman from the pool party. Darcy had asked Luca to track her down weeks ago. She wriggled in her seat excitedly, half-hoping he would produce the woman herself from his office.

He returned with a wad of papers stapled together and handed it over with exaggerated flourish. The image clipped to the front definitely fit the description Melody had given. Darcy skimmed the file top-to-bottom in silence. Then, she glanced over it at Luca’s expectant expression.

“Her name… is Summer?”

Luca nodded.

“Summer and Melody?”

Luca nodded again, but a smirk was tweaking at the corner of his mouth. They were definitely thinking the same thing. That a pair of names like that would trick anyone into thinking they lived in a rogue non-hierarchical pack, survived off rain water and didn’t allow their children to wear shoes in human form. From the looks of the file, though, neither of them aspired to the hippie lifestyle that their names would suggest. Summer would be turning eighteen just a few days into her last school year, and had already applied to take her exams early after securing a placement in the Pearl Claw’s guard training programme. Within a year she could be out on patrol along the boundary line.

Melody, on the other hand, was already in an apprenticeship-style training for the financial department within Ashen Fur. She was expecting to spend a long couple of years processing petty cash reports before moving onto the ‘big boy invoices’ as she called them, but regardless, she had a goal and a plan to get to it. The pair were both on their paths.

Darcy could admit, only to herself, that she was jealous. She didn’t get to pick what she wanted to do for the rest of her life. As was the curse of having a title, a really useless title. She glanced up again from the paperwork and Luca was frowning at her.

“I said, everything okay?”

Darcy blinked and smiled apologetically. “Oh, sorry. I’m fine, just got lost in my thoughts.”

“Happy thoughts of Summer and Melody and their three children: Rainbow, Daffodil and Hummingbird?”

Darcy rolled her eyes. “Exactly.”

“How about you go give Melody the good news? You haven’t seen your friends in too long.”

“But Alpha Nico-”

“Needs to get used to you having a life outside of this house. Go get ready and I’ll drive you into town.”

Darcy didn’t need to be told thrice. She jumped up, texting Melody and Reece as she ran to the bedroom to get changed. Reece’s lunch break didn’t line up, so he couldn’t come, but Melody was on her way immediately. Darcy hadn’t even spoiled the big surprise yet. That girl just loved her coffee and gossip.

As soon as they were seated with their drinks, Darcy announced, “I have a present for you.”

Melody pulled a face as though expecting a prank and Darcy slid the file across the table like they were a pair of secret agents exchanging top secret information.

Melody snorted and snatched up the papers. Then she froze, staring at the photo clipped to the front.

“Is this…?”

“Yep,” Darcy replied proudly. She took a long sip of her iced coffee and winked as though she had completed the detective work herself.

Melody squealed. Drawing human eyes from all over the coffee shop.

“Melody!” Darcy hissed. She smiled apologetically to the people trying to enjoy their drinks around them.

“Darcy you are a star!”

“Luca did the work, I’m just the delivery girl,” Darcy admitted.

“Thank you both,” Melody said softly, unable to drag her eyes from the photo.

Darcy watched her, the smile on her face holding itself up. “Isn’t it crazy to think that by September we could be neighbours?”

Melody lifted her head, starry-eyed.

By the time Darcy called Luca to pick her up, she and Melody had talked through every single awesome aspect of being in the same pack. The matching Halloween costumes they would wear, who would get which theme for Christmas decorations, the best businesses to buy from and work for on Pearl Claw lands…

Luca dropped her off at the top of the pack drive, kissed the top of her head goodbye and took off to hear a report from one of the guards. Darcy skipped into the main house feeling ten pounds lighter than she had since she moved in. She entered through the back door, into the kitchen and pantry areas.

“Enjoying yourself?” snarled a voice from inside the kitchen.

Darcy froze, her tummy squeezing nervously. Alpha Nico was leant against the furthest counter, watching her with sharp eyes. Darcy approached hesitantly.

“Why is it that you have so little self-awareness for just how much stress and expectation the titled members of this pack are under right now?” the alpha continued. “We have an unknown group of wolves moving into the local territory, but apparently that doesn’t concern the omega.” The toaster popped, apparently revealing the alpha’s lunch. Darcy jolted at the sound, her every nerve and cell on edge. “No, the omega can just stop working because she feels like it!”

An enormous figure loomed over the enraged alpha, having stepped silently through the kitchen door with the agility of someone much tinier.

Alpha Nico was lost in her rant. “And-”

Darcy locked eyes with Oli.

“Nico.”

The room stilled. Even the breeze seemed to fall flat. The alpha’s body snapped taut like a freeze-frame.

“What the fuck are you doing?”

Neither alpha nor omega responded to Oli’s question, they were frozen facing each other.

Oli’s enormous hand snatched the curve of Alpha Nico’s jaw and pulled her in to him, maintaining his grip on her face and forcing her eyes to his. Darcy averted her own eyes, it seemed… intimate. The dominant energy rolling off the beta had her wanting to scurry away and hold completely still at the same time.

“You are an alpha,” he growled. “A strong and intelligent one, but you need to fucking act like it. You are better than this and you know it.” He stressed every word as though she wouldn’t understand him otherwise. “If you really need someone to pick on, you can do better than an undeserving omega. Pick on someone your own size.”

It was clear exactly who he was referring to, Oli was the only person in the pack who matched Alpha Nico’s towering height. He even surpassed her by maybe an inch. Darcy peeked back at the pair.

Alpha Nico seemed to be completely entranced by her mate, her body limp from his palm like a puppet being dangled by the neck.

“You owe Darcy an apology,” Oli said slowly and sternly.

Alpha Nico nodded, dazed in the eyes.

“And an apology means nothing without change,” he added. “Don’t embarrass us both by continuing like this.” Darcy was shocked at the intensity of his words.

Oli turned Nico’s head to face Darcy and released her. The alpha murmured a mildly reluctant apology.

Darcy didn’t care, it was a starting point. A new beginning.

“Thank you, Alpha,” she said sincerely. “I only ever wanted to get along well with you.” She shuffled on the spot nervously before adding, “I was actually really looking forward to my alpha assistant role in your pack.”

Alpha Nico’s eyes softened and her mouth dropped into a sad frown.

“Omega Darcy… I really am sorry,” she said. “I’ve been taking things out on you that aren’t your fault. And… I give up on a connection if I feel I’ve already ruined it.” She glanced at Oli, who returned her sad look. “I’d… like a fresh start if you’re willing to give me one. If not, you’re more than welcome to work as an aide to the betas instead. I know Oli really enjoys your company.” The last part was said with what Darcy could only pinpoint as longing.

“A fresh start with you sounds perfect,” Darcy replied. There was something in Alpha Nico’s eyes that told her there was hope yet for them. And if not, now she had a back-up offer too. “Shall we have lunch together?” She smiled at them both and Oli nodded.

The kitchen door flew open and a visibly furious Luca appeared in the doorway. “Alpha Nico, I was looking for you,” he barked.

Darcy’s heart dropped into her gut. With all her heart she loved him, but gods above did her soul-mate have the worst timing.

Nico didn’t react to his aggressive body language. “Oh?” she answered quietly. “Sorry, Beta, I left my phone in my desk. Is this… urgent?”

“Very.”

“Is it appropriate to discuss with Oli and Omega Darcy present.”

“I’ll leave that up to you to decide,” Luca huffed. “We need to discuss your treatment of my soul-mate.”

“Luca!” Darcy said through gritted teeth. “No.”

Before she could tell him now was not the time, Nico took over, speaking uncharacteristically amicably. “I understand your frust-”

Luca snapped, “how can you? With all due respect, and I don’t think much is due anymore, you don’t have a soul-mate to worry about all day long. Not that anyone would dare to fuck with the alpha’s mate.” His voice lowered into a growl and Darcy was somehow both turned on and afraid at the same time. “So why do you think you have the right to fuck with mine?”

Darcy jumped in, her voice much more quiet and awkward than she wanted. “Luca, Oli already sorted the situation, and Alpha Nico apo-”

“Oli isn’t your mate,” Luca responded coolly. He had yet to look away from Alpha Nico. Their eyes were locked like the horns of a pair of bulls.

“No, but he’s mine,” said Nico.

Oli and Darcy glanced at each other, both equal parts curious and concerned. They turned their attention back to their mates, who continued their staring stand-off.

Darcy broke the silence that gripped the group for almost a full minute. “Luca, we’re having a titled members lunch. Let’s talk it all over together, with brutal honesty.”