The Beta's Redemption?

3. You

Tyler

I left the hall as fast as I could to make sure she wouldn’t see me. She was perfect and surely something much better than an omega—I could smell it, she wasn’t wolfless like ninety percent of the omegas.

I exhaled sharply and took the long way around to get to my room, only hoping she would leave this pack as soon as possible and I wouldn’t ever have to see her again, and more importantly, that she wouldn’t ever see the pitiful low-class half-a-wolf I had become.

She, and just about anybody, deserved much better than a rankless wolf with a tainted reputation. A female like her could be mated to an Alpha, to a prince if she wanted to, but not to me, never to me, not anymore.

The time passed by agonizingly slowly, and after three days she was still here, and I had to avoid her. It was so damn hard! Harder than anything I’ve done before. She was all I could think about; I and the half-wit wolf inside my soul craved her presence, her scent, her.

Since yesterday, I realised I couldn’t avoid her anymore. So, I did the next best thing: I covered my scent and looked at her from a safe distance. She drew me like a damn magnet, and there was no way out; I was hopelessly lost for a she-wolf I had only seen a few times from afar.

“So that is the mate bond, the curse in disguise Hunter fell for… it overpowered any will, any chance, any damn reason,” I muttered inwardly.

That was what I was doing today. After rubbing some strong-smelling herbs over my arms, I was looking at her from behind the glass wall, hiding like the coward I was reduced to. But anything would be better than letting her know about me and what I was.

My eyes were fixed on her, her beautiful face and delicious lush curves. She was in the ample living room with some warrior trainees, chatting with them and snacking on sweet potatoes. Her smile, her laugh were edible, and her voice was beautiful and sweet, but not high-pitched. She was everything I never knew I wanted, and I wanted all of her, badly.

Omegas gossip a lot. Between working and watching everything that was happening in the pack house, I came to learn that she was called Bianca, and was in the trainee program as well, and she was a very good fighter. She was indeed damn perfect, which made everything even harder, impossibly harder in all ways.

Soon, her fellow trainees left and she remained there by herself, her attention divided between her food and a thick book. There were a couple of more people around, distracted talking amongst themselves, but she didn’t mind them, she was too focused on what she was doing.

Now that fewer people were around, her chocolate cookies and vanilla scent was stronger as it entered my nostrils, and I breathed it in deeply for the thousandth time today; my mouth watered and my dic.k throbbed, thoughts of everything I would do to her, I would say to her—if I still had my Beta rank—swirled in my mind.

I have never been a womanizer like Hunter used to be. I didn’t see the appeal of bedding a different she-wolf every night. I never thought much about the possibility of finding my fated mate, considering that it was quite rare, especially a few years ago. Now with the Matinder app, it was much easier to find your fated mate. I used to think that one day, I would take a chosen mate, a ranked-wolf, and settle in the Black Forest Pack.

Nothing happened as I planned. The Goddess had a cruel sense of irony.

I snapped back from my thoughts and my senses stirred up when I saw a tall blond man approaching her, his eyes narrowed on her and a grin spread across his face. His aura wasn’t either commanding or weak. Surely a ranked wolf, probably a gamma or even a delta.

“What does that f*cker want with my mate?” Rolf growled in my mind.

I shook my head at the sudden and unexpected voice of my wolf, who decided to talk to me after three days of total silence, after his wise words about our mate’s butt.

I wanted to see that too. I almost jumped up, making sure I was out of her sight, as I observed their exchange.

He grabbed her arm, making her turn in his direction and flashed her a smug smile, “Bea, it’s good to see you! You look good. It has been such a long time since you last showed up there in the pack. The Alpha misses you, he is upset that he couldn’t see you this time around, but he will be happy to know you are just the same…”

His words made me see red, and I jumped from my ridiculous hiding spot like a hunter about to bounce his prey.

“Don’t you dare to touch me, Clay! And tell your Alpha to jump off a cliff!” she hissed, pulling her arm back.

Before I could fully process her words, I used my wolf speed to intervene, approaching them in a matter of seconds. I pushed the man away, shoving him against the wall.

“Stay away from her!” I burst out a menacing growl, my voice mixed with Rolf’s.

The only thought in my mind at that moment was: protect my mate. Everything else— including my deep shame—was secondary.

I looked between my beautiful mate and the jer.k I was pressing against the wall by his shirt. I still had my beta’s strength and speed, especially when Rolf decided to cooperate.

“Who do you think you are, you f*cking omega?” The man yelled and growled, trying to kick me, but I dogged fast, tightening my hold on him and lifting him further, without even giving him a look. My eyes were now trained on her.

Who do I think I am? I was her mate, at least for now.

Yet I didn’t say that, only a single word came from a raw, primal place within my soul, escaping my mouth as my gaze met my mate’s shocked hazel eyes, “MINE”, Rolf and I said in unison.

My mate gasped, as she took a few steps towards me. I gulped hard, much more afraid of her reaction than of the angry man wriggling under my hold, trying to break free and punch me in the face.

“What the hell? Are you insane, Omega? I will get you killed!” The man yelled, but I ignored him. I had no eyes or ears for him now, it felt like I was under her spell and Bianca and I were the only ones in this living room.

“You, come with me,” she said, looking intently at me as she wrapped her hand around my bicep.

Tingles erupted at the contact and Rolf released a howl of pleasure inside my mind.

She pulled me slightly, and I let the man out of my hook abruptly, causing him to fall onto the floor with a loud thud. As he saw me leaving with Bianca, after publicly claiming her, he seemed to be too shocked to react and launch at me.

I followed Bianca to a small empty office near the living room, and she closed the door behind her. I looked around for a moment, my breathing was uneven as if I were in the middle of a bloody battlefield, and my chest clenched in anxiety.

I swallowed hard, my eyes fixed on her slightly wide-open ones. She still looked a bit startled, bewildered. What I feared was about to happen. No, it was already happening.

What would she do now that she found out that I was her mate? She knew I was an omega and she surely wouldn’t accept me.

~ * ~

Bianca

The smell of coffee and sandalwood seemed to follow me around lately. Even though it was much weaker and mixed with something else this time.

“It’s so weird, I even thought it was…” Dawn shook her head in my mind. She thought it was our fated mate, and so did I.

Not that my biggest dream since I was a little pup was finding my mate, nope. But I would like to find someone I loved, trusted, a partner in life. Especially after the fiasco of a relationship I had with my ex, or like my wolf used to call him, Alpha Asshat.

On the other hand, it was good that we haven’t found him yet. We have time for that later, in the future. For now, I only wanted to focus on my training and my career, and after I became a great warrior and the Gamma of my pack, letting my dad have his well-deserved retirement, I would think about my fated mate. Maybe even download the Matinder App and look for him.

After the guys left, I was eating the rest of my amazingly crunchy sweet potatoes and reading a book about new fighting techniques written by a female Elf General that trained some of the warrior trainees in the Royal Pack. She was the best and I always wanted to be trained by her, since I was a pup, but now reading her book once more was the closest I could get.

I frowned as I saw Clay entering the room. He was my ex’s Gamma and I wondered what he was doing here; I only hoped Alpha Asshat wasn’t trying to stalk me again.

He walked in my direction with an obnoxious smile on his face and grabbed my arms, saying some nonsense and as soon as I put him in his place and pulled my arm away, a dark-haired tall man shoved Clay onto the wall.

His smell... he was the one oozing that amazing scent of coffee and sandalwood. He was my mate! I was petrified for a moment, as if I was under a paralysis spell. Even Dawn was too shocked to say anything in my mind.

“Stay away from her!” he growled at Clay, before his gaze trailed to me.

“Who do you think you are, you f*cking omega?” Clay yelled and tried to fight back, escaping this man, my mate’s hold.

But the man dogged fast, without even looking at Clay. His eyes were on me and soon our gazes met. I felt like a jolt of electricity crossed the room, like a lightning bolt. My heart raced in recognition, and my soul tried to jump to the surface, making goosebumps break all over my skin as it tried to escape my body, and touch this man’s soul, touch its other half.

My eyes were hypnotised by his light brown ones, he seemed to look deep into my soul. His dark brown messy hair fell onto his forehead in a sexy way that was making my insane wolf howl in my mind.

But I had to admit that Dawn wasn’t that insane: the man was so handsome, tall and well-built, with large shoulders and toned muscles that were visible through his dark-blue uniform. Even though he was an omega, his presence was imposing.

“MINE”, he claimed. It sounded deep, wholehearted.

This word made me snap back from my haze and I gasped, as my legs moved in his direction on their own accord.

“Mate, he is our mate!” Dawn jumped in my mind, she was hyped like a pup.

Our mate had a nervous look on his face and it was clear it had nothing to do with Clay’s threats and attempts to kick and punch him.

But as soon as I could start thinking straight once again, I realised who he was and what I had to do.