BETA'S FATE

Chapter 12

Pearl's POV

I try getting up first because apparently, I used Conrad as a pillow. Wow, sleepy pearl really loves being affectionate and too bad, that pearl is not sleepy anymore.

The moment I moved a little, I notice that Conrad's shirt is all the way up to his chest. Wow! He is basically half naked and if it wasn't for my clothes, we would be touching skin to skin.

I fall on him again and he looks at me confused.

"Not to flatter you, but pull your shirt down" I whisper yell and he looks at himself. His eyes go wide and he pulls his shirt down.

I stand up then and he stands up right after I do. We look at everyone. All the pack members have horror written across their faces. Ryan is smirking. Beta couple is smiling. Shane is just .. staring.

I clear my throat and look at Conrad. He looks at me back and I tilt my head. He tilts his head again. What do I do with this man? I roll my eyes and tell Mist what I am trying to tell him. Few seconds later he nods in understanding. Guess Alan told him what to do.

"Good morning" Conrad tells everyone and everyone bows before me. Except Ryan, he is still smirking.

"Is there anything do you guys want to ask me?" Conrad asks again and I scoff.

Everyone shakes their head, bows to him once again and leaves silently. Only after they left, Conrad looks at me and smiles. He looks pretty much proud of himself but ... God! This is probably hundredth time I am thinking of this again.. what do I do with him?

"See, I told you no one would question" he says and again, he sounds proud of himself.

"One... You are the Alpha. So of course no one would question you" I pause and watch his smile drop a little, "and two... You did ask a question but how do you explain the glare after that?"

He looks at me in confusion before saying,"I did not glare!!!"

"Oh yes you did. You ask them if they want to ask you anything and go ahead glaring like you are going to kill anyone who asks a question... Wow questions are going to pour in. What a way to make people talk" I say with fake laugh and he just stares at me with a little I cannot believe you look.

"Conrad.. that is not how you make your people talk. Alpha is a leader which is true. But being an Alpha is also being the pack's friend" I say and he rolls his eyes before he starts walking.

I grab the jacket that is on the ground and jog to catch up to him. He still has this straight face and today, his straight face at least has a meaning. Yesterday I have no idea why he had a straight face all the while. Even giving speech, welcoming us, talking to Flynn.. every minute he had a straight face.

I mean, who even says "Welcome to the party. I am so delighted with your presence" with such a straight face that you think you accidentally landed on a different planet where they don't know what smile means!

He just walks away without saying anything and I stop at the guest house. I just stare at him until he walks for two minutes before turning around.

Everyone is watching him and me now. Not directly, they are pretending to do something but their eyes are on us.

"I got common cold!!" He screams at me before walking away again.

I could not suppress my laughter anymore. He told that with a straight face too. It is as if he doesn't want anyone here to see him smile. When he was at my pack, he smiled and he laughed.

Maybe here, everyone looks up to him. He has this stage fright and who knows.. maybe he is not comfortable with people always watching him. There, people rarely know about him on personal level.

I walk to my room and I notice someone already in the shower. I take a pair of clean clothes from my bag and wait for the person in the bathroom to come out.

And it turns out to be Erica. She walks out with damp hair and pyjamas. She smiles as soon as she notices me in the room.

"I am so sorry. I share my room with guys and they totally occupied the bathroom" she smiles.

"No need to be sorry. You are welcome anytime" I smile back.

"So, you and Alpha Conrad? Wow" she whispers and I smile awkwardly.

"Not much of wow if you talk to him once" I say and she laughs at that.

"But no one talks to him. That is exactly the point" she says with her eyebrows raised and I nod because, she indeed has a point. Also, now I understand why Shane talks to her the most. This girl can talk to anyone and about anything.

"Also, your shampoo smells nice. I hope you don't mind that I used some. Our bathrooms don't have any" she says.

"It's fine. I am not going to use that entire bottle in two days anyway" I say and she nods before walking out.

I brush my teeth and take a long shower until I walk out and start sneezing. So Conrad was right. He too must have this cold now. And if he remembers yesterday's conversation.. he might keep a straight face before telling me that I am responsible for this.

I throw on the clothes and the door opens at the same time. Jeez, I forgot to lock the door and thank God I am dressed at the right time. I see it's Ryan and he is smiling as he walks to me.

"Oh no! You don't reek of s*x" he whispers with disappointment lacing his voice.

"That is because I did not have it" I fake a smile and he mocks me with his fake smile.

"Then what did you both do? Just slept?" He asks

"Yes. That is exactly what we did" I say and sneeze again.

"Wow how boring it must be for you both to be mates and to fall asleep on a cold night, along the pond with nothing but a jacket that barely covers one of you" Ryan says and I am appalled by his voice.

"Excuse me, Mr. Ryan Cooper! We both are not boring, okay? We.. we have some interesting stuff going on too" I say but deep down, we all know that Conrad and I are indeed boring.

But it is the way Ryan mocks me. It gets on my nerves every single time. If you ever see the typical mocking face of Ryan, before you process what to do .. you'll already be punching him.

"Oh really? What is that interesting stuff you both did yesterday night?" He asks again.

"I... I touched him with my bare hands and now we both have common cold" I say and sneeze again.

"Bless your soul, Pearl" he says with his I-am-so-done-and-I-don't-know-you-anymoee face and walks out.

I roll my eyes and I hear Mist laughing at the whole conversation. I look at myself in the mirror. I smile to myself and I hear Conrad screaming as I put my sneakers on again.

I rush outside the room and see that Conrad is glaring at Erica this time. Why does he glare at everyone and everytime? Ryan is now before Erica. Conrad and Ryan are standing face to face. Because Ryan is Erica's Alpha and he need to stand for her.

Conrad raises his hand and moves his index finger back and forth, gesturing Ryan to come closer. Ryan leans to him and we see Conrad whisper something in his ear.

The next thing we know, Ryan is clearly suppressing his smile but eventually started smiling. Then both Conrad and Ryan looks at me. With that everyone else is looking at me now. Great!

"Erica, you can leave now. And remember not to use any products you find it Pearl's bathroom" Ryan says.

I groan at that. So now she smells like me a little bit, and Conrad goes around yelling at her? I glare at him and he is glaring harder. Everyone around us soon left and started doing whatever they were doing earlier.

Ryan could not hold his laughter anymore.

"Yes, Pearl! You both are such interesting people. I take back whatever I said earlier" Ryan says before walking away.

Conrad sneezes once and I sneeze the next second. We both look at each other and I smile. He doesn't smile too much but just a little.

"So what are you doing today?" He asks me.

"I don't know. I don't have any plans and I don't want to spread this cold too. So I guess I will be staying here the whole day" I say and he nods.

"Shall I send Shane to keep you company?" He asks.

"Nooo" I say a little louder than I usually do.

"Okay. You could have told me that normally" He says and I nod with an awkward smile.

"Once this whole cold thing goes down, I am planning that we can go out. The four of us" he says and I look at him confused.

"You mean you, me and your beta couple?" I ask him.

"No. You, me, Shane and the girl he likes. She is from your pack. The girl who used your shampoo" he says and I gulp my own saliva.

"Don't you think you and I going out on a date is a little too much for someone who doesn't have feelings for each other?" I ask him and he shrugs.

"If it helps Shane find someone, then let us take a chance. Shane doesn't like any girl usually. Moreover he is just this single guy with no designation other than the Beta's brother. Maybe he can find a purpose if there is someone in his life who can help him" Conrad says.

I know Conrad wishes Shane the best. But doing that will only create complications. Because Conrad doesn't know that the girl Shane likes is me and not Erica.

"Let us think about it after we get rid of the common cold. And if I stay in your pack by then. I am a Beta and I have my son waiting for me back at The Sundown Pack" I smile at him and I see his face falls.

"Okay" he whispers and we stand there in silence again.

"I have few things to take care of. I will see you soon" he says and I nod. He just nods at me again and walks away.

I sigh and look around. Everyone is pretending doing something again and I smile as I shake my head. The tendency of the human side, always up for some gossip.

I walk to my room and I regret not bringing any Novel. I wonder if there is something here that I can do, but I don't want to walk around sneezing and spreading this cold I already have.

"Alan says that Conrad is already missing you" Mist says.

"Yeah he should. After all I am not a boring person" I say.

"Pearl! Ryan is not here and that argument is long done" Mist counters and I block her out.

I fall on the bed and stare at the ceiling. I smile thinking of last night. That is probably the first time both of us got along. Conrad did not pull a prank that got on my nerves. And we did not talk about rejection too.

I sneeze again and this time, I feel the headache too. Common cold feels so common until it reaches you and gives you a hard time.

It felt nice after so long. A small part of me want to give him a chance. But the major part of me is just tired of repeating cycles. So I don't want to think about anything until I go with the flow to a point, I realise what I have been doing.

"Good morning" I hear and I scream sitting up.

"It is me. Why? Did you not catch my scent?" Shane laughs.

"I am sorry. My nose is not working right now" I say before sneezing again and he scrunches his nose.

"Oh! I'm sorry. Alpha has cold too-" he says and stops mid sentence before nodding in understanding.

"Yeah. That is not boring at all, is it?" I ask him and he looks at me confused.

"Is the cold messing with your head?" He asks and walks towards the wall with a television in his hand.

"Woah woah! What are you doing?" I ask him.

"Alpha asked me to fix this in your room. Now I see why" he says and gets to work already with the drilling thing.

My headache gets worse with all the noise and I bury my head under the pillows. Few minutes later it stops and I take a peek from under the pillows.

Shane is working on placing the TV on the wall and working with the screws too. I want to tell him what Conrad thinks of him and Erica but again, I am not sure what his reaction is going to be.

"So, is there anything you want to watch?" Shane asks.

"Is this a smart TV?" I ask and he nods.

"You have Netflix or Prime subscription?" I ask and he nods giving me a smart phone. Perfect!

"I have few on my mind. Thank you, Shane. I would have died of boredom if this is not here" I say gesturing the TV and he nods with a smile.

I expected him to leave but he proceeds to grab a chair and sit in front of the bed. I narrow my eyes at him and he shrugs.

"Alpha Conrad told me he would be here and to keep you company until he comes back" he says and I nod in understanding.

"What do you plan on watching anyway?" He asks and I scroll through all the movies and tv shows available. My finger automatically stops scrolling when I see Teen Wolf.

Half of it is true and half of it is absolutely made up. Well, not just half but majority you can say. I mean, with the whole Alpha and Beta thing. There is no such thing where there is mates and matebond mentioned. These just keep falling in love with whoever they want. Only Derek Hale made sense to me in all the werewolves I have seen on the show. Turning into a wolf, his anger issues, the Alpha attitude.. he is better than everyone.

"Ever watched Teen Wolf?" I ask him.

"I am the only jobless in this entire pack. What do you expect?" He asks back and I chuckle at that.

"Okay. What character do you like the most?" I ask him again.

"Alison Argent.! That girl was a badass till she died, eventually" he shrugs and I nod with my mouth in straight line.

"Who do you like the most?" Shane asks me in return.

"Stiles Stilinski" I say and Shane scoffs the next second.

"What? Stiles Stilinski is the only logical person in the entire series. And the best character. If you find a way to object that, remember that you are going to offend me" I scowl and he raises his hands in surrender.

"Gee! Okay. He is a sidekick by the way" he whispers.

"If you ask me, he carried the whole show. Keep your opinion to yourself" I say with my hands folded and he smiles with a nod.

Conrad did not come yet and we both are just sitting in silence. We are also running out of topics. I told him about Vincent for a while. I also told him about how Nova and I spend our time together.

"Talk to him about Erica" Mist says.

"What do I talk to him? I know that Shane and Erica are friends" I say again.

"Okay then. Sit in awkward silence while Conrad comes back and smell the elephant in the room. Especially when he already knows Shane likes someone from our pack" Mist says.

And she is partially right. So I clear my throat before smiling at him again.

"So ... Shane," I pause and look at him again before asking him, "what do you think of Erica?"

His smile falls a little and he looks at me like I don't know what is going on. I hope he understands that I am trying to keep the conversation going. And I also hope he rolls along with the play.

"She is a good friend of mine, thanks for asking" he says and I nod.

"So friends can become partners, you know. You ever thought of that?" I ask him and he just stares at me.

"No. I never thought of that. Is that something I should be thinking of?" He asks me back and I mentally roll my eyes.

"Maybe. We can go out once. If only you are okay. Of course, if Erica is okay too" I say and I know I am starting to sound crazy. But there is nothing I cannot do about it.

"We you mean?" Shane asks again.

"Erica and You. Conrad and me" I say and he scoffs.

"So you are implying that we can go out on a double date. When you and I both know that distance is all we should be thinking about. Even now, I am here only because Alpha Conrad asked me to keep you company and I could not say no. Because he wasn't asking me. He was ordering me" Shane says.

"I am trying my best to stay away from you, Pearl. Because I know there is nothing I can do if I stay close to you. Because I know that the more I spend time with you, the more I fall in love with you" he says and wow, this whole discussion escalated really fast.

"I am sorry that I cannot just forget about the past two years thinking of you every single day. Because back then, I did not know that you would have a second chance mate and that would be my Alpha. I cannot do that to him. He means so much to me" Shane says again and I nod.

"Let us not talk about it" I say and Shane nods this time.

"But what I said, I won't take it back. Because-" the door opens cutting Shane off from talking.

We both sit frozen as we see Conrad standing there at the door. He is glaring at Shane, and if looks could kill .. Shane would be six feet under already.

"Say one more word and face the consequence" Conrad whispers but even that whisper sends a shiver down my spine. Well, our spines.