A Beta's Undying Love

Chapter 3: Mate

-Garrett-

The word beautiful couldn’t even describe her. Nothing could. As soon as I laid my eyes on her, I knew. My wolf didn’t even have to say the word mate. I knew she was. She was all I could see for a moment, and her scent was so unbelievably intoxicating, even with Katrine between us. Her beautiful auburn hair was put into a tight bun and her hazel eyes stared back at my own. Her body was skinny, maybe a bit too skinny, since her white nurse uniform seemed a bit baggy on her, and then that’s where I noticed something else to her scent. It smelled almost a bit spicy. F*ck this female was definitely sick. It stained her beautiful lily scent, and soon would probably overpower it.

“Did your mother need anything?” Katrina asked, finally bringing me out of my thoughts.

I took my eyes away from the beautiful female in front of me and looked down at the small red-haired one, who had this hunger in her eyes, even now that we were talking about my sick mother, but I couldn’t blame her. Whenever I came here, all of the staff and even visitors would look at me the same way. Hungry. Desperate for me to make their wildest fantasies come true. Of course, I knew better than to do anything with these humans. Not that I really had anything against them like a lot of other wolves did, but they were taking care of my mother, and I couldn’t risk them suddenly becoming clingy towards me or if I broke their hearts, they would take it out on her.

“She just wanted her scarf. Don’t worry. You can continue to show …”

My eyes diverted back to the female, who for some reason had turned her eyes away from me. It was clear there had been an attraction there just a minute ago, but now they refused to meet mine.

“This is Lily. She has just transferred here and comes with a really good recommendation,” Katrina proudly explained.

Lily. So that was her name. Just perfect for my perfect mate. I stepped around Katrina and came in front of her. Her eyes finally met mine, as I came close, but they were still guarded.

“Very nice to meet you, Lily,” I said in a deep voice, seeing her shiver slightly under my dark eyes.

Then I turned back to Katrina.

“Well, I better let you show her around. Besides, my mother needs her scarf,” I said before leaving them behind.

Though as soon as I stepped away from my mate, everything in me demanded I went back there, and made her mine this instant. It didn’t matter that we were in my mother’s room, or that there were other people. They were welcome to watch, so they could see exactly who my beautiful mate belonged to.

-Lily-

Legs shaking, Check. Heart beating at an abnormal speed. Check. But no chest pain. Good. So no heart attack. Then why did I feel like fainting? It was probably the cancer’s fault. I mean there was no way it had anything to do with that, out of this world handsome man that had spoken my name like it was the sexiest word on the planet. No. It had nothing to do with that!

“Well, let’s continue. Shall we?” Katrina asked cheerfully.

It didn’t take her long to complete the last of the tour before giving me my first assignment.

“I need you to go to the small storage room we have down the hallway and get the Christmas decorations,” Katrina said.

I just gave her a confused look.

“Isn’t it a bit early to decorate for Christmas? I mean it is only the beginning of November,” I asked her.

“We don’t do a lot, because big changes often confuse the residents. It is more for the visitors’ sake. And we do it early to help people be reminded that there are still good things out there,” she explained to me.

Sounded a bit like the motivation poster I had read in the doctor’s office. There is hope. There wasn’t much hope to find here. It was kind of like the last train stop, unless, of course, you believed in things beyond this world. I wasn’t really such a person. I had seen too much hurt and felt too much of it. Things ended, and that was just that. Dark, I know, but what had the world taught me about hoping? You just end up disappointed. So I just nodded and followed her instructions. Not that it was really that hard to follow. I just walked past the big cozy living room where a few people sat and talked lowly with some of the residents. The handsome man was also there. I couldn’t help but let my eyes stay on him a bit longer. He was sitting in front a very fragile woman, who I knew was his mother.

Sh*t, I knew exactly what it was like seeing your mother wither away like that. I quickly diverted my eyes. Didn’t want to be caught staring, and walked out of the big living room and down to the end of a small hallway. I came to a dark wooden door that made a small squeaking sound as I opened it. The room wasn’t very big and only had a small lightbulb hanging from the ceiling. I turned it on and there were a lot of boxes on top of one another, a few brooms and chairs, nothing else. I walked over to one of the stacks of boxes and looked inside of it. Just a few extra blankets in this one. I put it down beside my feet. Then I proceeded to look through the rest. Nothing in this pile, I thought, as I went over to a higher stack. I tried to lift the top one down, so I could look in it, but it was heavy and my tired body did not agree to lift anything at the moment.

“Need some help?”

I jumped back into the stack, almost causing it to fall over, as I heard the deep spine-shivering voice behind me. Luckily, he was very quick to reach out, stabilizing the big stack of boxes and trapping me between that and him.

“I-I’m fine,” I stammered, trying not to look into those piercing blue eyes that I just wanted to drown in.

It certainly wasn’t professional to flirt with one of the visitors. They weren’t here to find a date, but to say goodbye. So I really tried not to let myself fall for his charm like Katrina had. He took a step back and nodded. He put his hands in his pockets and clearly waited to see if I was really able to handle the situation on my own. I lifted my head high and turned around ready to prove to him that I had no problem doing this job on my own. I had always handled things on my own and did not need a strong man to help me with anything, but as I grabbed the big heavy box, I was ready to beg for his help. My body screamed and complained as I lifted it and almost dropped it on the ground, but I had done it on my own. I looked up, giving him a look that said, I am a strong and independent woman, though I felt like sitting down on the floor, so I could catch my breath. He seemed to notice, as he looked worried down at me, but I ignored him, as I opened the box. It was filled with different Christmas decorations and I sighed happily that I had found them.

“A bit early for the decorations,” he said, as his eyes scanned the context of the box.

I shrugged as I placed my hands on my hips, feeling very tired.

“Apparently they decorate early to try and cheer people up. You haven’t noticed or perhaps your mother is a new resident,” I asked.

He shook his head.

“She’s been here for years,” he said.

Years? Then how come he didn’t know they decorated early?