Mated To My Human Beta

7. Devil Inside

-Arya-

"He is gone. You can let me go now,” I said. Even though it felt warm inside his embrace, things were happening in my body… things I wasn’t ready to happen.

Blake jumped away from me, stuttering.

“I already have a bad feeling about this place,” Blake grunted with a hiss. “What kind of asshole would jump out of nowhere and shift and stand there naked?” I knew Blake’s problem was mainly about the ‘naked’ part than anything else.

“At least, he was good-looking. Scratch that. He is more than good-looking,” I said and bit my tongue when three pairs of eyes met me with anger and indignation. “What? You saw him. He is built, and the tattoo around his torso and back…”

“I am your father, Arya Anais Tamran,” my dad said with a growl. “And you better not look again or go anywhere near him. Remember, you are here only to train.”

“What is the fun in that?” I grunted. “He has tattoos.”

My dad sighed.

“I have a tattoo, too,” Blake said with a mocking look in my direction.

“Well… like I said, I have seen better,” I hissed under my breath, but of course, everyone heard with their stupid wolf hearing.

“When did you see Blake’s tattoo?” My father grilled me with a look, and I sighed. This was becoming a disaster. “Why did you see-” My father was red in the face.

“Stop interrogating me, Dad. He trains all the time without a shirt,” I said.

“He does, but why did you look?”

“Because I am not freaking blind,” I said. I did love my father, but sometimes, that man was too overprotective for his own good. And it wasn’t like I had taken any interest in Blake’s body or his tattoos… until that f*****g Axel.

Now it was as if I were trapped in a cycle of torment, unable to escape the clutches of my own mind, which seemed to recollect every delectable detail of Blake’s body in vivid details at odd times.

“Wear a shirt while you train the next time,” my father told Blake as we all got down.

“She only looks at me, but she had her hands all over Ayden the other day,” Blake said to my father, and my eyes widened. Was he- did he just do that?

What the f*****g hell?

“What is happening?” Asher mumbled, his eyes wide with disbelief. For once, I was too stunned to even reply to that.

“Ayden is okay,” my dad said, much to my surprise. It looked like Blake was surprised too. His eyes narrowed as he looked at my dad.

“Why? Why is touching him okay when looking at me is not?” He didn’t sound pleased, not at all.

“Did you just really ask our Beta that?” Asher said with an incredulous look in his eyes. Blake blinked as if he just realized what he had said. We all shared a moment of discomfort before my dad sighed.

“Let’s go,” he said as he walked forward, and I followed. The guys seemed like they were deep in conversation. I walked forward, and a few guys exercising in the crisp morning air stopped, stared, and shared a look among themselves. I knew they already knew who I was -- the new entertainment. But unfortunately for them, I wasn’t here to become a joke.

I pulled my hair up and tied it together as I walked towards the massive building. I realized how cold it was, and half the wolves were only wearing a thin shirt or nothing at all. It was also another curse of being a human - I felt the slight drop in temperature while none of them did. My room was the only one with a heater back in Silver Shore. I hoped I could somehow talk whoever was in charge here into getting me a radiator.

We finally reached the administrative building. Dad pushed the door open, and I shuddered.

The building was tall, made of red-brick walls, with tall glass windows. It almost reminded me of the old, unused dungeon in Silver Shore, where Asher, Ayden, Blake and I used to play hide and seek when we were kids. I would beg Blake to hold my hand as we walked down the narrow, dark stairs of the dungeon. Ash and Ayd would call me a baby, but Blake would always hold my hand dutifully.

If I was the one seeking, he would purposefully hide in the easiest place where I could find him first, and then he would help me find the others.

I don’t know why these memories were disturbing me more and more for the past few days after that incident with Axel.

I blamed that stupid wolf for these memories, thoughts, and the tremble in my body whenever Blake was near me. Fu.ck me. My life was already a pile of slimy sh.it, and I didn’t need these thoughts and feelings to distract me from my goal.

Blake was Blake. Blake was not the boy he once was. I had to remember that. I had to remember everything that happened after he turned fifteen and the seven years of hatred, anger, and resentment.

I heard Asher asking, “Are you for real?” I sharpened my ears. Because I wasn’t a wolf and often missed most of the things happening around the pack house because I didn’t have a heightened sense of hearing, I had taught myself how to eavesdrop like a pro.

“Sometimes you forget I am your elder brother,” Blake said.

“Yeah, and a stupid piece of-”

They stopped when they saw me. Blake’s eyes met mine, the sapphire blue becoming a frozen blue lake.

“Eavesdropping, again?” Blake hissed as he pressed a finger to my back and pushed me.

“Yes. Talking about me again?”

“No,” he said as he looked down at me, eyes narrowing. “You don’t have anything else to- wear…”

I looked down and flushed red. My n.ipples were poking through my f*****g t-shirt. What the hell happened to my bra?

I cleared my throat and tried to walk past him. He grabbed me by my shoulder.

“What do you want?”

“I want nothing from you. But it looks like you want something from me,” he said, and my eyes widened.

What did I want from him? No. I- I didn’t want his lips anywhere near my breasts or n.ipples or-

Just keep your f*****g lips to-

“Here.”

Oh. He was not talking about his lips or my breasts. I think I needed a quick visit to a shrink. I grabbed his jacket from him and quickly put it on.

I hoped he would soon find his mate. Maybe then, I wouldn’t be so distracted, and Axel wouldn’t be so hellbent on trying to break the boundaries.

Each time I closed my eyes, the images replayed like a relentless reel, and I was going insane from my reaction to his nearness. Just a week ago, my p*ssy was a block of ice, and he was a brick wall as far as I was concerned. But now, my p*ssy was thawing, and… I gulped.

Axel was the one who woke up the sleeping demon inside me, and now she just wouldn’t let me live in peace.

I needed an exorcism, and I needed one quick. The devil was sitting inside me, and she needed to get the hell out.

But at least it was just for a few more hours, and then he would leave. Hopefully, the unwanted thoughts in my head would leave with him. I didn’t need them.

A woman looked at me with furrowed brows as I walked in. My father stopped talking with her, turned to look at me and motioned me forward.

“You are the new admission,” she said as she grabbed a thick file and handed it to me. “Wait right here.”

She came back a few minutes later with a guy. “This is Shawn O’Connor. He will be your guide to Alerean. He will help you with everything. You will have your first meeting with your trainer later today. Everything you need to know is in the binder,” she said as she pointed to the bulky binder. It would take me five days to read all of it.

I sighed.

She walked away as if her job here was done here.

I looked at the guy, wondering what was coming for me next.

“I will be your chauffeur in and around Alerean for however long you want me to,” Shawn said with a small smile. Thank the Goddess, he wasn’t a prick.

There was a look of curiosity in his eyes, but it wasn’t one of disdain or displeasure. He ran his fingers through his thick blonde hair. If every guy in Alerean looked like this one and the one we met a few minutes ago, maybe it wouldn’t be so bad.

“Stop staring like he is a f*****g candy,” Blake hissed next to me, and I blinked and turned around to see that he was glowering at me. I didn’t know how or why he was so close to me right now.

The part of my body I was trying so hard to curb came back alive. A thousand times sluttier.

“He does look like a candy I would love to suck,” I said, hoping that he wouldn’t see how affected I was by his nearness. His eyes glowed as he stepped towards me and then stopped when he realized he wasn’t alone, and this wasn’t Silver Shore.

“Do you even think before you sprout this nonsense?”

“I would rather act than keep thinking like you.”

“What do you mean?”

“Me? Nothing.” I smirked before I turned towards Shawn, who was looking at me and Blake with a look of careful contemplation. “Is it true that this place is- umm… you know, like a Hunger Games arena?” I said as I looked through the glass walls of the building.

“You will know soon enough that nothing in this place is as it seems. There will be canines behind every cute smile, and claws behind a hello. Just be careful.”

“Can I trust you then?” I asked with a pensive look. He poked his tongue out as if he was thinking about my question and then shook his head.

“It is better not to trust anyone,” he said with a small smile. “Half of us here are sent here so that our parents can have a moment of reprieve. So you can already assume who we are. Only a few are here for training. I suppose you are not here because your parents want you to stop being a pain in their asses.”

“No, she is not a pain. Never,” my dad said with a fierce look in my direction, and Shawn grinned.

“So, it is you who decided to come here,” he said as he walked closer to me and motioned me to hand him the binder. “I can carry it for you.”

“She has two hands,” Blake snapped. He didn’t look too pleased. Was he jealous or something?

“I know, but she has to conserve her energy for what is to come. Today you will be allowed to just watch and relax, but tomorrow, your life here in Alerean will officially begin. I hope you are made of strong stuff.”

“She is,” Asher said as he wrapped an arm around my shoulder and pulled me to his side. “But please look after her.”

Shawn c.ocked his head and gave me a look. “Hmm, she is gorgeous. It won’t be too hard to look at or after her.”

A low growl filled the room. I knew who was the one growling and grunting right now.

“Can I ask you something, though? How are you here? I mean, you know what we are thinking. You are a human. So why do you even want to be here?”

“I am here because I want to be a Beta.”

“A human Beta? Curious,” Shawn said before he turned his soft green eyes to meet Blake’s eyes. “He is an Alpha. The other one, too.”

I nodded as Shawn’s lips twisted. “So they don’t want you as their Beta?”

I sighed. It was too much for the first meeting, but something about Shawn made me trust him instantly. He looked like someone who could be my ally here in Alerean. I needed every ally I could get.

Alpha Emerett had already told me how hard it would be for me here in Alerean, among wolves, and told me to choose my friends and enemies wisely. And I was going to follow his words to the dot. Something in my gut told me that I could trust Shawn. And I also liked him, because his first reaction wasn’t disgust or derision when he realized I wasn’t a wolf.

“Not them. Only this one.” I pointed to Blake. “But it is alright. I don’t want to serve under him. I would rather stab him than save him or obey him, anyway.”

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