Beyond Beta's Rejection

(Harper’s POV)

I woke up in darkness. I was in bed, and I was alone. I moved to find my phone to get the time, and I hissed as pain radiated out through my body. It wasn’t as bad as earlier. In fact, it was quite manageable. I fumbled on the bedside table for my phone when I realised that I didn’t remember even bringing my school bag home.

I pulled myself out of bed and made my way slowly towards where I remembered the bathroom was. I reckoned that it was probably early hours in the morning from the dark of the room, although my tummy was making growling noises. Then again, I had eaten since lunchtime, so no wonder I was hungry. I finally opened the bathroom door and was blinded by the bright light flooding in. I glanced at the window and saw that it was full daylight outside. Crap! How long did I sleep?

I quickly did what I needed and went to wash my hands. I stopped when I saw my reflection in the mirror. I looked paler than normal, apart from where the now-closed cut was on my forehead. Even though it was healing, it still had an angry red look and was surrounded by shades of black and purple. Well, makeup wasn’t covering that any time soon. Otherwise, my eyes had dark circles under them, and the rest of my skin looked sickly white. My grey-blue eyes looked dull and watery. I was wearing a t-shirt that didn’t belong to me, and I think I vaguely remembered it being the one Colton was wearing when he brought me home from school. He must have put it on me after… well after… I thought back to the feel of Colton as he… a slow blush crept up onto my face as I watched in the mirror, and I started to feel the heat in my lower regions again. Well, I guess that put some colour on my face.

I took a deep breath and headed out into my room. I opened the curtains so I could see the room in case my bag had been brought in but no such luck. I was still at a loss as to what time of day it was, so I hesitated as I left the room. I searched around the Beta quarters of the 3rd floor until I found Colton’s mum in the shared lounge area.

“Harper, darling.” She sounded happy to see me and had a huge smile on her face. “Please come in. How are you feeling?”

I smiled back. “I’m ok, still a little sore.” She nodded, her eyes glazed for a few seconds and then cleared again.

“I think it is absolutely terrible what that horrid child did to you.” She shook her head. “Absolutely horrid.” I just smiled, not really sure what to say.

“Erm, Mrs. Stokes-” I started.

“Please, Caroline,” she interrupted. “Or mum if you like.”

“Caroline,” I smiled. I didn’t really feel comfortable calling her Mum. “Was my school bag brought home? Do you know?” she looked puzzled at my question. “It’s just that Colton brought me home, but I don’t think we had my bag. My phone is in there and all my books. I can’t find it, and I don’t even know what time it is.” I started to feel the familiar feeling of a panic attack coming on and a simple sentence quickly turned into word soup.

“Oh!” Caroline said, and I breathed a sigh of relief that I wouldn’t have to search for my bag anymore. “It’s just after 1 pm, dear,” she said, obviously very happy with herself. I just looked at her, confused for a moment, and then I slumped when I realised she had gotten excited because she knew the time, not where my bag was.

I felt the buzzing in my head that indicated someone was mind linking me. I opened the link and heard Colton’s voice.

“Strawberries, my mum said you were awake.” Oh, that would explain the brief glazing she did. “Could you come down to my office, please?”

“I’m only wearing your t-shirt,” I responded, and he chuckled through the link. It felt strange to hear it in my head, but it still sent shivers in a beeline right to my core.

“Are you wearing panties?” His voice was curious and a little teasing and I blushed even though he could see me.

“Yes!” I responded.

“Okay, good enough. That will work to prove our point.”

“Huh?” I was confused. What point was he talking about?

“Nevermind. Come on down. I’ll meet you outside my office.”

“Sure, okay.” I felt him shut the link off.

I glanced at Caroline, who was reading a book.

“I erm… need to go,” I said. She didn’t even look up from the book and smiled.

“Okay, darling, have fun.” I shrugged and headed out and down to the first floor.

I felt slightly self-conscious about what I was wearing, but the place seemed deserted anyway. Once I had hit the first floor, I headed right towards the main offices and almost bumped straight into Alex. He grinned at me and looked me up and down, lingering on my legs way too long.

“Alex,” I snapped, calling his attention back to my face. “Colton asked me to come down,” I said, and he grinned.

“Sure thing,” he said. “He is waiting for you outside his office, just around the corner, darling.” He winked. I smiled and shook my head as I headed around the corner. Colton was on his phone, leaning against a wall. He looked up as I came around and watched me as I walked over to him.

“Damn, girl,” he said and whistled. “You look fine as f**k in my t-shirt.” He reached out his hand, and when I grabbed it, he yanked me into him. I yelped and then hissed as my hurt arm hit his chest.

“Ah, s**t, baby girl,” he said and pulled me in for a k**s. His hands snaked around to my a*s, and he cupped my cheeks, lifting me slightly onto my tiptoes while I wrapped my good arm around his neck. He broke the brief k**s and looked down at me, his eyes almost completely gold. He glanced up and growled, and I turned to see a man standing in the doorway of the open office. His eyes were obviously on my a*s, and the t-shirt had ridden up slightly.

He looked embarrassed to have been caught and then scared at the increasingly menacing growls from Colton.

“Beta, sir,” he said quickly. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean anything by it.” He looked familiar, so I knew he was a pack member, but I wasn’t sure who he was.

“Back in the room,” Colton snapped and then let my waist go before taking my hand and pulling me towards the office.

“Wait, Colton!” I exclaimed, and he stopped and looked at me. “What’s going on?”

He grinned. “It’s your first official pack business as the future Beta wife. My dad tasked me and you to deal with this matter. He seemed to think that we would work well as a team” he smiled, although it didn’t look genuine. “Plus, this matter directly involves you.”

”

“Me, how?”

Colton grinned. “You’ll see, Strawberries, come on.” He pulled me into the office.

The office was of modern decor, in black, white, and glass. The big desk in the middle had a large black chair on one side and two smaller chairs on the other side. The man I had just met sat in one of the chairs and sat in the other was Donna Tobbins. She looked up at me and then at my hand in Colton’s and then glared back at me. I growled before I knew why but I was flooded with anger almost immediately afterwards, and I growled again.

I knew instantly that the growl and the anger belonged to Maia, my wolf, and even as I allowed the anger to flow through me, I felt the constant dull ache disappear, and even my arm started to feel better.

I felt something else as Maia prodded at the surface of my consciousness like she was trying to get out. But not like a shifting, something else entirely. I heard Colton gasp as he looked down at our hands and then back up at me. His mouth fell open, and he stared at me.

“What?” I asked, and he then just grinned in response.

“Okay, now I see it,” he said with wonder in his eyes. He then turned to Donna and said, “now do you have any doubt that she is my mate?” he snarled at her, and she shrunk back in fear.

Both Donna and the man were staring at me in shock, and I wondered if I had gained two heads or something.

“Colton?” I asked. “I don’t get it. What’s going on?” Colton just grinned more and turned me towards the wall. On the wall was a mirror in a black frame. I saw Colton and myself in the mirror and still didn’t understand what he was so excited about. And then I saw it.

My face was no longer battered and bruised. It was back to my pale but healthy pink tint. And the large cut across my forehead had completely vanished. But that wasn’t the most shocking thing that I saw. I moved closer to the mirror because I would have missed it otherwise. My eyes were glowing with my wolf’s presence, but they were no longer the cold steel silver grey. They were now a beautiful pale gold colour. This was to be expected once Colton and I had completed the mate bond, but that hadn’t happened yet.

Nevertheless, I had officially ranked up. My wolf and I were now of Beta rank.