Beyond Beta's Rejection

(Harper’s POV)

****** Ten Years Later ******

I clenched my thighs around the head between my legs and wrapped my fingers in his blond hair as he worked at my clit with his tongue. I could feel the pressure rising as he pumped two fingers deep inside me, curling them to hit just the right spot. I bit down on my l*p to stop myself from moaning as I got closer. Just as I started to feel like I was about to burst, I reached to my left finger and tugged on the damn ring. Pain shot through my body and sent me over the edge as pleasure chased it, and I cried out. I tugged on the ring again as he pulled out his fingers and ran his tongue across my entrance, drinking in his reward, sending another jolt of pleasure through me.

I sighed and leaned back against the wall, sated. I looked down at the cute blond warrior sitting on the floor with a smug grin on his face. He looked up at me and winked. I chuckled and shook my head, and glanced at my phone. The time read 1:54 pm!

“s**t!” I exclaimed and jumped down from the shelf that I was sitting on. I grabbed my tight black jeans and pulled them on quickly.

“Thanks, Mark,” I said as I found my boots and started putting them on and doing up the side zip.

The blond frowned at me. “It’s Paul,” he said, jumping up from the floor, and I shrugged.

“Oh, yeah, Paul,” I smiled. “Well, that was good, maybe again sometime.” I grabbed my bag and headed for the door of the Janitor’s closet.

“Hey, wait, where are you going?” He grabbed my arm. I looked down at his hand and then back up at his potentially imposing 6ft4 broad frame. I smiled and narrowed my eyes. He glanced at his hand and quickly removed it. I nodded a wise move.

“Sorry, dude,” I said, “I got a meeting with Nathanial in….” I looked at my phone. “f**k, two minutes.”

“Well, what am I supposed to do with this?” He pointed at the hardened impressive-sized bulge in his pants. I nodded in appreciation and grinned.

“Got two hands, don’t you? Take your pick.” I looked down again. “But feel free to catch up later, and I can make it up to you.” I winked as I opened the door and slipped out into the hallway.

I closed the door behind me and headed down the hallway of The Council UK Branch. The hallway was flanked on either side by offices and training rooms and headed up the stairs to the second floor, where the Council Elders held their offices. Each of the twelve Councils around the world had twelve Elders. Those twelve Elders comprised three representatives from the four main supernatural categories, Shifter, Immortal, Faerie, and Magic Worker. Each of the categories had subcategories. One of my responsibilities as an Elite Officer of The Council was to know them all and their strengths and weaknesses inside out.

I knocked on the door of Elder Nathaniel Bethrinton, one of the UK Branch’s Shifter representatives and my mentor, and didn’t wait before walking in. I was greeted with two pairs of eyes, one being my mentor and the second being Drake Valcoin, one of the representatives for the immortals and the Branch High Council Elder. The High Council was made up of one Elder from each Branch and was led by The Sovereign. Other than the title, any information on The Sovereign was a strictly guarded secret.

Nathaniel looked up at me from behind his desk with a disapproving look. His greying hair was the only potential indication of his age, which was somewhere in his mid-fifties, although the rest of him could pass for the late thirties. He wore a traditional professional three-piece suit, and other than when we were training, I never saw him in anything else. In stark contrast to Nathaniel, Drake grinned when he saw me, and I raised my eyebrows as he shamelessly checked my body out before finally meeting my eyes. Drake was the very definition of a Greek god. His olive skin tone held the hint of an ethereal glow and his very dark brown hair matched his so dark they were almost black eyes. I knew from experience that the body underneath the black shirt and dress pants was built up of a well-defined and sculpted muscle set.

“Harper!” Drake exclaimed, “How lovely it is to see you.” I smiled and nodded.

“I’m sorry,” I said and then looked at Nathaniel. “I thought we had a meeting. I can come back,” I started to back out of the room.

“No, no, Sweetheart,” Drake purred and stood in front of me in the blink of an eye, damn vampire speed. “You come on in. I was just on my way out” he took my hand and smiled, a mischievous look crossing his face. “Unless I could steal you away for a bite.” I pulled my hand out of his and smiled politely

“Thanks, Drake, but it’s not going to happen,” I said and stepped to one side.

He grinned, “Don’t deny yourself, sweetheart. You know I can make you happy.” I blushed and then frowned, annoyed as he laughed at my reaction. I had made the mistake of thinking I could handle the three-thousand-year-old vampire eight or so years ago and found out the hard way that vampires, especially the old ones, could be dangerously addictive. If it wasn’t for Nathaniel, I might have ended up one of Drake’s b***d whores.

Nathaniel coughed, “I think we are done, Drake,” he said, and Drake nodded, his eyes still on me.

“Of course, Nathaniel,” he said in amusement. He turned to walk out the door and stopped. “By the way, Harper dear, interesting work in Cornwall,” and I cringed and looked at Nathaniel, knowing this was why I was in his office right now. Drake laughed as he opened the door. “Very inventive indeed,” he chuckled to himself as he closed the door behind him.

I turned back to Nathaniel and grinned. He promptly looked back down at the papers on his desk as if I wasn’t there. I rolled my eyes and went and sat in the chair opposite him and swung my legs onto the desk. He looked up sharply at my legs, and I debated pushing it a little, but I was already in a s**t load of trouble, so I put my legs down on the floor again. Nathaniel nodded before going back to looking at the papers on his desk. We sat there for five minutes or so in silence before I couldn’t take it anymore.

“Okay, I know I f****d up, but really, what choice did I have? I mean, it was clear he wasn’t going to come quietly, and what did you expect me to do? I wasn’t going in unarmed,” Nathaniel didn’t react to one word, and I was starting to get annoyed. “I mean, come on. He was a psycho who was planning on killing me, creatively!”

“Four hundred and sixty-eight thousand pounds,” Nathaniel said, cutting my rant off.

“Huh?” I looked at him, puzzled

“Four hundred and Sixty-eight thousand pounds, numerous more property damage and an unsanctioned kill,” he finally looked at me. His piercing blue eyes seemed to bore right into me. I glared right back.

“He was using his f*****g glamour to coerce those girls. Did you really think I was going to sit back and watch what he was doing while we waited on f*****g paperwork,” I spat out. “I acted in the best interest of his victims with the knowledge and experience I had.”

Nathaniel slammed his hand down on the desk, causing me to flinch. “Goddess dammit Harper, you had no proof!” He glared at me. “No warrant, no proof, and no official reason to even f*****g be there” He stood and paced the room.

“So what!” I shot back, “I was supposed to ignore everything because he was some jumped up little rich faerie? Would this have been an issue if his family wasn’t loaded?”

“No, probably not, but they are.” Nathaniel went and sat behind his desk again. “And in addition to that, they also know three members of the High Council,” he said. “That’s what Drake was just in here for. They want you brought up on charges” I rolled my eyes.

“So is that it, Nathaniel,” I said. “Goodbye, Harper, you know I know it’s bullshit,” I said. “Drake won’t let that happen while he thinks he can get back into my pants,” I said, and Nathaniel glared at me. “Also, if that wasn’t enough, how about the fact that I am the best damn Elite Officer in this branch. And I’d be happy to go toe to toe with anyone who disagrees.”

“Yeah, I know you are good,” Nathaniel said. “I have watched you grow from that scared and broken girl that arrived here almost ten years ago. I watched as you threw yourself into training and smashed through the ranks to become the woman you are now” I smiled despite everything.

He was right. It had been the early hours of the morning when Aaron had brought me to the Council. I was broken and quickly slipped into a deep depression after my wolf Maia never returned. I had spent three months in bed constantly crying and a further year or so terrified that they, or more, that he was going to find me and drag me back. Aaron kept me up to date with the reports. He had searched local packs first and then all over the UK. I spent my days scared of my shadows, which was how Nathaniel met me. I had been on a walk at Aaron’s insistence when Nathaniel had surprised me, and I freaked out. I had a breakdown right there in the courtyard. After getting me to calm down, Nathaniel got Aaron to tell him everything. That was when Nathaniel suggested I train with the warriors, and despite still not hearing from my wolf Maia, I quickly excelled in training. It was shortly after meeting Nathaniel that Aaron told me that the search for me had ceased, and I felt like I could rest easy again.

It was in my mentorship with Nathaniel that we began to realise that I could funnel my anger into my training, and after another year, we began to see evidence that Maia hadn’t gone. My eyes bled to the Beta rank gold on one occasion, and Nathaniel declared that this was evidence that I still had my wolf, although, to this day, I still haven’t shifted and still haven’t heard anything from her.

I looked at Nathaniel and smiled. “So no charges then?” I asked hopefully. He scowled at me but shook his head.

“No, no charges now.” He reached into a drawer and took out a brown folder. “But that’s because I have a mission for you, one that you are uniquely qualified for.”