Beyond Beta's Rejection

(Colton’s POV)

I leaned against the wall behind the Alpha’s desk, watching Harper. She was sitting on one of the chairs on the other side of the desk. She looked like Harper, my Harper. The sweet and innocent Harper who I had known all that time ago. Her appearance, hair, stunning, slender frame, and those grey eyes that felt like they pierced my soul. All the same, but the subtle differences, the clothes she wore, the way she held herself, and the smirk that she was throwing my way right now, were all indications that my Harper had long since gone.

I was a fool to reject her in the first place. If I had just listened to my wolf Canyon, then maybe things would have turned out differently. We would have been mated with pups of our own. I wouldn’t have this big gaping hole inside me that no amount of s*x or whisky could fill. I had known there was something different about her since just after my 18th birthday, I had seen her at school, and Canyon had perked up immediately. You aren’t supposed to know who your mate is until you are both eighteen. But I swear he knew. But she was a quiet and shy fifteen-year-old then, and I had no interest in having to fight the virgin wards to get what I wanted at the time.

It got worse when she and Louise became friends. She was around more, and Alex had started sniffing around her, too. When he had come home one night a year or so later, smelling of her, I had almost ripped his throat out where he stood. I told him then to stay clear of her. I then managed to avoid contact with her for the next couple of years, keeping an eye on her and keeping a distance. The day she turned eighteen, the day of the Midsummer Ball, I felt the bond smash into me. It hit me so hard just after midnight that I couldn’t sleep. I wanted nothing more than to go storming to her house and claim her right there and then. But I held off until the ball that evening. I knew she would be there; it was mandatory for all pack members to be at the ball.

But I listened to Damien. He had rejected his mate a few years before. She was an Omega from a visiting pack, and he refused to lower himself to that level. He said that the pain from the rejection had been amazing, and he only wished that he had been f*****g her at the time. He said I should do that, and then neither of us would be trapped by our mates because mates make you weak. I believed him. I saw how my dad would bend over backwards and drop everything for my mum, how even in her state of mental decline, she still controlled him. I wasn’t about to be controlled by anyone, certainly not a weak, timid creature like Harper.

So I did it. Damien helped me to set it up. He would run a distraction so I could get her away without anyone seeing. I would deflower and then cut off my beautiful sweet strawberries. And what a night it was. That night was the best s*x of my life, nothing compared. Everything was amazing from the moment I slid my hand into hers right up to I exploded my seed in her. I knew it was exactly as it should be. And when she had called out and begged me to claim her, I almost did. My canines were already out in full, and I was seconds away from sinking them into her neck when I remembered the plan and said the words. Damien was right, though. The pain that came along with it, and the way it meshed with the pleasure, was something so mind-blowing that I didn’t regret it for a second. Until later that night.

I had been back at the party for a few hours boasting to the crew about what I had done and how f*****g amazing it was. Not before being accosted by Donna and dragged into an empty office for a quickie. I had Canyon sulking; he kept repeating how much I had made a big mistake. So I was distracted when Tommy Kirby attacked me. He got a few hits in before I could easily get the upper hand. My father and the Alpha had come over kicking off. Although I wasn’t bothered, I didn’t expect to get in any trouble. I mean, Kirby had attacked me, not the other way around. Then he opened his big mouth. Again I didn’t think it was an issue until I saw the shift in my dad’s and the Alpha’s faces.

It was only when I had been ordered to the office, and it was explained to me exactly who the Kirby’s were and, more importantly, who Harper Kirby was that I realised how much I had f****d up. It made so much sense why I could feel her before her eighteenth, why I had felt the pull to be with her. I couldn’t believe what I had done. My father had screamed about how important it was that the Kirby’s were looked after, why Tommy Kirby never left town after he had come back from Council training and why Darren Kirby had been so tightly woven into the pack operations that it would be impossible for him to leave. Also, a year previously, there had been so many issues about Susie Kirby being allowed to leave to join her mate’s pack, but even she was back now.

My father and the Alpha had fixed everything that night. They had pulled Darren into the office, told him how much of a mistake I had made, and had him agree that it was in my and Harper’s interest to clear this up. Not to mention the good of the pack. I heard Darren had already turned his back on the Order, but the additional promotion in the pack businesses certainly helped to sway his decision.

And that week, with Harper by my side, it was heaven. I felt the bond repairing and it growing stronger. But I was frustrated. She was guarded with me, she wasn’t giving me everything, and I couldn’t risk losing her when things were so fragile. Showing her how much I already loved her by introducing her to the edge of the pain and pleasure and sharing her with Damien and Alex was never intended to be seen as bad. I knew that if she just trusted me, saw how amazing it could be to have three attentive lovers, she would understand that what I was giving her was a gift. I only used the command to help her relax. It wasn’t my fault she took it the wrong way or that Alex had gotten cold feet. As soon as she knew that her place was at my side, she would understand the magic we could create.

Just thinking about it, thinking about how much we fit together so well, how she felt when she was in my arms when I was sliding inside her, was starting to do things to me. I started to feel myself hardening, but it brought attention to the pain I was still feeling in my balls from a few hours ago when she had kneed me. I winced at the feeling and tried to discreetly adjust myself, but she caught the action and raised her eyebrows, and smirked again. I wanted to wipe that smug look off of her face so badly. I wanted to push her against the desk and make her remember that one time in my office. I could almost picture her screaming my name as I pounded inside her, making her mine again.

I winced again as a sharp pain in my nuts shot through my body. She shook her head and chuckled. I could only glare back at her. I would have to make her pay for what she had done at the apartments. And I would make her pay real good, real soon.

I had made the mistake of telling Elias what had happened. I was furious, and the anger had me bursting into the office, demanding that she be punished for assaulting a ranked member of the pack. Elias watched me with mild amusement, which only annoyed me more. Marcus, on the other hand, was a condescending f**k.

“You mean to tell me you were overpowered by a girl,” he said before he started laughing. I wanted to punch him right in the face. I had argued that she clearly caught me off guard. Elias seemed uninterested in everything. I knew that if I was going to get Harper back, I needed to restrict her movements in the town. Undoubtedly, that uncle of hers would be trying to get in the way, and I had already received word that she was at Howlers with the traitor Alex this morning. So I tried to reason with Elias that maybe she should be watched. If he moved her to the pack house, then I could catch her unawares. Elias had shut me down, stating the pack house wasn’t a hotel, and maybe if I stayed away from her, she couldn’t pick on me. This had Marcus in stitches again, and I was ready to walk out there and then.

But I knew Harper was due for her vetting, and I wanted to be here when he did that. It was shortly after that Elias had received a phone call. Whatever it was, it pissed him off enough to swear. He stormed off, saying he would be back soon. Marcus soon got bored as he did and wandered off. I don’t know where.

At least I got these few minutes to study Harper. She was still sitting in the chair, relaxed and checking her phone, when I noticed her body stiffen. She looked up to the wall next to me, and her face lost the smug expression for something more like fear. Just then, the door opened, and Elias stopped in the doorway like there was some sort of barrier. His eyes shifted to gold, and he was staring at Harper from behind with a lustful hunger in his eyes.

“Oh goddess, no!” Harper muttered and then glanced at me before closing her eyes. I looked up at Elias just as he sniffed the air. Then he uttered one word that shattered my world.

“Mate!”