Beyond Beta's Rejection

(Elias’ POV)

“f**k!”

I leaned against the wall outside the entrance to the cells and closed my eyes. I didn’t know how long I was going to be able to deal with that infuriating woman. I could still hear her shouting obscenities at the guards. All I wanted to know was where her husband was and that she was willing to co-operate, and then I would let her go, under a watchful eye, of course. This whole pack was a mess. Three months in, and I still doubted almost every single one of them. There was maybe a handful who I felt confident to recruit. The rest of the pack, well, they would have to be dealt with in the usual ways.

I heard a beep and looked down at my Rolex and sighed. I had a meeting with the Kirby woman right now. I was all set to deny her request for entry into the territory, especially since the first request included her boyfriend, Aaron Jacen. It took me a while to remember where I knew that name from. It was Marcus who told me that he was a Council warrior. I had spent a brief time in the Council when I had turned fifteen, but I had hated all the rules. I was never a fan of rules, unless they were my rules, of course.

I denied the original request, but Tommy Kirby had come and put in a second request for just his niece alone. It was then that he had told me that she knew Jacen through him and how he had sent her to the Council to hide for a while. He told me about Stokes being her mate and pretty much being an abusive d**k to her, which didn’t surprise me. I already knew of his crazy blow-up ten years ago. It turned out it was about her. I had Marcus arrange an extensive search on the girl, but everything came back pretty boring. She had spent six months at the Council and then moved to London and worked as a waitress for a while before doing administration or something in insurance. There was a mention of a romantic occurrence between her and Jacen, but that was recorded as ending some time ago. Kirby told me that his niece and friend had stayed friends, and Jacen had offered to come back with her, so she didn’t get s**t from Stokes. He said that was why it had taken her four months even to request to come back. It all seemed to line up, but you can never be too careful with the Council. They had been sniffing around my operations for some time, and they could cause real issues if they found out what we were doing. I approved Kirby’s request but insisted on a meeting so I could feel her out myself. You don’t get to where I am without being good at judging people and then making the hard decisions.

I set off back to the pack house feeling tired. My wolf Jax had been on edge all day. It had started yesterday just after Stokes had burst into my office and then stormed off again. Jax was normally pretty calm, but since yesterday, he had been so active. I even went for a run last night to try to drain some of the restlessness, but we ended up circling one particular housing estate for hours, and Jax wouldn’t say why. I made a point to investigate that area later. Maybe he detected a threat. He was good at that.

I was heading into the pack house when I bumped into Marcus, who was grinning wildly. He had been flirting with Kylie, my receptionist, so I was guessing he had scored.

“Dude!” he said as he walked up to me. I raised my eyebrows.

“Dude?” I questioned. We were good friends, but we were in public, and I didn’t want people to see weakness in my operations.

“Oh yeah, I mean Alpha,” he said, although I detected a mocking undertone and rolled my eyes.

“What do you want, Marcus? I’m late for my meeting.”

“That’s what I wanted to talk about,” he said. “I just met her, the Kirby chick,” he said excitedly. Strangely, I felt annoyed at the terminology he was using, but I logically knew he meant no disrespect.

“Did she like being called a chick?”

This time, he rolled his eyes. “I’m not that stupid,” he said. “But seriously, she’s hot! I mean, seriously, she had this whole flirty, badass vibe about her. I’m gonna meet up with her later for drinks or something.” He wiggled his eyebrows.

I shook my head and grinned at him. The guy was unbelievable. In the three months we had been here, he had slept his way through half the single women in the pack. So, of course, he would find the new person interesting. “Well, I am sure to find out for myself in the next couple of minutes,” I said, and he grinned again as I patted his back and turned to walk up the stairs.

“She’s a feisty one,” he called up after me, and I waved my arm in acknowledgement. I passed a sullen-looking Kylie on the desk and headed down the hall towards my office.

Jax was suddenly very excited. He was jumping around inside my head.

“Seriously, dude, what the hell?” I chastised inside my head, and he howled in response. Then it happened. I was hit with the most f*****g amazing smell of strawberries. I never really cared for strawberries, but right now, I could have bathed in a tub of the delicious juicy red fruit. I threw my office door open and stood at the entrance. Sitting in one of the chairs with her back to me was the source of the heavenly scent. Everything narrowed down to her. I didn’t need her to turn around to know that she would be the most beautiful woman In my life, but at the same time, I desperately wanted her to turn around so I could feast my eyes upon her beauty. Jax was chanting in my head over and over one word.

“Oh goddess, no!” she uttered. What did she mean?

I took in that beautiful scent one last time before I said the word Jax was repeating.

“Mate!”

I swear she flinched as I uttered the word. Why was she not as happy or as excited as I was, and why would she not turn around and let me see her. I noticed that Stokes was still in my office, and he looked shocked. He was looking between the two of us. Then he met my eyes, and the shocked expression changed to anger. Why was he angry again? Then it hit me. This was the mate that Stokes had hurt and abused. The one that was so scared that she left her pack and family and ran for her life, and it had taken her four months after her father had died to come back to grieve him. And it was all Stokes’s doing.

Jax growled in my head as I saw red and launched myself at the man that had abused my mate. I smashed him against the wall before slamming my fist into his surprised face. It didn’t matter that she wasn’t my mate then. It didn’t matter that she had been his mate. As decreed by the moon goddess, she was my mate now, and it was my duty to protect and care for her.

I saw red as I continued to punch Stokes over and over. I would kill him for this. Stokes surprised me by responding with a sucker punch to my stomach, causing the air to expel from my lungs with force. I recovered quickly and went to punch him again when I heard the door slam shut.

I looked around to see the chairs and the room now empty.

“Mate gone,” Jax huffed in my head, and I growled. “Go find mate.”

“f**k!” Stokes gasped and started to move towards the door. I grabbed him and shoved him back against the wall.

“Stay away from her,” I snarled, and he laughed.

“Not a chance.” He shoved me away and made it out of the door before I could get to him.

“s**t!” I exclaimed and then opened a mindlink to Marcus.

“Marcus, find the Kirby woman now. Don’t engage. Just watch and do not let Stokes anywhere near her.” It was less than ten seconds before he responded.

“Aye, aye, captain,” he said. “What’s up, she not what she says she is?”

“No, she is my mate,” I replied. And just like that, it sank in. I found my fated mate. At thirty-five years old, I was beginning to lose hope that it would happen at all.

“f**k dude, congrats!” he said, and then, “Aw f**k dude, then I guess drinks are out of the question.” My responding growl was enough to get laughing down the link. I knew he was yanking my chain, and he was probably the only one who could do it. It didn’t matter now. All that mattered was finding my mate.