Beyond Beta's Rejection

(Harper’s POV)

I glared at Elias and that smug look on his face. I took a deep breath and turned around, and started walking down the path again. f**k! How the hell did he know I was going to be there?

“Hey!” He called after me, but I didn’t stop. I felt his hand on my arm as he pulled me to a stop and then pulled me against him. He ran his nose through my hair and whispered in my ear.

“Wait, don’t go.” I closed my eyes and tried to focus on anything other than the feel of the sparks that danced along my skin. He let go of my arms, running his fingers down them before I stepped forward out of his space.

I turned around to look at him and smiled. I was aiming for sweet and innocent, but the look on his face told me he wasn’t buying it.

“I was just walking,” I said innocently and batted my eyelashes. He raised an eyebrow while Marcus fake coughed back at the building.

“Bullshit!” Marcus coughed around, and I shot him a glare. He just started laughing.

“So you just happened to walk by this building?” Elias asked, and I nodded.

“And so you thought it was interesting and decided to investigate?” he carried on. I nodded again.

“Yep, exactly,” I said with a smile.

“So it’s a complete coincidence that you found yourself by the entrance to the cells, the very same cells that your friend happens to be in?” I knew he knew I was lying through my teeth.

“Oh?” I said in mock surprise and widened my eyes. I said, “This is the entrance to the cells?” and he shook his head.

He grabbed my hand and pulled me back to the entrance and then jerked his head to Marcus as we got there. Marcus winked at me before walking off around the corner, leaving the two of us alone. Fine protector, he was, but I guess that didn’t include protection against his own Alpha. Elias positioned me at the door in front of him.

“I get it,” he said, standing behind me. “You are concerned for your friend. He ran his hand along my shoulder and swept my hair back, so my shoulder was bare.

“You could have come to talk to me about it,” he moved closer, so my back was completely against his front. It felt nice, so I wasn’t in a rush to move.

“And you would have let me in?” I asked. He chuckled against my skin, and I felt the vibration run through my body.

“No,” he said, “not without asking for something in return.” And there it was. I turned around to face him and scowled.

“And what exactly is it that you want in return” I arched my eyebrow, ready to slap him for whatever vile thing he was thinking of. He leaned in close to me and whispered in my ear.

“A chance.” I stepped back and looked at him in shock.

“Let me show you what the fated mate bond is really about,”

“And how do you propose to do that?” I asked skeptically.

“Tomorrow is your birthday, right?” he asked, and I nodded. I guess my birthday would have been in my records. “I want to take you to dinner, a date,”

“A date?” I asked, “That’s it? I go on a date with you, and you let me see Louise?” he nodded.

“If you agree now, I will open the door and take you down to her right now” he tucked a piece of my hair behind my ear, and I felt prickles along my scalp, “Do you agree, Harper Kirby?” I nodded quickly. I could handle one date. Plus, if I could get him to really trust me, then I could get close. That would make it easier to get what I needed.

Elias smiled and stepped back. I moved to the side and looked at the door expectantly. Was it really this easy? He stepped forward to the door, and I watched as he typed the code into the keypad, and the door opened. He glanced back at me with a cheeky grin.

“Did you catch that?” he asked, and I feigned innocence again. He turned into me, grabbed my h**s, and pulled me against him.

“Tell me, Harper, what number did I just type in? I know you saw,” I tried to steady my breathing as I felt a shift inside me.

“Mmm, don’t tell him. Maybe he’ll pull us closer” Maia shocked me by speaking. I shook my head in surprise.

“You’re back again,” I stated

“Yeah, we are still weak, but his beast pulls me out, gives me strength,” she sighed. Oh, that wasn’t good. I wanted Maia back, but not because of Elias.

“I’m waiting, sweetheart,” Elias cooed against my shoulder, and I shivered as he kissed it. I took another deep breath.

“Seven, one, nine, six, four, one,” I breathed each number as he moved k****s onto my throat.

“Good girl,” he breathed against my neck, and I felt another rush through my body. I shifted to clench my legs together, despite the obvious aroma of my excitement embarrassingly making itself known. Elias chuckled again and stepped back. It took every ounce of strength not to follow him and close the space between us again. He moved to one side and gestured with his hand towards the door.

I headed in through the door, and he followed close on my heels. Marcus appeared a few seconds later and grinned at me again. I rolled my eyes at him and then turned to face the door in front of me. Elias pressed a button, and I heard a whirling and realised it was an elevator. The doors opened, and I walked in. Once we were all in, Elias opened a keypad and typed in a different number. This one I didn’t get. The elevator went down, and the doors opened. Elias walked out first, and I followed with Marcus at my back. The room was stone everywhere. There was a desk, and one guard sat behind it. He looked up as we walked in but stood to attention as soon as he saw Elias. There was something familiar about him, but I wasn’t sure what it was.

“Alpha, sir,” he said, and Elias waved at him to sit down.

“I am taking Miss Kirby here to see Mrs. Chambers,” he said, and the guard looked me over.

“Kirby?” he asked, “Tommy Kirby’s niece?” and I nodded. He continued to watch me as Elias filled out the pretty sparse visitors’ sheet. I narrowed my eyes at the guard. I was starting to get annoyed at the attention.

“Do you have a problem with me?” I snapped, and Elias looked up at him.

“No, ma’am,” he said with an acidic tone to his voice.

“Spit it out, soldier,” Elias responded, “It’s clear you have something to say.” I saw his body language stiffen and could hear the challenge in his tone. The guard looked uneasy all of a sudden, and I remembered where I knew him from. He was one of Damien’s and Colton’s group from before I left. Which likely meant that he was one of the ones that Colton had bragged to after our first night together.

“Nothing, sir,” he said and glanced at me before lowering his eyes with a smirk on his face.

“I said spit it out,” he growled, his Alpha command coming through clearly. The guard attempted to struggle before he began to stutter.

“I-I just remembered C-Colton telling us how g-good she was in b-bed,” he said, and he looked up in fear at Elias. I glanced over and saw the gold shine of Elias’s wolf. His hands were clenched like he was holding back. I glanced at Marcus, who was also glaring at the guard.

“Boss, take your girl to see her friend,” he said and then looked at me. “Round that corner,” he said and pointed down a hallway. I nodded and grabbed Elias’ hand. He glanced down at my hand in surprise and then back up to me, his eyes still gold. I pulled him around the corner that Marcus had directed me to. He resisted a little, but I managed to get him out of sight of the guard.

We got around the corner, and he stopped.

“I should go and snap his neck,” he growled, and I tugged on his hand.

“Leave it,” I pleaded. I could see the murderous look in his eyes.

“And I am going to f*****g kill that bastard too,” he snarled. I could see he was getting riled up again and was seconds away from turning back towards the guard. So I did the only thing that I could think of at the moment. I pushed him against the wall and smashed my lips against his. He didn’t respond at first, but there was a fine line between anger and l**t, and thankfully, his wolf chose the latter. He growled into my mouth and returned my k**s with such force that I was sure that my lips would be bruised. Elias gripped my body and pulled me into him as close as humanly possible. There was nothing gentle as he took control of the moment and spun us, so my back was against the wall. His mouth left mine and found my neck, and I gasped as my body exploded with the need to touch, be touched, ride, and be ridden by the furious passion coursing through my veins.

Elias found my mouth again just as I heard a noise and a scream of pain from around the corner. There was another cry of pain and then a loud bang before a second bang. And then the sound of metal clanking. Everything went silent, and I pulled away from Elias. He growled in protest but let me. He leaned his forehead against mine as we both regained our breath. Elias grinned at me, and his eyes sparkled blue again. I heard movement to the side of us.

“Aw, Harper, I was looking forward to calming his a*s like that,” Marcus fake whined, and I laughed and looked over at him.

“You’re a d**k. You know that” I said, and he grinned in response.

“Is it sorted?” Elias asked, and Marcus nodded.

“I’ve linked for a replacement,” he said, and Elias nodded.

He grabbed my hand, smiled at me, and then kissed my nose, which I scrunched in response.

“Come on, let me take you to your friend,” he said and tugged me further down the hallway. We got to the bottom, where a heavy-duty-looking metal door was. I was starting to wonder if I would have been able to get in by myself at this rate. Elias flipped a panel and typed in a code, blocking it from my view. The door opened, and he walked through. I followed into another corridor. Only this one had doors on each side as we walked. The doors were metal with small windows. Some were dark, and some were lit up. I began to wonder who else was down here.

We made it to the end of the corridor, and Elias tapped another keypad, and the light next to it turned green. He opened the door and walked in. I smiled as I heard a familiar voice.

“Oh great, what the f**k do you want so soon?” Louise ranted from inside the room.

“And before you ask, no, I don’t know what the schedule is, or who is involved, and no, for the last f*****g time, I don’t know where the hell the spineless piece-of-shit husband of mine is. Satisfied, you arrogant bastard?” Elias looked over his shoulder at me with an eyebrow raised, and I pushed past him into the room. It was a standard cell room—toilet and sink in one corner and a single metal bed against the wall. Louise sat on the bed, her back straight and a furious look on her face. She looked at me, and confusion crossed her face before she realised.

“Oh my goddess Harper!” she gasped. She jumped off the bed, and I met her halfway as we hugged.

“Why did you come back? It’s not safe for you!”