Beyond Beta's Rejection

(Harper’s POV)

Everyone looked up as we walked into the dining kitchen. My mum’s eyes zeroed in on Colton’s hand wrapped around mine, and she grinned. I was thankful to see that Tommy hadn’t left the house and was sitting in the corner of the room. He was glaring at Colton as soon as we walked into the room but had refused to meet my eyes.

The Alpha stood up and smiled. “Here they are,” he said cheerfully. “Come, take a seat, my dear. It is your birthday after all.” And then he held his chair out for me. Before I could sit down, though, Colton slid into the seat, and then I let out a surprised yelp, and he pulled me down onto his knee. He wrapped his arms around my stomach and gently kissed my shoulder before looking around at everyone.

“I thought I would save a seat for someone else,” he said with a shrug, and the Alpha started laughing.

“You do right, son,” he said before sitting in the other spare seat.

I glanced across the table to Katie and Louise, who looked confused. Louise met my eyes and nodded toward Colton with a clear WTF expression on her face. I shook my head slightly, hoping nobody saw. Colton’s arms tightened around me as an indication that he saw everything. I quickly looked down at my hands, and his grip loosened again. I looked up into the mirror on the walls behind the girls. Colton was watching me, and when our eyes met, he inclined his head, and a dangerous look flashed through his eyes.

Colton turned his attention away from mine, and I felt like I could breathe again.

“Oh, and apologies if you heard anything untoward just now in the office,” Colton said, looking around the room, and the Alpha and Beta grinned. It was obvious what they thought he was talking about.

“Don’t you worry about it, son,” my dad said. “The office is soundproof. Nobody heard a thing,”

Crap! Caught, I couldn’t help the mischievous smile and glanced in the mirror again to see Colton glaring at me.

He kept his eyes on mine as he leaned forward and whispered in my ear, “If I had known that, I would have f****d you right there over the desk.” I immediately went bright red, and Louise rolled her eyes.

“Well, everyone heard that untoward comment,” she muttered, and Katie stifled a laugh while Colton glared at her.

“Darren, seriously!” Tommy burst out, his face set in a furious scowl. “Are you really going to allow this kind of talk?”

“Oh Tommy,” my mum scolded. “They are a new couple in love. You’ll understand when you eventually find your mate.” I saw Tommy glance briefly at Louise, and she looked uncomfortable. I’d suspected for a few weeks that they were fated mates, but this confirmed it. Glancing in the mirror again, Colton had a sly grin on his face. He’d caught the exchange himself.

“Tommy, I have already told you once,” my dad said in a warning tone, and Tommy stood up and growled before storming out of the room, stopping briefly and looking at me.

“Harper, could I have a word, please?” And then I heard him on the stairs.

I went to stand up, and Colton’s arms tightened around my waist. The Alpha laughed again.

“Let the girl go,” he said. “You’ll have your whole lives together.”

Colton growled low in his throat but loosened his grip enough for me to stand up.

“Excuse me,” I said to the room and headed out, following Tommy upstairs. He was standing in my room. I went in and closed the door.

Tommy still looked furious, but as soon as my door was closed, he rushed forwards and pulled me into a hug.

“s**t, Kid!” he said quietly. “I f****d up. I’m so sorry,”

“I don’t get it,” I said, pulling away. “What happened? He was all for rejecting me and then suddenly, well… this!” I waved my hand with the engagement ring on around. Tommy went and sat on my bed and put his head in his hands.

“I told them,” he said quietly. “I was all pissed off about what he did to you that I went storming up there. And then when I saw him gloating to his friends about it-”

“What!” I exclaimed. Oh, my goddess, all his friends were gonna know everything. How could I even show my face? Tommy looked up at me, sympathy in his eyes.

“I’m so sorry,” he said again.

“Well, why did he change his mind then?” I asked, trying to stop the tears from falling, and Tommy shook his head.

“We were fighting, and the Alpha broke it up. I could tell that the little s**t was going to get away with everything, especially since I was the one that attacked him, so I blurted out about him being your fated mate.” He lowered his eyes at that last part. “After that, he was dragged into the office, and I felt pretty good that I had got him into trouble, until this afternoon when they all showed up here.” The guilt on his face was evident, but I didn’t blame him.

“I still don’t understand why though,” I said, sitting down next to him, and he sighed.

“Harps, there is so much about this little town of ours that you don’t understand,” he said. “It’s not as quaint as it looks.”

The town that our pack bordered was called Levington. It was a mid-size town. We had a cinema and a shopping centre. Pack members owned most of the businesses and the properties in town, and the pack bordered the edge, most of us anyway. Like Katie and her family, some pack members lived in one of the apartment blocks that was owned by the Alpha, in and around the centre. This was mainly because omega-ranked pack members were not allowed to own property. It was a nice picturesque town with window boxes full of flowers and tourist awards and such. But I wasn’t stupid. I knew that every town had a bad part.

I rolled my eyes at Tommy. He always saw me as sweet and innocent.

“Tommy, I’m well aware of the darker elements of town. I’ve snuck into Howlers before.” Howlers was a seedy werewolf run bar. They had club nights on the weekends and were pretty much the only place in town. Despite the name, the humans in town still didn’t know that a werewolf ran it or that we even really existed.

“Harps, it’s not as simple as that.” Tommy looked nervously at the door and lowered his voice to a whisper. “You haven’t been told everything about our family heritage and how important it is to the town. There’s a reason why it took so long for Susie to be able to move to Star Dawn with her mate, not until they realised it wasn’t her.”

“What are you talking about? What wasn’t her?” He was talking crazy, and I was beginning to wonder if he had been injured in the fight last night.

He scratched his neck and stood up, and put his ear to the door

“Listen, Kid,” he said, turning to me. “If it were up to me, you would be out of this rotten town by now. I’m stuck here. I don’t want you to be.” he looked at me, and for a second, I swore his eyes glowed gold instead of their usual silver. “You’re too important for that!”

I scoffed, “I’m not important,” I’d been mostly invisible, happy to blend into the background my whole life. Susie enjoyed being the one everyone looked at with all the praise and attention. The very idea made me shudder.

“Oh kid, If only you knew,” Tommy smiled .“You are more important than any one of us. I knew that from the moment you were born that you were-”

There was a knock on my door, and we both looked up. My mum popped her head in the door.

“Sweetie, Colton said he wants to go home,” she said. Thank the goddess, I thought, maybe I could get my head straight without him being around. Plus, I still needed to get ready for school in the morning. You’d think that becoming engaged to the future Beta might mean no more school, but there were only two more weeks left, and then it was done. Plus, despite it technically being legal in the UK to leave school at sixteen, our pack had a requirement that all pack members continued until eighteen, at the very minimum within the compulsory pack training curriculum.

I smiled at my mum. “Okay, I will come and say goodbye.” I went to leave my room, but my mum blocked my way.

I smiled at my mum. “Okay, I will come and say goodbye.” I went to leave my room, but my mum blocked my way.

“Harper, where are your bags?” she asked, looking around my room.

“Bags?” I asked confused.

“Oh, you have got to be kidding me,” Tommy muttered behind me, and I turned and looked at him, still confused.

“Sweetheart,” my mum said. “You’re moving into the pack house. You knew that, didn’t you?”

Erm, no, I did not! This was news to me. I knew that I would eventually be expected to move into the pack house, but not today, not straight away!

“What, mum, no!” I exclaimed. “It took Susie two months before she moved.”

“Yes, I know, sweetheart, but you and Colton are engaged now. I mean, the engagement party will be this weekend!” My heart plummeted at what she was saying. They had already started planning the engagement party! Things were moving way too fast for me. I started to feel faint and sat down on the floor before falling down.

“Oh no! Harper sweetie, what’s wrong?” My mum started fussing, but her voice was faint. There was a loud rushing in my ears, and I felt like my eyes couldn’t focus. It was all too much, and this was my way of shutting it all out.

Then I felt sparks across my cheek, and I was shocked back to reality. The room had gotten crowded, but my focus was brought to Colton, who was kneeling right in front of me, stroking my cheek. He even looked concerned and smiled when I focused on him.

“Hey, Strawberries,” he cooed. “What’s up, baby girl?” He leaned forward and grazed his lips against mine, and the sparks sent shivers down my spine.

“I think she’s just a little overwhelmed with everything,” my mum said. “She has panic attacks sometimes”

“Aw, Strawberries,” Colton purred. “Why don’t we get you home, and then I can take care of you properly?” There were awww’s and ahh’s from others, but I saw Colton’s eyes as he said it, and the sinister look that flashed through them made me shrink away from him. I shook my head and moved further back.

“I-I have nothing packed,” I stammered, hoping that it would be a reason to stay home. I was out of luck.

“Fine,” he said, his tone clipped. “You have ten minutes, and then I want to leave.” I could already tell that he was angry and probably tired of holding up the pretence of being the loving mate. I bit my l*p to hold back the tears, and then Louise spoke.

“Colton, why don’t you go home? Katie and I will help Harper pack her things, and then I will bring her home later.” As the Gamma’s daughter, Louise lived in the pack house alongside the Beta and the Alpha family. At least I would be living with one of my best friends. Colton glanced up at Louise and grinned.

“That sounds perfect!” he said and then looked back at me. “I will see you at home soon then, mate!” He leaned over and kissed me again, this time much harder, before pulling away and standing up. He headed out of my bedroom without a second glance, and less than a minute later, I heard the front door close. It was reminiscent of last night, and I couldn’t help but burst into tears.

“Well,” my mum said, uncertainty in her voice. “I will leave you girls to it,” she added before she left the room. My dad stood in the doorway, smiled down at me, and then glanced behind me.

“Come on, Tommy,” he said. “I think it’s time we had a chat.” Tommy stood up and headed out of the room but stopped at the door.

“Don’t worry, kid,” he said. “I’ll figure something out. I’ll fix this shit.” And then he left.