The Beta Who Bought Me

Chapter 1 - Taken

The night was quiet at first. A full moon hung high in the sky above, nestled amongst countless twinkling stars. Fresh, white snow covered the hills around a small pack house in the clearing of a forest.

No lights shone through the windows as all of its occupants appeared to be snoozing away, unaware of the presence forming in the tree line outside.

A low growl rumbled from the dark woods. A trio of wolves, all huge in stature with glistening black fur, crept up to the house slowly, leaving their massive paw prints behind in the snow. They suddenly halted their approach when a single dim light switched on in a downstairs bedroom. A figure of a young woman briefly passed by the pane of glass, but she did not appear to notice the danger looming close by.

The largest black wolf glanced at its companions and nodded its head in the direction of the house. Assured by their leader that it was safe to proceed, they continued forward, stalking the prey they were after.

EARLIER THAT DAY…

“Mom? I’m home!” a young woman called out as she opened the door to her family’s apartment.

“Laurel! Why are you home early?” Her mother, Pearl, poked her head out of the kitchen in surprise at her daughter’s arrival.

“Mr. and Mrs. Johnson came home early from their date, so they let me go home. Still paid me in full though!” Laurel Evans playfully bounded over to her mother and waved her small wad of cash in front of her nose.

Her mother just shook her head with an eye-roll at her daughter’s youthful antics. She knew very well that money would more than likely be spent on a shopping trip shortly. “Well, okay then. I just cleaned up the kitchen, but the leftovers are in the fridge if you’re hungry?"

She watched her daughter happily skip over to the fridge and pull out the container of the leftover dinner she had prepared earlier. Her daughter, Laurel, was a bright 22-year-old, picking up babysitting jobs on the weekends for other members of their small pack while trying to figure out her next move in life.

Their pack house housed all of the members of their pack, a group of approximately twenty, children included. Unlike most packs, they were more of a cooperative. They had no formal structure, so no alpha or beta to call the shots. They were just a group of werewolves who banded together for a variety of reasons. Not wanting to be considered rogue wolves, they officially founded their own pack, The Twisting Rivers Pack, a few years before.

It had actually started with just Laurel and her mother. Pearl’s mate and Laurel’s father, George, had suddenly taken ill and died a few years prior. Unfortunately, Pearl and George had been the subject of bullying and ridicule from the time they were pups. They were both omegas of questionable parentage, and they found solace in one another’s company, so much so that they made one another their chosen mate.

Many wolves were given fated mates by the Moon Goddess, but for omegas, it was exceptionally rare. So most chose their relationships as humans do.

In some ways, it was freeing to not have your partner decided for you and to be able to make your own choices. Of course, there was always the risk of your chosen mate finding their fated mate and leaving you behind. Most omegas were willing to take the risk, rather than be doomed to be alone for their entire lives.

Shortly after George’s death, the state of their pack became increasingly hostile to the omegas. And when Pearl saw the alpha’s son with his hands around her daughter’s throat, surrounded by jeering teens as he nearly choked the life out of her, she decided they had had enough. They renounced their allegiance to their pack, and with what little they had, they packed up and left the same night.

At that point, they would officially be deemed rogues, and being a rogue was a dangerous prospect. Wolves need the company of other wolves typically. Pack life and structure were essential to keeping order. A rogue wolf could easily lose themself and go mad. They craved bloodlust and would attack others for no reason. A wolf that far gone would be impossible to be rehabilitated back into a pack.

Most wolves who renounced their pack would find a new pack to join right away in order to not become a full rogue. Given how quickly they had left, Pearl did not have time to think of their next steps.

By sheer happenstance, Pearl and Laurel ran into another she-wolf who was fleeing with her son from a physically abusive mate. With their common ground, the women bonded instantly. They found an abandoned cabin in an unclaimed area of the forest, and settled together with their children. A short time later, they began taking in other refugee wolves. The cabin was continually refurbished and expanded as new refugees arrived, eventually becoming the small pack house of the Twisting Rivers Pack.

“Do I smell Miss Pearl’s cooking?” a man of about 25 years casually let himself in to the apartment.

“Jayson John Kirkland! How many times do I have to tell you?! Knock first!” Pearl chided the young man in the doorway but smiled brightly anyway as she gave him a big hug. He was tall and handsome, well-muscled with warm brown eyes, curls of jet black hair peeking out of the edges of his backward baseball cap. His tanned skin was a testament to the amount of time he spent outdoors, primarily working in local construction projects as his day job.

“Tough luck because she’s already done cooking, and I got the rest!” Laurel called out of the kitchen.

“What?!” He started to walk toward the voice in the kitchen.

“Ya snooze ya lose, buddy!” She walked out to the entrance with a steaming plate of food, making sure to waft it under his nose as she passed.

“No fair, Laur! Didn’t your mom teach you to share?” He laughed as he followed after her.

“Don’t you have your own mom?” She teased back while taking a seat at a small round dining table.

“Yeah, but you know she can’t cook for beans!” They both laughed heartily as he took the seat next to her, removing his cap to lay on the table in front of him. He brushed his fingers through his curls to straighten them up a little.

“So what’s the real reason you’re here, Jay?” Laurel eyed him knowingly. Jay was the teenage boy who her mother and she had found in the woods, beaten by his father. He and his mother, Bette, lived in the apartment across the hall from them on the ground floor of the packhouse. Jay and Laurel had become great friends since that fateful meeting; he and Bette were pretty much family at that point, Jay more like a brother to her than a friend and Bette like a second mom.

Laurel knew Jay was just using the food as an excuse because he only ran his hands through his hair like that when he had something on his mind. Laurel shoved another bite of food into her mouth and chewed slowly while she waited for him to spill.