The Beta’s Alpha Mate

Eleven

Julien’s POV

The next morning I woke up in a strange bed, with tiny, skinny arms wrapped around me. I saw my sister’s long chestnut-colored hair spread out across her pillow, her ivory skin looking even paler than usual in her dark room.

Keely had held me while I sobbed again last night, until I finally exhausted myself and fell asleep. I had thought he was giving me another opportunity, but it turned out Grayson was just entertaining himself until Daniel was free. The mate bond pain was excruciating, just like every time, but my heart hurt worse than the physical pain.

I ran my hand through my hair, frustrated. Tomorrow we would leave for Moonstone Pack, and Helix would certainly expect us to run together at some point. I had to figure this out.

“Juls, can you meet me on the Beta floor to go over some stuff for tomorrow? My room is fine, but bring coffee,” Grayson’s mindlink distracted me from my thoughts. Great, talking about work would at least get my mind off of this.

“Sure, fifteen minutes,” I told him. I extracted myself from Keely’s arms and kissed her forehead before heading to my own room, where I quickly showered. I pulled on a red t-shirt and black basketball shorts before heading to the kitchen to grab two coffees.

“Hey, Grays, open up,” I yelled, knocking on his door with my foot.

He opened the door and stared at me for a moment, then took both cups from my hands. “Thanks for the coffee.”

“You look like s**t,” I observed. Grayson had on a pair of grey sweatpants slung low on his hips, exposing the waistband of his black boxers. Normally that would be enough to send my thoughts into overdrive, but his expression worried me. There were dark circles under his eyes, and his black hair looked like he had been running his hands through it all morning, the way he does when he gets stressed.

“So do you,” he retorted.

‘Because you won’t stop f*****g other men,’ I wanted to reply, knowing my face looked equally exhausted. But I kept that to myself.

“Do you want to talk about it?” I asked instead.

Grayson’s eyes narrowed. “No. Actually what I want is for you to get out of my room and stop asking me questions.”

I stared at him. He had called me down here! What was he even mad about? I opened my mouth to protest, but he cut me off.

“Get out, Julien. I’ll see you this afternoon at the group meeting, but I have nothing else to say until then.”

Damn it. I couldn’t do anything right. I quietly nodded at Grayson, still not sure where I went wrong, but understanding I didn’t have a say in the matter right now.

Grayson’s POV

That asshole was my mate. I couldn’t even believe it. When Fang started going crazy after Julien knocked on my door, I ignored it. But then, I saw him, and Fang called him mate, and I was hit with all those same feelings from the mate ball. And now I was pissed. He had so many opportunities to tell me. He left me to be killed by rogues. He refused to shift in front of me, letting me and others get hurt to protect his secret. That asshole was my mate, and he might be my best friend, but damned if I was going to throw myself at someone who didn’t respect me enough to tell me the truth.

The first night Julien and I kissed, when he confessed about his curiosity regarding having a man as a partner, I admit I did have a moment where I wondered if he had found his mate after all and was just hiding them from us. Then I overheard Julien ranting about my s*x life while talking to Kade the next morning, and I was curious about why he cared so much, but angry that he basically called me a manwhore. That bastard was my mystery mate; no wonder Fang was so obsessed with him.

Now that I knew he was my mate, Julien’s behavior since that night made more sense. But he was still wrong. Wrong for running away, for abandoning me with the rogues, for continuing to lie to me and his parents and Kade and his pack. For everything he’s been doing since that moment. He had seen my wolf before, he knew what Fang looked like. I shifted at 18 like everyone else, when he was still 17 and could only watch us in our wolf forms. He knew it was me that night at Clear Lake. He should have told me.

In another universe, I would actually be ecstatic about it. I loved my pack, and now I wouldn’t have to leave. Julien and I were great friends. He was funny, and kind, and loyal, and he was absolutely hot AF. I’d take him as my mate any day. But right now, all I could think was he was lucky I didn’t reject him on the spot, and he better have a damn good reason for not only leaving me with the rogues, but shutting off his mindlink, too. I should’ve known he wasn’t sleeping that night. He would’ve had to be damn near in a coma to ignore me screaming at him over the link like that. I wonder why he did it, though. It was so unlike him.

Mate was just scared, Fang said. Give him a chance.

And what if he gets scared again, hmm, oh wise wolf? What if he scares himself into the arms of someone else? I asked.

Fang snorted. Says the human who has banged two different guys multiple times each in less than a full week since finding your mate.

I frowned. I didn’t know it was Julien! He did that to himself.

You hurt him, Fang growled. You’re making our pack weaker.

Well we have bigger problems right now, like why can I feel the mate bond in the first place? I questioned.

Fang buried his snout between his paws and groaned. I cannot believe you’re this dumb. Maybe you should forfeit the Beta job and stick to being a manwhore.

I rolled my eyes. I’m not dumb, I’m overwhelmed! First I randomly act like some parasite vampire who can’t get enough of Daniel’s blood. Now I suddenly feel the mate bond in my human form without being marked- OH. It clicked in my brain.

Ding ding ding! My slow human counterpart has figured out the riddle! Fang cheered sarcastically.

SHIT. I needed to talk to Daniel. And everyone else.

* * * * * *

The meeting to finalize our plans for the trip to Moonstone Pack was at 2:00, so I headed down to the conference room. Alpha Frank, Julien’s dad, was already there, along with Kade and Brea.

I wanted this to be over with so I could go back to my room to pack for tomorrow and figure out a plan. Today had been exhausting. I had been trying to find Daniel all day, but he was making himself scarce. I was stuck right now. It wasn’t fair to out him to everyone else as the Omega we were trying to identify, not without talking to him or knowing how he would react. And unless Daniel admitted to it, I couldn’t out him without admitting I knew Julien was my mate and had lied to everyone, which would make Julien look bad. At the same time, we were leaving for Helix’s pack in the morning, and it would be completely unsafe to bring the rogues’ primary target with us without giving our warriors and the Moonstone Pack all of the information I possibly could.

Sighing, I took my usual seat next to Kade just as Keely and Julien walked in. Keely expression made it obvious that Julien had told her who his mate was, and she was disappointed in both of our behavior - in him, for lying and covering up the situation, and in my choice to continue sleeping with whomever I wanted. Keely was like a little sister to me, and I felt bad knowing that she was probably the one comforting him every night. I wondered if she could tell I had identified him as my mate. Probably not; who would ever guess I just happened to bite the freaking magic Omega wolf? It was unbelievable, honestly.

Keely was a sweet girl, with brightened versions of her older brother’s features. She had long chestnut-brown hair and soft light blue eyes, with pale ivory skin, where Julien had a year-round tan from spending all his time outside training, and stormy dark-blue eyes that were hard to look away from. Both were gorgeous in their own ways. Keely had the gift of healing, too, like me, so when she turned 18, I would be the one to train her on how to use it. Her birthday was actually in two weeks, so when we got back from Moonstone, it would be time to start planning those sessions. I was nervous about it, since I had never gone through training myself, but at least she was a patient person.

Julien ignored me completely as they made their way to the table. I could feel the unhappiness radiating off of him. He sat as far away from me as possible, taking a seat across from Brea, rather than next to his dad and across from me like he would normally do. Way to be subtle, mate, I thought to myself.

Alpha Frank raised his eyebrow but didn’t say anything about the seating arrangements. “Okay, let’s get started. Son, do you want to review the itinerary?”

Julien looked at the notes in front of him. “Sure, we’ll leave at 6:00 am tomorrow. We’re taking ten warriors and four cars. One cars of four warriors. Keely and the omega with Kade and Brea, Beta Grayson with three warriors, and myself with three warriors. We should arrive around noon, and Alpha Helix will meet us. They’ll have a dinner for us at 6:30. The next two days, we’ll all meet with them several times and eat all meals with them, excluding the Omega, who is visiting their Gamma female and will have his own itinerary.”

“The Omega’s name is Daniel and you’re aware of that,” I interrupted. “We all know that, so just say his name.”

Julien glared at me, ignoring my comment. “We’ll leave on the following day, same car arrangements,” he finished. “Any questions?”

“Yeah, why are you being such a huge d**k suddenly? You won’t even ride in a car with me, really?” I mindlinked him.

His face flushed. “You’re the one who kicked me out of your room this morning, you tell me why.”

“I can’t until I talk to someone else. But I assure you we will be having a conversation soon,” I promised. Even from where I was sitting, I could hear his heartbeat accelerate. Cute. My mate was either very nervous or very excited to talk to me.

Keely, who didn’t normally attend our meetings, spoke up. “What exactly are you hoping to figure out while we’re at their pack? I’m a little behind.”

“Well, the rogues told us they had the location of a magic-resistant wolf narrowed down to a couple of packs. We think their search for this wolf is linked to all those omega deaths. That the rogues had someone kidnapping and torturing omegas to find this wolf. And we believe they’ve narrowed it down to our pack and Moonstone. So we need to figure out if they’re right, and if so, how to keep this wolf and our packs safe,” Brea explained. Her explanation was very concise and helpful. Too bad it didn’t matter. I had already found the wolf.

Keely nodded. “Okay. That makes sense. Do you think it’s safe to bring Daniel with us, even though he’s omega?”

She looked as worried as I felt. Was it safe? I had no idea.

“We investigated him already,” Julien chimed in. “He had no knowledge of the special abilities the rogues mentioned.”

Oh yeah, because no one has ever lied before, Juls, I thought to myself. Of course, maybe Daniel didn’t know. Maybe he thought I was just a weirdo who liked to bite my partners and lick up their blood. There’s a kink for everything, really, I’m sure someone has done it.

“Oh, of course, I should’ve known you had already checked,” Keely said, bringing me back to the present. “And all the warriors, they’ve been vetted?”

“Yes,” Kade answered this time. “We aren’t taking any warriors of previous Omega status, just to be safe.”

We wrapped up a few other details before agreeing to meet at 6 am. That didn’t give me a lot of time to find Daniel, interrogate him about being a gifted wolf, relay the news to Julien, resolve our mate situation, and break the news to everyone else about both issues. But, if nothing else, at least I could track down Daniel and get started on the first conversation I needed to have.