Filed to story: Mated to the Alpha and His Beta Novel Free >>???
“What are you doing in here?” She sat up straight enough to pour her mug full of coffee, then slouched back to sip it slowly. She grimaced. “Fuck, that’s gross. And hot. Ugh. Is there any alcohol in this room? I need some hair of the dog.”
“I don’t…understand what that…” Quickly, I accessed some of that internal library, seeking a knowledge skill that would let me extrapolate the meaning of her phrase from context. “Oh. That works?”“It’s supposed to.” Selena’s gaze was still hidden behind those dark glasses, but I could feel her eyes boring into me. “I don’t usually drink that much, but last night felt weird.”
I looked around the room for something that would help her and found a small bar car stocked with decanters, crystal glasses, and even a bottle of wine. My own stomach churned at the sight of that. I held up a decanter of clear liquid.
“This?”
“Ugh…” Selena groaned. “If I never see tequila again, it’ll be too soon.”
“I think it’s—” I took off the cap and sniffed. The alcohol stung my nostrils. A quick scan of internal information. “Vodka?”
“Oh. Sure, that’ll be fine. Maybe. Fuck if I know.” She sounded lazy and kind of angry, but there was a small tremble in her voice that I could tell she was trying to hide.
Anyone else wouldn’t have noticed it at all, so I pretended that I didn’t, either.
She held up her mug, the coffee sloshing, and I added some vodka to it. Selena sipped. Grimaced.
Sipped again. This time, she shrugged and fell back against the chair again.
“Is it working?” I asked her.
She snorted. “Maybe. I might have to hurl. Who knows.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Look,” she said, barely concealing her snarl. “I don’t need your sympathy, okay? I’m fine. Why don’t you go play with some toys or something. Leave your old auntie alone.”
Irritation straightened my back. “I’m too old for toys.”“No, you’re not. You’re like, three years old.”
“I…” My frown felt like it was carving deep grooves into the sides of my face. I tried to smooth my expression, but the waves of aggression rolling off her were a lot to fight. I cleared my throat.
“Oh, that’s right,” she said with a sneer before I could find the words to say anything. “You’re special. Special, Celestial, Stella. Tell me, honey, why are you in here hiding from my sister?”
“I was just looking for a book. I’m tired of her hovering over me. That’s all.” It felt disloyal to say that about my mom, even if it was true. “Why are you?”
“Because I don’t want to see her. Duh.” Selena glugged back the rest of her mug and held it out.
“More.”
“It’s a little early to get drunk, isn’t it?”
“Did I ask you?”
“Well,” I said after a moment’s hesitation, confused about why she was being so mean. My brow furrowed, and I didn’t try to smooth it. “You literally just did.”
“Ugh,” she said again. “You’re like a damned little robot, aren’t you? Taking everything literally? Shit, I can see you processing like a fucking laptop.”
My mouth popped open in shock, dismay, and…yes. Anger. “What an incredibly rude thing to say!”
“That’s me. Rude AF.”
Again, I had to scan to interpret what she meant, and when she smiled snidely, I shut off that internal search.“It means ‘as fuck,’” Selena told me. “Which is totally different than ass fuck, in case your little…”
She twirled her finger around in a circle in my direction. “Whatever the fuck you have going on in there can’t figure it out.”
My chin went up. “I don’t have anything going on.”
Her laugh did not sound like she thought I was being funny. “Sure you don’t. I’ll say it again. Go away and play with your toys, you infant.”
“I’m not an infant! I’m grown enough to go to The Silver Crescent, just like you. Only I’m not stupid enough to get so drunk it makes me hungover!” This was partly true, anyway.
Selena sat up. “Liar. I’d have seen you, or someone would’ve noticed the special Celestial in our presence.”
Briefly, I transformed into Elleah. Then back to my usual appearance.
“Holy shit,” Selena breathed. “That was you?”
Then she burst into hysterical laughter.
Stella–
“Oh, my sister will shit a ton of bricks if she found out her precious little snookum-ookums was out last night. At the Crescent, of all places? Girly, she never even liked going there herself. She said it was trashy.” Selena snorted more laughter and shook her head. She put the mug on the table and swiped her mouth with the back of her hand. “Shit. What were you doing there?”
I put the decanter of vodka back on the cart while I tried to get myself into some kind of emotional coolness. Selena had really made me mad. Hurt my feelings, too.
With my back to her, I said, “Why are you being so mean to me for no reason?”
“Aww, puddin’. I get that you think you’re special, but trust me. I’m just a bitch to everyone.”
I took the seat next to hers. “I don’t think I’m special. I actually am special, Aunt Selena.”
“So fucking earnest, too. And don’t call me that.” She grimaced.
“Why not?”
“Because I told you not to, kid, and I’m your elder.”
“Don’t say that,” I told her harshly. “Don’t call yourself anyone’s elder. That’s…they’re gone.”
Selena’s mean laughter faded. So did her smile. She studied me in silence, and after a few seconds, shook her head. “You’re a piece of work. I can tell you’re my sister’s daughter, all right.
You both have the same smug, self-satisfied face.”My hands flew up to touch my cheeks. At her wide eyes, I put them down. I tried hard to stop myself from frowning. “I don’t. And you shouldn’t talk about my mother that way.”
“I’ll talk about her any way I want to. She was my sister long before she was your mother.”
“But…it’s mean,” I said, sounding helpless. “I just don’t understand.”
Selena got up and stalked to the bar cart. She opened the vodka decanter and drank directly from it. She put it down, then whirled to face me with her fists clenched. I could see the flare of her gaze even through the dark sunglasses. Her wolf snarled, and she bit it back.
“She abandoned me,” she said finally. “She just up and fucking left, okay? No clue where she was.
What she was doing, if she was okay, nothing. I had to watch my mother grieve her like she was dead, okay? I can never forgive her for that.”
“She was trying to save you. And everyone else. And she did,” I told my aunt, even though I could tell my words weren’t going to change her mind.
I could do something else to her that would, though.
“Don’t you fucking dare,” Selena growled. “I can see it on your face, I told you that. If you’re going to go around manipulating people, you’d better learn to hide it with a little more skill.”
I didn’t say anything, but I didn’t try to use any energies to calm her down, either.
Selena made a wild gesture at the books on the wall. “Yeah, I studied up on you, kid. Some of these books, only a couple, have information in them about Celestials. So I know all about you, and what you’re capable of. So don’t you dare try.”
To my alarm, her breath hitched in and out on sobs. Silver tears trickled out from beneath the sunglasses. She didn’t bother to wipe them away.“You think it’s been easy for me? Ever since I turned eighteen, it’s been like every step I take, some horny dude is there trying to get in my pants. I can feel their stupid wolves circling mine. I can’t even go out dancing without having to fend them off. The other girls are nearly out of their minds with jealousy because all the guys they’re interested in taking as mates are slobbering over me. I can feel them,” Selena said. “I can feel them starting to hate me because everyone wants me so much.
And none of them, not a single damned one, actually wants to take me as his mate. My sister has three mates, and I can’t even get one guy to like me.”
“That’s not my mom’s fault. She didn’t make you a hybrid.”
“No, but she sure as hell could’ve stuck around to help me figure out how to get through this!”
I shook my head and kept my voice low. “Ah…I mean, Selena, she couldn’t have. Don’t you get it?
There was more at stake than you. If she hadn’t gone off the way she did, you probably—”
“Oh, I know. I’d have been mated the moment I turned eighteen. Probably to two males who might not have liked me, either. But don’t you get it? As awful as that might’ve been, at least I’d have had my sister here!” Selena burst into thick, harsh sobs.
I knew she didn’t want my sorries, so I didn’t say it again. I did step closer to her. I reached but didn’t dare touch her. Instead, I said the only thing I could think of.
“I can help you.”
Stella–
Selena sobered up, her laughter fading to silence. “You’re serious.”
“Yes.”
She tilted her head to look me over. Her eyebrows knitted together. “Last night…they were all circling me, like they were sharks and I was a bucket of chum. It was making me crazy, you know?
Like, I just wanted to dance and have a good time.”
New Book: Veiled Desires of the Alpha King Novel
Dayson was the alpha of the largest pack in North America. Powerful figures from other packs sought to offer gorgeous girls as potential mates for Dayson. He steadfastly rejected these advances, he was not a pawn to be manipulated. But eventually there came a mysterious girl he could hardly say No. Who was she?