The Beta

DERIK

I was not in control. Everything was too loud, too chaotic.

My head was fucked, the pain on the edges of the link making my control and sanity fray at the edges. I needed everything back to the way it was; I needed my brother back; I needed my mate. I needed to kill those fucking vampires.

I didn’t get those urges, or at least when I did, I could control them. But I hadn’t for days, not since Brax had gotten to the forest and found so many of our pack dead with no trace of Lorelai or Nikolai.

But I could feel them—not fully, since she refused to open the link, but the ache was there. They were suffering, and there wasn’t a thing I could do about it.

We didn’t have the numbers or the resources to go in there for a rescue mission. Even if we did, the wolves were too lost to the winter.

The change in the city in a matter of days lingered in the shadows that filled it. The whole city was quiet, eerie. Nobody left their homes, scared of the savagery their wolves were capable of. It was as if not letting winter have its way for so long had made the descent harsher, and now it was getting its revenge.

I sat in my office, scrawling with a quill on a piece of parchment, writing out more rules the wolves wouldn’t listen to. Then I screwed it up and threw it at the wall.

“Fuck!” I growled, running my hands through my hair. I clutched it tightly as Brax came in. His stubble was rough, his hair, shaggy and wild. He ran more often than not, and when he wasn’t, he was with the twins.

He played with their shadows, whispering to them as if he was talking to Lorelai, but I knew he was just losing it. No way Lorelai would let the twins feel what they were going through when she wouldn’t even let us in.

“Since when does Saint Derik swear?”

“Since his mate got taken,” I snapped back, and Brax clenched his jaw, his eyes flaring at the reminder. If I could see his shadows, I knew they’d be hovering.

He barely kept them in anymore. It was obvious in the way the room fell cold and people were shoved away from him whenever they came close. Now they didn’t try.

“The pack link is too weak. We’re losing them,” Brax bit out, and I nodded.

“You don’t think I know that? What do you want me to do about it?”

Brax shrugged.

“Dunno. Just telling you. I don’t really care,” he said, then went to leave. I snarled and shot up, slamming my palm down on the table, but he didn’t get a fright. He just turned with a lazy raise of his brow.

“Scary,” he taunted.

I glared at him. “And fixing the pack is just my job, right? All on me? There are three alphas, not just one,” I growled, my blood tingling. Heat shot up my spine in warning, my wolf ready for the fight, but Brax just shook his head, not rising to the bait.

“No, there were three. Then four. Now there’s two,” he said.

I narrowed my eyes. “You’re giving up?”

He shrugged again. “You said it yourself. How are we meant to help? We’re here. They’re there. We can’t go after them. We can’t run a fucked pack. Everything’s broken, D, and maybe it’s time to accept that. I have.”

“You could’ve just said yes,” I snarled, fury making me shake. He could give up? It had been days—I had no idea how many. Maybe three, maybe four. Maybe a week. They blurred together now.

“Yes,” he said.

I moved into him, shoving him against the door. “You don’t get to give up. Not when our mate is out there being tortured with our brother, and we aren’t. We cannot let this pack go; it’s our fucking job.”

“No, it’s your job. Mine is to make sure this poison in our pack doesn’t reach Zale and Enzi.”

“You are an alpha, Braxton! You will damn well act like it!” I growled, shoving him again. He just gave me a dry smirk.

“Like you are? You knocked the beast out with herbs to keep him from descending and taking out Adrenna. You keep her locked up down there with magic we could use to get our mate back. And you told the pack to stay in their homes and only come out when necessary to stop anything happening. That’s not dealing with it, that’s running, hiding. Those were your decisions, and you had no problem pulling the ‘leading alpha’ card then, so you can take that responsibility, D, you can have it all. Because you’re on your own, just like you wanted when you ignored what I wanted to do,” Brax snapped back, shoving me.

I let him, needing him to fight back because that’s what I wanted. I wanted to fight, I wanted him to go at me so I could go back. So I could be punished.

I deserved it.

I should never have let her go out there, leave the city without me. I could’ve protected her, or tried. I could’ve been with her now, but instead, she was with the vampires, probably dying, and there was nothing I could do.

“This isn’t your fault. I knew something was wrong the second the twins started fussing; they told me something was wrong when she left the city, and I wasn’t listening. This is on me, D. That responsibility is mine,” he said, the darkness in his eyes one full of pain and regret.

It was a toxic combination that I shared.

“We’ve got to get our shit together. For them,” I swallowed, running a hand through my hair, trying to see through the toxicity.

“Are you willing to listen then?” Brax asked, and I nodded, looking up to him so he could see exactly what I had inside me—feelings that mirrored his.

“We structure the pack. Do what we did every winter before Lorelai. We take the aggressors to the pits, let them fight out their aggression in a controlled environment. Open the brothel again, let them fuck it out; the unmated ones are losing their shit without that. Start more training, give them something to do, to work through the savagery. Put them on projects—we were restructuring the school, renovating the classrooms, and the homes were plans we’ve had for ages, put the more in control ones onto that. Send the ones from the water pack to the lake for swims—in small numbers to avoid fights.

“Then have runners. Do groups in rotations, doing running. Have them run around the wall, patrolling together. They may be savage, but if there are vamps out there, they’ll be sorry they took away our control because a winter wolf is more dangerous than they realize, but that is our strength because they have never attacked in winter.”

I listened to Brax’s plans, and it made sense. It was all things we had done for years for the wolves, and I had been too stubborn, too lost to put it in place.

But grief still clawed at my heart because I had lost some of our pack, our luna, our alpha, and I was the face the pack saw when it came to decision-making—that made it my fault. I didn’t want to see the anger, the blame in their eyes when they looked at me.

I was a coward.

“No, D. You’re in pain; we all are,” Brax reassured, and I nodded. “I’ll take this one. I’ve been skating by, letting you and Kai do the leading for most of this. But I can handle this. Let me run this winter,” Brax offered, and I sighed before nodding.

“Yeah, you do it,” I said before going back to my desk, leaning over it, and clenching my eyes shut.

“How are you going to press the winter wolf advantage?” I asked.

He smirked, walking over and leaning on the chair in front of the desk.

“I am going to start picking off stragglers. Vampires need blood, and I am going to give them some. How will they resist? We’ll go out in groups, and I’ll spill some blood, set the trap, and start going for their numbers. Because if our mate is going to get out of there with our brother, then they are going to need help from our side. We need to be constantly distracting them so they are not paying as much attention to their prisoners,” Brax grinned, his eyes hungry and malicious, but it was exactly what we needed.

I should’ve listened.

“You’re good at this,” I admitted, and he shrugged.

“The crazy winter stuff? Yeah, I was born for it.” He grinned, and I let out a laugh that sounded weird to my own ears since I hadn’t made the sound in a long time.

Galen knocked and came in then; his arms had blood up them, and his eyes were dark. I shot up as Brax did.

“Ryleigh is birthing. I’m going to need help. The pack link wasn’t strong enough to call you down,” Galen said quickly, then strode out. I followed, as did Brax. The humans were stuck down in the lower levels of the mansion, hiding from the wolves who couldn’t handle their human scent.

When we got down there, it looked…terrifying. Ryleigh was screaming; there was blood everywhere; Vaughn had tears streaking down his cheeks; and Pearl was mixing herbs like crazy, handing Ryleigh mix after mix, trying to help, her dress covered in blood.

“How can we help?” I asked past the lump in my throat.

“She is losing too much blood; the baby is stuck, and I am going to need you to heal her as I go, or I will lose them both,” Galen ordered, and I frowned.

“Give her toxin? She could turn.”

“She could die,” Galen countered smoothly, and I knew it was worse, but turning her in winter? Not an easy transition.

“Braxton, I need you keeping the wolves busy. They will sense all this, and I need you to keep that from happening as long as possible,” I said.

Brax nodded and took off up the stairs, two at a time, as I walked forward. I grabbed Ryleigh’s hand, and she squeezed it, screaming out, her legs shaking as her red face and damp forehead got worse.

The bed was soaked in blood and sweat, and I met Pearl’s eyes. She nodded, then turned away. Ryleigh was dying. It was obvious in the amount of blood everywhere.

Galen sat at the end of the bed and tried to help her birth, but she screamed louder as soon as he did.

“Ryleigh,” I spoke, using an alpha voice to draw her attention. She whimpered and cried as she turned to me. I smoothed my thumb over her hand. “If I bite you, it will heal you. But there is a chance it will turn you. It depends on how much toxin you need.”

“She’ll be a werewolf?” Vaughn gasped, and I nodded.

“She could be. If she needs a lot to heal her, then yes,” I explained, and she cried more.

“But she will live?”

“If the toxin takes, yes.”

Vaughn leaned over Ryleigh, pressing his head to hers.

“You’ve gotta survive this, sweetheart. My sanity depends on it.”

“I need you to say whether I can or not, Ryleigh. I need permission.”

“The baby?” She shuddered, more tears falling over her freckled face. I looked to Galen, who confirmed my suspicions.

~“I’ll get the baby out,”~ he said in the link that worked better being in the same room and because Galen was an elder.

“Galen is going to get your baby out, but it is going to hurt. It will survive, and I can make sure you do too. But if you don’t want this, then you will have to decide which one of you makes it out of this.”

“She won’t survive without it?” Vaughn sobbed, his bloodied hand going to his mouth.

“Maybe. But she will need more blood and will probably have a broken pelvis. Possibly paralyzed,” I explained sadly, quietly. This was the last thing I wanted to be doing, but I had to.

The humans had become a part of us. We had accepted them, and when they were in pain, hurting, it affected me, affected the pack.

Ryleigh screamed again then, her body tensing as she did. I let her crush my hand as Vaughn tried to soothe her.

“You need to decide, Ryleigh. A moment longer and it will be too late for the choice,” Galen said softly. She cried hard before meeting my eyes.

“Save us both,” she breathed, and I nodded, stepping closer. My fangs dropped, and I leaned closer before turning to Galen.

“Get the baby out, I’m ready,” I said, gripping the side of the bed.

“Keep breathing, Ryleigh, this is going to hurt,” he warned a second before there was a sickening crunch, and he was breaking the human girl to save the baby inside her.

Ryleigh went wide-eyed before the screaming started. It wasn’t soft or quiet; it was pain—pure and excruciating. Vaughn and Pearl both had tears streaking down their faces.

The second the baby was out, I sunk my teeth into Ryleigh’s neck. I had intended to go for her wrist, but her neck was closer to her heart, and I needed to get the toxin through her body fast.

She was losing a lot of blood. I could see it, smell it, and feel it in the weakening of her body.

Her body sagged against the bed as she shook. Galen wrapped the baby in cloth, handing it to Pearl, who worked away on it. My toxin pushed through Ryleigh, and I kept it moving right down to where she was broken, working it through every injury.

But I felt when it was too much. She needed more than her body could accept. The bone would heal, but the blood loss would lose her.

So I kept my toxin pushing through her until the transition started.

Then it took on a life of its own, repairing its host, building the foundations for her wolf, and fixing the extra soul to hers. Her pale skin pigmented again, and Vaughn gasped as Ryleigh blinked fast. Her eyes—that were already blue—became brighter.

“She’s—”

“Transitioning,” I finished his sentence, and his lips closed.

And then the baby finally cried, and I let out a sigh of relief. Pearl smiled through her tears as Galen moved to check Ryleigh. Vaughn held his arms out for his daughter.

“She’s beautiful,” he breathed, leaning down to show Ryleigh, who gave him a tight smile. She would be in pain, her bones shifting beneath her skin, growing stronger, but she did well to hide it.

“She’s healing. She’ll survive,” Galen said, nodding to me, and I nodded back. He placed the cover over Ryleigh, then stood.

“You’re okay?” he asked Ryleigh, and she nodded stiffly, but her grip on the blankets said something else.

I could already feel her in the pack link, and that alone had me raising a brow at her. Her transition was moving fast. She was going to be strong. She felt me in her head and turned to me with a frown.

“I’m—I feel human, but I—”

“You can feel us in your blood,” I guessed.

She nodded.

“I don’t have to turn?” she asked, and I shook my head.

“You can’t yet. It’s winter. But you will the second that moon is full. It will be painful after waiting for the first transition for so long, but we’ll look after you, Ryleigh. We won’t leave you on your own for it,” I promised.

She smiled. “I can feel that.”

I smiled back, and it did feel good, having that trust there in the link, not the doubt.

She frowned then, still feeling the transition in her body.

“There is something—a pain, but it doesn’t feel like mine. It’s dull, like there’s something covering it,” she said, frowning. I nodded, eyeing Pearl, not sure how much to say in front of her since the pain was coming from the alpha and the luna, her daughter.

Galen caught on quickly.

“Pearl, let’s leave the alpha to explain things to the new pack member. We’ll check in on the baby once it has spent time with her parents,” he said and urged Pearl from the room. She smiled back at the baby, then at Ryleigh.

“Congratulations, Ryleigh. Let me know if you want help to feed, okay?” Pearl offered, and Ryleigh nodded before they left. Then I turned to Ryleigh.

“That is Alpha Nikolai and your luna, Lorelai. They’re being held by the vampires and have blocked us out of the link so we don’t feel what they feel. It will leave a taint on the link until they are back with us,” I explained as evenly as I could, but it was hard when I wanted to scream it.

“Oh. And we’ll get them back?”

“We will. For now, though, you need to rest and meet your daughter. I’ll come check in on you every day, and you can ask for me or Brax in the link if you need anything,” I said, and she nodded, sitting up in bed as Vaughn handed her their daughter.

“She’s perfect,” Ryleigh said, tears streaking her cheeks, and I took that as my cue. I left the room and got upstairs, out of the human quarters before Vaughn caught up.

“Alpha Derik.”

I turned to him.

“Vaughn.”

“Now that she is one of you, we’re still allowed to—”

“Yes. She can still be with you.”

“What about the mating thing?”

I shook my head. “Bitten wolves can’t mate. And even if they could, she would mate with you. Your souls were linked as humans, and that won’t change with her turning.”

“And the winter thing? The wolves losing control?” he asked. I looked down to the door, then back at Vaughn because I wasn’t sure what it would mean.

“I don’t know. But I’ll keep an eye on her in the link. Since she hasn’t turned before, I am hoping that means she’ll be fine, but I’m just not sure,” I said.

He nodded. “Thank you. For saving her,” he said finally, and I smiled.

“Sure,” I said, then walked away, feeling lighter than I had in days.

“The wolves are on board with the plan to run winter like before. I spoke to the council members at their homes, and they are agreeable. They’ve all got their stations and teams to run,” Brax said in the link before finding me on my way up the stairs.

He fell into step with me, shoving his blonde hair back, and I let out a sigh of relief, grateful he had handled things.

“So, you turned her.”

“Yeah.”

“You know that she’s your beta now, right?”

“I’m aware,” I said, knowing where he was going with it, but I didn’t want to talk about it.

“None of us have had a bitten beta before. Do you think the stories are true?” Brax interrogated, and I shrugged, heading down the hall toward our suite.

“We’ll find out, I guess,” I said, refusing to acknowledge the stories.

The ones that said they were tied in a different way to the rest of the pack. Not in a romantic way—I wouldn’t have done it if that was the case—but in a loyal way. Where the beta would be bound to the alpha’s will in every way, an obsessive way.

They would do whatever their alpha said—no matter the consequences. Which is exactly why it was dangerous and they had outlawed the turning of humans the second they got into power.

“Lorelai might be pissed,” Brax taunted.

“As long as she’s alive, I don’t care.”

“Lorelai will care.”

I spun to Brax. “Or she’ll be glad I didn’t let her friend die,” I snapped, then pushed into the room where Galen and Pearl were waiting. I sighed and went for the alcohol that had been making it easier to get through the days for Brax and myself.

“Drink?” I asked, and Galen shook his head; Pearl did too. Brax nodded. I handed him some, then filled my own cup.

“What’s the problem?” I asked, knowing there was one since they were ambushing me in our bedroom instead of the office or anywhere else less intrusive.

“The wolves, despite the plan to keep them in control,” Galen started, and I understood that, but we were going to make it better.

“I’m concerned the humans are getting isolated to keep them safe, but they’re suffering for it,” Pearl explained, and I waited for her to continue, sure she had more reasoning. I sipped my drink as Brax did the same.

“The humans can fight for themselves. The vampires don’t seem concerned with them, so Pearl has an idea,” Galen spoke for her, and she smiled.

“I do. I want to take the humans back to the villages.”

“What?” Brax demanded, choking on his ale. I emptied mine and narrowed my eyes.

I didn’t like the plan; I wasn’t going to hide that. Lorelai would be stomping her feet at letting her mother out of her sight during a war. I hadn’t listened before, and it had bitten me in the ass, so I wasn’t going to make the same mistake this time.

“Explain the plan, Pearl,” I urged.

She took a steadying breath. “Well, the humans have been training, fighting with the wolves for weeks. We are not defenseless. The villages—the men’s one in the grasslands area—has a treasury of underground tunnels and weapons. They hurt werewolves, and we can make more that hurt vampires,” she explained.

I waited for her to continue. “I have herb bombs I’ve been working on, and I will continue to do that—it’ll help suffocate their senses. And then, if we can use some toxin for our weapons, we could protect ourselves against both races. We don’t want to hurt the wolves, of course, but just while it is winter, we would be on the defense.”

“And you can’t do that here?” I asked.

“It would be on our territory, and the humans are comfortable there. They’re not comfortable here at the moment. They’re scared, and they hear the wolves howling, growling, losing control. It does not make them feel safe, and I don’t want something to happen that will stop the humans from trusting you completely. I want to get out before that happens,” Pearl explained, and it made sense—in theory.

But the practicality of fighting vampires and even winter wolves was so different.

“Lorelai would not be okay with this,” Brax warned.

Pearl frowned. “My daughter is not here. And the werewolves can’t go get her. I am going to create an arsenal so damn full of vampire death traps that the humans can storm their territory and get her back. Now, you may not agree with it, but I have made up my mind on that matter because I cannot let her stay there.”

“Neither can we, which is why we have put a system in place.”

She looked doubtful until Galen squeezed her hand, and she nodded.

“Fine. Good. Then let us put our system in place. Between the humans and the wolves, surely we can get her back. And Nikolai too,” she urged, and I turned to Brax, who pursed his lips.

“The werewolves are bound to the city by our orders, but the winter can turn some rogue. There are already some out there that we have no control over. They come out in the winter. We would not be able to get to you in time should they decide to let the winter win,” I explained.

“I’d be going with them, Alpha Derik,” Galen said, and that had me rocking back.

“You’d leave the city in winter?” I asked. I knew he had control, but he would be testing it.

“For Pearl, I would go wherever she asked.”

“And your control?”

“Balanced by the pain it would cause to hurt my Pearl. She values her humans, and I value her,” he declared, and it shouldn’t change things, but it did. Lorelai would feel better having Galen there.

“You think the humans will be safe enough?” I asked him.

He nodded. “I think they will be safer.”

“Then take the humans out the safety tunnels and go to the grassland villages,” I said.

Brax agreed. “I’ll keep the wolves away from that path for the next patrol changeover,” he said.

I nodded. “You won’t stay until Ryleigh and the baby are fully comfortable?” I asked, not sure how to navigate that situation since Ryleigh was my beta and her child was human who needed Galen in the early days—Pearl too since she seemed to be some kind of expert in herbs.

“They’re coming with us,” Pearl said, and a growl pulled at my lips. Galen glared at me, the room tensing.

I cleared my throat, not meaning to get angry, but the idea of Ryleigh leaving provoked my wolf. It was as if she were my sister or daughter that I needed to protect, even though she had only just become my beta.

“Apologies, it seems turning Ryleigh has proved the stories true,” I mulled that over and eyed Brax, who shook his head. We both knew Lorelai could get angry. It’s what happened years ago, in my grandparents’ time.

One of the wolves bit a human, grew the connection to the point where they were a beta with the most loyal of connections, carrying out all kinds of heinous acts to fulfill its alpha’s will. But the mate had grown jealous, flying into a rage and killing the beta.

Then the wolf had killed its own mate, then itself. It wasn’t the only story about it, but it had kept wolves from turning humans for years. Until now.

I just had to make it clear to my mate that it wasn’t romantic in any way—it was a platonic attachment. On both sides. And then I had to hope that worked.

“Take Ryleigh, Vaughn, and the baby. Until I’ve got Lorelai back and explained things to her,” I said, and Pearl frowned at that.

“I’ll explain, precious Pearl. Come, let us get ready for the trip,” Galen said, standing and holding out his hand to Pearl, who stood and followed him. She glanced back.

“Thank you, Alphas.”

“We’ll keep in touch with Galen as the link allows. We’ll be there if you need us.”

“And so will we.” She nodded low, almost a bow but one of respect, not obedience, and left with Galen. I let out a breath and went to the ale, drinking more before turning to Brax.

“What does it feel like? Having a beta?” Brax asked, and I shook my head, too scared to connect too much to the tether there.

“Like I just signed a death warrant. I can feel it there, the loyalty, the need she has to prove it to me. Which is exactly why I’m sending her away—because if I don’t, she’ll read what I want more than anything is Lorelai and Nikolai back, and I already know she’ll go after them in a heartbeat. And she’ll die for it.”