Beyond Beta's Rejection

Harper

I made my excuses to War and left him alone in the room. I walked down the hallway to Tommy and Louise’s room. As I neared, I could hear arguing.

“It’s stupid, that’s what it is,” Louise yelled.

“Calm down will you,” Tommy responded, and I heard the sound of skin on skin as she slapped him.

“Don’t you f*****g tell me to calm down,” she growled, “This is my best friend we are talking, and your bloody niece. What sort of Guardian are you if you are going to let her do this.” Well I guess I knew what they were arguing about. I sighed before knocking on the door. The voices in the room stopped, and I heard footsteps. The door opened and Tommy looked out. I could still see the red mark on his cheek from Louise’s slap. I smiled sympathetically.

“Hi,” he said. He then looked behind him. “It might be safer if you didn’t come in.”

“Is that her,” Louise called from the room. “Harper Kirby, get your a*s in here right now.” Tommy winced and mouthed sorry at me. I shook my head with a smile and he let me in.

“Hey bestie,” I said with a grin. Louise glared at me.

“Don’t hey bestie, me,” she growled. “You are absolutely not doing this.” I walked over slowly and she growled again.

“One question,” I said, and she looked up at me. “And if the answer is no, then I won’t do it.” She eyed me suspiciously.Nôvel(D)ra/ma.Org exclusive © material.

“What’s the question?” she asked. I looked at Tommy and then back at her.

“Would you do it for him?” I nodded to Tommy and Louise looked over at him. I saw tears appear in her eyes as she did. She looked back at me.

“I hate you,” she said, and I pulled her into a hug.

“I love you too,” I said. “I promise I won’t fail, I will be here to see this little one be born.” Louise clung to me and I heard her take a breath. I knew she was trying not to cry, but I could already smell the salt from her tears.

“You better,” she sniffed as she pulled away. “If you’re not, then I will come down to Hell to get you myself.” I smiled.

“I don’t doubt it,” I said. “But don’t give Tommy a hard time, okay? This is my decision, mine alone.” She glanced at Tommy before looking back at me.

“Fine,” she said reluctantly. Tommy coughed, and I looked over.

“We need to go if we are gonna get this done in time,” he said and I nodded. I hugged Louise again, and once again promised that I would be back, before finally leaving the room with Tommy.

We headed downstairs and out of the pack house. Drake was waiting for us as we got outside.

“Hey beautiful,” he said with a smile and I smiled back at him. We started making our way through the woods to the border.

“Did you update Brighid?” I asked as we walked and Drake shook his head.

“I didn’t think it would be wise,” he said. “Either way, tonight we would be back down to three Divine Warriors and I doubt she will be too compliant with our plans.” I watched him as he spoke.

“Drake,” I said. He looked over at me. “I know you are not telling me something.”

“I have no idea what you mean,” he said with a charming smile.

“Don’t give me that bullshit,” I scoffed, and he laughed.

“You are too perceptive for my own good Miss Kirby,” he said, and I rolled my eyes.

“So what is it?” I asked, and he frowned.

“I am concerned about Brighid,” he said. “I have been for a while. But after what happened with Elias’ sister, my concerns are heightened.” Tommy glanced over.

“In what way?” he asked.

“I saw Brighid and Lily speaking on numerous occasions,” Drake said. “Being that Lily was also conversing with the Circle, well lets just say I am a little suspicious.” I nodded in agreement. I had seen Lily and Brighid talking once too. I didn’t think too much of it, but Drake knew Brighid longer and better than I did.

“So we keep her out of the loop?” I asked, and he nodded.

“Hopefully it is nothing,” he said, “And I hate to not trust a fellow Warrior, but I think it is wise to be overcautious.”

“Okay, fair enough,” I said.

We reached the territory border shortly after and I smiled as I saw Aaron, Caroline and Colton. Colton smiled back, but Aaron growled at him. I shook my head at them. I knew that there was history, and very bad history but we didn’t have time for that now. If all went well, they could happily rip each other apart afterwards. Just beyond the border I could see The woman I spoke to the other day and her little girl Abigail. The girl’s face lit up as she saw me and she started waving. Her mum tried to stop her as she ran forward across the border.

“Abigail stop,” she called but kept on the other side. The little girl hurled herself at me and hugged me.

“I’m so glad you came back,” she squealed, and I smiled down at her. I saw that Aaron had stiffened up ready to attack, and I shook my head at him. I nodded to Tommy as his eyes cleared from a mind link. He grinned.

“At least I know my men are working,” he said, and I grinned. The second Abigail crossed the border a handful of pack warriors would have known. They would have been heading straight over if it wasn’t for Tommy sending a mind link to stand down.

“Hey there little one,” I said to the delighted girl. She beamed up at me and her eyes flashed black and back again.

“Hi,” she said, “And Teddy says hi too.”

“Teddy?” I asked, and she tapped her head.

“It’s her demon,” her mother called. I looked over and smiled. She still looked nervous. As did the three men that stood with her. I nodded to Tommy and his eyes glazed over again. They cleared, and he nodded to the four demon bloods.

“You can cross,” he said. They all hesitated before crossing the boundary, but Tommy smiled as they did.

“Welcome to Midnight Moon,” he said, and the woman smiled. The men nodded, one looked hesitant, but I noticed that all of them kept glancing at me. I walked over while holding Abigail’s hand and encouraged her to go back to her mother. She giggled and skipped back happily.

“Mummy,” she said. “Can you feel it?” Her mother nodded and looked up at me.

“Feel what?” I asked and Caroline answered.

“Your acceptance,” she said. “It’s stronger than before, but your b***d is accepting our loyalty oath.”

“Ours?” I asked, and she nodded. She looked at Colton and then the others.

“I renounced our former master years ago,” she said. “As did my demon. We both saw you coming, we knew this would happen.” She waved her arm at the others. “They all swore an oath to you in varying stages. But until you were willing to accept it, they were lost.” I thought about what she was saying and I did feel something towards the people. I wasn’t sure what, but it was definitely something. I looked over at Drake who was in deep thought.

“Hey?” I asked “Are you okay?” He smiled and nodded. He looked at the people and then back at me. Finally he looked at Caroline.

“Should I be feeling it?” he asked, and she smiled.

“You all will,” she said. “The connection is to the b***d that runs in your veins, the divine b***d. You all as Divine Warriors share that connection I am led to believe.” Drake nodded and Aaron’s face lit up.

“Of course!” he exclaimed, and we all looked at him.

“Care to share with the rest of us, buddy?” Tommy asked amused.

“Appeased,” Aaron said. “Remember in the books it said that the Divine warriors will appease the demon bloods. This was all written, we just didn’t have all the pieces.” He grinned at me and at Drake. “Don’t you understand, this is what is meant to happen. A Divine Warrior is meant to take the throne not a Horseman.” He looked genuinely giddy at the revelation.

“So how do we do this?” I asked. “Do we have to do some sort of something?”

“Some sort of something?” Aaron mocked, “How articulate.”

“Shut it geek boy,” I said, and he grinned.

“You just need to take the leadership,” Colton said. He nodded to Abigail’s mother. “Andrea is the one who holds it now. It’s kind of like the Alpha of our own pack.”

“You as well?” I asked, and he nodded. He glanced at Tommy and Tommy nodded too.

“What?” I asked, “What is it?” They both tried for blank expressions but failed. Finally, Tommy sighed.

“Colton and Caroline will be swearing loyalty to you,” he said. “That means they won’t be a part of my pack any more. They will be yours.” My eyes widened. I always assumed that the demon b***d thing was separate from the supernatural side. I looked around.

“Are all rogues?” I asked, and they nodded.

“Generally if they are not part of the Circle, then they are on their own,” Caroline said. “Andrea here is a powerful witch, and Jonas is Fae,” Caroline pointed to the woman and one of the men. “Mark and Davis are both shifters like us.” They also waved as Caroline spoke.

“Wow,” I said. “How many of you are there?” I asked. I could see tents and such, but it was hard to count them.

“One hundred and thirty-two of us, including Caroline and Colton here, ma’am,” The man introduced to me as Jonas said. “We are mostly witches, But there are a few fae and shifters too.” I looked round at Drake who shook his head with a smile. Jonas nodded to him.

“We have a few vampires too, but they are more sensitive to the sun,” he said. I looked between him and Drake. Whilst common mythology said that vampires couldn’t travel in the sun, it wasn’t exactly true. Yes, the sun was more of an issue for them, but the older they got the less of a bother it was. For someone like Drake there would be no issues at all. He smiled at my confusion.

“I am guessing that the constant battle with their demons will weaken their systems,” he said and Jonas nodded.

“Yes, it takes out of us all in one way or another,” he said grimly, “But it’s a price we are happy to pay, so that we can do what good we can.” Andrea nodded and smiled. I remembered her telling me that she was a criminal lawyer, and she and her demon tried to do good with it.

“Well,” I said. “I guess I will learn more over time, but I think it might be time to do this thing.” Aaron chuckled and mumbled something about my lack of education. I threw him a glare, and he grinned at me.

“Are you okay with doing this?” I asked Andrea, and she nodded.

“Oh yes, it is my absolute pleasure, my Queen,” she said. I nodded and then looked at Caroline.

“Okay then,” I said. “Show us the way.” She nodded and reached out her hand to me and to Andrea. I took her hand, and she nodded for us to hold hands.

“Andrea, if you will begin the transfer of ownership,” she said and Andrea nodded.

“This will be similar to a coven transfer, because I am a witch,” Andrea said. “But it works just the-” She stopped suddenly and her eyes widened. She yanked on my arm and pulled me into her and twisted us around. I heard a bang and a shocked look appeared on Andrea’s face. Everyone jumped to attention as I looked down and saw red appear on Andrea’s top around a new bullet hole. I looked around as Andrea collapsed into me. I dropped to the floor with her in my arms. I tried to cover the bleeding wound but b***d was pouring out between my fingers. I could hear screaming and crying as Abigail tried to get to her mum. And I could hear shouting from the men. I looked up to see Samual standing a little way off with a gun in his hand.

Everything rushed together as I saw bodies rushing at Samual. Suddenly he was on the ground with Drake kneeling on his back. The look in Drake’s face was one of the scariest I had ever seen. He was practically hissing at Samual and his fangs were out. Samual and Tommy were shouting at each other.

“I said there is no way my family is going to be one of you scum,” Samual shouted and I growled. I could feel Maia inside me, trying to force her way out but I had to keep the pressure on Andrea’s wound.

“What the f**k,” Tommy shouted back. With the help of Aaron he hauled Samual to his feet.

“I told you boy,” Samuel shouted back, “I would rather see her dead than involved in this.” I looked up at Tommy. Was he talking about me? I suddenly realised what had happened. Andrea had seen Samual aiming for me. She had jumped in the way. Andrea saved my life. I looked down at her as she bled out.

“Please,” I begged. “Hold on.” She has a soft smile on her face. I could tell she was losing b***d fast and her eyes were glazing over. I looked around at Caroline.

“Get help,” I begged and Andrea coughed up b***d.

“No,” she coughed. “Please, I don’t have the time.” I shook my head and swore under my breath. Everything narrowed down to the two of us. She lifted her hand and placed it on my cheek. I felt her b***d against my skin, but I felt something else. A powerful force. Something I couldn’t even explain. It seemed to sink in through my skin and flow into my bones. I was both completely aware, and not aware of my surroundings. Finally, I knew it was done. I hummed with a new energy inside me, a new purpose. I could feel every single one of the people who had sworn their oath to me and it was massive. But I kept my eyes on Andrea until hers drifted closed. Until she had passed all that she was to me. I felt tears on my cheeks as her life force slipped away in my arms.