Chapter 30 – Beauty and the Beta

“When?” I demanded.

“The year after he first shifted.” She says with so little feeling like she had become accustomed to all of this now.

“Why did we not know?”

“He did not want anyone to know. And that hasn’t changed. I just get sick of being made to look like I am in the wrong.” She says, sitting herself down on the bottom step of the stairway.

“Bailey, he is the Alpha, he should not have rejected his fated mate, that isn’t what they expect of him.” I tell her, knowing what the pack traditions are here, and she nods. She knows all this, but she has clearly had no say in any of this either.

“Is that why he won’t let you leave?” I question, unsure why that would affect anything. He had rejected her. She should be free to go out and live her life now. He made the choice to kick her to the curb.

“I don’t know. He won’t give me an answer.”

“Did you get this new job?”

She nods, “But he told me not to take it.”

I shook my head in irritation. What gives him the right to keep her here like a fucking prisoner? No wonder she has held so much resentment toward him over the years. I just thought she was being a moody teenager. And after that, a hormonal woman. But this fool had turned down his fated mate. The woman the moon goddess had selected for him. Hurting her in the process an unbelievable amount. I can only imagine the pain she had been through.

Knowing now, having experienced it myself, the draw to my mate, I can’t imagine ever rejecting her. Or the pain of not being with her. So the thought that Miles has done that to my own sister infuriates me. Not only that, all the nights we would go out to bars and clubs. He would pick up women. Sleep with them. Plus, he had dated multiple women over the years. She must have felt the pains of him cheating…

Another sudden thought hit me. The nightmares. The screams. They weren’t nightmares at all. They were Bailey in agony at Miles cheating while he and her were still mates. Before he had rejected her. No wonder she had never come to any of us. How could we have been so blind? Mum and Dad sleep like the dead, so I doubt they would have heard her. But how had I not known something was wrong?

“Bailey, why didn’t you tell us?” I dropped down to my knees in front of her.

“Think about it Jordan. Who were you going to believe? He told Harley today, who happened to overhear an argument that I had imagined the matebond. That it wasn’t even there!” she says to me in exasperation. “I have been nothing but an inconvenience.”

I feel like crap hearing this. I have failed my sister here, and I know I have. Though never in my wildest imagination would I have thought my sister would be fated to my best friend. It seemed like such an unlikely pairing. But, no matter what, she had felt unable to come to us for help, and that meant she felt trapped by the whole situation.

“Look Bai, I am sorry. I fucked up. Let me make it up to you? I met my mate today, so I am going to visit her pack for a few days, and then I will be home. We will speak properly about all of this then, yeah? But please speak to Dad, he needs to know.”

“You met your mate?” her gaze meets mine, a soft smile on her face, and I can see she hasn’t got the energy for any of this anymore.

I nod. “Yeah. She was visiting with some warriors. Her name is Gia, she will love you, I am sure!”

“That was why you were home? You were getting sorted to go?” she asks, like she suddenly knew why I was at home, and I nodded in agreement. “Well, get your things together and get to your mate! You don’t want to keep a girl waiting. Especially not your mate. This shit with me isn’t going to be going anywhere, it has been here for years, it will still be here when you get home.”

I smiled, pulling her to me in a big hug. “I am sorry Bailey. I wish I had known.” and those words are ones I have never meant more in my life. Because I cannot believe how my best friend has treated my sister.

I was taken aback by my brother. That was not how he normally acted. Could him meeting his mate have changed him? As happy as I am for him that he has met his fated mate, his sympathy and kind thoughts all feel a little too late. He had been acting like I was some sort of social pariah for years. Like I was something to avoid, like the plague, all because I preferred to read rather than hang out by the football field cheering for them. All because I preferred something different.

I never intended to embarrass my brother, or my family by being the way I was. I just wanted to do well in life. I wasn’t aware that it was such a crime, yet the way my brother and sister had spoken over the years, you would think it was first degree murder I had committed. But, I guess I should be grateful now he was showing some remorse. Maybe it was a sign he was growing up? The worrying thing was, what would happen when he confronted Miles? Because that was bound to happen. And, I doubted that it would go down well when Miles discovered that I had shared this with yet another person. Especially one so close to him. One that he held in high-regard. He would hate to lose the respect of my brother. My brother was meant to be the next Beta.

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