Chapter 3.

Lucas’s heart raced in his chest, and his wolf pounded at him with a fierceness Lucas had never experienced before. He wanted to shift, to run, to escape the feeling ripping through him like a hurricane.

She was his mate.

Damn it all to hell.

He couldn’t have a mate. He’d convinced himself he couldn’t. In fact, his Alpha had told him he so. His role in the pack made any family impossible. The Alphas kept him so busy, so exhausted, excluded from all pack gatherings, except to organise them from backstage.

They hated him, he knew it. But what he could never work out was why.

He could feel it in the way they looked at him. The tone of voice they used when commanding him. Not to mention what they’d done to his birthmark.

They wanted him to do all the work, of course… his status, or whatever they hated about him, never stopped them from asking him to do everything they didn’t want to do.

Anger swelled in him like the tide, and he pushed it down and away, breathing evenly. Slowly.

“Who was that?” Tom, one of the other Betas, asked.

Lucas’s eyes had clouded, and he could feel his wolf wanting to shift. He pushed and pulled and fought until his wolf receded.

His vision cleared and he managed to choke in precious air as he got his wolf under control.

Damn, that was a close one. He’s getting stronger.

“One of the Alpha-born women from the Greensborough pack.”

“What did she want?” Tom asked, his eyes narrowed with suspicion.

Tom answered to the Alphas, and it seemed to be his constant job to make sure that Lucas never had any space. Every small mistake was accounted for.

“Nothing I could help with. She needs to go talk to the Alphas.”

“She does.” He grunted, pointing to a box he expected Lucas to pick up. “Alphas should only associate with Alphas.”

Tell him to go fuck himself.

Lucas shook his head as the errant thought ploughed through his head.

He was starting to worry about himself. Every now and again, his wolf bucked, and a strong voice in his head would show his distaste for the hierarchy in his pack.

He had to find a way to get his wolf under control.

“Of course.” He agreed with Tom and bent to pick up the heavy box.

He continued until the job was done and then an apron was shoved at him.

“It’s Greensborough’s turn in the kitchen, and they need your help.”

Tom smirked at him. Little shit.

But Lucas took it and tied it around his waist. He never minded helping out, and since meeting the Alpha Mate, Reagan, he was interested in learning more about the pack from Greensborough.

He picked up his clipboard and headed back to the food prep area, looking around, expecting to see utter chaos. But there wasn’t any. Why had he been told they needed help?

One of the Gammas saw him, wiped her hands and came over.

“Can I help you?”

“I’m Lucas. I organise the festival for the Alphas of Robindale. I was told you guys needed some help.”

The small woman laughed. “Oh, no. We’re fine. You go enjoy yourself, Lucas. You look like you could use a night off.”

A strange chuckle made its way out his throat. A night off? What was that?

Her unusual expression pulled a moment of honesty from him. “I… wouldn’t know what to do with myself.”

The woman gave him a quizzical look and turned to smile as an older woman came into the outdoor kitchen.

“Oh, here’s someone who can help you. Katherine, this is Lucas. He runs the show, and he looks utterly worn out. Do you think you and the other Alphas could keep him company for a bit?”

The woman next to him had a beautiful face and was as tall as he was.

Had the Gamma just told the Alpha mate what to do? What sort of alternative universe had he walked into?

“Oh, no. Thank you, but I couldn’t join an Alpha group.”

The Alpha mate next to him laughed. “You’re kidding me? That’s not how we run our pack—not anymore, anyway. Thank you, Jeanie. I’ll take this young man for a walk. What’s your name, by the way, young Beta?”

She had a smile that reminded him of Megan’s for some reason, but her colouring was completely different.

“It’s Lucas, ma’am.”

She whacked him in the arm in a playful way that made his mouth drop open. “Don’t you ma’am me. It’s Katherine. Now, let’s go, I wanna know more about the festival and how it’s all set up.”

She grabbed his elbow like they’d known each other for years, and dragged him into the fray.

It was like being swept away by a current and nothing he managed to come up with for an excuse seemed good enough to say.

“Here. Come over and meet my husband.” She dragged him to a group of chairs in a semi-circle near the huge open fire.

“Lucas, this is my husband, Jack. Jack, this is Lucas, one of Betas organising the festival.”

The Alpha stood up, towering over them all, his piercing blue eyes looking unsettlingly like Megan’s.

Oh, no…

“Nice to meet you.” The Alpha said, extending his hand and shaking Lucas’s with strong enthusiasm.

Lucas’s stomach started to tighten, and his wolf howled inside of him.

“And, here she is. This is our daughter, Megan. Megan, Lucas. One of the organisers of this event.”

The hairs on the back of his neck prickled as he turned and saw the woman he’d pushed away only an hour ago.

“I met Lucas earlier, Mum. Good to see you again. Sit with us.”

She sat, as did her parents, expectant looks on their faces.

He couldn’t do it.

“My Alphas will need me soon.”

“Why? Do you have any jobs left for tonight?”

“Well, no. But they always find something for me to do…” His voice trailed off as he realised what he was revealing.

Megan’s brows drew together, but her father just laughed that off.

“Don’t worry. I’ll sort ‘em out if need be. Stay. Sit.”

Lucas sat. The command in the Alpha’s tone strong. Stronger than his own Alphas, by far, and he wasn’t even trying.

“All right.”

Jack slung his arm casually over the backs of both the chairs flanking him, his protection clear around his mate and his daughter.

A warmth unlike anything he’d ever felt filled Lucas’s chest. Like someone had poured hot water into his lungs. But it wasn’t unpleasant—quite the opposite.

“So, tell me about yourself, Lucas. It’s strange. But I feel as though we have met before.” Jack said, with a quizzical look.

“Perhaps at another festival, Alpha Jack. I’ve been running these events for years.”

He knew for certain he’d never met the Alpha, but that didn’t mean that Jack hadn’t seen him.

“It’s just Jack. We don’t stand on ceremony in our pack.”

“Really?” That was a surprise. Most Alphas he’d heard of, and certainly his own, loved hearing their rank a hundred times a day.

“Of course. So, tell us about your pack, Lucas.”

“Ah.” What could he say to that? “What would you like to know about?”

“Oh, everything.” Katherine smiled. “We love learning about how other packs are run. Do all your Alphas have University degrees, for instance? Do your Betas? What do you think works well in your pack?”

Nothing…

“Ah. Well, the Alphas all go to school, and one of them has a degree in Accounting.”

He barely passed, but who’s counting?

“What about the others? The females?” Megan asked, her tone interested.

“Others? Our pack is mostly farmers. Our Alphas don’t encourage anyone to go to school past about year ten.”

Megan’s look of horror was comical.

And then it clicked, and he leaned forward. “Are you telling me that you go to university?”

Megan snorted and mirrored his movements, her face only a few feet from his own. “Of course. I’m almost done with my degree. All our Alphas go to Uni. Well, Brad didn’t, but he fought tooth and nail to get out of it. Half of our Betas do too, or at least a tech school, so they’re all tradies, carpenters, etc.”

“Wow.” He couldn’t believe it.

“So, you didn’t finish school?” she asked quietly, and a hot flush crept up his neck and into his face. He shouldn’t be embarrassed, yet knowing that the woman in front of him was so much better qualified in life than he… he was.

“I did. Not University, but I did year twelve. The Alphas saw that my brain for mathematics could be used better if I had more schooling.”

Alpha Jack was frowning. “Why do you speak as though the Alphas in your pack use you for their own devices?”

Because they do.

He bowed his head under the scrutiny of the man in front of him. “I mean no disrespect to the Alphas. I only mean that I live to serve the pack.”

Jack pushed himself to his feet and placed a hand on Lucas’s shoulder, the weight heavy and warm.

He looked up to see the kind blue eyes staring at him. The setting sun slashed the sky with red and orange hues.

“I’m going for a walk. Stay and talk for a while. I’ll be back.”

Again, the tones were too strong for Lucas to get up and move away.

When he looked back to Katherine and Megan, concern was written all over their faces.

“Are you mated, Lucas?” Katherine asked suddenly.

And despite himself, his gaze slid over to Megan, then back to her mother’s. “No, I’m not. There is no one in my pack that has my mark.”

“Mum… don’t be nosy.” Megan butted in suddenly.

“Where is your mark, Lucas?” Katherine asked, ignoring her daughter’s suggestion.

“Ah…” He didn’t want to tell her, and most of it had been removed, anyway.

If Megan was his intended mate, then the last thing he needed was to let her parents know. They would force the mating, and then where would he be?

With a mate he didn’t deserve, and pissed-off Alphas that wanted him to be their slave.

“He doesn’t want to tell us, Mum. It’s okay, Lucas. My mother’s a matchmaker. She’d probably be able to find your mate in a few hours. So you don’t have to tell her.”

Megan gave him a strange, tight smile, and disappointment flooded his gut like icy water.

She didn’t want to know, either. Of course she didn’t. She would want an Alpha to mate her—who wouldn’t?

“I think I better get back to my work. I appreciate you letting me sit with you.”

“No. Stay. Please.” Megan’s voice was filled with heavy emotion, but he ignored what it could mean. He shouldn’t have gotten to know her at all.

Inside his mind, his wolf howled with longing. Lucas swallowed hard as he backed away, strange unseen ropes tying him to the place he’d been sitting.

“You’ll be shifting tomorrow night, right?” Megan asked, walking forward, and he moved back.

“Ah, probably not. I don’t shift much.”

“Why not?” she asked.

He shrugged, gave Katherine a final smile and forced his way through the people gathering around the warm fires.

He’d forgotten that they’d organised a mass run for the wolves tomorrow night. He wouldn’t be allowed to shift—the Alphas didn’t allow it. They didn’t like anyone except the Alphas shifting, and only when the full moon was out and some of the stronger Betas would start shifting involuntarily that they gave in and allowed a one-off change. And even then… they didn’t allow it every month.

It kept them weak and disconnected from their wolves, and it wasn’t healthy. He knew that. But if they shifted at random, they were punished. Severely.

He’d been locked in a cell under one of the Alpha’s homes for a week for shifting for a run when it wasn’t a full moon.

Hope filled his heart for a moment.

Tomorrow was a full moon—that was why they’d chosen this weekend to hold the festival. Maybe his Alphas would show some kindness towards their pack?

To the other Betas, they would. To him, it was unlikely. They detested him the most.

He trudged back to the kitchen area to help clean up.

It was what he did best.

****

Megan watched Lucas go, her heart in her throat. She was pretty sure that the man who’d just walked away from her was her mate.

A beautiful, kind, hard-working Beta. A mate she could be proud of, she was sure, if he could be the man he was meant to be.

“What’s with all the submissive stuff, Mum? We have Gammas stronger than him.” She spoke harsher than she meant to, but she wasn’t happy. What sort of Beta wolf slunk around apologising for breathing?

“All the packs run very differently, Megan. We shouldn’t judge.”

She huffed in exasperation and turned to glare straight at her mother.

“You said that was what we were here for. To learn and grow as a community. What can we learn from a pack who obviously keep their people unhappy and suppressed?”

Her mother’s lips twisted. “I don’t know, but hopefully your father can tell us more.”

“I can.”

She turned around when she heard her dad’s deep, booming voice. His forehead creased as he reached for his beer, chugging it down. The worry he was feeling settled over Megan.

“What happened, Dad?”

He grimaced and sat down. They followed suit, eyes pinned on him.

“The pack from Robinvale have only been running this festival for two years, so I’ve never looked at them closely. The pack from Mildura ran it for a decade before that, and they have an impeccable reputation.”

 

He was vibrating a little, in anger, or something else, Megan wasn’t sure.

“Yeah, so? What did you learn, Dad?”

He chugged a little more beer. Megan and her mother exchanged worried glances. No one in their pack drank much, her father included.

“What did you learn from Lucas?” he asked, and instead of pressuring him for an answer first, Megan was more than happy to oblige.

“Well, for one thing, they barely let any of the pack members graduate from school, let alone go to Tafe or university. And the way Lucas acts… it’s just strange. Reminds me far too much of what the Gammas used to be like before Grayson and Reagan mated. He’s scared, or something…” She didn’t know the words to explain the strange vibes she got from Lucas.

What had they done to him?

“What did you find out, Jack?” her mum asked, settling a hand on her dad’s thigh.

“I’m not one hundred percent sure what’s going on with that pack, but I’m pretty sure everything’s fucked up.”

Megan’s gaze darted to her mother’s, whose shocked expression mirrored her own.

“Um... what do you mean, Dad?”

He ran a hand through his hair. “I mean, those Alphas that run Robinvale have some bloody strange ways of seeing things. And there is a creepy coldness that reminds me far too much of Marcus, but worse.”

Marcus was one of their Alphas, and a selfish arsehole. Brad had torn him apart last year, and although he still held the rank, he didn’t have much to do with the running of the pack anymore.

“And how they feel about Lucas… It’s crazy.”

“Pardon me?”

What did he mean by that? Her heart started to pump louder, harder.

“They are crazy possessive of him. I tried to give them a compliment. Told them what a good guy he was, and how we wanted to steal him to help us out at Greensborough. They practically bit my head off and started to threaten me.”

“That’s… Odd.” And highly suspicious.

“It is, because when I first spoke about him, they rolled their eyes and were all fake smiles. So, I don’t think they like him, but they want to keep him.”

A dark anger grew in Megan’s gut, making it a struggle to breathe.

“I don’t like this, Dad.”

He shook his head. “No. Me neither. And at the end of this weekend, I’ll be calling an Alpha pack meeting to discuss Robinvale’s policies.”

Megan shivered as the hairs on her arms stood on end. The night was getting cooler.

Her father noticed at the same moment. “Time for bed.”

She nodded, a strange ache filling her. Her mate was nearby, but she couldn’t call him out yet. She had to wait for him to be ready for her, and she was not a patient person.

They retired to their room, Reagan finding her and chatting away about the people he’d met.

She fell into a fitful sleep, strange dark images chasing her through the night.