Beauty and The Beta (Bailey)
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Chapter 24 Jordan

I hear my sister footsteps pounding up the stairs. Evidently she does not want to talk. And quitehonestly, I have not got the energy to chase her. I wasn’t expecting to see her home. I was here togather some things together so I could travel over to my fated mate’s pack, spend some time withher while she gathered her things together to come and move here with me. My fated mate.Seriously, meeting her for the first time today was like the ground had slipped out from under me.Like time had stopped.

You hear tales of what meeting your fated mate was meant to be like, but meeting Gia waseverything they described and more. Her eyes sparkled like precious gems, and da mn, I thoughtmy

heart would beat right out of my chest! Don’t even get me started on the sparks from her touch…

My wolf, Rory, was going crazy the moment we caught her scent. He was ready to scoop her upand take her home. Mark her and mate her there and then! We had been waiting for our fated matefor what seemed like eternity. And now to have her here felt truly amazing. I wanted to have herhome with me as soon as I could, so I had suggested that she return with her family to her pack,gather her things, and I would come and stay with her for a few days in her pack. Allow us to get toknow one another, and then return to her new home, my pack, as mates.

That was why I had been home in the middle of the day. Or else I wouldn’t have been home whenMiles had been mindlinking, shouting his mouth off, for the goddess knows how many times todayalone, about my sister. She seemed to be a constant source of irritation for him, which meant shebecame a constant source of irritation for me.

Bailey had never been normal. She wasn’t like the rest of the girls in school. She forever had herhead in a book, or was always studying. It was humiliating having a younger sister that knew morethan you. Not to mention embarrassing that she didn’t take much pride in her appearance like somany of the she-wolves within our pack. She was just not normal. I mean, she was never ugly, shehad gained our Mum’s curls, and big brown eyes. She would always be considered pretty. Eventwith those ridiculous glasses she used to wear. But, she wasn’t bothered about the recent fashiontrends like most of the girls, which drew attention to her. Making her a source of amusement formany, and a source of embarrassment for me. I hated that she was my sister.

Once we reached our mid-teens, Miles seemed to start hating her. Forever complaining about her.Picking on her. It became almost fun to torment her. She never cried, so it wasn’t like it was bullying.She was tougher than she looked, Bailey. I mean, in her late teens, soon after I shifted, I had heardher suffering badly with nightmares. She was screaming at night, but never once did she speak toanyone about them or go to anyone for help.

So, I think she was just more resilient than most. Able to take whatever was thrown at her. I don’tthink it ever really bothered her. If it had, she would surely just have stopped the reading and triedharder to fit in, and she never had.

Her attitude had grown since she came back from university. More confident. More clever too, nodoubt. I was proud of her, of course I was, not that I would ever tell her that. She has caused somuch drama over the years. And continues to do so even now. All this sh it over her replaceing a job,made no sense to me. If she wanted a job outside of the pack, when at present we had no role inour pack for her, then I didn’t really see the issue, but Miles said she asked not to leave the pack,yet she said Miles would not allow her to leave. It made no sense. Why would she apply for jobs if

Chapter 24.Jordan

she didn’t want them?

Miles had told me so many times Bailey had a crush on him. Even that she had made a move onhim at his birthday party when he had first shifted, when she followed him outside. I couldn’timagine Bailey wanting someone like Miles. But, then the tension between the two of them it alladded up, so I believed him. But then, her almost laughing at it when I suggested it, made mequestion it all.

And now she is saying fate played a cruel game. Fate? What the f**K is she meaning? She is rightthough, if what she is saying is the truth and Miles has been stopping her working out of the pack,then there has to be some reason as to why. It made no sense. My brain was fried! He hated her. Iwas sure of it. So why would you keep someone you hated so close to you? Unless you didn’tactually hate them… did Miles actually like my sister? Eww…

Fate playing a cruel game? What cruel game would fate play with two people that seemingly hateone another? Then a realization hit me.

‘Tell me you are not saying Miles is your f**King fated mate?’ I mindlink my sister quickly, my handstrembling in shock. That can’t be true, can it?

I am met by silence. Is she choosing to ignore me? ‘Bailey. I swear you will answer me, or I askMiles. I tried again, knowing she likely would not want me speaking to him about this.

I hear soft footsteps on the stairs again, and I step from the lounge where I had been sitting, and mygaze meets her tear-stained eyes. “I’m right, aren’t I?” I question.

She shakes her head. What? So why the f**K is she crying? Did she want him as a mate? Had hebeen right all along, and she had been in love with him?

“He rejected me. So, no, I am not his mate anymore.” She whispers, her voice barely audible, and Ifeel a pulse of anger through my body. He may be my best friend, but this is still my sister. Rejectionis one of the cruelest things you can do to a werewolf.

“When?” I demanded.

“The year after he first shifted.” She says with so little feeling like she had become accustomed toall 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 likeI 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 ofhim.” I tell her, knowing what the pack traditions are here, and she nods. She knows all this, but shehas 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 hadrejected her. She should be free to go out and live her life now. He made the choice to kick her tothe curb.

“I don’t know. He wan’t rius me an ancwer

Chapter 24 Jordan

“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 f**King prisoner? Nowonder she has held so much resentment toward him over the years. I just thought she was being amoody 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 unbelievableamount. 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 infuriatesme. Not only that, all the nights we would go out to bars and clubs. He would pick up women. Sleepwith them. Plus, he had dated multiple women over the years. She must have felt the pains of himcheating….

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

“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 tooverhear an argument that I had imagined the matebond. That it wasn’t even there!” she says to mein 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 mywildest imagination would I have thought my sister would be fated to my best friend. It seemed likesuch an unlikely pairing. But, no matter what, she had felt unable to come to us for help, and thatmeant she felt trapped by the whole situation.

“Look Bai, I am sorry. I f**Ked up. Let me make it up to you? I met my mate today, so I am going tovisit 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 gotthe 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 knewwhy I was at home, and I nodded in agreement. “Well, get your things together and get to yourmate! You don’t want to keep a girl waiting. Especially not your mate. This sh*t with me isn’t going tobe 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. areones I have never meant more in my life. Because I cannot believe how my best friend has treatedmy sister.