Beta's Bride [ShadowPack #2]
Chapter 9: The Pain

Xavier ran through the dark forest but thanks to his Special's blessing, he can see through the dark. The locals called him and his pack werewolves. It was an insult but they took it as a compliment for the humans were never truly understood what they capable of.

Xavier changed back behind one of the trees before he took black sweatpants and ran toward the house as he can sense that his sister was acting up.

Please let her be okay. Please let her be okay! Xavier prayed before he went inside and saw that Sam was sitting in the living room with Luna Marina. They both turned to look at him before Luna Marina was nodding at him.

Xavier returned the gesture before Caleb, his best friend, was coming at him as the sympathy was on his face.

"What happened to her? she was okay when I spoke to her earlier," he said before Caleb was pulling him to the side, walking toward his sister's room.

"She found her mate," Caleb said before Xavier turned to look at him. This was supposed to be good news but why Caleb's expression was grim?

"That is good right? What seems the problem then?" he asked before they went inside the room. His mother was soothing Diana but his sister...she looked different. There was no spark in her eyes like they used to and she was thin.

Rather thin compared to her happy face a few hours ago. How come she can be a completely different person in just a span of hours?

"What happened to her, honestly Caleb?" Xavier asked the Alpha before his best friend sighed. He rubbed his face before there was a knock on the door.

"Come in," Xavier said before Sebastian was coming inside the room. He nodded at both of them before he went to check on Diana's pulse. Sebastian might be an Ultima but he was also a doctor.

And an officiator for a wedding ceremony. Seriously, this guy needs to calm down with his jobs.

After a while, Sebastian was nodding at his mother before he went to look at Xavier and Caleb. His heart was beating fast as he did not want anything to happen to his lovely sister.

"Well?" he asked before Sebastian focused his red eyes on Xavier and Caleb. The Ultima was known with their red eyes to acknowledge that they have the power to change a human into a werewolf. Not that Xavier was thinking about it recently. He was rather preoccupied with someone.

Someone that was entirely human.

Sebastian sighed before he was rubbing his temple before turning to look at Diana. Xavier was gripping his hands into fists before the Ultima was turning to look at them.

"She will be going mad with needs in a few days if she did not commit the consummation with her mate," Sebastian said before Xavier snapped his eyes to his sister to his friend.

"What do you mean consummate? Does she have to?" he asked before he was stepping slowly toward Sebastian. Caleb has to restrain him from wringing his neck.

"If not, she will go insane and there's nothing we can do about it if she was in that stage now," Sebastian said before Xavier was rubbing his mouth. Caleb listened to their conversation.

"Do you have any idea who her mate is?" Sebastian asked before Xavier turned to look at the doctor. His sister never told him that she had found her mate. He sighed.

"No,"

'Then, I suggest you replace him fast before it gets worse," Sebastian said before he patted his shoulder. Xavier nodded at him before the doctor went out of the room and talked with his sister. They were taking their leave before Caleb turned to look at him.

"So, what do we do now?" the Alpha asked him before Xavier gripped his hands into fists.

"Now, we found the bastard that made my sister miserable right now," he said before Caleb chuckled lowly. He snapped his head toward his best friend before he furrowed his eyebrows.

"What's so funny?" he asked before the Alpha's amber eyes was focusing on him. Xavier felt like he was being undressed by his friend right now.

"Speak for yourself, Beta, for I know the sign of a frustrated male when I see one," Caleb mumbled before he went out of the room and talked with his wife. Xavier felt a pang of jealousy when he saw his best friend was talking with his wife.

They looked happy. He wanted to be like them.

But that has to wait for he had a mission to solve the mystery of who was Diana's mate.

*****

Stella woke up before she stretched on the bed and took a shower. The dream that she had last night was something she never had before. Two children. A husband. And she was pregnant with another baby as well.

Life could not get any better than that. To think of his grey orbs, I might just have a guess who was my husband as well, Stella said before she was looking at her phone before an email was in her notification.

It was from her mother.

Stella was curious enough to see what her mother sent her in the email before she opened the phone and looked at the email. Her heart was shattering as she was reading the content of the email.

Dearest daughter,

I know that you have escaped Italy and went on an adventure of your own right now in Cyprus. Do you think that you can lie to me and escape? No, I will show you what happens when you disobey me on the simple task that I asked you to fulfill.

You will be getting engaged and marry to one of my business partner's sons. He will be waiting for you after your vacation. After all, I heard that you will only be gone for a week. Until then, enjoy your single life and perhaps next time, you will reconsider going behind my back.

Yours truly,

Your mother.

Stella cannot breathe. She barely breathed at all when she was reading the letter. And re-read it again. she was gripping her phone that she was swallowing the lump in her throat.

Bloody hell!

Stella was closing the phone and put it away before she was looking at the dark forest that was shining under the morning sky. She needed to do something for she will not be married to someone that she did not know.

She was done with her mother to control her life.

She attached the photo of the man that she will be marrying but she did not dare to open it. She will never see that man as Stella was determined to get away from him and perhaps married someone else. Someone that she just knew a few days ago.

She bit her lips as this idea that was forming inside her mind was insane. But she did not see anything else as she knew that it was the last thing that Xavier will help her with. She was a stranger to him. Not his family. Not his friend.

And certainly not his girlfriend.

Stella sighed before she was taking her handbag as she was determined to call Xavier up today. She turned to look at the napkin that Sam gave to her on the first day that they met. Stella bit her lower lips.

I have to do it, I just have to tell him the truth of how I acquired it, Stella mused before she was taking the old napkin and her phone before she dialed the number and waited for Xavier to pick up her call.

I just hope he will not be mad at me, she said as the phone started to ring and Xavier picked up the phone.

*****

Xavier leaned back on the sofa in the living room after a night of searching for the man that was fated to be his sister's mate. But the result was null. He ached everywhere before he was looking at his mother.

She was in distress and Xavier rushed toward her.

"Maman, what happened? Why are you so upset?" he asked his mother in her mother tongue before his mother turned to look at him. She smiled despite the tears that were streaming down her face right now.

"Oh, my boy. I don't want to do it but it has to be done. It is the only way," his mother said before she was hugging him. Xavier patted his mother's back before his phone rang in the other room.

"Can you hold it for a minute? I need to see if it was Caleb or Zack on the searching party," he said before his mother nodded and Xavier went to pick up his phone. He did not look at the caller ID, thinking it was one of his friends.

But he was wrong.

"Xavier?" the familiar voice was hitting his eardrums before he gripped his phone.

"Stella?" he was confused when Stella chuckled lowly at the end of the line. He remembered too well that he never gave his number to her. Unless...

Samantha Lykos.

Xavier wanted to groan but he cannot since his mother was in distress and he missed Stella. Her voice was soothing his wolf inside him.

"Can we meet tonight? I have something to tell you or perhaps ask you a favor," Stella said before Xavier clenched his jaws.

"Stella, I don't think—"

"Please," she said quietly and his wolf sensed that his mate needed him. He sighed before he was pinching his nose bridge.

"Tonight then," he said defeated before Stella added.

"I see you at the festival then?" she asked before Xavier recalled that it was the end of the month and the Folk Festival was in full swing. He needed to replace his sister's mate and soothed his mother.

But for just a moment, he wished that he did not have to do all those things. He wanted to be selfish and his selfish person wanted Stella. Tonight.

"Tonight then," he said before Stella said that she cannot wait to meet him tonight. They ended the call before a smile plastered to his lips. Then Xavier remembered that his mother was in distress. Time to manage one thing at a time, I supposed, he thought before he was making plans to soothe his mother and replace his sister's mate before his date tonight with Stella.