Just a Beta (Betas in Waiting #36)

Chapter One

Em watched her phone like it was a snake. She looked up, saw the group in front of her, and smiled. “Okay. Ready for this?”

The ladies grinned and nodded, all dressed as the new character they wanted to introduce to Riot Magic. The opal-coloured mage was a neat design and easy to cosplay as. She was also easy to dance as.

Tiffany looked at her urgently. “You can still join us. We can get you dressed.”

Em smiled. “No, I can’t be recorded. Augusta wouldn’t like it.”

Tiff sighed. “Right. And her alphas would give you hell if she so much as wrinkled her nose.”

“Yup. So, I wrote the choreography and get to see twenty of my buddies dance. This is going to be fun.”

They watched the previous team doing their thing in the open air, and they sighed. Every dance so far was to the theme song of the game. Em had chosen the song from the cut scenes on level one hundred.

She stood, waiting for her friends to get the call, and when they walked onto the stage, her phone started to vibrate wildly. For the first time in years, she ignored it. This was more important than Augusta’s eyeliner.

She watched the choreography, the dance, the crowd that pressed toward the ladies and gentlemen in demure tunics edged with amazing embroidery.

Em was pleased with that. Inside her pocket, her phone buzzed nearly constantly, but she was making a choice, putting her foot down.

Her sister and her pack couldn’t take the joy of this moment from her. She had built this. This was art.

“911, what’s your emergency?”

Em listened to her breathing rattling in her lungs as the person who had found her spoke in a softly concerned tone, holding one unbruised part of Em’s wrist.

She was held in that one spot as sirens and lights appeared, and her family poured out of the house. At the same time the police arrived, she heard her sister and the alphas exclaiming that she must have fallen.

She heard someone, saw a flashlight, and they traced her blood trail back to the house, the open tiny window, marks of the beating in the room, the blood spatter on the walls, and everything else. She smiled. It was a grim smile.

A medic was next to her, and he asked. “Are you smiling?”

She whispered in his ear, and he made notes. Photographs were being taken, and the neighbours who had heard the shouting and screams were all out.

Em was stabilized, they found a place to put a line in, and she was lifted into the ambulance on a stretcher. The medic asked her to stay awake, and she nodded as the vehicle shrieked and whined as it drove away, sounding like a goose going to war.

She smiled slightly and stayed awake. She always did what was asked of her. It was her thing.

They asked her about allergies, asked if they knew who had done this, and she had whispered the response. “The pack. It was pack discipline.”

“You are a pack member?”

“No. My sister is their omega. She’s crazy and makes them crazy.”

“What happened?”

“My sister messed up her makeup. She needed me to fix it. I delayed answering her call. She got mad, so they got mad.” She was mumbling, but the EMT seemed to understand because he repeated everything back to her.

They kept hold of that one spot on her wrist, and she whispered one thing as they started to slow. “Can someone notify the book club? They have been waiting for this.”

The medic nodded. “I will make that call. You are about to make a lot of friends.”

She chuckled. “That would be a change.”

He smiled and nodded. The door was opened, and the driver got out to unlatch the gurney and haul her out of there. Lights stung her eyes, and she felt tears seeping while her nerves screamed in pain.

The nurses and doctors were getting information from the guys who had brought her in, and she started to relax. When people started shouting and moving her faster, Em began to think she may have over-relaxed. Things went dark again, but it was a relief from the lights.

Waking up again was hard. Pain radiated through her chest, and there was something in her throat. She started clawing at it, and nurses came in, held her down, and removed the tube from her mouth as she coughed and gagged.

When she had been checked, her vitals confirmed, and her pupil response verified, she was left for a moment with the doctor on the way.

A familiar person stepped away from a chair in the corner.

Em croaked, “Hey, Luna.”

Luna stepped toward her and looked for a spot that hadn’t been bruised. “Em. Oh, you said it was bad, but we didn’t see it.”

“I know. No one ever does. Change the outside clothes for inside clothes, serve the omega, and I won’t get hurt, but she makes ways for me to get hurt.” She swallowed. “They take my money, and I don’t have a way to get a new apartment. Can you help?”

Luna swallowed and nodded. “I can help. What else do you need?”

“I don’t know if I managed to get out with my purse. I need my ID, birth certificate, passport, and bank card. Lip gloss.”

Luna smiled. “Right. You don’t need your makeup kit?”

“Nope. That was all for Augusta. She took an inventory of it weekly and got her guys to take it out of my hide if anything was missing. Even if she took it.”

Luna shuddered. “We had no idea. You didn’t mention it.”

“I mentioned it once, and another newcomer said I was just trying to act abused, so I stopped. I am not one of the special ones, so there was little point in it. Getting them to call you was a last-ditch effort.”

“What would you have done if they didn’t get me here?”

Em chuckled. “Start from the bottom and get the hell out of this city. I don’t belong here.”

“Why do you say that?”

“There is something rising here, and it has avoided me, so I am going to go somewhere that I just feel normal, not like a bug.”

“What do you mean?”

Em’s voice was hoarse, and she explained about using every means at her disposal to get enough money for a birthday lunch at Halor Denith, and when she had arrived for her reservation, the hostess had taken one look at her and denied her entrance.

She had been turned away, humiliated, and a group of dark elves had just walked right in.

She sighed. “Big hint that I know I don’t belong. ”

“Was that the only time?”

“No. It was the last time. After that, I had one obligation, and it was to help with choreography, and that was what I was doing last night when Augusta threw her tantrum.” She laughed softly.

“I am just glad I worked on my window before last night. I nearly didn’t make it into the motion camera coverage for the neighbours. ”

“With that in mind, the police are here to take your statement. There wasn’t a member of the pack that didn’t have your blood on them.”

“Yeah, that’s what it feels like. All those ruined shoes.” She sighed softly.

Luna sighed. “We will help you and get you safe.”

“Great. Thank you. I will be out of your frosty hair before you know it.” She couldn’t smile. Her face was too swollen.

“Frost? Why would you say frost?”

Em sighed. “It’s all over you. It glows on your back and runs down your arms. Frost and babies with some lingerie. That’s you.”

Luna stroked her forehead lightly. “How can you see that?”

“I see everything. I see the faces that hide, but my face is the same.” She was going to say more, but more medical staff, two uniformed officers, and a detective, who had fins and a tail in her vision, came toward her and began asking questions about what happened last night while the doctor watched over her reactions.

When every punch, kick, and scratch was described, the detective looked like he wanted to hit someone, and the other officers looked ill.

She said, “There is video of the entire thing. Would that help?”

The detective nodded. “Yes, it would.”

She looked around. “Does anyone have my phone?”

Luna paused, got the purse out of a plastic bag, dug around, and got the phone out. It was cracked but still lit up.

She looked at the detective. “Your email?”

He handed her a card. She forwarded the files and watched the progress bar creep across the cracked screen.

She looked at him. “Do you have what you need?”

He nodded. “Yes. You will be here for a few days?”

“No. I am leaving now. The pack will have cancelled my insurance, so I don’t want to get left with a larger-than-average bill.” She looked at the doctor. “I will sign the AMA if you have it brought to me.”

“You have several untreated breaks and a lot of scar tissue. You need to stay.”

“They have diverted my pay and are keeping me under the power of attorney that my parents signed, and they keep renewing it against my will. They drug me and portray me as an idiot, so I am stuck as long as I stay here.”

Luna frowned. “They are taking your money?”

“And forcing me to live in the pack house. Mom and Dad wanted Augusta comfortable, so they got the pack to agree to my presence. When my grandmother died and left me everything in a trust, they spoke to my parents and transferred the power of attorney that was issued when I got my appendix out, and they kept renewing it to supplement Augusta’s spending out of my trust.”

The detective asked, “Your parents know?”

“Sure. They get a kickback. They are just happy that it isn’t their neck on the block if the pack gets caught.”

Luna stared. “Oh, god. We were supposed to help you with this.”

“I had hoped so, but you didn’t, so here we are.” She moved carefully and found the remote for the bed. It slowly sat her up, and she looked at the people in her room. “I think I have fifty bucks in my wallet if someone can get me a pair of sweats from the gift shop. Please.”

Luna paused. “I am calling you a lawyer. You are going to keep that butt in the bed.”

“Fuck you.” Em moved to flip the bedding back, and she suddenly went limp. Her bleary gaze locked on the doctor, who had a needle near her IV. “Fuck you, too.”

Everything went black again.