Beyond Beta's Rejection
Rejecting Strawberries Chapter 2

I still remember the first time I saw Harper Kirby.

I don’t mean I saw her in general. We grew up in the same pack. I knew her sister Susie, and everyone knew Tommy growing up. All the guys idolised how he could get p***y so easily, even me and Damien, who, due to our ranks, didn’t struggle at all. But Harper, she always blended into the background, even when she was at the pack house with Louise. But all that changed when I turned eighteen.

I remember turning up to school being pissed off that my dad was making me go, on my birthday of all days. I thought about bunking off, going into the city with Damien and using my new found legal age limit to get plastered. But my dad made it very clear that if I missed even one minute of school, he would send back the shiny black Audi TT that was sitting outside the pack house with the oversized red bow on it. And I knew he would check.

That morning Canyon had been particularly excited, and I was getting a headache from it. It wasn’t until lunch that I saw her, though. I walked into the packed lunch room and was hit with the most delicious scent of strawberries. I’d never been a particular fan of the fruit in the past, but at that point I was salivating at the scent.

I looked around the room. The scent was amazing, but it wasn’t strong, just strong enough to tease my senses. From the way Canyon was bouncing around in my head, I knew that this delicious scent had nothing to do with the stench from the menu that day. This was something else. Could it be that someone in this room was my fated mate?

“What you doing, d**k?” Damien barged into me from behind, almost knocking the tray from my hands.

“Can you smell it?” I asked as I searched for the source.

“Smell what?” Damien sniffed the air, albeit discreetly, so the human students didn’t notice.

“I think she’s here,” I walked slowly down the central aisle, trying to see if the scent got stronger.

It was definitely more potent towards the back of the room where most of the pack kids sat, which was a relief, because the idea of being mated to a human was cringe worthy.

“Who’s here?” Damien followed behind me

“My mate,” I said, just as my eyes settled on a trio sitting at one of the smaller tables. Damien burst out laughing. I turned and shot him a glare, which shut him up pretty quick. The guy was technically a higher rank than me and one day my Alpha, or so he thought, but he still knew I could wipe the floor with him, especially if the other one came out to play.

I nodded towards the table with the three girls. One of them was Alex’s kid sister Louise, and I was sure I knew the blond, but it was the other brunette that caught my attention. I knew she was vaguely familiar, but I couldn’t quite place her.

“Who’s that sitting with Louise?” I asked, and Damien looked over.

“The omega?” He grinned at me, “Dude, what if your fated mate is an omega?” His face screwed up in disgust. “I’m not sure what is worse, one of them or a human.” I shook my head and nodded towards the table again.

“No you d**k,” I said, my frustration growing. “The other chick.” Damien looked over again and his face lit up.

“Oh, that’s Susie’s sister,” he said, “You know Susie Kirby. I wonder if she is as easy as her sister is?” I was even surprised when the growl slipped out of my mouth. Canyon wanted to rip Damien’s throat out and the other one seemed to shuffle in his resting place.

“Dude, calm down. It was a joke.” Damien looked around the room, probably checking none of the humans had heard my possessive display.

“Anyway, it can’t be her,” he said. “She’s like fifteen or something. If she was your mate, you wouldn’t be able to feel it yet.” He was right. Even though I was eighteen now and could potentially replace my fated mate, if it was that girl, then she would also need to be eighteen. The only time that it was any different was if the younger party was a particularly strong natural ranking. I knew that Darren Kirby was the pack financial advisor, but other than that, the family didn’t rank at all. In fact, I was pretty sure I heard his wife was originally an Omega before she ranked up when she completed the mate bond with Darren.

But despite all that, I couldn’t keep my eyes off of the girl. It was illegal to say anything now, one because of her age, but also the supernatural law stated that we couldn’t tell our mates that we could feel the bond until they could feel it. That was to stop the manipulation of minors and humans.

But I would bide my time and keep an eye on my little strawberry scented mate. That was a certainty.

***

Almost a year had passed since I discovered my little mate. I had learned her name was Harper, and she was the youngest of the Kirby family. Tommy Kirby, her uncle, seemed very protective of her, especially around me. Shortly after discovering my mate, I was surprised to replace that she had already started shifting into her wolf. I was watching her from a far one day when she walked into the woods behind her house. I was going to follow when a beautiful grey wolf darted out. Canyon went crazy in my head and demanded for me to change so he could run with his mate, but I managed to keep him under control long enough for her to dart off down the road.

I was trying to be discreet about my interest in her, but managed to get the information that she had shifted for the first time before she was fifteen. That almost never happened and only went further to prove that there was something special about my Strawberries.

Of course, I wasn’t the only thing that saw the special side of her. One day Alex had come home, back to the pack house, with her scent all over him. I had, of course, asked what he had been doing. When he told me he had driven Harper home after spending the evening with Louise and had then kissed her, I lost my s**t. I didn’t even have a chance to rein the other guy in. I was yanked into the back of my mind and left to watch as he unceremoniously kicked the s**t out of Alex. It took mine and Alex’s dad to drag me off of him.

It took me a whole day to pull back control. When I did, I told Alex in no uncertain terms that he was to go near Harper. He looked confused, but nodded his head quickly. I would have probably been in serious s**t with the Alpha if it weren’t for Damien replaceing his own fated mate.