Gold Moon: Mated To The Beta Twins: Opening Chapters 1-5

Our eyes are locked for a second, Rebel is present but not close to the surface to be noticed by others and my world shatters.

“Stella is my Mate.” Rufus, our future Gamma, says as he turns to his girlfriend of three months.

Why is he claiming her as his Mate? Why isn’t he holding me, like he should?

Once again a man, that is supposed to care for me, turns his back on me. A man that is supposed to love me, that is supposed to keep me safe. Once again I am shown that I am not worthy.

I am not worthy of love. I am not worthy to protect.

I get so caught up in my head that I don’t realize that someone is picking me up, nor do I see where we are going. All I can see is Rufus’ eyes as he realizes that I am his fated Mate, but again I am shown that I am not worth anything.

“Meadow.” I hear a voice next to my head, but I can’t seem to pull myself from the depths of my mind.

I can feel that Rebel is pushing forward. I hear her voice, but it sounds as if I am miles away.

“My Human can’t handle the rejection. You know her past and with claiming Stella as his Mate, Rufus has hurt her worse than anyone else has ever done.” Rebel, my Lycan, says.

I can hear voices around me, but the words don’t make sense to me and I curl into a ball in the back of my own head.

I hear Florence ask Rebel, “When did you show up?”

“About three weeks ago, but until now we didn’t understand why.” Rebel answers her.

I hear a lot of growls around me, sounds like they don’t like what Rebel is implying.

Brooklyn has been with me for the past three days and slowly my friends have been able to pull me from the depths of my mind.

I slowly get back to my routine, training and running border patrol helps me keep my anger in check and Rebel is able to take control a little more often. She doesn’t have to hide for my friends, but we are still careful with when and where we shift.

Each of them lets me vent my anger, their Brothers let me use them as punching bags and I start to feel alive again. It also helped me to make a decision, if Stella will continue the lie Rufus started than I am gone.

Hayden managed to get Alpha Hank to sign my papers for Renegade territory, according to Hayden he didn’t even look at the papers. Not that it surprised me, why would a man in this Pack care about a woman that no one knows.

Going to sleep isn’t one of my favorite things anymore, I keep seeing his eyes and I keep hearing his voice. Reminding me of the fact that I am worthless and no matter how often Rebel tells me that I am not worthless, it is constantly there.

Each day I head to the clearing near our eastern border, just a few minutes from school. It is the spot where I met my friends and it has become our training spot, I don’t want anyone to see me train.

It took Brooklyn a few weeks before she asked me if they could bring their Brothers and it took months before I trusted them enough to let them help me with my training.

The nine of us have a brutal training schedule, but right now I welcome it and every day I fall asleep exhausted. Not that I am asleep long, but it is enough to keep me from getting sleep deprived.

Physically I get stronger with each passing day, mentally is a different story.

I need to get pulled out of my own head multiple times a day and the only remedy seems to be to keep myself busy.

I get more determined to leave Gold Moon with each day and it gets solidified every time I hear someone mention Rufus and Stella. Rebel gets more agitated each time she hears his name and she takes it out on any Rogue we can find during our border patrols.

Rumors have been going around the Pack about the dead Rogues near our borders, but so far no one knows who is responsible for killing them and I doubt anyone would ever point their finger in my direction.

It has been almost six weeks since Rufus chose Stella over me and the closer we get to her eighteenth birthday, the more agitated I get.

My friends keep telling me that Stella would never take another’s fated Mate, but Rebel and I know that she is a power hungry She-wolf. She always made it clear that she wanted a High-ranking Mate and that she would stop at nothing to get what she wanted.

It had been a huge problem during our class on the Mate-bond in school and even after our Luna told her that she couldn’t take another’s fated Mated, she kept saying that she would never settle for anything lower than a Gamma.

“Meadow, calm down. Are you trying to kill me?” I hear Tyson ask and I realize that my mind had wandered to Rufus and Stella during training.

I am glad that Tyson and his Lycan know me well enough or they might have tried even harder to stop me.

I let myself fall on my back and with my eyes closed I try to calm myself down. I haven’t lost control like this in the past six weeks, but I think it is finally taking a toll on me.

Not knowing if Stella will accept that Rufus isn’t hers. Not knowing if Rufus will finally tell the truth. Not understanding why my fated Mate would do this to me.

There are always so many questions running through my head, I doubt anyone could make sense of it. I know I can’t and I have tried.

I am standing at the back of the crowd with my friends, the only people I consider family. Brooklyn is standing to my left, her arm loosely wrapped around my waist and Florence is to my right. Dakota and Madison are standing behind me, making it almost impossible for anyone to see me.

Their Brothers are standing around the five of us and we all watch as Stella walks out of the Pack-house, her arm around Rufus’ waist.

Stella is wearing thigh high boots with a stiletto heel, her skirt barely covers her ass and the top barely covers her breasts. Her brown hair is hanging down her back and she is wearing six layers of make-up as usual.

Stella stops in front of the crowd, in a few minutes it will be her eighteenth birthday. Everyone is curious if Rufus was telling the truth, most hope that it is true and only a handful know for sure it is a lie.

For the past six weeks I have been hoping and waiting for Rufus to finally come to his senses, but tonight that hope will probably get crushed.

Six weeks ago Rufus turned eighteen and at that age we are able to find our fated Mate. If you don’t find your Mate on your eighteenth birthday, you have to wait for a Full Moon.

I am not supposed to know that Rufus is my fated Mate, but then again I have never heard of someone getting their other half early. Okay, that isn’t completely true. Sometimes it happens that they show up a few days or weeks before someone turns eighteen, but not eighteen months early.

Rebel had growled in my head, when Rufus had announced in front of everyone that Stella was his Mate. Stella couldn’t confirm it until tonight, her eighteenth birthday and she will crush my hopes if she announces that Rufus had been right.

“Rufus is my Mate.” I hear Stella say and soft growls come from the men and women that are standing around me, the only friends I have in this Pack.

“I am going to bed, Brooklyn. I can’t stay.” I whisper as I turn around and all my friends follow me back to the house. They know what is going on and none of them are too happy about it, but there isn’t much we can do.

I am done, I have had enough. This was the last drop and I know what I have to do.

Despite being exhausted, I toss and turn for a long time and finally I drift off to sleep with the thought of leaving early in the morning.

I wake to a blood curdling scream, a second later a mournful howl is heard through the territory.

For a moment I contemplate on staying where I am, in my warm and comfy bed. Then of course I start to wonder what happened and if I want any answers, lying here in bed won’t get me those answers.

The moment I open my door, I see that every door to my left and right are open as well. We all run out of the house to get to the Pack-house as fast as we can.

“Can you believe that Alpha Hank went to see Alpha Lincoln without back-up?” Hayden asks, not directing the question to anyone. We both know that someone will answer and our Pack-members don’t disappoint.

At least now I understand the blood curdling scream I heard, the bond with his Mate must have been severed and that only means one thing, we have a new Alpha.

It doesn’t take long before the rumors start flying and I keep close to Dakota to find out what is being told through the mind-link. There are only eight Pack-members that know the truth about me and one of those things is why I don’t have a link to our Pack.

Normally a Wolf or Lycan get initiated into the Pack the day after they turn sixteen and that allows them to link whoever they need to link. In my case, no one ever bothered with me and that included my initiation into the Pack. It never happened and most of the time I am fine with it, it is moments like this that I hate not having the Pack-bond.

Thanks to my enhanced hearing, I am able to piece together some of the story. Sounds like Alpha Hank decided to visit Alpha Lincoln on his own to broker an alliance, but somewhere during the visit things went south and now we have a new Alpha.

I am surrounded by my friends, when Madison leans closer to me. “Still planning on leaving, Meadow?” She whispers and all I can do is nod my head. This doesn’t change my plans, I will be gone before our new Alpha arrives and I will join the Renegades to serve the Elders.

Half an hour later everyone goes back in their rooms in the Pack-house or they head home, this house has been my home since I turned fourteen and it seems that no one is missing me at my birth home. I wait another hour, before opening the door again and I stare at the sky as I close the door to the only real home I have known for years.

I slowly make my way down the stairs and from time to time I stop to listen, but it seems that everyone is fast asleep.

Getting closer to the border, I realize that no one is actually running the borders anymore. They are too busy talking about what could have happened between Alpha Hank and Alpha Lincoln and it suits me just fine.

The moment I see the SUV, I start smiling. Hayden, Brooklyn’s Brother, gave it to me six months ago, when he got a new one from his Father and inside is everything I am going to need from here on out.

I look over my shoulder towards the Pack-house, the last sliver of hope I had fades away and I whisper goodbye to my friends, the closest thing to a family I have.

Black Valley Pack

What the fuck is this Idiot thinking? Probably not much, if you were to ask the current and future leadership of Black Valley Pack.

Every one of them was expecting Alpha Hank to show up with his Beta and a handful of Warriors, at the very least.

But to their surprise, he is all by himself. Even Black Valley’s Alpha wouldn’t be this stupid and he is feared by many Alphas, not just because he is a Lycan but also because of his short fuse.

For the past four months they have been sending an alliance agreement back and forth through email and every time Alpha Hank claims he has made adjustments to it, but they have all been minor changes. He is an Alpha that wants to take, instead of giving and yesterday Alpha Lincoln called him to tell him there would be no alliance.

Can you imagine their surprise when they were linked by one of their Warriors, informing them of his arrival and all by himself no less. And why would he come visit them after one in the morning, this could have waited until daytime.

The door of the SUV opens and looking at the male that is exiting the vehicle, they are even more surprised at his lack of self-preservation. He must be 6”1 at most and he certainly looks as if he is at the end of his life, but he is only fifty eight years old.

“Alpha Lincoln, I thought it was wise if we discussed our alliance face to face. It will make it easier to explain certain changes I made and you can ask me any question immediately, instead of waiting for me to reply to an email. I am a busy man as you can imagine.” He says as he walks up the steps of the front porch.

“I told you yesterday, there will be no alliance.” Alpha Lincoln growls at him and the Idiot has the nerve to start laughing.

“Alpha Lincoln, you are just trying to drive a hard bargain and I won’t hold it against you.” Alpha Hank says as he walks past Alpha Lincoln, into the Pack-house. “I think I have what you want to close this deal and in a few years we will be telling our Grandpups this story.”

Current and future leadership look at one another and each has the same confusion in their eyes, none of them has a fucking idea what the Idiot is babbling about.

“Get me some coffee, woman.” Alpha Hank growls in the direction of the Luna and both her Sons grab their Father’s arms to stop him from committing murder. The Luna just looks at him, her “don’t fuck with me” mask in place and you can hear his Beta chuckle as she just leaves him standing there.

She walks up the stairs and they know they won’t be seeing her during this meeting, unless something else happens.

“Alpha Lincoln, I want to discuss this in your office. I have no need for stupid questions from Pups or females, they can never understand the kind of things we need to discuss.” Alpha Hank says and he turns towards the hallway.

“You can discuss this here in the living room or you can go home. I don’t care which you pick, but make it quick. I would like to spend some time with my Mate.” Alpha Lincoln says to the Idiot and he sits down in an armchair.

Alpha Hank’s eyes roam across the room, looking at every male and female present in the room. His eyes stop on the Beta’s Daughter and a small smile appears on his face, “Yeah, I can’t blame you for wanting to spend time with that.” He says and Makay, my Beta's Son, has him slammed into the wall in seconds.

“First you disrespect our Luna and now you disrespect my baby Sister. I should snap your fucking neck, Dipshit.” Makay growls, his face an inch away from his.

“Get the fuck out of my territory and don’t ever come back or next time I will end you.” Alpha Lincoln says, before Makay drops him on the floor and takes a few steps back.

“Alpha Lincoln, how can I disrespect your Mate? I have never met her in my life.” Alpha Hank says. His eyes widen when he sees the Luna with her arms wrapped around Alpha Lincoln. He realizes what he had done, but the Asshat isn’t apologizing for it.

“Oh, my. The Goddess hasn’t been kind to you, Alpha Lincoln. She must have been drunk or something for pairing you with that.” He says laughing, while looking at the Luna and that is when all hell breaks loose.

Everyone tries to stop Kenyon, Alpha Lincoln’s Lycan, from taking control, but it is a losing battle. No one can stop him from making this Idiot pay for disrespecting his Mate and it is over within less than a minute.

Blood spraying from the cut across his throat and the moment Alpha Hank’s lifeless body hits the floor, Kenyon turns to walk into his Mate’s waiting arms.

He can hear people walking around the room, but with his face buried in the crook of his Mate’s neck he can’t see what is happening.

“Alpha Lincoln, the Elders will support you. This was a justified kill, he had no right to insult Luna Leona the way he did.” Elder Carmen says and everyone is glad there is an eye-witness to support their Alpha.

Multiple people groan out loud, by killing Alpha Hank, they are suddenly responsible for two Packs.

They decide to leave in the morning, after a goodnight’s rest, morning still comes too fast for most and after breakfast they gather in the Alpha office.

They head out to make the one hour and fifteen minute drive to Gold Moon Pack.

Alpha Lincoln’s p.o.v.

I barely slept last night and now we are on our way to Gold Moon Pack. I am still trying to wrap my head around what happened in the middle of the night, but it seems as if my brain has stopped working.

Kenyon is curled up in the back of my head, he has given up on making sense of it and is now catching up on some sleep. Lucky Bastard will probably sleep through the entire visit with Gold Moon’s remaining leadership and I truly wish I could join him.

However, my Beta made it clear that we have to keep our eyes and ears open. He wants to find out why Alpha Hank thought he could just barge into our territory and make demands.

We aren’t taking any chances and have brought along a considerable number of our Elite Warriors. Most of them left half an hour before we did, surrounding the territory and the rest will follow us into the territory.

If the rest of Gold Moon is as stupid as their Alpha, they might try to attack us and take back control over Gold Moon territory.

“How large is that territory, Dad?” Magnus asks me and a moment later my Beta’s Sons are looking over Magnus’ shoulder at a map. The territory seems a little bit larger than Black Valley territory and I was surprised to find out that the amount of members is about half of ours.

Myka, my Beta’s Son, is looking at the map and suddenly a smile appears on his face, “Maybe we will find our fated Mate there.” He says and two soft growls can be heard in the SUV.

It isn’t that they don’t want to find their fated Mate, but when females hear who their Fathers are, they usually try to get them in their beds. They don’t care about who their Mate will be, as long as he has a High-rank and they would prefer a chosen Mate over a fated Mate.

Our future leadership stayed behind at Black Valley territory and my current leadership will stay at Gold Moon for a few days. We need to check all the bookkeeping and every file on every Pack-member.

It is also the reason why some of our Pups are here in this SUV with us, they will be lending their parents a hand.

Maybe I should introduce myself and my companions. Well, at least a few of them. My name is Lincoln, Alpha of Black Valley Pack and now also the Alpha of Gold Moon Pack. My Beta, Lennox, is driving the SUV and our Mates are in the seats behind us, with my Son, Magnus in the middle.

In the last row of the SUV are Lennox’s twin boys, Makay and Myka, the SUV behind us holds my Gamma, Layton. He is accompanied by his Mate, Laney, and their twin boys, Malek and Mauro.

Our Daughters decided to stay home with their Brothers, sick and tired of every male hitting on them. My Daughter, Mylah, put it in a few different words, but the end result was the same. Makayla, Lennox’s Daughter, had just growled and Marisol, Layton’s Daughter, was the diplomat as usual.

There are four Elite Warriors at the gate and one of them walks up to the SUV, bowing his head the moment he stops next to my Beta. “Alpha Lincoln, welcome to Gold Moon Pack. Just a heads up, but our remaining leadership isn’t too pleased with your arrival. I believe they have trouble getting into our former Alpha’s offices.” The Warrior says.

Uhm, what just happened here? Did one of Alpha Hank’s own Warriors just warn us of trouble? Instead of stalling us at the gate to give them more time. After he has given Lennox directions to get to the Pack-house, he steps back to let us pass.

“Well, that was interesting. I suspected to be stopped at the gate and for them to annoy the hell out of us.” Magnus mumbles.

“Did you take everything from Alpha Hank’s body?” Lennox asks and Myka holds up two sets of keys. Neither one of them are the keys to his SUV, because that is driving somewhere behind us with his body inside.

The road to the Pack-house is empty and I think it is safe to say that they will be gathered at the Pack-house. All of them eager to find out what happened, but Elder Morton will explain that one to them and they will learn that no one disrespects our Luna.

“Uh Oh.” Myka says and we all know what that means. I wish I had kept my head down, because I am not really sure what to think of the females on the front porch. Both of them dressed in a mini skirt with a tank top, in itself not a problem but these are a bit on the tight side. If one of them were to bend over… Yeah, just use your imagination.

Lennox gets out of the SUV with me and one of the females steps off the front porch, “My name is Stella and who are you?” She asks as she looks at Lennox.

“Happily mated.” Is his growled responds and we all duck our heads to make sure she doesn’t see our huge grins.

“Excuse me. I am the mate of future Gamma Rufus and I wouldn’t be interested in you, even if you were the last male on this planet.” She says, but Lennox just ignores her and walks into the Pack-house.

We see a group of people standing in front of the door to the Alpha office and it isn’t difficult to see that they are trying to open it. What they probably don’t know is that you need a key and an access code to get into the office.

Alpha Hank didn’t have much faith in his Pack-members, if you ask me. Why else would he go through this much trouble to lock his offices?

“What are you doing to my office?” I ask and all of them jump back at the sound of my voice. One of them even tumbles to the floor and Stella quickly moves towards him, looks like we found the future Gamma.

“Who are you? This office belongs to my Mate.” A pretty blond responds to my question.

I growl at her, “You are not my Mate. You know damn well that when I killed your Mate, this Pack became mine and that means that everything belongs to me. So I will ask this again, what were you doing to my office?”

This time the former Luna has the smarts to bow her head to me.

“My Mother just wanted to make sure that every personal item of our family was removed, but it seems that my Father locked the door.” A young male answers and I know that this is the future Alpha.

Well, at the moment they may think they are still the future leadership of Gold Moon Pack or maybe they are hoping that I will refuse to lead two Packs.

Meadow’s p.o.v.

I still can’t believe I finally did it.

For years I have been thinking about leaving Gold Moon Pack, but the one thing stopping me was the hope of finding my Mate. Instead of finding the everlasting love everyone always talks about, I found an Asshole that is more concerned with appearances.

To Rufus I was probably nothing more than a no-body, I doubt he could tell you my name if you asked him. Stella is well known to our Pack-members and then I am talking about the male half of the Pack, but I don’t think she should be proud of it.

With Rufus rejecting the bond the Goddess forged between us, I had nothing left to tie me to Gold Moon Pack.

I doubt my so-called Father or Brother will tell Alpha Lincoln that I am no longer in the territory, I doubt they would notice that I am gone. Neither one of them reported me missing, when I moved out of the Pack-house and I wasn’t even fourteen at the time.

They didn’t report me missing when I turned sixteen and there was no Pack initiation ceremony. I will probably never understand why both of them ignored me, I don’t think I want to know the answer.

My name is Meadow and I am sixteen and a half years old. Besides my friends, no one knows that I have a Lycan. Well, that isn’t completely true, our Pack-Doctor knows I am a Lycan. My blood test showed that at the age of four, it is the last time I have done something every member of Gold Moon goes through.

I only made two short stops, since leaving the territory. To have some breakfast and some lunch, other than that I have been driving towards Renegade territory.

A sign by the side of the road draws my attention, there is a motel to my right and I get off the road to find a room for the night. I need to get some rest and hopefully some sleep.

Half an hour later I have parked my SUV in front of my room and taken my overnight bag inside. I take a shower to pass the time and once I am showered and dressed, I walk back to the small diner next to the office. I had ordered some stew to take back to my room, I have no interest in talking to anyone and having dinner in my room will give me some more time by myself.

After finishing the stew, I read some of the documents the Elders had sent to Hayden and I smile at the amount of choices I have. There are two documents that hold my interest, the first one is on becoming a Renegade Warrior and the second is on becoming a Renegade Tech.

I fell asleep quickly last night and I had set my alarm to get an early start on the day, but it isn’t my alarm that wakes me in the early hours of the morning.

A fight is going on outside my room and I quickly make my way over to the window. I take a peek outside to see a guy, about 6”3, surrounded by four other guys and when I take a sniff I am hit by the scent of Rogues.

I open the door to my room and the attention of two Rogues gets drawn in my direction, but neither one of them makes a move towards me. “Let’s take them down a peg.” Rebel growls in my head and I jump on to the back of my SUV.

The guy they have surrounded is standing with his back against the hood of my SUV, he tries to keep them at arm’s length but he looks exhausted. The Rogues must have chased him for a while, attacking him every chance they got.

I walk across the roof of my SUV, taking in the build of the four Rogues and I will go for the biggest of them first. If I can take him out by surprise, I can concentrate on the other three and I let my claws come out as I leap over the biggest Rogue.

My claw slices through his throat, as I am flying through the air and he is dead before I land on the ground behind him. The second Rogue lunges at me and I fall down to my knees, letting my claw slice him open from his collarbone to his stomach. He no longer possess a threat to me or the stranger, but I still have two more Rogues to deal with.

They decide to team up and lunge for me at the same time. I wait until they can no longer stop their momentum and I step back as I raise my hands, letting my claws slice through their throats. Their bodies drop to the ground, both Rogues are dead and as I listen I can hear the second Rogue take his last breath.

I nod my head at the guy that is still leaning against my SUV and as I look into his eyes, I know I am facing a Bear Shifter.

I don’t wait for him to say anything, I have somewhere to be and now I need to shower again. Rogues smell horrible and I want to get rid of that smell as soon as I can.

The water is cascading down my back, as I let the fight run through my mind again. I thank Tyson for teaching me to be patient during a fight and how to read my opponent, his lessons came in handy today.

By the time I walk out of my room, you can’t tell that I killed four Rogues out there. The bodies are gone and so is all the blood that should have been there, even the guy they attacked is gone. I walk to the diner to get me some breakfast and lunch to go, before I head to the office to hand in my key and pay for the night.

“Everything is taken care of, Miss. After what you did, we can’t accept any money from you.” The owner says and after trying to object for a moment, I accept the fact that this is their way to say thank you.

Two hours into the drive, I pull over to eat my breakfast and it is then that I remember what I sensed in the stranger. “Rebel, why could I tell he is a Bear Shifter? I never met one in my life and yet I am positive that he is one.” I ask my Lycan.

For a moment she is quiet, probably trying to find an answer or the best way to explain this to me. “It must be related to our Mother, I never sensed any ability in the Beta.” Rebel finally answers me.

I know that she is right, this must be related to Mom and that leaves me with even more questions. There are only a few memories I have about Mom, but most of them are the same. Me sitting in her lap, listening to her voice, not hearing what she is saying.

There is one memory about Mom that is different, in that memory I do hear what she is saying and it always felt as if it was her final goodbye.

“Always remember that I love you, no matter what life throws at you.” After that she tucked me in, she blew me a kiss from the doorway and then she was gone.