Loving The Beast Within (Sequel to Shifting Love)

Chapter 25: The Lonely Beta

Quick Note! 

I am so sorry about the long wait. I have been thinking this over for a couple weeks and I really want to try something new. I hope you enjoy this brief glimpse into the life of Teague. If you guys really like it I might just put some time into a small spinoff for him.

-----------------------------------------------------

Teague's P.O.V.

Grease splashed back onto my cheek when I loosened the lug nut too much. I cursed at myself and wiped the oil from my face. My ass was numb from sitting on the cold garage floor for so long but I didn’t care. I had been working on my bike for hours but it barely felt like any time passed.

This was what my life summed up to these last ten years; a condemned terminal bachelor who plays with toys in a garage. From the moment I found my mate this was what my life became because of it.

My hand clenched around the wrench when I thought about her and what she had done to me, to us. Ten years and I still could barely come to terms with what happened between us.

The second she rejected me I fled to the Shadowland’s territory and pledged my allegiance to Alpha Xavier. I couldn’t be anywhere near her and the Shadowland’s were the farthest territory from her.

Once I explained my circumstances, Alpha Xavier welcomed me into his pack with open arms. He had to fight tooth and nail with my old Alpha for me though. After a year in the Shadowland’s pack Xavier took me under his wing. He trained me to become the next Beta to his daughter, Arianna, and her Alpha mate.

At first it was hard to be around everyone else with their mates and happy lives. So I hid. I bought myself a clunker and poured my frustration into fixing it into a beautiful motorcycle.

It didn’t take very long to finish so I bought three more. Eventually other terminal bachelors joined me in the garage. Arianna’s annoying friend, Logan, and his slightly more tolerable older brother, Scott, were regulars.

After Xavier died I even took a pre-teen shifter under my own wing. Kevin became the younger brother I never had, which turned into the son I would never get the chance to father.

But today there wasn’t another shifter in sight. They were all inside grieving over Arianna’s mother, Alpha Terrence, and the traitor’s wife. Sadly one of her pack members found her in their bathroom. The guilt over her husband’s treachery consumed her. She became just another victim to him.

I knew I should be in there too as Dante’s Beta, but I couldn’t bear to be around all the sadness. I paid my respects to Arianna and Dante this morning. Once it was apparent I wasn’t needed anymore I slunk off to the garage for the seclusion from everyone.

Over the past couple days I found it harder and harder on myself to be around anyone in the pack. I couldn’t take their looks of pity. Poor Teague, the freak shifter. My only solace was that it seemed I wasn’t alone. Cooper had also been injected with bear blood. Even Dante had his own shifter cocktail of all the shifter blood Walter could get his hands on. It was a wonder he was keeping it together. But he had his mate to ground him.

The door creaked open but I didn’t bother looking away from my bike. I was too busy throwing myself a pity party.

“Do you mind if I hide in here?”

Her voice cracked and I could hear the sorrow in her tone. Last year this Arianna would have been foreign to me. Her laughter and light tone was second nature. Walter and his hunter friends had crushed that side of her.

I looked up at her, “Of course.”

She bit her lip back and slowly walked over to me. Her black dress billowed with every step and even in the dim garage light I could see all the scars that marred her beautiful face and body. A woman that young, even an Alpha female, should never have to bear so many battle wounds.