Sugar-Free Beta (2 page)

The only reason Jared stayed for as long as he did was because Derrick
carried the Starr name, and even if Derrick was exiled from the Starr Mountain
Pack, names still carried weight. Maybe the Gamma hoped that Derrick’s family
would take him back eventually, but the chances of that were slim, slimmer even
than being cured of his diabetes.

If Jared had truly cared for him, he’d know that bringing up something
sensitive like his family was a heartache that never truly went away. No matter
how many times Derrick claimed that being a lone wolf not tied to any pack
suited him just fine, being alone all the time with no one to turn to wasn’t
exactly what anyone wanted.

“Hey, man, are you ordering? You’re holding up the queue,” an irate
voice said behind the counter.

“One black coffee,” Derrick mumbled, still staring at the caramel
frosted cupcake and imagining how he’d like to scoop out the frosting and lick
it off someone.

What would really be ideal was to lick all that frosting off Jared’s
smooth and bronze chest. He could have the Gamma lying on his belly and baring
his neck in submission while he’d smear the frosting all over his smooth chest.
Then he’d lower his head and lick lazy and idle circles. He’d torment and tease
the Gamma until he was begging and whimpering for Derrick to take him.
 

Sure, if I don’t mind my blood sugar level
going bonkers from licking all that sugar. It’s on a dangerous level as it is.

Derrick shouldn’t have been too surprised that the Gamma had simply left
him without a note along with all the bills and credit cards in his wallet.

Stop it. You’re just punishing yourself.

The signs were all there. If Jared’s endless excuses and the smell of
other men’s cologne, sweat, and sex on the Gamma’s clothes weren’t enough, the
ever-increasing nights Derrick spent alone in bed while vehemently decimating
bar after bar of sugar-free chocolate should have been a clue.

I was just afraid that he’d leave me.
Now that it was done, Derrick felt all emptied
out, like someone had slit his belly and yanked out all his insides. But he
also felt a little sliver of relief. He couldn’t see Jared and him working out
anyway. The boy was too free-spirited and flirty for his own good. Derrick,
meanwhile, was a reserved and private individual.

His idea of a good date was a romantic and quiet night out. Maybe
watching a good movie while munching on a few bags of
Raisinets
and going for a run in the woods surrounding New Haven afterward, in the area
where the local pack wouldn’t bother him and his imaginary mate. Being able to
no longer eat
Raisinets
wasn’t that big of an issue.
Derrick could replace them with sugar-free chocolate bars. A mate, on the other
hand, wasn’t as easy to replace.

Jared breaking up with him was a good sign, not a bad one. Derrick could
start over, be healthier, and maybe find another mate out there, a mate who’d
accept all of his big, hairy, and sugar-free shy self.

Yeah, right.
Derrick snorted.

Giving one last lingering look at the cupcake, he grabbed his piteous
cup of black coffee and asked the guy behind the counter if he had any extra
sweeteners.

“Yeah, hold on.”

Now that Derrick was no longer distracted by the cupcake, he studied the
barista. He’d automatically assumed that the server was a scruffy-looking
college kid, but the man who stood behind the counter was older, maybe in his
mid-twenties.

While he still had a scruffy look about him because of all that shaggy
brown hair, he was tall, good-looking, and probably straight. The most
interesting feature about him was his slightly slanted eyes, telling Derrick
that he maybe had a mix of Chinese in his bloodline somewhere. Derrick watched
the line of his back and the curve of his ass when he bent over a drawer to
pull out two packets of Equal.
Nice butt.

“Thanks.” Derrick swiped the two packets, surprised when the guy touched
his hairy arm. An odd shiver bolted up Derrick’s arm, and the other man quickly
withdrew, a strange expression on his face.

Probably thinks I’m a weirdo.

“Were you just ogling at my butt?” the barista asked him so frankly and
matter-of-factly that Derrick blinked a few times just to make sure he’d heard
those words right.

He could feel his cheeks turning red and was sure the barista could see
it despite the monster of a beard that covered his cheeks and chin.

“What?” Derrick managed to choke out, but his words came out as a harsh
bark. The barista winced, as if he was expecting Derrick to lean over the
counter and grab a handful of his shirt. A riled-up part of him was tempted to
do just that, and when the barista was steadying
himself
for a blow, he’d take the chance to kiss him.

Naturally, Derrick was too chicken shit to do anything so audacious.
Awkward silence passed.

“Don’t forget this.” The guy finally muttered and shoved a paper bag at
his arm. There was an expression on his face Derrick couldn’t read.

Frowning, Derrick peered into the paper bag, surprised to see the
cupcake. “I didn’t order this. You must’ve been mistaken.”

Suspicion was quickly replaced by sheer irritation. Even the wolf inside
him raised its curious head. What was this man playing at? He shoved the bag
back, but the other man pushed it back to him. The guy furtively glanced at his
busy manager by the counter who was busy tinkering with the espresso machine.

Derrick saw that his eyes were a startling shade of blue. The kind
humans normally didn’t have. Was Derrick wrong about him being a normal human?
He couldn’t detect the usual smell of musk that most wolves carried though, or the
familiar smells he’d associate with other Were-animals.

“Look, take it. You look like you really wanted it,” the guy said in a
low voice, his ears growing pink.

His own ruddy cheeks felt warm. Did the guy think he couldn’t pay for a
damn cupcake? But looking at the barista’s face and the reddening tips of his
ears told Derrick that the other man’s expression was genuine. The shaggy
haired man uneasily shifted nervously from one foot to the next. He looked
nervous, not meeting Derrick’s gaze.

Derrick’s eyes moved down his face to his rather nice and lean chest.
The Beta decided that he had a rather nice body under all those scruffy
clothes. One that had seen just enough exercise to keep fit, but wasn’t overtly
buffed.
Focus, Derrick
, he chided
himself. It wasn’t the barista’s body he should be looking at. Taking a breath,
he tried again to pick out the details that seemed out of place.

No nametag.
Strange.
I
haven’t seen him around town either.
Was he a new employee? Why did he look so shifty?

Finally, Derrick caved. He was standing there far too long, and the
businessman behind him had begun to complain. Maybe the guy was just nervous on
his first day. Maybe he was simply just being nice, or pitied Derrick. The
latter seemed the most likely option, but it was better to be noticed than not
be noticed at all in Derrick’s opinion.

The words that he was a diabetic were on the tip of his tongue, but he
curbed it. He didn’t want to further discomfort or embarrass the guy any
longer.

“Great. Thanks.” Derrick took the bag and was about to give the barista
a reassuring smile, but he was already serving another customer.
Wasn’t he overly eager to get away from me
?

On his way out the door of the coffee shop, Derrick spared the man one
last look. He couldn’t shake off the feeling in his gut. He found it all too
suspicious that the man became all-too flustered around him like a schoolboy.
Derrick doubted it was because of his good looks or smooth charm.

Was he a human liaison working for an old enemy of his family? Maybe
even a spy sent by his family?

But who would bother with him? He usually kept his head down and minded
his own business. Even the local pack of New Haven left him relatively alone.
Derrick was essentially a small and insignificant fish in a tank full of
sharks.

“Maybe he was just being nice. Just another random act of kindness,” he
murmured to himself.

Once out the door, he parked himself at the sidewalk and peered into the
brown paper bag again. The cupcake looked no less appealing than it had a few
minutes ago. Derrick still wanted it badly and still wanted to eat it off
someone. Instead of Jared’s face though, he pictured the barista’s delightfully
embarrassed expression. It would’ve been nice to see him squirm and hear him
moan when Derrick sucked and tongued at the caramel frosting on his nipples.

The reckless thought of running back in and asking the guy for his
number suddenly overcame Derrick.

You’re just going to freak him out if it turns
out he’s straight.
It really
was a bad idea, and besides, Derrick doubted he was capable of stringing a
simple sentence. Nothing was ever simple to him when it came to relationships.

“Don’t spoil a good thing,” Derrick admonished himself. He hastily
folded the paper bag, cursing when he nearly crushed the bag and its contents
with his large paw of a hand.

Across the glass of the coffee shop, he caught the dark and curious eyes
of the barista. The dark-haired guy lifted his hand in an uncertain wave.
Flushed, Derrick ambled away from the coffee shop as fast as he could.

Chapter Two

“Are you sure you don’t want to reconsider, Jack?” asked Gerry, the
owner and manager of Gerry’s Cakes and Bites.

“I’m sure.” Jack stuffed his hands in the pocket of his jeans. His eyes
darted to the clock on the wall again, hoping Gerry would get the message that
he was in a hurry to leave.

She’d been a decent boss.
More than decent actually.
She hadn’t even asked any questions when he’d stumbled into her café last week,
soaked to the bone with nothing but the clothes on his back. If circumstances
were different, he would have stayed.

New Haven was a decent and quiet little town where everyone knew
everyone else. Sooner or later though, either Jack’s past would catch up with
him or the local werewolf pack would come sniffing at his door. It was a
miracle, too, that it had taken them this long to question the new wolf in
their territory.

Maybe they already did.
Jack remembered the large and bearded guy in
the battered old leather jacket that morning who’d badly wanted that caramel
cupcake. A strange tingle crawled down Jack’s back at the thought of his arm
brushing against that stranger’s hairy arm. Weeks of successfully masking his
scent as a harmless human gone to waste at that one little touch. Heck, Jack
could barely rein in his wolf from leaping up like an eager dog eager to sniff
and inhale the scent of a potential mate.

He smelled so good, too.
Like musk and vanilla. A dominant wolf like
that could warm a smaller wolf like him on the coldest winter nights. He
smelled dangerous, but he also smelled safe.

“You never did learn, Jacky-boy.”
Hearing the voice of his former lover in his
head made him shiver. Being a submissive wolf guaranteed that there were always
powerful and bigger wolves sniffing at him. It was natural for weaker wolves to
seek the protection of the more dominant wolves, but Jack had been with large
men and large wolves all his life and had become leery of them. Experience had taught
him that there were few good men and even fewer good wolves out there.

Hell, hadn’t he spent three months running from one abusive bastard, and
now he wanted to saddle up to another one? He didn’t need this. In fact, he
didn’t need anyone when he had himself.

“All right.
You take care, Jack.” Gerry finally handed
over the envelope, which he quickly stuffed at his back pocket. He was about to
turn the knob to the door when she called his name again.

“Yeah?”

“Whatever it is you’re running from, you can’t run away forever, Jack.
Sometimes it’s good to find a place to settle down,” Gerry said. There was
something in her tone that made Jack study her a little more closely.

He didn’t know much about his former boss, and what little he knew came
from rumors. Gerry had been a divorce attorney from Upper Cities, a damnably
good one from what he heard. For unexplainable reasons, she’d moved to New
Haven ten years ago to open a coffee shop, and he doubted it was because she
was sick of life in the city.

Jack had occasionally seen her staring off into the distance when she
thought no one else was looking, lost perhaps in private and painful memories.

Jack didn’t answer her. He only left the warmth of the coffee shop to
inhale the cold night. What else was there to say? He was used to curt goodbyes
and never sticking in one place. Just what was it about New Haven that felt so
different?

Most of the small shops on the lane were closed. Was it that late
already? Jack checked his battered wristwatch and breathed a sigh of relief.
Just in time to gather his meager belongings back at the motel and catch the
last bus back to the Upper Cities where he could easily slip into the city’s
numerous shady cracks and disappear like a ghost.