Page 1 of Wanted Beta

Chapter One

Beth

Isit up in bed, pulling the covers tighter around myself and watching as my eldest sister marches back and forth across her spare bedroom, taking my stuff out of boxes and putting it away. It’s too early in the morning for a lecture, but I can tell that’s where this little visit is headed. Anyone else would be too busy getting ready for work, or whatever, at eight a.m. to make time for tidying up and telling their sibling off, but not Catherine Moore.

Oh no. My biggest sister probably lectures her plants if they dare drop a leaf on her furniture.

“As long as you’re staying with me, you’re going to play by my rules,” Catherine states as she starts hanging up my T-shirts in the tiny closet.

Who hangs up T-shirts? Like seriously?

Next, she’ll be putting my bras and thongs on hangers.

She gives me a pointed look, as if she’s waiting for some sign of agreement from me.

As usual, her big dark eyes are stone-cold serious.

When I don’t say anything, she lets out a sigh.

“That means no making a mess, no going anywhere after class, and most importantly, no boys.”

I feel my cheeks flush over that last thing.

As if I could forget what landed me here.

“Believe me, boys are the furthest thing from my mind right now,” I mumble.

Being drugged and tied to a chair in a closet after the last guy I went out with decided not to take no for an answer might have been enough to put me off men for life. I don’t think I have it in me to play for the other team, so it looks like I’m on the path to a celibate lifestyle.

And all I’d really wanted was to get over my high-school ex.

Turns out there are worse guys out there.

Who would have guessed?

Catherine, my most sensible sibling, with her high-flying job and her sweet apartment in the city, is the last person I expected to come to my rescue. We’ve barely spoken to each other these last few years. She left home while I was an insufferable tween, and besides Christmas and Birthday messages on our socials, our interactions have been minimal.

She looks like a stereotypical business bitch, in her tailored skirt-suit, skyscraper heels and no-nonsense bobbed hairstyle. She’s tall and slim and her hair is so dark it’s almost black.

There’s literally nothing that marks us out as sisters.

I’m on the short side, I’m curvier and my hair is a natural golden blonde. I wouldn’t be caught dead in a skirt suit, and this room is going to look like a tornado hit it within a couple days, just from me living here.

She’s not going to be happy about that.

I doubt this living arrangement is going to last.

There’s a clock ticking down to Catherine throwing me out.

Hopefully, I’ll be ready to go back to my dorm room by then.

She sits down on the edge of the double bed. “You don’t have to go back to your course, Beth.”

I blink at her. “Um, what?”

“I know it was your second choice,” she admits, her dark eyes softening as she looks at me.

It wasn’t my second choice. It was more like my sixth.

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