Page 23 of The Beta's Blind Date

“Why?”

“To read?” His brow raises more. “What? I read!”

“Yeah… Animorphs and Goosebumps in elementary school do not a reader make.”

“Hey, those are quality pieces of literature!”

“Says who?”

“Says me!” I huff, crossing my arms. “And I’ve read other books too! I like Stephen King and Michael Crichton and Neil Gaiman and—”

“Okay, okay,” he surrenders, lifting his hands and cutting me off. “Seriously, though, why are you going to the library?”

“I’m going to do some research.”

“For what?”

“New training methods. Double checking some of the warrior laws for the kingdom.”

It’s not a complete lie. I am planning to dig into both topics in addition to searching for answers about my mate bond.

Because ever since my date with Taryn, I’ve been thinking of what she said about Alpha Dominic not letting her try for a warrior position and having to earn it by going back to the basics, back to the bottom of the pecking order. It’s not right, and there must be a law about it somewhere. I just need to find it.

“Anything I can help with? Or do you want me to ask Sebastian to work with you?” he asks.

“No!” I yell with more abruptness than I mean to. “No, I-I’ve got it,” I amend, waving him off. “You enjoy your day with your luna and her family.”

He smiles at that and returns my wave as he continues on his way, jogging backwards. “Oh, I definitely will,” he murmurs before turning and heading off towards his house, disappearing around the bend in the path.

I continue on my way as well, and I thank Selene I don’t get waylaid by anyone else before I reach the library. I’m too tense and on edge to have something that resembles a normal conversation right now.

I give Mrs. Appleton a cursory nod as I enter the building. She retired from teaching in the pack’s elementary school years ago, but she volunteers in the library to keep herself busy.

She smiles at me but says nothing. She must register that “man on a mission” vibe I’m giving off because usually she’d stop me to ask about Wesley and Haven. She loves to remind everyone she is the reason our alpha and luna met.

I grab the sticky notes and pen I stole from Wesley’s office out of my pocket as I wake up the library catalog computer, then type in the keywords for the topics I’m researching. Hopefully, this search will be more fruitful than the internet search I did last night when I couldn’t sleep.

All I got from that search was a bunch of terrible romance novels written by humans about werewolves and other supernatural creatures. I didn’t know they wrote about us like that, but from what I saw, it’s a very niche market of romance novels. The weirdest part, though, was how much they got right about us and the way our bonds work. There was a lot wrong, too, but I guess that makes sense when they’re writing about something they assume isn’t true and have no real-life experience to draw from. They have to make it up.

The library search will for sure be more productive, since actual werewolves and other supernatural beings wrote and curated all the information here, instead of humans making up wild and inaccurate stories about us and how we treat our mates and other beings.

I jot down a list of books on the mate bond that look promising, then search for books on the other two topics I came to research. Then, on a whim, I type in one more query, searching for one more topic that may help with both the mate bond problem and with the training I’ve promised to do with Taryn—information about smaller than normal werewolves.

That could very well be the reason—or at least part of the reason—she doesn’t feel the bond between us. Maybe shifters with smaller wolves feel it later than twenty-one years old? I’ll also need to adjust some of our wolf form exercises as well, so I can make sure I don’t hurt her, and so I can focus on the specific skills and abilities she needs to employ to make up for her size in a fight.

My blood boiled when she told me her alpha used her wolf’s small size against her, at the thought that he or anyone else would underestimate her. The size of our wolves isn’t what determines if we’re capable as warriors. It’s our willingness to learn, work hard, and build our strength and abilities. A larger wolf with no training is more of a hindrance than a smaller wolf who has worked their way through a solid warrior training program.

And my blood didn’t boil at that information only because of the mate bond. I would feel this way no matter what because I can’t stand when others are judged by what they are rather than what they can do. I get pissed when people hint that Haven can’t help the pack as the luna since she isn’t a werewolf. Just like Wesley has proven himself as our alpha, she has more than proven her worth and her capability as our pack’s luna, even though she is “just” a human.

But no one from our pack feels this way. It’s outsiders who have doubts, although those doubts are erased by the time they leave the pack, once they see her poise and emotional strength, and how her mandatory ballet classes for all pack members have improved our pack’s agility and flexibility. Imagine their reactions if they knew she was Selene’s daughter, too.

So no. It isn’t the mate bond making me angrier than a honey badger. Although it may be amplifying everything. It is ramping up my protective instincts, that’s for damn sure. But that’s all it is. Just the mate bond.

Just my wolf.

“Um, Beta Reid?”

I whip my head around and glare at the teenager interrupting me. “What?!”

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