Taming His Beta General

"Think you are too good for everyone? You should ask your mother," he sneered.

Cruel hands bruised and grabbed her as she tried helplessly to fight back the weakness in her drugged limbs.

"What did you do to me?" Her words rumbled sluggishly.

"Something to keep you nice and warm." Cruel laughter echoed in her head as frustrated tears leaked down her face.

Cold air slapped her chest as he tore her shirt open.

Then his eyes widened in shock and fear as a strangely familiar voice whispered her name.

"Lorraine".

"You... what... how?!"

His screams followed Lorraine out of...

Wait. Something, someone's hands, was on her.

Her eyes flared open, and he jerked above her.

"What...wh...?"

Light stabbed her eyes as she blinked at the tawny eyes above her.

Still gripped in the throes of her nightmare, Lorraine immediately swung her fist, connecting solidly with the concerned face above her.

"Fuck, what the...?!"

She rolled sideways and dived for the gun on the bedside table.

She had the gun pointed right at his forehead before he could blink.

"Woah! Calm down, Prickly. What are you...?"

"Stop calling me that." Her voice sounded like sandpaper scraping against her throat as she glared at him.

Even as her body finally registered that she was no longer in that desperate situation, no longer the helpless teenager, she could not force herself to lower the gun.

"What are you doing in my room, Alpha?" She sneered the title with suspicion.

He finally lowered his hand from his bruised jaw, eyes on hers instead of the gun, as he got off the bed too.

"I heard you. Man, that was..." A tortured look crossed his face as he shook his head.

Lorraine stiffened against the compassion on his face as he continued, "You were...I don't know, babe. Whatever you were seeing in your sleep must be bad. I hope I never get to see that kind of look on your face again," he said passionately.

Lorraine did not want whatever he was trying to show her. Her hand firmed on the gun when she realised he had stepped forward.

"I was trying to shake you out of it when you..."

"Don't come closer." She blurted, pointing the gun at his feet. "You shouldn't be in my room." She glared at him.

He let out an impatient sigh as he stepped forward anyway. "Then you should lock your door next time and not sound like..." He shook his head again and asked urgently, "What were you dreaming of, Lorraine? That..."

The sudden firmness behind her back made her realise she had been stepping back from him as he walked towards her.

Anger spiked in her at that unconscious movement.

She was not a coward. She never cowered before any man, ever.

"Get out!" She gritted out coldly, the torment of her nightmare pulling at her bones.

She expected him to keep moving anyway. He was arrogant that way.

Her fingers tightened on the gun unconsciously. But he did the unexpected.

He stopped.

Yet that look, so close to pity, stayed.

"Babe, you know you can talk..."

Her lips curled upward in a scoff as she repeated, "Get out. And stay away from me."

He looked torn even as he nodded. "I am going nowhere, Lorraine. I will always be here for you," he muttered.

Just when she thought her shivering limbs would betray her before him, he turned and left, closing the door gently after him.

The clicking sound seemed to send a signal to her system as her body started shaking violently.

She dropped the gun and slid down the wall.

Curling her arms tightly around her raised knees, the contrast of her feverish body against the coolness of the wall on her back made her shiver more.

"Why? Why now?" She murmured, her voice muffled against her knees as she tried hard to stem the shiver.

She had not dreamt about him and her crime for a couple of years.

She had finally stopped looking over her shoulder, feeling a bit secure in the life she had built.

And now this?

The pathetic feeling from that night tasted bitter in her mouth.

No one had dared to make her feel like that again, ever. No one would.

So why...?

Her head snapped up as she glared at the door he had just passed through.

"It must be because of him and his stupid claim," she thought with conviction. "He did this to me."

"You know it is not just a claim, Lorraine," Kiara, who had been thrumming with that weird energy while the Alpha was in the room, finally spoke up. "He is our mate."

"Not for long." Lorraine declared as she stood, her distress buried beneath her anger for the moment.

"I am going to reject him and..."

"The queen said..."

"I don't care what the queen said." The lie rolled off her tongue as a familiar weakness suddenly rolled through her. "She can't expect me to be his mate. The Moon Goddess has gone too far with her joke this time." She held tightly to the edge of the bed, stubbornly willing her body to fight the curse of her birth.

"You know that won't work, Lorraine. Just use it." Her wolf's exasperation rang through as Lorraine gritted her teeth against the overwhelming weakness.

She hated this. Hated this weakness she had inherited from her mother. Yet she knew Kiara was right.

She could deal with Logan later.

For now...she hastily took out her insulin pack.