Patchwork pixie, p.1
Patchwork Pixie, page 1
Getting over terror and learning to live again is rough, but Ruby never hides from a challenge. She leaves her fiancé, meets her mates, fights for her own survival, and joins an ice dance performance. The holidays are very busy when you go from beta to elf in moments.
Compulsion forced Ruby to find a good man, get engaged, and settle down. It was what everyone said she should do. When she found her fiancé cheating with her best friend, she took the out and got as far away from him as she could. Her family isn’t exactly happy to see her, but they take care of her while she gets over her shock, and after they see the video footage from her security cameras, they call her a lawyer.
Marshall is the lawyer in question. After he takes notes, interviews her, and gets a copy of the video, she’s dismissed to head off to her job at the family business, and after a few moments of talking to police, she is free to go.
Work is mind-numbing, but when she heads out for lunch, she is met by a friend of her lawyer. Rayden is an alpha; he plays hockey and is currently involved in a seasonal production of Patchwork Pixie. When he finds out that she wrote the choreography, he insists that she come to see practice the next day. She goes to the practice and seals her fate.
With her mates around her, she can finally be herself, and with Rayden’s help, she breaks the mental compulsion that kept her locked in the horrible relationship. She is finally able to be the Elite omega she was meant to be, and her alphas are there for every inch of her, so she returns the favour.
The characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.
Patchwork Pixie
Copyright © 2023 by Viola Grace
ISBN: 978-1-990635-37-3
©Cover art by Angela Waters
All rights reserved. With the exception of review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, is forbidden without the express permission of the publisher.
Published by Viola Grace
Smashwords Edition
Look for me online at violagrace.com.
Patchwork Pixie
Betas in Waiting Book 18
By
Viola Grace
Chapter One
Ruby smiled as she drove home. Weeks of coming in near midnight were now over, and she could resume a normal life. Normal life. Wedding at the end of the year. She was ticking all the boxes even if she didn’t particularly want to.
She stopped to get takeout, and there was an alert on her security software. In the parking lot, she checked the new notice and opened the file. Her mouth went dry, and she was nauseous. Her fiancé and her close friend Beth were giggling and disrobing in her bedroom.
Ruby was five minutes from home, and she made her plan of attack. Her family would be crushed. They loved the idea of Tanner. She gave her phone directions and sent messages to the vendors for the wedding. By the time she parked in a visitor’s spot, her vendors had been notified, and hopefully, refunds would be issued in the next few weeks.
She sent a message to her manager and quit. By the time she left the car, she had cut every tie she had with Hardwick Security. He had lost a fiancé and employee, and she had lost her fiancé and best friend.
Ruby got out of her car, got her digital key, and walked to her place with long strides. She silenced all chirps and notices to her security system, opened her door silently, and kept her bag with her as she moved to her bedroom on quiet feet. Those she had trusted most were loudly fucking, laughing, and groaning.
Oh, cute. They locked the door. She used her master key and opened the room, turning to walk to her closet as shouts of surprise hit her ears. She kept her back toward them and got her suitcase out, getting some interview suits, shoes, and one set of casuals, and then she walked to her bureau and got panties, socks, and bras.
With her bag packed, she turned to the frozen couple on her bed. “I guess your roommates are in, and Tanner’s parents are still over. Well, don’t worry. I cancelled my parts of the wedding, and I will send you a bill for my wedding dress, Beth.”
The couple had been knotted, and Tanner did his favourite thing: he pulled out before letting the knot recede. Beth screamed, sobbed, and squealed.
“Aw, Beth. I told you he liked doing that. Don’t worry. You can have him now.”
A naked and panicked Tanner lunged for her, and she stopped him with a sharp chop to his neck. He gasped and dropped to the floor. “It just happened.”
“Tanner. You are in my apartment, where you don’t live, with my ex-friend, and you were fucking her while she was wearing my wedding dress. That is rather premeditated. Now, I am recording all of this, and if anyone asks me why I left you, they are going to get the full fucking video.”
The bright blue eyes and blond hair were now completely repulsive and not at all endearing.
“You aren’t serious.”
She lifted her left hand, pulled off her engagement ring, lifted his hand, and pressed the diamond into it. “There we go. Nice and on camera. No claiming that I didn’t give it back.”
“Ruby, baby. This isn’t what you think.”
She looked at the injured Beth, where she held sheets to her naked breasts, and the frothy silk of the wedding dress covered the rest of her.
Ruby laughed and laughed. She laughed as she left her condo. She electronically rekeyed her house on the way out. She got into her car and drove to a park on the other side of the city, and then she cried.
Her phone was ringing, and she picked up with the harsh croak of, “Hello?”
“Ruby? Honey. What happened? Your mother is freaking out, so she called me.”
Ruby rubbed her head. “Uncle Leon?”
“Aw, sweetie. Where are you?”
“Safe. Mostly. Trying to figure out what I am going to do next. I need to sell the condo. Burn the contents. You know. The standard.”
“What happened?”
In another spate of squeaking and sobs, she explained about the new sensors from Veron Industries, the miniscule cameras, and using her condo as a testing area.
“So, you have video proof?”
“Oh, yeah.”
“Send it to your parents and his. Maybe Beth’s. She seemed like such a nice girl.”
“She’s been complimenting him since the day I introduced them. It was cute until it wasn’t.” She wiped her tears and sniffed. “Now, I never want to see her again.”
“Understandable. Honeybee. Where are you?”
“Liathic Park. It felt like the best place to be. What time is it?”
“Two in the morning. No one could get a hold of you, so I used the override you gave me. Uncle James has already messaged your mother and told her to wait for the video.”
“Oh. Thanks. I will send those files now.”
“Ruby, come home. Your room is ready. Derrik is making hot cocoa and has those little marshmallows you like. Come home, sweetie.”
“I don’t want to butt in. I promised you guys that you wouldn’t have to put up with me again after I left.”
“I know, but we miss you. Even Grey misses you. Come home.”
She thought about it for fifteen seconds. “I will be there as soon as I finish sending the files out.”
“That’s my little marshmallow. Want us to draw you a bath in the big tub?”
She laughed. “No, Uncle Leon. I can take a shower like a big girl.”
She got her small laptop out and sent out the file from their entry in the room to their responses to her leaving. Unsurprisingly, Tanner wanted to work out his frustrations on Beth, and she had scrambled to get away from him but ended up sobbing in the wedding gown. Tanner was rough when he was in a good mood; in a bad mood, he was brutal.
Ruby watched her files being sent and received then she included a note to Beth’s family. Charges can be laid. She clearly said no several times. Charges should be laid.
She blocked their number because she really needed a few days of silence. She doubted she would get it, but she could hope. With that done, she put her kit away and drove the two blocks to her uncle’s pack house. Technically, it was Uncle Grey’s house, but Uncle Leon had lived there for decades, so it was her uncle’s house.
She pulled up and parked, got out, grabbed her two bags, and walked toward the front door. It swung open, the gathering of men welcomed her, and she smiled and cried again. She was home.
She sat with a towel wrapping her hair and her fuzzy bathrobe on with her hands around the huge mug full of marshmallow-studded cocoa. Four serious and concerned faces looked at her. “I am sorry. I couldn’t stick it out. I let you down.”
Leon looked at her and frowned. “What?”
“When I started living here, I was told that sometimes alphas did stuff that upset you, but you had to get over it and be a grownup. The moment I saw that he had invaded my territory, that was it. Everything else was just a compounded sin.”
They looked at each other, and Leon rubbed his silvering head. “Shit.”
“I was doing it right until this.”
Leon took her hand. “Is that when I was fighting with Derrik about the shop?”
“Yeah. You said sometimes you had to take verbal abuse until the person saw sense on the other side of things. You and Derrik worked it out, so I thought I was fucking things up when it never got better.”
Leon stared, and Derrik sighed. “We were having other issues at that time. Dane was
Grey murmured, “Your foundation was polystyrene. It was never stable to begin with. Tanner is a pretty moron who may have flattered his way into your pants, but he was never going to be able to keep you.”
James said in his ridiculously soft voice for a man so big, “He couldn’t keep you as a beta. He would never be able to manage your other form.”
She nodded. “He never saw it. I got good at that.”
Leon had tears in his eyes. “I never intended my comments to be taken like that.”
“Uncle Leon, it’s okay. Weirdly, I got all of my social cues from you guys, and then I ignored half of them and just went after someone who was pretty and in the industry I wanted to work in when he indicated interest. It was so convenient.”
The men around her were stunned, and then they started laughing gently. Leon patted her hand. “I am sorry. We forget that you are female sometimes. Your brain was wired differently. You were coming at this like an alpha.”
Grey rubbed the back of his neck. “This may be my fault. I was the one to teach her dating strategy.”
James groaned. “The fact that you called it a strategy explains why Tanner was her first boyfriend out of university.”
Derrik frowned. “And before it. Sweetie, was he your only boyfriend?”
Under the focused scrutiny, she blushed. “Yeah.”
Grey looked pained. “Was sex any good?”
She recoiled. “No. From the video, he liked sniffling and crying. I am guessing that he just kept me around for my job skills. That would have been miserable, so when I saw a sign, I took action. And here I am. Twenty-six and back with my uncles because I picked an idiot and a thug... because he was pretty. I am a moron.” Her towelled head thudded to the table with the hot cocoa carefully set aside.
Leon rubbed her back, and to her shock, Uncle Grey did as well. “It’s okay honey. New starts. New alphas. Would you like a distraction?”
She sat up straight with her namesake eyes, her skin dropped all pigment, and her hair slithered out from under the towel until it pooled around her. “I apologize. I just needed to stretch.”
Leon stared at her. “Oh, wow, Honeybee. You are all grown up.”
The other alphas stared at her. James smiled. “You are as tall as I am. Oh, go stand in the doorway.”
The others grinned, and she got to her feet, tightened her robe, and took off her hair towel. The pantry doorway was cleared, and James got a marker. He measured and marked and then dated the mark with her heights from age eleven next to those of her cousins.
She smiled. “Don’t tell Dane and Gerald.”
James grinned and hugged her. “If you need a distraction, you can come to work at the shop tomorrow.”
“That sound good. Can I just wear all black, or do I have to get a uniform?”
James smiled. “All black for now. Are you going to tuck yourself back to beta?”
“Of course. No one in the city looks like this, so I am not an idiot when it comes to representing myself.” She walked back to her cocoa, and Leon looked at her ears.
“Are they really pointy?”
“Yeah. That happened at university.”
“Ah.”
She focused and went back to her normal beta appearance: brown hair just past her shoulders, hazel eyes, and only slightly taller than average. She had made this form to be in all beta standards. She was as average as she could make herself.
Leon smiled. “Get some rest. I get the feeling that you will be contacted frequently tomorrow.”
She snorted. “The first one will be police at seven in the morning. I will be up and dressed.”
Grey asked, “How do you know that?”
She shrugged. “Same way I know who was with Leon three days ago. Instinct.”
Derrik said, “We will be up with you. You aren’t alone.”
“I know, Uncle Derrik, but I know I was dumped on you because of... reasons. I tried to minimize my impact on your lives, but now I am here again. I am embarrassed, and as soon as I can regroup and find a new place, I will be out of your hair.”
Her uncles suddenly surrounded her. Grey rumbled out, “Ruby, this is as much your home as our children’s. You can always come to us if you are in need, and we will help as much as we can.”
The group hug that ensued was enough to make her start sobbing again. She hadn’t told them everything that she had let Tanner do. She had done what she thought was right when you were handing yourself over to a mate. Now, the monumental stupidity was crashing down on her. Giving him full access to her body was an error, but she couldn’t take it back. She could make sure it didn’t happen again. That was her new task. She was going to keep herself so busy that she got her spinning thoughts back under control.
Working her way out of her job was easy. Out of habit, she left all the equipment and computers in her locker.
The uncles tucked her in, which made her smile. Derrik got her favourite stuffed unicorn with red eyes, and she cuddled with it. They left to let her sleep after kisses on her forehead, and she sent one more email and squeezed Mr. Pointy as she let herself rest.
She was up and dressed, her hair was in a braided bun, and when the police knocked at the door, she opened it with a mug of coffee in her hand.
“Hello?”
“Miss Lest?”
“Yes, officers. Would you care to come in?”
“Um. Yes, thank you.”
“This is the home of the Garettel pack.” She stepped aside and waved them in. “My Uncle Leon is their omega, and he offered me a place to stay last night. His pack agreed.”
The sitting room was set up with a coffee service, cream, and sugar.
She sat and offered them coffee.
“How did you know we would be here today?”
“It is Tanner’s move. He likes to cry when women are being mean to him. He has a history of it and two children out of any kind of contract. Three if Beth has believed him that she is the one.”
The officers were about to ask her another question when there was another doorbell. Grey walked to the door and spoke with the newcomer.
An alpha in a seriously expensive suit walked into the room. “Officers. I am Marshal Kensington, and I am Miss Lest’s legal counsel.”
Ruby blinked. “You are?”
“I am.” He had rough features and dark, serious eyes. “Now shut up.”
She blinked and folded her lips against her teeth.
She sipped her coffee, and the man took his coat off before he sat down. He looked at her.
“Uh, coffee?”
He nodded.
She poured it and put in two sugars and cream. She offered it to Mr. Kensington, and he smiled and sipped. “How did you know how I took my coffee?”
She swallowed. “Not a clue. So, Grey called you?”
He nodded. “Officers, what brings you here today?”
One officer was an alpha, and the other was a beta. Both were male.
“We are here to do a wellness check on Miss Lest. Her fiancé indicated that she was irrational and in a rage upon finding him with another woman.”
Mr. Kensington made notes on his phone. “What time was the call put in?”
The officers cleared their throats, and the alpha said, “Twenty minutes ago.”
“Miss Lest, is there security on this building?”
She nodded.
“Can you bring up the outside cameras?”
She brought out her phone and brought up the camera. She pointed at Tanner’s car.
“Officers, you have brought an abuser to the safe haven of a victim. He had no idea she was here until you went through her last known residences.”
She sat there quietly until the alpha officer asked, “He said you were a victim?”
