The Beta: Part Two (The Beta, #2)

by Avanne Michaels

Do you remember anything about your attack?” Yes, I fucking do. I remember every single thing I was conscious enough to experience. I give her a tight nod.

“Honey, you don't have to hide it. We had to do blood work for the transfusions, you don't have to pretend to be a beta here. You're safe.” Oh.

The light still hurts my eyes, but I look anyway. I'm an omega. There's nothing to be done. I can’t avoid it any longer.

The alphas who left you here?” the nurse pries, making her opinion of Devon and Kaleb obvious.

Ready for sex again...no, there will be no more sex. The only person I want touching me is an impossibility at this point. “No, thank you,” I say and close my eyes so I can ignore the nothingness of this room as much as I possibly can for as long as I possibly can.

I don't have anything to say to that. I ran those bastards by every camera in the woods. Nathan will pick out their faces and he'll find them. Then they'll die. There's no need to involve the authorities. Jasper's pack will eliminate the rogues who wanted to hurt him, not any judicial system.

Accepting my new designation, and starting a life as an omega is actually more upsetting to me right now than knowing four rogue motherfuckers tried their best to murder me with their penises…peni…penes? Whatever the plural for more than one dick is.

I don't know how to be an omega. Intellectually, I know all about how to care for an omega. I know the proper foods, nutritional drinks, beneficial teas and herbs, exercises, how to recognize when heat is imminent; but I do not know how to operate and function as an omega.

Their names don’t matter, they never will. Once I leave here, this chapter, hell, this entire book of my life will no longer exist.

The only thing I’ve ever wanted for myself, the only thing I’ve given my whole heart to, has been ruined, has been ripped away from me. Because I’m an omega now.

I just can't care about any of it, and I don't know how to make her understand that I really am not bothered by what the rogues did to me outside of the physical pain I'm only barely feeling anymore.

But I've never been an omega, and I don't know how to be traumatized like one. I only know how to process this as the female beta I've been my entire life.

I'm just surprised they didn't kill me once they discovered they caught a beta. Except I'm not a beta. They did catch an omega, they were just too hopped up on belligerent rage to see past my taunts.

I don't know how to behave or react as an omega. I can feel the changes happening inside of me. I can actually feel them, and it is unnerving.

It's been happening slowly over the past weeks, I've just been in willful denial. Now that it is official and no longer unavoidable, I'm being bombarded by all the things that I refused to acknowledge.

“Daddy?” I haven't called him that since I was a little girl, I don't know why it came out now.

“Talia, why isn't Devon's pack with you? I can't imagine they'd let you be there unprotected to deal with all this alone. Why don't you want to call them?”

“They don't know I've changed. I am only now trying to accept it. Mom was right, I'm an omega after all, and I don't know how to be one. I don't know what triggered it, probably Jasper somehow. He's the only thing I want, and now I can't have him.

Two omegas can't work, and he already has a pack. I can't be part of that, and they aren't interested in having me join them long-term. I don't know what to do, how to be. Everything feels like nothing and I want to be nothing, too. I'm not crazy, I promise. I just want to disappear.”

“Talia, my darling, there is no way one of them didn't suspect something, at the very least. I spoke with your brother a few days ago when you still hadn't returned any calls or texts. He told me you were having heat spikes when you were visiting him, and that was weeks ago. Call them. Get them there. They will help you through this.” I know he means well, but his words hurt. Calling Jasper's pack here won't do a thing but upset Jasper.

“They're not my pack. I'm not their omega. Jasper is their omega, and the situation will just distress him. You wouldn't let anything upset mom the way this would upset Jasper. I'm going to see if the doctor can get me on some powerful suppressants and hopefully push through long enough to get away from here.

There is a reason it happened while you were with Devon's pack. What do you think it will do to Jasper if you just disappear altogether? How would that be better than facing what could potentially be a very positive thing?” He's right, of course, but this is one time I don't think I can bounce back from the rejection.

Devon interrupts, “when can I bring Jasper to see her?” She looks at me and I shake my head, “unfortunately, Miss Graves isn't ready for visitors just yet. We need to make sure she's emotionally stable enough to tolerate visitors. I'll be happy to give you a call when she's cleared for visitation.”

He scoffs, “sure, that's going to happen. When can you leave? I miss you.” My eyes fill with tears that I refuse to allow to escape. They won't help anything.

Try to get some real rest and make sure you're eating right.” That's all I can say. My throat closes and I shake my head at the doctor when she gives me a questioning glance.

“Miss Graves, I understand why you lied to him, my alphas have lied to me before to keep me from pain, but when he realizes you aren't coming back to him he will have a breakdown.”

She purses her lips yet again, “and what about you? Who will help you through it?” I sigh again, and my answer sounds weak and watery, “I'll be fine.”

I can't give Corso my heart and myself, and I refuse to hurt him more than I already have.

I have an outsider's understanding that I truly am an omega in distress, and the doctors and nurses here are grasping at straws to try to keep me from the edge before I jump off.

“It's okay, I don't want any more strange alpha scents. I don’t want anything. I want nothing. I can't have Jasper, so please let me keep this nothing. Just for a while. Then I promise I'll go and you all won't have to worry about me. I'll be fine. Just let me rest here. Just a bit longer.”

As unstable as I am, I'm too much of a risk to be near Jasper. I also don't know how any of them would react to me actually going into full blown heat in my little room in the basement. Especially Devon. I can't go through heat with a pack of alphas who are untouchable and their distraught omega.

As many times as Jasper is brought to the forefront of my mind, every word Devon has said to me about keeping Jasper safe is on repeat. I did what I said I would, what he told me to.

I led the danger to Jasper away. I took it all on myself so it couldn't touch him. I can't bring a completely differe...

I won't put him in a position to choose his alphas or me. I won't put him in a position to ask them to take care of me since he can't. I can't even imagine wha...

So I won't do any of that. I'll stay away like I said I would, even if it kills me.

She is a new omega who is exhibiting symptoms of being rejected by a pack.

I was elated when she finally agreed to let me call them, but after hearing the disgustingly apathetic tone of Alpha Johnson I was angry on her behalf. No wonder she didn't want to contact them. It was obvious the omega, Jasper, cares deeply for her, but an omega cannot care for another omega in the way Talia needs care, no matter how much he cares. It would destroy them both.

Elizabet Graves is a terror even if she means well. But something must be done for my patient, and I think unleashing Misses Graves is the best course of action at this point. I shut the door to my office and dial the number on file, she answers on the first ring with a brisk hello.

It's her mental and emotional state, Misses Graves. She's declining.” Her tone is low, almost a polite hiss, “what do you mean declining? Where is her pack? Tell me she's not alone.”

Elizabet Graves, queen of all things omega on the east coast, including the institute where I mastered all my omega training, is calling me. I must answer the call regardless of how badly I want to stay buried in my blankets and my alphas. I tap the screen and her sweet, singsong voice immediately starts chirping at me.

I’m confused, Talia is at the hospital, but her phone is charging on my nightstand so it will be ready for her when she wants it back. It hasn't gone off once, but that doesn’t explain why her mother...oh my god, Elizabet is Talia’s mother. How did I not realize it?

“I’m sure she’s fine, she’s at one of the best hospitals in the state. They promised to call me the minute she wakes up. And I assumed they’d be in contact with you.”

I hear her take a breath and then her screaming becomes a vicious hiss that makes goosebumps raise on my arms as she repeats herself, “you left her alone at a hospital!? After everything she went through?! I know your pack of morons isn’t used to caring for a female omega, but surely you can’t be that stupid! She’s alone, in a cold, sterile room after the hell she endured BECAUSE OF YOU and you just left her there! To suffer through it alone! How could you, Jasper? How could you?”

She cuts me off, “you’re an idiot, too, then. A bigger idiot than the assholes in your pack. Haven’t you noticed the spikes she’s been having for weeks? For weeks, Jasper! I thought you, at least, would have recognized what was happening to her. And instead of caring for her, and supporting her, and giving her what she needs, you let her give herself over to god only knows what to save your own ass. And now she’s all alone in a hospital room while you’re safe at home surrounded by your pack.”

Elizabet’s weeping now, and I can hear male voices murmuring in the background, surely trying to comfort her. I think I’m going to vomit. I don’t have the heart to tell her that Talia isn’t officially pack.

“I didn’t know, Elizabet, I really didn’t. She didn’t tell me and she hid it really well. I’m sorry. I’ll make it right. I’ll fix it.” “You can’t fix something like this, Jasper. I’ll be lucky if she survives. Most omegas don’t survive these things....

“Jasper, I know Talia is a tough little thing, but this is beyond toleration. I thought you boys were going to be a good fit for her. I thought you were taking care of her. She’s certainly been taking care of you, hasn’t she? If my daughter dies because of your pack’s maltreatment I’m coming for all of you. This is inexcusable, and unforgivable.”

“get the fuck up. We fucked up so bad. I fucked up, you all fucked up. And I don’t know if we can ever make up for it. Get up, and put all your clothes from yesterday in this basket and then get ready. We’re going to fucking hospital.” They're all looking at me like I’m insane. “GET THE FUCK UP! MOVE!” I roar at them, and they start moving.

He rubs his jaw, “I’m sorry, baby. I didn’t think it would matter. We never planned for Talia to be with us this long. After she heals up she can stay on as our beta like she has been, or she can move on to another pack if she’d rather do that. There will be a lot of packs interested in her now.” My hand shoots out and I slap him hard before I even realize I’ve done it. “She’s not a fucking beta.”

I hiss, and he looks at me like I’ve lost my mind, my handprint standing out on his cheek. “She’s an omega, Devon. AN OMEGA! Have you seriously not caught a single whiff of her heat spikes?” His eyes tell me he has and I slap him again.