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

by Avanne Michaels

Talia reaches to join our fingers as I wrap my legs around Trent's waist and correct her, “ours, Talia. He's ours.” One dominant growl in my ear has me releasing as much slick as Talia has been and then he pushes inside.

“Not gonna last, darlin,” Trent says, and I don't know if it's directed at me or our girl, but she answers.

Two days later I'm struggling. Nathan is struggling. Trent is on the cusp of struggling. And Talia's heat isn't showing any signs of retreat.

I agree. I didn't quite anticipate the intensity with which her heat would take her, and I didn't actually expect her to exhaust two alphas.

The decision to call in backup is mine and I'm making it. Talia may be taken by heat for a few more days, the two alphas in the nest with her are exhausted. They're my alphas as much as hers but they're mine to take care of wholly when she can’t help, and they're at their limit.

Corso's intense expression squashes any light hearted comment I might want to make. He wants this. Badly. He wants this for his own completely personal reasons, and based on the expressions of his pack they also want it. When this is over I will make Talia tell me the true, fully detailed version of her history with this pack.

I wanted to laugh when Jasper told me that he, an omega, would protect me from Talia; but once the door clicked shut behind my back and I got a good look at Trent and Nathan, who are both absolutely wrecked, I understand why he issued the warning.

I don't want to do a single thing that might get me banished from this room. I've wanted this for too long to let it slip through my fingers because I was overzealous.

She jerks back and narrows her eyes at me, but I can't force myself to stop making the sound for her. Then she genuinely startles me by snatching my arm and scenting it almost violently. She smells my hand, then moves to the other arm and hand and lets out a little growl before turning confused eyes back to Jasper.

breathes deeply, “this isn't all him.” She cuts glaring, accusing eyes at me, “who is that? Who did you touch?” And I am at a loss. Omegas are territorial, but I haven't touched a single female of any designation for weeks.

“Who is it? That scent?” she barks. I look at Jasper and shake my head, “the only people I've touched in days are my pack.” Jasper's eyes widen slightly and he almost smirks. “Do you like that scent, sweet girl?” he asks her, and she slowly nods, bringing my other hand to her face so she can breathe in whatever it is she likes from my cupped palms.

“Alex, Reid, give me your shirts,” Jasper says softly. After a moment they're shoving them through the slight opening in the door. Talia snatches them away before Jasper even turns around and is scenting them. She likes them. She takes all three shirts and goes back to building her nest, tucking and weaving them into the structure with all the other things.

She starts rearranging the nest, pushing out the walls, then I understand the problem. It isn't big enough. She's going to invite me in. I feel my heart skip a beat and my breath catches in my chest.

I expected her to ravage him, if Trent and Nathan are anything to go by, but she touches him with such reverence. He worships her with the same attention and it is breathtaking. How can Devon and the rest stand to do anything but watch them together?

She turns toward Trent, who is closest, and he gives her a lecherous grin, but Jasper touches her chin and pulls her eyes back to him, “no, baby, not Trent this time. I brought you another alpha, remember? Look, he's just there. Corso is waiting for you to invite him in.”

She reaches out for me and it takes every ounce of willpower I possess to move slowly toward her. She takes my fingertips in her hand and helps me in like I'm a princess and she's the knight, and directs me to sit next her where she's still spread over Jasper.

I was Talia's first lover. She gave me that precious gift and I've been hers ever since whether she wanted me or not. Her reasoning for leaving me, for my own good and the good of my pack, is logical but my heart refuses to accept it. Everything I am belongs to her, it was hers as a beta and it will still be hers as an omega.

but his alphas haven't bonded her into their pack, much less claimed her as a second omega. So, I will see her through this heat, then I will do everything I possibly can to convince her to be mine.

I can take care of her. Reid and Alex want her as much as I do, she fits us so perfectly. I'll find a solutio...

The fact that his pack hasn't claimed her tells me that she isn't a priority here. I will mak...

When I can stand to look down to watch her, my eyes meet hers and every second I've spent longing for her hits me hard. It's almost too much to take. I never thought I'd have her like this again.

My name on her lips is something to be cherished, and my favorite sound always.

I need her to admit it to herself, I need the other men in this nest to understand that she is precious to me. That although my fucking will be rough and harsh, it is what she needs from me, and that she understands that she is safe. That she wants it.

Jasper is incredibly exhausted. Omega's aren't built to withstand a heat cycle that isn't their own, and the males do not go into rut. This is taking an extreme toll on his body. After this is over I'm getting him whatever elaborate, expensive, special, worthy gift Kaleb and the others can help me find for him to show my gratitude and respect.

This is the first time since she left my home that I have seen anyone touch her with even a small amount of reverence she deserves.

My breath hitches, I can't keep this. Unless Talia is willing to leave Jasper, which she obviously isn't. I will never regret this, but something cold coils around my very soul in the knowledge that this will be my only time with her like this.

My pack will never take another omega. We have wanted only her for us for so long, and these few days are the closest we'll ever come to having her the way we need her.

This is one of the worst kinds of loss, but we couldn't refuse her. We will never refuse her.

Trent quietly breaks the peaceful silence, “I thought it would piss me off to have you here, but it doesn't. And that's weird. I don't want to talk about it, I just wanted to say it.

Trying to lighten the air in this moment of quiet clarity, I ask, “how do you all get anything done, how can you stand to leave this house, when they're here together? Either of them would be tempting enough alone, but together the way they are...”

After Talia isn't in heat, we want to bond her into the pack. So Jasper can keep her.” Nathan is kind, to a fault. He is probably the kindest man I know, so there's no reason for him to think what he just said is something that would cause enough anger to rise from the depths of my soul to make Talia stir from where she's sleeping on my chest.

Even she puts Jasper first. The question comes to my forethought again, who is putting her first?

This time when I give her my knot, I wedge it inside of her so, so slowly, my eyes never leaving hers; and when I can go no further I kiss her with every ounce of love I feel for her and pray that she can feel it, too.

“I'm sorry I couldn't be this for you back then,” her words are barely above a whisper, but I hear them and they cut me just the same. “Don't ever apologize to me for that. You were everything then and you are everything now. I'm not counting my losses right now, tesoro, I'm reveling in my joy. That's what you are, my joy,” I say, my lips moving against her breast.

The blood in my mouth is hers, I can see it now. The bite on her shoulder is freely bleeding. I swallow the blood in my mouth and lean over her to lick at the wound, moving with the instinct still driving me.

She hisses and then tries to choke back another sob. I've marked her. In the thrall of the rut I couldn't fight, I've claimed Talia as my own without her permission.

I close my eyes, reality pouring wretchedly into my consciousness. “I'm sorry, so sorry. I never meant...” I try to say, but Trent cuts me off. “Don't say another fucking word. The only reason I ha...

“I know, honey, I know. He didn't mean to. We'll figure it out. It's going to be okay,” he tells her, but it won't.

It wasn't my conscious intention to mark Talia as mine, but even now I can't drag my eyes from my bite on her shoulder and my tongue is itching to lick the wound until it stops bleeding. The instinctual part of me, those deeply rooted, righteous, alpha instincts are proudly preening at the sight of my mark on her; showing anyone who sees it that she is mine, my omega.

Trent's brows raise into his hairline when I start making the noise, “you're kidding, right? You do this, then you try to comfort her? What comfort could you possibly provide right now?” Somewhere in my mind I know he's right, but I can't stop.

It will be an easy shot. I'm still on my knees and I have no intention of trying to stop her. If Talia want's my life, she can have it. I'm not looking at the gun, I'm looking into her eyes. If I'm going to die, that's the last thing I want to see, anyway.

But she doesn't take a breath. She pulls the trigger.

Her sorrow and rage come roaring back to life through our bond and a cry escapes her lips. Then she slowly and surely brings the gun up to her temple and pulls back the hammer and my heart stutters as pure terror renders me paralyzed. “Please,” I whisper, I can't say or do anything else, just quietly beg for her life. She doesn't flinch or waver when the door opens.

“Talia,” Jasper whispers, “baby. Please.” She smiles, and it's horrible to see. Her voice is level and devoid of the pain she is subconsciously sharing with me, “Kaleb, take Jasper out of here. Don't let him see.” I don't know who makes the noise, it has to be me or Jasper. One of us screams the word no, but Jasper is who gets to her first. She's still pressing the gun into her temple, it trembles when she feels Jasper step into her body.

Jasper levels me with a glare powerful and dark enough to make me feel small. “This is the third time she's nearly been taken from me by the selfish stupidity of a foolish alpha. The only reason you're still breathing is because your death would only hurt her.

Then he's gone, and I'm left kneeling on the floor surrounded by the wrath of an extremely dangerous pack.

“I felt a slight disturbance on the pack bond. What did you do?” He's smirking and I hope it doesn't get him killed. They won't kill me, but there's nothing stopping anyone from killing Alex for being obnoxious at the worst possible time.

There is no good answer, only a true one. “I don't remember doing it, and I didn't mean for it to happen. I bit Talia. Claimed her. I can feel her, there is a bond,” I'm trying to be courageously honest, but I ruin the effect by licking my lips because they still taste like her.

If this is another speech about how terrible it is to host Talia or how dysfunctional she is as a subordinate pack member, I will do the threatening. I've had my fill of them. Talia isn't difficult, she has standards and if they aren't met she won't let it slide.

Time and time again she's put herself on the line to protect him and nobody was protecting her. Nobody ever protects her. That has to stop.