The Beta: Part Three (The Beta, #3)

by Avanne Michaels

“He can stay for a little while. I won't hurt him. I'll be so gentle with him. Then he can go.”

He refuses to come any closer than that. He says he doesn't want to be tempted to abandon his post. It's very unfortunate.

“Shhhh,” Kaleb tries to hush him. My bond with Kaleb feels so intense right now, I can almost feel how hard he's fighting to control himself. But Jasper, being the brat he is, doesn't stop. He enjoys making Kaleb's predicament worse.

“I can bite you all day long, but it won't be like when I marked you.” “Will you, please? I'll like that.”

What exactly the fuck happened that would pull this level of reaction from these men? “Don't do that shit again, Alex. You can't be that rough with her. You could hurt her,” Kaleb snarls. “The fuck I could,” Alex laughs. “You saw her throw me all over this nest. Now she's going to blame me for fucking it up.”

“It's never been that rough with them before, has it?” Jasper asks, and Reid shakes his head. “Close your eyes,” Jasper continues, and waits until Reid does what he says. “Can you feel her?” He smiles when Reid nods. “She feels good, doesn't she? Happy?”

What the fuck actually happened between me and Alex that has everyone so worked up? I feel perfectly fine.

Over the past few weeks, Talia has gone from a beta with the sole purpose of keeping her omega happy to an omega with her entire pack's well-being in mind, and apparently none of us are safe from her wrath.

“But I was awful to you, Talia. Awful. It isn’t right.”

I can feel Nathan’s anxiety start to clear from the bond. “Do you need kisses, Nathan?” He nods and lifts me up onto the dryer. Then I give him his kisses. I kiss his closed eyelids and his forehead and the tip of his nose. I kiss both cheeks and his chin.

“Do you think you’ll be able to love all of us?” “Of course I will.” “Even Devon?” I sigh. Everyone is suddenly so interested in making me talk about Devon.

Either Trent or Alex are almost always in the kitchen with me while I cook. I’ll never tell them, but I love it.

I won’t let Trent sleep with just me and Alex. I think too much about what it would look like if they went at each other and it keeps me awake and soaking wet, and then none of us get any sleep.

All the kisses have been initiated by me. All the touching comes from me. She doesn't reach for me and I fucking need her to. I need her forgiveness. I need it.

"You see how she offers herself to us? She knows we can take care of her. Don't you, bella?"

"There's nothing to forgive." "I disagree," I interject. Devon is in dire need of forgiveness, but it has to be her choice.

"Bullshit, and don't argue with me. Devon treated you like shit, nobody stopped him till you were gone, then he still didn't treat you the way he should have after you came back.

“No.” His jaw ticks. I don't have the energy right now for an alpha tantrum.

We can live in the same house, we can agree about a lot of things, we can both sleep with Jasper in his bed, and we can certainly fuck if we need to; but I don't know if Devon and I can have fun.

So this was Jasper’s idea. I smile, but part of me hopes he will take me someplace like that. A wrestling match sounds like way more fun than the stuffy formal dinner I feel like I'm dressing for.

As my laughter fades, Devon and I fall into an awkward silence. Devon and I don't really spend much time together alone. We don't know what to say to each other unless it's about Jasper.

“I just want to apologize.” “Unaccepted. Go back to your table, Pratchett.” “Talia,” Alpha Pratchett tries again, “I can't begin-” “No, Jonas, you really can't. Don't speak to my omega again. Don't look at her. Don't say her fucking name. Go back to your table and sit the fuck down.”

Devon is my alpha, and he will help me. I press my forehead between his shoulder blades and tuck my fingertips into the back of his slacks, gripping tightly to his belt. He tenses for just a moment, then he redoubles his efforts to get me out.

She's going to have to let him mark her. I need her and Devon to have a bond before we go into heat together.

But Trent being this nervous about the idea of us having a kid is phenomenal.

If I didn't already love Devon I would fall in love with him right now. I fell a little more in love with him when he talked Talia through really thinking about having an actual child instead of avoiding the omega bullshit. And I love him a little more now for making sure this is what I want.

“Hey,” I say quickly. “Stay. Both of you.” And that's how I end my night. Warm and snug between Kaleb and Devon.

“Get back in here, peaches.” Alex's rough voice calls out, stopping me at the door. “Come on now, come back. You're partially to blame for this anyway, we've been waiting for you to wake up. You smell so fucking tasty.”

God, I hope he tastes the way he smells.

“Keep doing that, sweet pea. That's a fantastic sound for our little peach to make.”

Maybe one day I'll spend some time getting to know Alex intimately, and I'll take my time doing it. But not today.

I'm fairly certain it would be an even match, but right now, this moment, if she tried to push me away I'd probably handle her more harshly than I've seen Alex or Kaleb handle her.

“And now you're laughing at me,” I cluck my tongue. “Such a rotten girl.” The dynamic between the three of us is all over the place. Talia told me sex with Alex is always fun, no matter what it looks like, and she was absolutely right.

“Are they going after Devon?” Trent asks. I nod. “Does he know?” I shake my head. Then we make a very calm and collected mad dash to Nathan's room so we can watch the security feed.

prowls into the room. There's no other way to describe her movement. She is prowling around my room, touching and rearranging my things on top of the dresser.

“It doesn't matter. Just go fast.” Jasper grins at me. “Or don't,” Talia hums. “We'll get you either way.” “What is happening right now?” I finally get my shoes on and stand up. Why do I feel like I actually do need to run? “Better get going, alpha.” Jasper says. He's not smiling anymore.

I ask, but my voice sounds almost choked. Between the physical exertion of the chase, the realization that I made her wait so long that she lost patience with me, and their attention to my dick, I'm spinning.

“Why are you pouting?” She asks as she settles herself over me. “I'm not pouting,” I argue, but she leans forward and sinks her teeth into my bottom lip for half a second then pulls away to raise an eyebrow at me. “I wanted to touch you.”

“You’ve had plenty of time to touch me and you haven’t. I’m in control now and we've got a whole life ahead of us, Devon.” She gives me a quick kiss. I can't process that she's claiming the rest of her life with me with Jasper licking up the side of my neck while she lowers herself onto my cock a fraction of an inch at a time.

She's so wet, so hot, an...

I hope every nest she ever builds for the rest of her life is in my room.

Talia comes to sit beside us and begins to purr the way my mom always used to purr for us when we were upset or hurt. Even though I am emotionally overwhelmed and about to cry my eyes out, I know how big of a deal that is, how amazing it is that she's making that sound for me.

Kaleb built a bit of a bonfire in the back tonight because Talia mentioned s’mores. He didn't get the joke. She wants to have a playdate with me and Trent and that was an invitation, but she thinks too much of Kaleb to tell him she didn't want to actually roast marshmallows.

Talia's eyes are losing more and more blue as they dart from me to Trent to Jasper. She's likely to leap through the nice fire Kaleb has built to get to us.

I wouldn't be the only one who'd lose my shit if she did. The vein in Devon's temple that starts pulsing anytime she starts talking about doing dangerous shit might actually explode if she jumped over the fire. Hell, it might explode if she walks too close to it.

She tilts her head to the side and twists her lips into a smirk. Then she walks around the fire and grabs Kaleb by the shirt and heads back inside. Well...fuck. “Plan backfire?” Devon teases. I shrug. “It was worth the effort.

“But it isn't. Don't dwell on the things that could have happened, Nathan,” Corso says gently, “our omegas are safe here at home with us.”

And every collective nest they make from now on will probably be in Corso's room. I'd brag about it, too.

And right now, Talia is squaring off with Kaleb because she feels like he's handling Jasper too roughly.

“He's not hurt.” The restraint in Kaleb's voice makes my own throat feel tight. “You were holding him down. I don't like that. Don't do that.” Her voice is just as strained.