Page 159 of Ruined Beta

“No judgement here,” Toshi says. “Anyway, you could be eating for two so you should eat as much as you want of whatever you want.”

“Should I?” I ask, suddenly realizing there are some things I probably shouldn’t eat, if I am pregnant.

It’s probably too soon to matter, but what do I know? My last pregnancy was before I was old enough to even think about what I should and shouldn’t be doing while pregnant.

“Roast beef,” I say as I find one of those sandwiches.

Mayo might be a no-go. I’ll look it up later.

I take a bite and then put it down on a plate and pick up a bottle of water.

The bread isn’t hard, but my mouth is dry. I chew and swallow my mouthful of sandwich before I take a long drink of the cool water. It’s one of the most boring things to drink but damn it’s good when I’ve been even a little dehydrated.

“So, you said Echo and Spencer would come out here to walk us home.”

“Mm hm?” Toshi murmurs around a mouthful of sandwich.

“Did they give you a time, or anything?”

“Oh. Right. No, but they usually get up around midday on the weekends. It’s just after ten now, so I doubt they’re even awake.”

“You think they’ll be here at lunchtime then?”

“Probably around two,” he guesses, shrugging. “They have a lot of sex. Usually, it’s the first thing they do when they get up which means they’re always running a little behind everyone else.”

“Okay, wow.”

I’m not that surprised, I guess. They’re attractive guys, and they’re seriously sexy. Why wouldn’t they want to spend every morning in bed together? I wouldn’t really know about that kind of stuff because I’ve never been in a relationship before.

That feels kind of crazy to think about.

I’ve literally never had a real boyfriend, and here I am jumping into a lifelong deal with four guys I barely know. I’m way out of my depth. I have no freaking clue how to be a girlfriend, or a mate, never mind a wife …

“Did E.A. kind of propose last night?” I ask, feeling like that conversation might have been part of a dream.

Toshi laughs. “He kind of did. He’s not exactly the romantic type. You’re probably not going to get the whole proposal with a ring in a romantic place out of him. Plus, he didn’t speak to Spencer about it first which is kind of a weird thing to do when they’re twin Alphas.”

“Explain that to me, because I’m not sure I get it. Twin Alphas.”

He takes a sip of water and nods. “Okay. So, in most packs, if there’s more than one Alpha, there’s usually one who’s more of a leader type and so the pack agree that he’s the leader. Which means he makes any big decisions that the pack can’t make together for whatever reason. It also means his surname is the name the pack take if they get married. Now, if you have two or more Alphas in a pack and there’s no clear leader, it means the Alphas have to make the big decisions together, and they have to agree on them. That’s what makes them twin Alphas. Neither of them holds more sway than the other.”

“Huh,” I murmur, thinking it over. “So, it’s kind of a pain if the twin Alphas don’t really get along, then?”

“You noticed that then,” he says, smiling wryly.

“It’s kind of hard not to. I assume they’re not lovers?”

He snorts and shakes his head. “No. No way. As far as I can see it, they have a lot in common, but the way they want to deal with most stuff is drastically different. Spencer gets mad because he thinks E.A. doesn’t care about people, and E.A. … well he doesn’t do anything to prove Spencer wrong.”

“He does care.” I’ve seen that for myself.

Toshi nods. “It can be hard to see that. Especially when he pulls shit like he did with you.”

“He does stuff like that a lot?”

“Often enough to make it look like Spencer has PMS. Bad joke, I know, but Echo and I aren’t exactly comfortable with having Alphas who barely get along. We use humor to cope, and mostly we cross our fingers that things never get so bad that they can’t live in the same apartment anymore.”

“Damn,” I mutter. “That sucks.”

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