Page 70 of Met Your Mate

"I apologize for the interruption, but Freya needs to eat," Ronan explains, holding his hands up in surrender.

That doesn't calm my brother, though. "Shouldn't that be something she decides for herself? Or do you always dictate what my sister does?"

Shit. What do I do?

Thankfully, Ronan just lifts a brow at Beckett and turns his attention to me. He waits. Fuck, he's waiting for me to decide how to handle my brother.

On one hand, I'm grateful for the space to handle misunderstandings, but it makes my anxiety ricochet through my body.

"Beckett, sit down please. It's fine," I try to soothe, tugging on his pale forearm.

He does as I ask, but his shoulders are still tense, not taking his eyes off my mate. "It's not okay. Just because you’re mated doesn't give him the right to boss you around."

"It's not like that," I start, but hiccup slightly, making Ronan zero in on me. "I?—"

Beckett's looking at me now with worry and anger creasing his features.

"Ugh, Christ!" Kate comes in from the back door and stomps her foot. "Beck, I thought we left the house to avoid the alpha postering?" she whines.

"Freya," Ronan calls sternly. "Peanut butter and jelly?"

My tummy grumbles and I nod.

"Good girl," he rumbles, before ambling away to the kitchen.

I preen not only at his praise, but for not hesitating when he asked me if that's what I want.

"Her mate," Beckett fires off, "is bossing her around. That's not?—"

"Enough!" Elliott stomps into the living room, scoops me off the couch, and deposits me on the island in the kitchen.

"Freya is struggling to make choices since they have always been made for her. We're taking care of her by making sure she gets what she needs while she figures out her likes and dislikes," Elliott says in a no nonsense voice, glaring at my brother.

Beckett looks between us with wide eyes and mutters an apology while rubbing his hand across the back of his neck. Unsure where to go from here and mildly embarrassed, I nibble on my lip after telling him it's okay.

"So, who's older?" Kate queries with a mischievous glint.

Thank fuck for my brother being mated to my best friend.

Chapter Fifty-Three

LUCAS

It's been a week since we moved into the new house, and I feel like I'm forgetting something.

For sure not my parents, they can go fuck themselves. Aside from using me and Ronan to continue their pity party with their friends, they've only reached out to their eldest. I didn't expect much, so at least they shipped all my shit when Ronan asked them to.

I wish there was a way for the OPS to put all the rumors of the academy under wraps, but when you have a bunch of rich parents finding out their betas and alphas have to undergo an entire year of reteaching to negate the brainwashing of the academy, you get a lot of people gossiping.

At least we're off in a little town, surrounded by three sides of water with a community that hasn't busted our doors down or taken sneaky photos while the guys and I have been out running errands.

I couldn’t care less about what people think, but I want to take my girl on trips around the world. We'll just have to wait for this all to blow over before we adventure outside of our nice beach town.

It shouldn't be a problem. While Freya is already making strides and building confidence, she still doesn't want to leave the house and often needs us to remind her to take care of herself. Showers aren't an issue with her. They actually seem to be her safe space, so at least she doesn't need us reminding her about hygiene.

No, my omega smells fucking delicious all the damn time. My cock aches almost constantly, especially now that her confidence comes with sexy little lip bites while she checks us out.

Fuck.

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