Page 90 of The Beta's Heart

“Absolutely.”

“Of course we can, sweetie.” Peri kissed his forehead.

By the time the movie ended, both boys were sound asleep, and Peri tucked them in under the blankets while I gathered up the popcorn bowls and sippy cups.

“They’re adorable,” I whispered, not wanting to wake them.

“Yeah, they are. Thanks for being so great with them tonight.”

“Anytime,” I said with a grin. “I love this—”

Suddenly, the beta bond blew up like a supernova, making every muscle tense as I scrambled to my feet.

“I have to go. Something’s happened to luna, and most of the alphas are off pack territory on missions.” I glanced apologetically at Peri, only to find her eyes as wolf-lit as my own.

“I know. I can feel it, too. The pain Posy’s broadcasting—Ty, something’s hurt her! Go help her!”

“Don’t worry, Sunshine. I’ll take care of her.”

I didn’t want to downplay what was happening because I could tell it was something awful, but I also didn’t want to upset Peri further by confirming just how much luna was suffering. Her pain was strong enough in the pack bond; in the beta bond, it was all but crippling.

As I headed out, adrenaline spiking, I wondered who had been foolish enough to sign their death warrant tonight.

#

Peri

After Ty left, I waited in the fort with the boys, worrying for my sister-in-law.

If one of my brothers caused this, he’s going to be lucky to survive Mom’s wrath, never mind the betas’,I grumbled.

I stayed up, watching another movie quietly, waiting for Ty to come back. When he finally walked through the door, he looked tired, but relieved.

“Everything okay?” I asked softly. “I tried talking to Posy several times, but she wouldn’t open the link. Mom said the same thing. Heh. Mom was all ready to storm the alpha house to find out what was wrong. If I hadn’t had these babies, I might have run up there myself.”

“Your damn brother!” Ty grumped, slipping off his shoes. “It’s sorted out now, but by the moon, Cole is lucky he survived tonight!”

“Oh, dear. Come on in and tell me all about it. We saved you a spot.” I lifted the side of the blanket, inviting him to join us.

With a tiny smile clearing away his frown, he crawled in beside me, careful not to wake the boys. Wrapping an arm around me, he pulled me close and burrowing his face into my neck, taking a big inhale of my scent.

Ever so slowly, I felt the tension ease out of him until he was fully relaxed against me.

“I would have been home sooner, but I had to let off some steam since I knew I couldn’t come home and, um, burn the anger and frustration off with you,” he muttered, his lips brushing my skin.

I was kind of disappointed by that, but knew as well as he did that him going beast mode in bed wasn’t possible when the two babies were here.

“So what did you do?” I asked. “Run it off? Haha! Did you end up on the other side of the state?”

“Nah. Reuben Ford was still awake—well, he’d woken up from a night terror—so he met me at the training facility, and we sparred until we couldn’t stand up anymore.”

“Thanks for taking a shower before coming home,” I teased to lighten up the mood a bit. “Now what did my big grumpy bear of a brother do this time?”

“Went and got himself infected by a freaking parasite while he was down at Cold Moon today!”

“I guess you don’t mean a tick latched onto him, do you?”

“Looked more like a blood-red slug from what Maria and Ariel linked us. It started attacking him as soon as it spawned into him. Near as we can figure, Topaz fought it as hard as he could, but it did enough damage to Cole to take over his mind and control him for a bit. Or at least, that’s how I understood the witches’ explanations.”

---