Page 39 of Beta and the Beast
Well, she will be mine, and sometimes I will share her with you. That's more than fair.
I roll my eyes and don't even dignify that remark with any of my own. Romulus can pretend all day long that he's the only one Sarah wants, but we both know that isn't true.
"Are you two dating?" Vilkas asks, his voice muffled by his full mouth. His words are distorted since he's not used to being in control of speaking. He sounds angry, but from all the times we've worked on letting him out more at the Young Alpha Center, it's just how he sounds.
Sarah clears her throat to take the lead in the conversation. Fine by me because if I'm the one answering, I'll be telling everyone that we're dating. I'd love to tell them that Sarah's my mate, and she just doesn't know it yet. But now isn't the best time for that conversation.
"No," Sarah says, and Romulus is out and growling before she gets past the one word. She raises a brow in his direction, but it doesn't silence his growl. "We're neighbors."
"Beta," Romulus growls a deep warning. He doesn't like what we have with Sarah to be minimized so much.
"Alpha, not right now," she tells him, a scold in her voice.
It's not the tone that has Romulus softening, but the title she uses with him. He retreats into our mind, thinking her calling us alpha is as good as her admitting she's ours.
"Whipped," Vilkas mutters.
I glare at him this time and am not surprised when he ducks his head, shoveling in more food to make it seem like he's too busy eating to notice I'm unhappy with his comment.
"Most alphas do what their mates tell them," I say. "It means we're good to them. So don't pretend like you won't be doing anything whoever you choose to be with tells you to do."
Vilkas's ears turn scarlet, but it's the only sign that he's even listening to me. It's good enough for me, and I turn back to Sarah to ensure she's eating. If she's not, I might pull her into my lap to feed her because she needs to eat something. Luckily, she's working on her pizza. She looks a lot like Vilkas in how she has her head ducked as she eats. What has her so embarrassed now?
You called her our mate, and she didn't deny it. Little beta knows she wants this, too.
I replay what I said to Vilkas and wince. That wasn't exactly how I wanted her to find out how much Romulus and I care about her, but the cat's out of the bag now, and I'm not about to put it back in.
"Why did you come here?" I ask Vilkas, giving Sarah the space she probably wants to work through how she feels about my statement.
I'd love to sit her down and ask if she's okay with it, if it scares her, and if there's anything I can do to make her happier with the prospect of being with us. But there's a teenager on her couch who takes precedence. When he finishes his pizza, he swallows hard before letting his eyes shift back to blue, letting Jace have control of the body.
"Mom called me earlier." Jace shrugs, pretending like his mother talking to him isn't something that has him tied up in knots all the time.
Since we've grown closer, he's told me that when he showed signs of being an alpha, his mother's boyfriend didn't like him being in the house or talking to his mother or sisters. That's why he spends most of his time at the center, but he tells us he returns home at night to sleep. He talks to the therapist who does volunteer work for us every week, and I imagine his home life is often discussed.
"I'm guessing it didn't go well?" I ask, turning my body to face him.
Romulus is bugging me to make sure I can still see Sarah. She either knows how clingy alphas and beasts are because of her brothers, or she's just that good at reading us because she leans against the armrest closest to us and presses her body into our shoulder enough to tell us she's there.
"She was calling to tell me I couldn't come back home, that Greg wasn't comfortable having a beast in the house, and that she couldn't trust me not to hurt my sisters." Jace wipes at his nose and takes a long, deep breath. Sarah's whole body tenses beside me, her demeanor shifting from caring about me to wanting to care for the hurt male on her couch.
"I kept Vilkas a secret, but Greg was yelling at Mom this morning, and I couldn't keep him inside. I told her Vilkas is good and he hasn't done anything bad. She told me she didn't care, I was a monster, and I can't go back home."
"You are not a monster," Sarah snaps, her tone sounding more like a ferocious nest mother than my sweet beta.
Mmm, let's make her a nest mother. Give her young to watch over. She'd be so good at it. So protective and caring.
I have to clench my teeth hard together to keep a purr of satisfaction from rumbling out at Romulus's idea. Not only are we sterilized to make sure we don't pass on the beast genes to any children, but we haven't even talked to Sarah about whether she wants children or not. I never thought to ask because anyone who wants to be with a beast knows most of us are sterilized. She's a beta, though. For all I know, she wants to be a mother. Romulus is right that she'd be great at it, but I can't give that to her.
"It doesn't matter," Jace says, wiping his eyes. "She told me if I showed up, they'd call the cops on me."
"I will…" Sarah lets her voice trail off as she pushes away from the couch, grabbing for Jace's plate and mine. She shoves mineonto my lap, telling me to eat, and places the last half of her second slice on top of my two slices. Such a good little mate, already knowing to give me what she doesn't eat. "I need to do the dishes while you two talk."
I open my mouth to tell her I'll do the dishes as soon as we're done, but she presses her fingertips to my mouth. "I need to do something."
She saunters away before I have a chance to lick her fingertips, but that's for the best. This way, I can give Jace all my attention without getting distracted by my beta. I can hear her working in the kitchen and see her moving out of the corner of my eye. But I'm still able to focus on what's more important right now.
"Did she say if you can go pick up any of your things? Or say goodbye to your sisters?" I ask.
