Page 26 of The Beta: Part Two
I wanted to laugh when Jasper told me that he, an omega, would protect me from Talia; but once the door clicked shut behind my back and I got a good look at Trent and Nathan, who are both absolutely wrecked, I understand why he issued the warning.
Their chests and arms are covered in angry, red claw marks, and Trent's mouth is split at the corner. Nathan looks like he's recovering from an illness, pale, dark circles around his eyes, his long hair tangled around his shoulders.
Jasper doesn't have a single mark on him. They are standing at the edge of the nest Talia is building in the corner of the room on the floor. She's tucking and weaving and organizing, and every time she reaches behind her one of them hands her something, a pillow, a blanket, a shirt. Trent is holding what looks like a pair of boxers in his hand waiting to give her.
I do exactly as Jasper says, I stay behind him. In fact, I do even better, I stay flush with the door. I won't approach until he signals me over. I don't want to do a single thing that might get me banished from this room. I've wanted this for too long to let it slip through my fingers because I was overzealous.
Jasper quietly walks up to the nest and waits for her to reach for the next item. When she does he hands her my shirt and she freezes. She brings it straight to her face and deeply scents it. She once told me that I smell like fresh from the dryer laundry, will it still be something she likes? She pulls it away and lets the fabric run back and forth through her hands and then brings it to her nose again. Then she stands and turns into Jasper and buries her face into his neck before I get to see her face.
He's murmuring into her hair and tracing his fingers up and down her sides and around her waist. She pulls away to scent my shirt again, then she turns her burning blue eyes toward me.
I can't move, I can't breathe.
Her scent alone is enough to shove me hard into rut, but the look in her eyes as she considers me forces me to become instantly hard and leaking.
She looks back at Jasper and kisses him, licking at his mouth like he's food and she's starving, but breaks away and rubs against him like a cat on her way to me. I watch her stalk toward me, feeling like a prey animal instead of the predator I am. I am not a small man, quite the opposite. But seeing the way her body moves as she prowls across the room, knowing I'm what she's after, makes my pulse beat faster and I swallow around the thick constriction in my throat.
Talia is always the most beautiful thing that anyone could possibly look at. She's delicate, but strong; every feature speaks of such graceful strength. Her skin is the paleness of moonlight and her long ebony hair frames and trails along her body in a dark veil. Talia is an ethereal, feral beauty and I don't deserve to look at her. No one is worthy of her visage.
It takes her mere seconds to reach me, but it might as well be a thousand years. Then she's standing in front of me, her perfect pink nipples lightly brushing against my ribs, and I feel more inadequate when faced with her than I ever have before. I knew she was an omega, I've known for years, but she wasn't awakened. She wasn't ready then, but she is now.
She tilts her head and drags her eyes from my face down to my bare feet and back up while she continues to scent my shirt. Then she leans down to run her nose up my stomach, but she isn't tall enough to reach past my chest; so she reaches up and grabs a handful of my hair to pull me down. She sniffs her way across my shoulder, up my neck, and behind my ear; and I start to purr before I can stop myself.
She jerks back and narrows her eyes at me, but I can't force myself to stop making the sound for her. Then she genuinely startles me by snatching my arm and scenting it almost violently. She smells my hand, then moves to the other arm and hand and lets out a little growl before turning confused eyes back to Jasper.
“What, baby? What's wrong? Don't you like how he smells?” Jasper croons.
Talia plants her nose into my palm and breathes deeply, “this isn't all him.” She cuts glaring, accusing eyes at me, “who is that? Who did you touch?”
And I am at a loss. Omegas are territorial, but I haven't touched a single female of any designation for weeks. There are several female betas employed at the distillery who I am in regular contact with, but I haven’t been physically near any of them recently. In the past three years, the only female omegas I’ve been in close contact with are the two I was asked to help ease through their heats; and the last was well over a year ago. I can’t think of any reason I would be carrying any offensive scents.
“Who is it? That scent?” she barks.
I look at Jasper and shake my head, “the only people I've touched in days are my pack.”
Jasper's eyes widen slightly and he almost smirks. “Do you like that scent, sweet girl?” he asks her, and she slowly nods, bringing my other hand to her face so she can breathe in whatever it is she likes from my cupped palms.
Jasper comes to step around us, running his fingers through Talia's hair, and opens the door a crack. I can tell from the scent that my pack and the rest of his are crowded in the hallway, probably waiting to step in if things start going badly. “Alex, Reid, give me your shirts,” Jasper says softly.
After a moment they're shoving them through the slight opening in the door. Talia snatches them away before Jasper even turns around and is scenting them. She likes them. She takes all three shirts and goes back to building her nest, tucking and weaving them into the structure with all the other things. Once done, she stands to give Nathan and Trent each a stroke down their chests before pulling them into the nest and directing them to exactly where she wants them.
She stands up and puts her hands on her hips, the universal expression of feminine frustration. She starts rearranging the nest, pushing out the walls, then I understand the problem. It isn't big enough. She's going to invite me in. I feel my heart skip a beat and my breath catches in my chest.
Once she has everything perfectly situated, she fetches Jasper and pushes him to his back in the center of the structure. She starts ripping at the clothes he dared to put on. Together, they get the offending garments off and then I get to watch the staggering beauty of two omegas loving each other.
I expected her to ravage him, if Trent and Nathan are anything to go by, but she touches him with such reverence. He worships her with the same attention and it is breathtaking. How can Devon and the rest stand to do anything but watch them together?
She straddles his hips, with the obvious goal of riding him, but he gently stops her. “Talia, baby, I don't have what you need right now. You'll hurt yourself.”
She turns toward Trent, who is closest, and he gives her a lecherous grin, but Jasper touches her chin and pulls her eyes back to him, “no, baby, not Trent this time. I brought you another alpha, remember? Look, he's just there. Corso is waiting for you to invite him in.”
She turns back toward me, the muscles in her back twisting provocatively, and I offer her the best smile I have. She reaches out for me and it takes every ounce of willpower I possess to move slowly toward her.
She takes my fingertips in her hand and helps me in like I'm a princess and she's the knight, and directs me to sit next her where she's still spread over Jasper. For a moment I feel nervous, a small anxiety similar to what I felt the first time I was with her like this.
I was Talia's first lover. She gave me that precious gift and I've been hers ever since whether she wanted me or not. Her reasoning for leaving me, for my own good and the good of my pack, is logical but my heart refuses to accept it. Everything I am belongs to her, it was hers as a beta and it will still be hers as an omega.
It is painfully obvious that she is enamored with Jasper, but his alphas haven't bonded her into their pack, much less claimed her as a second omega. So, I will see her through this heat, then I will do everything I possibly can to convince her to be mine.
