Page 6 of The Beta: Part Two
Now that I’m thinking about it it’s obvious, they look so similar. It just never occurred to me that Elizabet’s daughter wouldn’t be an omega or an alpha like every other child she produced. Not much was ever said about the youngest, and I didn’t put it together. “I’m sure she’s fine, she’s at one of the best hospitals in the state. They promised to call me the minute she wakes up. And I assumed they’d be in contact with you.”
There’s ten full seconds of silence and then the singsong voice disappears and is replaced by furious, high-pitched screaming, and I jerk the phone away from my ear. “Misses Graves…Elizabet! Hang on a minute, I can’t understand you.”
I hear her take a breath and then her screaming becomes a vicious hiss that makes goosebumps raise on my arms as she repeats herself,“you left her alone at a hospital!? After everything she went through?! I know your pack of morons isn’t used to caring for a female omega, but surely you can’t be that stupid! She’s alone, in a cold, sterile room after the hell she endured BECAUSE OF YOU and you just left her there! To suffer through it alone! How could you, Jasper? How could you?”
Now I’m doubly confused, and starting to panic. “I’m sorry, Elizabet, but I don’t know what you’re talking about. Talia isn’t an omega.”
She cuts me off,“you’re an idiot, too, then. A bigger idiot than the assholes in your pack. Haven’t you noticed the spikes she’s been having for weeks? For weeks, Jasper! I thought you, at least, would have recognized what was happening to her. And instead of caring for her, and supporting her, and giving her what she needs, you let her give herself over to god only knows what to save your own ass. And now she’s all alone in a hospital room while you’re safe at home surrounded by your pack.”
Elizabet’s weeping now, and I can hear male voices murmuring in the background, surely trying to comfort her. I think I’m going to vomit. I don’t have the heart to tell her that Talia isn’t officially pack. “I didn’t know, Elizabet, I really didn’t. She didn’t tell me and she hid it really well. I’m sorry. I’ll make it right. I’ll fix it.”
“You can’t fix something like this, Jasper. I’ll be lucky if she survives. Most omegas don’t survive these things. Most end up taking their own lives, you know that. How could you?”
Marcus Graves has taken the phone, because his is the next voice I hear as I try even harder to fight the urge to vomit at the thought of Talia taking her own life,“Jasper, I know Talia is a tough little thing, but this is beyond toleration. I thought you boys were going to be a good fit for her. I thought you were taking care of her. She’s certainly been taking care of you, hasn’t she? If my daughter dies because of your pack’s maltreatment I’m coming for all of you. This is inexcusable, and unforgivable.”
Then he ends the call. I sit in the center of my bed surrounded by the warmth and security of my pack for a moment, then I rush out of the nest, clamoring over limbs until I’m free. I barely make it to the bathroom before I’m puking up my soul.
I brush my teeth while I decide exactly what to do.
There’s no way they could have possibly missed the scent of an omega heat spike, especially a female omega’s. The scent of a male omega is intoxicating but the scent of a female omega approaching estrus is intense and irresistible. How could any of them have possibly missed it?
I’m crossing from shock and confusion over to a coiling, seething rage. I flip on the light and ignore the complaints as I snatch a basket of folded laundry from the floor and dump it, “get the fuck up. We fucked up so bad. I fucked up, you all fucked up. And I don’t know if we can ever make up for it. Get up, and put all your clothes from yesterday in this basket and then get ready. We’re going to to fucking hospital.”
They're all looking at me like I’m insane.
“GET THE FUCK UP! MOVE!” I roar at them, and they start moving.
“What’s going on, angel?” Devon asks me, trying to wrap an arm around me.
I shrug him off, “did you know Elizabet Graves is Talia’s mother?” My voice is quiet now, and I can hear the low growl weaving through it.
I look up at his face, he knew, and he’s about to lie. “You knew. And you didn’t think to mention it? Didn’t think I might need to know that?”
He rubs his jaw, “I’m sorry, baby, I didn’t think it would matter. We never planned for Talia to be with us this long. After she heals up she can stay on as our beta like she has been, or she can move on to another pack if she’d rather do that. There will be a lot of packs interested in her now.”
My hand shoots out and I slap him hard before I even realize I’ve done it. “She’s not a fucking beta.” I hiss, and he looks at me like I’ve lost my mind, my handprint standing out on his cheek. “She’s an omega, Devon. AN OMEGA! Have you seriously not caught a single whiff of her heat spikes?”
His eyes tell me he has and I slap him again.
I spin around to glare at the rest of them, “what about you? I don’t know what it actually smells like, I’ve only ever been around immature female omegas, or much older ones.”
Nathan speaks, “I thought I smelled something a few times, but I wasn’t sure. It wasn’t very strong or anything. I thought it was because of you, like it happened because your pheromones triggered it for her, or something. I don’t know, I thought betas couldn’t, none of my sisters did...What about when you fucked her? You said she was really wet? Could it have been slick, like what you have? I’ve never fucked a female omega, and I’ve never fucked Talia.”
I close my eyes and think for a second. She was extremely wet when I fucked her, but I thought it was something that females did naturally without being an omega. “I don’t know the difference. She’s the only female I’ve ever had sex with. I thought that’s just what they did.”
I’m a bit embarrassed, but I really didn’t know. I wasn’t sexually interested in females so I didn’t pay much attention to that part of my lessons. Holy fuck, we really are idiots. “It doesn’t matter. Go get dressed. I’m leaving in five minutes.”
“Jasper,” Devon says softly, “she’ll be okay. Her mother will have her taken care of.”
I turn on him and give him every single drop of outrage and grief and horror I feel. “You seriously don’t understand what’s happening right now, do you? Whether we have officially bonded her into our pack or not, she is ours. I sent you to bring her back here to me once before and you did it. Whether she consciously realized what was happening to her or not, some part of her recognized that we were bringing her home. Then she let those fucking rogues take her so they wouldn’t take me. Do you have any idea what something like that would do to an omega? The damage it would do to her system, not to mention her body or her mind? You didn’t even try to find her once they took her! And now she’s alone at a cold hospital trying to heal and suffer through whatever omega chaos is taking over her mind, because I know it is Devon. It would happen to me. And we are letting it happen to her! Alone, Devon. Alone!”
I rip my fingers through my hair. “I love her. I don’t give a single fuck if you want her or not, I want her, and I’m bringing her home. If you refuse to bond her into the pack I’m leaving it. Fuck! If I could just… if I was an alpha I’d do it myself, but I fucking can’t. What we have put her through is unforgivable. I don’t know if I can bring her back from wherever she’s gone at this point.”
They’re all quiet after I finish my rant and I let Kaleb grip my shoulder when he reaches for me, “we’ll help her, baby. We’ll make it right. We’ll bring her back and I’ll mark her myself if she’ll let me. Neither of you are going anywhere. We’ll make it okay.”
I take a shaky breath and look up at him, “okay,” my voice is shaky and hoarse now. “Butyou,” I point at Devon, “I’m so fucking angry with you right now that I want to go back in there and throw up again. You should have gone after her. You could have sent someone to look for her.”
I may never forgive him for this. Kaleb has offered to help try to make it right, but it was ultimately Devon’s responsibility.
