Page 87 of The Beta: Part Two
“Of course you're seeing it through. Then you're going to the hospital.” Talia's tone leaves no room for argument.
I'm not sure why I thought someone would knock on the door before we marched into Alpha Crane's office to ruin his day, but I did. Nobody knocked. Thaddeus waltzed in there like it was his own office and we all filed in after him like a murder parade.
Alpha Crane is seated behind his desk that matches the size of ego, which says something about the size of his dick. He shoots to his feet as we walk in and starts sputtering. His eyes rove over each of us, growing ever-wider as he takes in the aftermath of the day all over us.
I don't know the other two men in the room, but I'm not surprised to see Alpha Tomas rising from his chair.
Talia steps in front of Jasper and the look on his face is the divine combination of irritated exasperation and indulgent amusement. He grabs her shirt and shoves her behind Reid, who has made it a point to maintain a place either in front of or beside both of them since he got out of the van.
The only emotion on her face is outrage. She's going to have to get used to this. She's not a beta. She doesn't get to be Jasper's bodyguard anymore, and her body will need guarding as much as his. Probably more, actually.
“Thaddeus, Marcus,” Alpha Crane almost shouts, “what's happened?”
“You must be joking, Richard. You know exactly what’s happened,” Marcus says conversationally, “we've just come from the rogue compound. The few left alive are in transport to the holding facility. They'll bethoroughlyinterrogated within the week. And I intend to do my fair share of the questioning.”
“Where is Mitchell?” Alpha Crane growls.
That's confession enough in my opinion. Why else would he immediately ask about his baby boy?
“At the compound,” Jasper says, inspecting his bloody fingernails, making it perfectly obvious that he is the one who took Mitchell's life.
Out of the corner of my eye I see Alpha Tomas move. Then my ears are ringing and Corso is lowering his gun.
“You murdered Alpha Tomas!” Alpha Crane shouts, but he sits his ass back down in his big, cushy chair behind his desk.
“He threatened my omegas.”
“Jasper is not your omega,” Alpha Crane sneers, “and Talia is a beta. Tomas barely moved. You couldn't have known what he was doing. Everyone here saw you kill him without cause.”
“He threatened my omegas.” Corso shrugs, not sounding even slightly ruffled.
I rock back on my heels and smile as I look at Kaleb, “I saw Alpha Tomas physically threaten our omegas. And it looks like Alpha Crane is working himself up to go after them himself, doesn't it? It would be a shame for Claudia to have to arrange two funerals, wouldn't it? I don't know, she'll be sad about little Mitchell, but she might not miss this asshole.”
Kaleb cocks his head to the side and considers Alpha Crane, “it would be catastrophically stupid for Alpha Crane to attack our omegas, but nobody ever accused him of being overly intelligent. If he moves from that chair I'll have to assume he's going after Jasper or Talia, and then...” he clicks his tongue, “Claudia won't miss him. She's likely going to be relieved about Mitchell. A mother's love can only go so far, unfortunately. Such a disappointment, little Mitchell.”
“Leave Claudia out of this,” Alpha Crane hisses, “and there's no way Jasper could take on Mitchell.”
Laughter ensues.
Alpha Crane's jaw ticks.
“Jasper gutted your son like a goddamned fish,” Talia chirps, because she's a menace.
Then Marcus tosses Mitchell's eye to his father.
There are times in life when you come to realize that your idea of a person is so incredibly wrong that it's terrifying. This is one of those times. Alpha Crane is not a young man. He's pushing 70, for fuck sake. But when he dives across the desk to go for Jasper, he moves every bit as fast as any one of us who are in our prime are capable of.
He doesn't make it past Talia. Just like she promised us, nobody gets past her to reach Jasper. Not even an enraged alpha.
She steps in front of Jasper and uses Alpha Crane's momentum to slam him to the ground at Jasper's feet, then rolls out of his reach. Jasper pulls her to her feet and then moves them even farther away.
Then Reid strikes out like a damn snake going after a rat; which is a fair comparison at this point.
It would have been nice to see Alpha Crane go down. It would have been beautiful to see him stripped of his power and assets before his public execution. But watching Reid grip Crane’s neck and force his other big ass hand into his mouth to rip out his tongue is even more satisfying. I didn’t know you could actually rip someone’s entire tongue right out of their mouth, but today has offered more than a few surprises. After Reid tosses the tongue to the side, he covers Crane’s mouth with his hand and leans down over his face to watch the light fade from his eyes as he dies. It doesn’t take very long for Alpha Crane to drown in his own blood, and nobody makes a move to even attempt to remove Reid.
After he finishes, Reid calmly wipes his hands off on Alpha Crane's shirt and stands up, then returns to his position near Jasper and Talia.
“Well,” Thaddeus sighs, “there goes the most entertaining trial of the year.”
