Page 15 of The Beta: Part Three
“I'm right fucking here,” I grumble, “I can take more than forty-five percent effort from both of you. I'm an alpha, for fuck sake.”
Talia looks me slowly up and down. “Alright,alpha. Seventy-five percent.”
I take off my shoes and roll my neck as I step onto the mat with them. Seventy-five percent. Healing or not, I should be able to take two omegas at seventy-five percent. I stretch out my shoulders and swing my arms in a few wide circles, then assume a defense stance.
Talia scoffs and shakes her head. “Negative. Do what we do for two circuits or get off the mat.”
“Fine,” I say, trying for a neutral tone, but barely managing to not sound pissy. Then they start torturing me. I thought they were going to do stretches or something. No. They're doing full-blown yoga poses that I have no hope of doing, and not because my body won't move that way. The first thing they do is reach straight up into the air and then bend at the waist, presenting me with both their asses wrapped up in tight little shorts and giving me an instant erection. Then they roll down onto their elbows to hold a plank for a full minute before raising up onto their hands and bowing their backs. I have no hope of being as graceful as they are, and I have even less hope of doing it without making an obscene spectacle of myself.
“It's just a sun salutation,alpha,”Jasper teases, “I've seen you do them before now.”
“I can do sun salutations, Jasper,” I say, then add quietly, “I just can't do them after watching you and her do them.”
He must have heard me because he cackles. Jasper is just full of himself lately.
We run through a few more stretches and then have a round of easy warm ups, then Talia rolls her neck on her shoulders and claps her hands together. “Take your stance. If you lose your feet we'll back off. If one of us loses ours, you can have at the other one until we're both up. You start with three points this time, because you're not at one hundred percent. If you're pinned you lose a point. We get six because there's two of us, and you're analpha. Fair?”
“Fair,” I agree.
It only takes thirty seconds for me to regret that. They should have gotten three points to share. It took them less than a minute to put me on my ass. I blink up at the ceiling a few times, then roll back onto my feet. My stomach muscles only protest a little, and I make damn sure there's no trace of that on my face when I turn back to Talia and Jasper. “Again.”
It takes them longer than a minute to take me down this time, and I'm pretty sure it's because they let it take that long. I cannot possibly be so out of shape that it's this easy for them to take me to the ground. Neither of them are even breathing hard. I get back to my feet and motion for another round.
This time I manage to get a hold on Jasper and pin him to the mat. He smirks and gives me a quick kiss. “Better not stay down here too long. She's faster than me.”
She is, too. I'm barely back on my feet before she's got her thighs around my neck, bringing me back down to the mat. Jasper hasn't even bothered to get to his feet, he's just laying there beside me smiling like he's having the time of his life.
“I thought this was supposed to be seventy-five percent.” I'm trying very hard to not sound as winded and pinched as I feel.
“This is a combined seventy-five percent. We work really well together, in every way,” he winks. “If Talia and I were both going at you at seventy-five percent each you'd have already tapped out,alpha.”
He's got to be joking.
“You've got one more point,” Jasper whispers. “You want a go at just Talia? I'd like to see what she does with you.” So mischievous, and so damn mean. He knows she's going to wipe the floor with me. Again.
“No, that wouldn't be fair. If you're both at seventy-five together, that would be her giving me just a little more than thirty percent.” We're lying here doing math, weighing how much effort it's going to take to let me know exactly how much strength I need to regain.
“I think it would be plenty fair, but she can go at you at whatever percentage you're comfortable with. She's good like that.”
I sigh. Do I really want to know what Talia is like at maximum effort? Kaleb told me how she was at the compound, and I saw the aftermath of her work at the farmhouse. Fuck it, why not?
“Give me all you've got,” I say, climbing to my feet.
“No.”
“I can handle it, Talia. I want to know.”
She looks at Jasper. She's really asking Jasper for permission to go at me to the fullest extent. At least he nods. Talia shrugs. “Okay, then. Ready?”
“Ready,” I say, and we begin.
I don't think she's actually giving me everything. I've been able to get my hands on her a couple times, I almost got her to the ground once, but she's so damn fast. And she's extremely good at using my size and weight against me. Just when I think I've got her, she'll twist or just slip right out of my grasp and flit away like I never had her in the first place. Meanwhile, I'm sweating and trying to keep either of them from noticing how hard it is for me to keep going. I thought I was stronger than this.
“Is he alright?” she calls out to Jasper.
I don't let him answer. “Ask me, I'm right here,” and rush her. I wish I could say I hold back, but it has become painfully obvious that my best effort today is barely enough to keep me on my feet. I also have every confidence that she is perfectly fucking capable of defending herself. Omegas do not get his type of training. Well, Jasper did, and Talia was trained as a beta, but omegas don't typically develop this level of combat ability. They're taught and trained in escape tactics, but my omegas have been trained to make people regret coming after them. After all the attempts on Jasper and my pack, I’m starting to think that all omegas, every single one, should be given the type of training that Jasper and Talia have. If they could actually defend themselves, make themselves really difficult targets, it would be so much better. I don’t know if this is something to talk to my father about or Elizabet. She’d probably be all over it, definitely her.
I don't have any more time to ponder it because Talia puts the proverbial nail in the coffin. I might be rushing towards her, but she's the one doing the attacking. She launches herself at me and literally runs up the front of my body, plants her feet on my shoulders, and slams my body to the ground. The end result is Talia sitting on my chest with her feet on either side of my head.
