Page 20 of The Beta: Part Three
"Are you going to forgive Devon?"
She sighs like she does every time someone mentions Devon or forgiving him. "There's nothing to forgive."
"I don't agree," I interject. Devon is in dire need of forgiveness, but it has to be her choice.
Corso's purr intensifies and he combs his fingers through her hair. "Devon needs to be forgiven, whether you feel justly wronged or not. You might not think like an omega, not yet, but Devon is an alpha. He is an alpha who has wronged and hurt you, he feels that even if you don't. I will never push you to do something you don't want to do, or don't think you should. But I would like it if you would consider letting Devon apologize."
Talia rolls around and wriggles until she's on her back using Corso's arm for a pillow and pulls me up to rest my head on her stomach. Once she has us all settled the way she wants us she sighs again. "I don't want Devon to apologize for being what he is. I was a beta, an unaffiliated beta, who came into his pack and essentially stole his omega out from under him. I was a threat, and I brought more threats to his pack, his family. I don't fault Devon for protecting the things most precious to him."
I turn my face up to look at her. She really believes what she's saying. "I don't know how accurate that is, Talia. I'm still angry with him over the way he treated you. I don't care that you were a beta. You were my beta and that made you his beta, too. Corso would never have allowed you to be treated the way Devon did. It's my fault, too." I don't need to hear Corso agree with me, I know he does.
"Nothing's your fault, princess."
"The fuck it isn't. It was almost too late when I finally took a stand. I should have protected you so much sooner than I did."
She starts petting my hair, and the tone of Corso's purr changes minutely in response to our growing anxiety. "Jasper," she says, "I was there to protect you. That was my job. To help you, and protect you."
"Bullshit, and don't argue with me. Devon treated you like shit, nobody stopped him till you were gone, then he still didn't treat you the way he should have after you came back. It took you nearly dying, Talia,dying.We are all at fault. I can't make you understand that you were wronged, and I can't make you understand why Devon needs forgiveness. But I can keep trying, and I can make sure that shit never happens again. You're ours to take care of, ours to protect. And you're going to fucking let us."
Chapter seven
Talia
I'm alone in the kitchen. I'm never alone, especially not in the kitchen. I intend to take full advantage of it, too. I have a gigantic bowl of cereal and a book, this is just about blissful. I should have known it wouldn’t last as Devon comes in and sits down across from me and looks… nervous.
“I want to take you on a date.”
“I'm sorry?” I'm talking with a mouth full of cereal and milk, but really, a date?
He looks even more nervous. “A date. I want to take you out somewhere.”
“No.”
His jaw ticks.
I don't have the energy right now for an alpha tantrum.
“Why not?” he asks, with only a little bite in his tone.
“You don't even take Jasper on dates.” I can't go out on a stupid date with Devon when I've never seen him take Jasper anywhere but the bedroom.
“I'm going to. But I want to take you somewhere tonight.”
I'm trying to force my face into something resembling neutrality, but I'm pretty sure I'm doing a shit job. “Why?”
“Because I want to?”
“No, you don't.” Why would Devon want to take me on a date?
“Yes, I do. What? You don't want to go anywhere with me? I won't let anything happen to you. I'll make sure you're safe. We can go out and do something.”
“Like what?” I don't address the part about keeping me safe. I can keep myself safe, omega or not.
“I don't know. Something. We can have fun.”
Can we, though? We can live in the same house, we can agree about a lot of things, we can both sleep with Jasper in his bed, and we can certainly fuck if we need to; but I don't know if Devon and I can have fun. I don't think Devon can have fun at all, if I'm honest. The closest thing I've seen him do that looked like having fun is when he accidentally pulled me into the tub, and that made me cry for completely unrelated reasons. “I don't know, Devon. Is everyone going?”
“No. Just us. Come on, Talia. If you hate it, I'll bring you home, I won't even pout about it.”
