Page 25 of The Beta: Part Three
“It's getting better. The date helped. I'm going to take her out until her heat starts to set in.” He looks almost hopeful. Too bad I'm going to crush it.
“You've got three weeks before she goes into heat again. She’ll start spiking the week before her heat. I don't think you're that charming. And this heat will line up with Jasper's.” I rock back on my heels and smirk at him, “what can you accomplish inside of two weeks, Mister Johnson?”
The corner of Devon's mouth lifts, just a bit, “plenty.”
Talia is with Jasper in the main room. They're sitting at the piano playing something together, the basket of towels on the floor beside the bench. If she didn't get so annoyed, I'd take a lot more pictures of them than I already do. It doesn’t stop me from taking out my phone and snapping a few shots and sending them to the guys to be distributed.
“I don't want him to do it, Trent.” And just her saying those words to me, with that worried tone, and her big, blue eyes looking up at me makes me utterly willing to keep Nathan from ever leaving the house again.
“But what if he can help them? And you know he can.” Jasper says softly, but I can feel how worried he is.
“Please,” Talia says so softly, “please don't make him do it. If you ask him to, he will. Please don't ask him.”
“Jasper, listen, I don't think,” I start, but he interrupts.
“Do you think I want to send Nathan farther into the dark? I don't. It isn't right. But knowing those omegas are out there somewhere, with who knows what happening to them, is killing him too. He has a better chance at finding them than anyone else, so he should try. If he knew he might be able to help save them and we kept him from doing it, he'd be just as bad off as he would if he tried to find them and failed.”
“It scares me,” Talia leans her head on Jasper's shoulder and he puts his arm around her.
“He can do it, Talia. We can't protect them from everything.”
And that is an eye-opening statement from Jasper. How often has he convinced one of us or all of us to not sign off on a job, or to go to a particular event instead of another in order to protect one of us from one thing or another? I'm having another of those moments where I'm being forced to realize that my designation is not the strong-point I've always believed it is. Alphas tend to believe that they're the strongest, the biggest, the most invincible person in the room, but that's often our biggest downfall. Jasper has probably saved us from our own pride more than any of us realized by just asking us not to do something and making it seem like he's the reason we shouldn't. Like right now, I don't want Nathan to get involved with any of this shit anyway, but Talia admitting she's afraid and basically begging us not to ask Nathan to do it is almost a more convincing reason to keep him from it.
“He shouldn't have to. It isn't fair.”
Jasper gives her a squeeze and kisses the top of her head, “it isn't. But it's the right thing to do. He doesn't have to leave the manor. He can stay right here where we can see him. And we'll be right there with him to help him get through it. Then we can be extremely proud of him.”
“I'm already proud of him,” she says.
“We all are, but Jasper's right,” I reach over and tip up her chin, “we'll be right there with him. And he really does have a better chance at finding them than anyone else. It'll be alright.”
Talia's mouth turns down in a little frown, but she nods. “I'm going to take these upstairs. Then I'm taking a nap.” She kisses Jasper, then me after she picks up the basket. “I don't mind if anyone joins me, just don't flop.” That last bit is all for me. I definitely flop. Alex flops, too, but he's not in the room. That's a conditional invitation I'm probably going to take her up on.
Jasper and I watch her walk up the stairs, then he says, “if we're going to ask him to do it, we need to before Talia and I go into heat. It's only three weeks away, and I can feel myself already winding up. He can find the omegas in three weeks, can't he?”
“I'm sure he can, baby. You know how good he is. And this could help him.” Jasper is every bit as anxious about it as Talia, which I'm thoroughly enjoying feeling through my bonds with both of them, not. “Why don't we go find him and drag him to Talia's room and we can all have a nap?” That gets me a smile.
~
Devon, always the man with the best timing, brings up the omegas over dinner. Kaleb isn't amused. “Why do you always do this kind of shit over dinner? Especially when it's an interesting dinner?”
“Because we're all together, and” he points at Kaleb with his fork, “you don't give us enough credit. What do you think, Nathan? You can find them, right?”
Nathan doesn't immediately answer, and when he does he's talking to Talia. “I can find them. I'll be alright. Dennison's pack is good, but they're not me. I can find them. You don't have to worry about me, cupcake. Not for this.”
Talia doesn't smile, but she gives him a little nod.
“I hope you can find them within two weeks,” Alex takes a bite of what appears to be pasta but doesn’t quite taste right and talks around it, “I don't know if you'll be able to concentrate with both of them going into heat at the same time, and nobody's very inclined for you to work away from home.”
“Three weeks,” Kaleb corrects.
“Two. Peaches is going to start having spikes and get all needy in two weeks, and Talia will start soon after. I'm going to have to teach you boys all about omegas, aren't I?” He takes another bite, “what even is this, sweet pea? My eyes say spaghetti but my mouth says salad.”
“It is spaghetti. Spaghetti squash. The squash pulls apart like noodles if you scrape it with a fork. Is this a repeat or a dud?” Talia looks around the table. Nobody says anything for long enough that she answers herself. “Dud. I don't like it, but it's what's for dinner tonight.”
“It's not that bad, it's just...different.” Is Devon really trying to make her feel better about not liking the food? “It's good to try new things.”
“Don't worry, Devon. My feelings aren't going to be hurt because the food is weird. I'd rather make things we like,” she looks back at Nathan, “I don't want you to do this. I don't like it. But if you say you can do it then I believe you. I just might be a little extra attentive while you're doing it.”
