Page 39 of The Beta: Part Three
Kaleb built a bit of a bonfire in the back tonight because Talia mentioned s’mores. He didn't get the joke. She wants to have a playdate with me and Trent and that was an invitation, but she thinks too much of Kaleb to tell him she didn't want to actually roast marshmallows. She's watching me try to keep gooey marshmallow out of my beard right now. She's been trying to keep up with the demand for chocolate and graham crackers, but I think she's given up so she can watch me eat this marshmallow; and I'm going to eat it as obscenely as I possibly can.
I waved Trent over a few minutes ago and I just now handed him the bar of chocolate I've been holding for the past few minutes, “open that for me, will you? I've got troubles here, my fingers are sticky.”
He caught Talia's intention about four seconds after I did when the words ‘I could really go for s’mores right now’ came out of her mouth. He looks down at the mostly melted chocolate I handed him and smirks as he tears open the wrapper.
As expected, the chocolate gets all over his fingers. “Oh look, now we've both got sticky fingers.” He begins the lewd task of licking melted chocolate from his fingertips.
“Is this what we're doing, then?” Jasper asks, coming to stand beside Trent. He grabs Trent's wrist and brings his fingers to his mouth and licks up the side of one of them. Talia's eyes are losing more and more blue as they dart from me to Trent to Jasper. She's likely to leap through the nice fire Kaleb has built to get to us.
Part of me wishes she would, but most of me knows I wouldn't be the only one who'd lose my shit if she did. The vein in Devon's temple that starts pulsing anytime she starts talking about doing dangerous shit might actually explode if she jumped over the fire. Hell, it might explode if she walks too close to it. She still hasn't told him everything that happened at the compound and it's been well over a month. At this point, I don't think he really wants to know anymore than he already does.
Jasper is sucking on one of Trent's fingertips now and eyeing one of mine. I made a pretty big mess of it on purpose. My plan was to lick it off myself, but it would be a lot more fun if Talia got to watch Jasper lick it off. If she likes what she sees enough, who knows how this night might end? As far as I know, she's only had one spike today, and it was way earlier. It might not take much to nudge her into another one. When I stretch my arm across Trent to offer Jasper my fingers, he happily sucks one into his mouth and closes his eyes as he swirls his tongue around the tip.
Talia's pupils are blown now. Yes, I think we have pushed her right into her second spike of the day. She's got her bottom lip trapped between her teeth and her eyes are focused on Jasper's mouth. He makes a show of licking my finger when I pull it away, and Talia stands up. Excellent. Maybe all three of us can have a go at her. I reach down conspicuously to adjust myself.
She tilts her head to the side and twists her lips into a smirk. Then she walks around the fire and grabs Kaleb by the shirt and heads back inside. Well...fuck.
“Plan backfire?” Devon teases.
I shrug. “It was worth the effort. She wants to see me and Trent together. Jasper was going to be the ultimate bonus.” Then I look sideways at Trent, “I don't know about letting you fuck me. She wants to see it, she even thinks I'd like it. He wants to see it, too,” I nod toward Jasper, “but I don't know if I'd like it or not. I like that they'd like it. Maybe we can put on a show for them one day.” I look back to the manor and nod. “Eventually.”
Trent laughs at me, and Devon looks like it pains him to imagine any of the things I just said as he tries to scrub from his mind
~
Two days later, I'm standing behind Nathan's chair looking at four different monitors and agreeing with Marcus Graves. Nathan is a goddamned genius. “She's still there. I think she's got a bit of a shiner now, but she's still showing us her face, still leaving breadcrumbs.” I don't mention the split lip, or the tiredness I can clearly see despite the grainy quality of the security feed.
“And Marcus said the COTs have closed in on them?” Corso asks from beside me.
Nathan sighs. “Yeah. Not too close, but close enough. They're still heading northwest. Devon's dad thinks they're trying to get to North Wisen up there. He says a lot of territory meetings are held there due to being neutral ground, and that could be part of all of this. We won't know till they get wherever they're going.”
“I've been up there,” Corso says. “We deliver to several restaurants and hotels, and quite a few bars there. If it's territory-related, it's likely that any meets could happen at one of the more upscale places. I have connections that could help you get into the systems, if that would even be helpful.”
“It might be, I'm just terrified of trusting the wrong people. I've been a server, and Trent had a run as a shitty bartender, so we could go undercover if needed. People who need money can be bought almost as easily as people who don't,” Nathan says, then he clicks on a few more things and different windows show on the monitors. “These are all the places they've stopped along the way,” he points at a map, “and yesterday I noticed these three vehicles,” he clicks on something else and two SUVs and a minivan appear on another monitor, “are following the same path. They're stopping at the same places at about half hour intervals. And look at this.” He clicks again, and on a third monitor a group of presumably omegas shows on the monitor. One male and four females. The male looks rough and the females are doing their best to keep him in the center of their huddle. “That could have been Jasper and Talia.”
Corso and I both put a hand on each of Nathan's shoulders. “But it isn't. Don't dwell on the things that could have happened, Nathan,” Corso says gently, “our omegas are safe here at home with us.”
“What if someone else comes for them while they're in heat?”
I give his shoulder a squeeze, “we won't be so far gone that we would let anyone take them. And Elizabet has already assured us that the entire property will be crawling with her people. Do either of you know why she's so worked up over it? By all accounts she should be throwing a party instead of sending half her detail to watch over us.”
Corso shakes his head.
“No,” Nathan says, “but it might have something to do with all the science stuff I found on one of the servers linked to Crane's bullshit.”
Fucking Crane. I could have kissed Reid right there in that office, blood and all, after he killed that asshole; and I may have asked both Talia and Jasper to recount the demise of little Mitchell more than twice.
“Well, whatever the reason,” Corso pats Nathan on the back, “I'm grateful for the extra support. I am very much looking forward to this.”
~
He doesn't have long to wait. Jasper's heat hits him the next evening, and Talia is only a few hours after him. We kind of knew it was coming because they started gathering things the night before and carrying them from room to room. Nobody got much sleep. They were talking to each other, using actual, real words, but it was only pieces of sentences and mostly facial and bodily expressions. I loved every second of it. They wanted Nathan's room, but Jasper remembered at the last second that all of Nathan's work was spread out in there and he didn't want to chance anything getting ruined when Talia and I get going. Ultimately, they ended up claiming Corso's room; which I'm sure he will be crowing about for the rest of our lives. Omegas are creatures of habit. Talia will most likely build every nest she ever makes when she's the only one in heat in Nathan's room. We don't know what Jasper will do, this is his first heat with all of us. And every collective nest they make from now on will probably be in Corso's room. I'd brag about it, too.
Right now, everyone is upstairs in Corso's room. It's a sexual anarchy. Only Kaleb and I are holding ourselves back from going into rut, and we're hanging on by a bare thread. Well, I am. I don't know what he's over there doing, but I can see his erection straining against his pants. The urge to rut was bad enough with only Talia in heat, but with both of them going it's taking all I've got to maintain a level head. The very second the last of Elizabet's teams pull into the driveway I'm jumping dick-first into the center of that nest.
A SUV turns down the driveway and Kaleb lifts up the binoculars to his eyes. He thought I was ridiculous for breaking them out, but it makes seeing who is actually in the vehicles as they pull in so much easier. And there are quite a few vehicles. Our lawn looks like we're either throwing a party or being raided.
“Thank fucking christ,” Kaleb mutters and discards the binoculars on the table by the door. I double check the lock and security system. Then Kaleb and I race up the stairs. We actually race, too; each of us trying to get to the top first. He wins, but only because I tripped over my stupid pants. I was trying to get ahead of the game by taking them off as I ran, but I wasn't successful.
