Page 63 of The Beta: Part Three
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The dinner goes very well. Lots of laughing and talking while everyone was eating, but as soon as the dishes were cleared Talia took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and asked her mom and Devon's if they'd like to see the nursery. Corso and Kaleb finally convinced her to turn the sitting room on the other side of Corso's bedroom into a nursery instead of remodeling the walk-in closet in her bedroom. She says she doesn't care what color anything is so long as it isn't garish or harsh. We have bets going about whether or not that will remain true. Me and Trent are the only ones who believe she really doesn't care and won't mind if Jasper really does paint the walls that soft gray he keeps talking about.
Talia has been upstairs with Jasper and a pair of gushing grandmothers for the past fifteen minutes, and we're just now getting to the meat of this visit. We decided that we wanted Corso to bring it up and lay it out even though he doesn't have a familial tie to the council. Honestly, I think Corso would be perfect for the council, but he doesn't want anything to do with it.
“As much as we want this to be purely a family visit, there is a very serious matter we want to discuss with you. It is related to the bad business happening with the council and we knew discussing it here would be safer than discussing it at any official location.” Corso walks around the room of gathered alphas handing out glasses and filling them with his whiskey. He sounds so sure of himself, like he could lead every one of us; and the way we're all watching him, even the grandfathers’-to-be, he probably could.
“Things must change, that much is obvious. With Crane being the traitor he was, Tomas's involvement, and Pratchett Senior being in the mix, it occurs to me that we need to investigate and relieve some council members of their seats and replace them with more honorable alphas. But even before we get into that, we'd like the three of you to consider stepping up and taking more weight. Crane has no descendant to take his seat, and thank the stars for it; and Tomas was barely holding onto his seat to begin with. We don't know how deeply Pratchett Senior was involved, but I don't like him and I won't respect his place because of the things he is responsible for as far as Talia is concerned.” Marcus drains his glass as Corso finishes and taps it twice on the table. Trent, Alex, and Kaleb do the same.
“But,” Corso continues, “after the events at the compound, my god, I can't believe I'm saying this out loud, I don't think Seth is a complete loss. I think he needs someone to mold him into what he could become. I see potential in him, I hate seeing anything good in him at all, but it's there. If he were provided with a decent and patient example, he could take his father's seat. I would like to motion for Pratchett Senior to step down as a decision-making member until Seth is recovered and prepared to hold the seat. I, we, think it would be the most beneficial thing for everyone in the territory if the three of you would absorb Tomas’s and Cranes’s seats, and essentially put Seth's on hold until he's ready for it. I am not on the council, therefore I cannot make true motions, but if I was, that is what I'd suggest.”
Devon's father is the first to speak. “You could take Tomas's seat, son. You've been preparing for a seat your whole life.”
“I don't want it, Dad. I'll take your seat when you're ready to hand it down, but that's not now. We need you to do this. I'm not handing my life, and their lives,” he motions toward all of us, “over to the council. Even when I do take the seat, I will not allow it to rule my life. We already talked about that. I don't mean any disrespect, I just want to do like I said. I want to make my pack solid. I want to have a family. I want to follow you and Marcus and Thaddeus and any other alpha with a seat who is honest and just. When it's my time I'll accept the seat with every bit of honor it deserves, but not now.”
“I'm proud of you, son. I couldn't say that to my father. My pack, my family, myself, all suffered.” As the last word leaves his mouth I feel stress and anxiety leave Devon to be replaced with relief and peace.
“He'll be insufferable, you know.” Marcus refills his glass and tips it toward Thaddeus. “Pratchett Senior will be an even bigger pain in the ass if we try to push him out. Think we can get the support to absorb Crane's and Tomas's seats? Unless, of course, Corso would reconsider. I've been after you for a few years, we could create a new seat in the stead of these two vacated ones and put your name on it. You're made for it. Hell, I'd support anything you put on the table. You sure you're not royalty or something?”
“I don't think I would enjoy it. I want to make my whiskey and love my pack. That's what I want my life to be. I am beyond honored that you have asked.” Corso salutes Marcus, then everyone else.
Thaddeus sighs, “I guess that's that. I don't know how official we can make it until we get some of this other business sorted. Have you made any more progress with the files?”
“I have,” I say, “they're going to the wilds near the coast. A bit outside of North Wisen to keep it quiet but convenient is my guess. The transfers that keep coming in are likely rogue offspring, produced with omega mothers that have been disappearing for years. I don't have clearance to send a COT or anybody else less official out to have a look, but I know we'll find omegas who have been missing since I was a kid. I've followed a paper trail like you wouldn't believe. I'm in the process of making my findings look presentable and understandable, but yeah. That's what I think based on what me and Trent have found. I'd like to wait until all the vehicles that I've tagged with omegas get there, maybe scope it out to see if it's another compound or individual structures, then get them all out. There's probably babies and young kids there, too. I have a feeling we'll find some seriously fucked up shit there. Maybe even bigger than the last compound.”
“Let us worry about sending people to the coast,” Thaddues says, “you have enough to handle with the little one half way to here. You've been overworking yourselves anyway. And Talia is likely a nervous little wrecking ball with you all away so much. Elizabet could hardly stand for us to leave the house in the last stretch.” Then he eyes Corso. “ I don't know if I agree with you about Seth Pratchett, but I've been monitoring his recovery. Something feels off about it, and I don't know if it's because of him or because of something else.”
“See?” Trent exclaims, “I don't trust him, either. And Jasper still wants to kill him.”
“You misunderstand me, fratello. I don't trust him. And I would gladly accompany Jasper to rid the world of him. But Talia wouldn't, and Idotrust her. She feels very strongly that he is redeemable, and I am inclined to follow her lead as she is who he wronged. I also think that if he were to be rehabilitated, he could be strengthened into the councilman we need him to be with the proper guidance, which would be a huge improvement over his father. Pratchett Senior can, as Talia says, get fucked as far as I'm concerned.”
I'd be happy to drop Seth where he stands, but Corso's right. Talia, for some fucking reason, doesn't hate the very air Seth breathes. And she doesn't want us to hand him to her a piece at a time. She wants him in rehab and for us to do video calls with him. Like, I get that he did what he thought was the best thing with the options he was provided, because I couldn't do shit to save those omegas at the compound at the time; but every single time I think about his fucking hands on her my vision goes a little red. Jasper can't even talk about it. He might kill Seth one day, regardless of the rehab, guidance, and molding Corso's talking about. And at least three of us will help him do it or at least help him dispose of the body.
The unofficial meeting adjourns with Talia stomping down the stairs yanking on the end of her braid and telling both her Elizabet and Merris that they can buy whatever baby shit they want because we'll use it all, and that they're welcome to get with Jasper and make a whole day out of painting and decorating. She plants herself on Reid's lap, taking him by surprise and quietly laughing, “help. I've had enough, and I'm tired. I don't want to hurt Devon's mom's feelings.”
Reid doesn't do a thing but stand with her in his arms and offer a quick and polite goodbye before carrying her right back up the stairs. Reid doesn't give much of a shit about what happens with the council, so long as those omegas are found and we shut that entire operation down. He wants everything to work out, but he has made it clear that Talia and our pack is his main priority.
When I go up to check on her after everyone leaves, she and Reid are curled up in her nest in my room. I'll never be able to fully put into words how it feels that she keeps making nests in my bedroom, but I love it almost more than I love anything else.
“Would you like to be tagged in? I have something I want to work on for a while, but our omega is in need of cuddling.” Reid hugs Talia to him, and raises his eyebrows at me.
Our pack bond is growing stronger as time passes. There are other packs who go through some kind of ritual, usually dealing with bloodletting, but neither of our packs felt the need for that before we came together and we don't need to do that now. The only thing we are going to do is alter the tattoo on our necks. Corso's pack never got pack tattoos, but they want to get them now. Reid has been working on a design that will reflect both individual packs coming together as one whole. He's going to work with the butterfly we already have to come up with something new.
“I do need cuddling,” Talia says, snuggling back against Reid, “but if you two are switching out anyway, let's move to the bed.” Then she winks at me and I know cuddling isn't what she's after. All the better for me. I would have been perfectly happy with cuddling, thrilled with it, to be honest. But if Talia wants more than cuddling from me that's exactly what she'll get because I want that, too. She points at me, “you, get naked.” Then she lets Reid help her up and reaches up to tug his earlobe, “thank you for saving me.”
“You're mine to save,” he tells her and kisses her forehead. I know it's been months already, but sometimes I'm still thrown by how affectionate she is with all of us, but especially when I'm seeing it from the outside. Before we joined packs, she was affectionate with Jasper, but with the rest of us she was very hands off. She was playful and friendly, but there was still a distance. Those first bits of sweetness on the porch when she left with Corso and the rest after her first heat were wonderful, but still a little stilted because outside of sex there wasn't much physical interaction between us. Now she tosses around kisses and cuddles and everything else like we've always done it and it's the most amazing thing. Jasper has always been affectionate, very affectionate. Talia...not so much. Even with her family, I get the feeling that this side of her is reserved for us and only us and I love that as much as I love her nest in the corner of my room.
Talia's pulling off clothes and climbing into the bed before Reid makes it out of the room. We've switched to heavier quilts and blankets since it's getting so much cooler at night and the weight of them feels so good as Talia and I get settled against each other. I like to take my time when I get her to myself. It doesn't happen often, with her or Jasper. There's almost always another person with us, which isn't bad or unwelcome, but sometimes it's nice for it to be just us. After I get pulled into me and tucked under the blankets we just lay still and hold onto each other for a few minutes, then she pulls my arm around her a little tighter and softly says, “I'm really proud of you, Nathan.”
I close my eyes against the sting and I swallow around the sudden thickness of my throat before I can respond. “You're proud of me?” It's lame, but I can't think of anything else I could say that won't have me embarrassing myself with an emotional outburst.
“I'm so fucking proud of you. You found those omegas, and you made the dads understand they had to step up and be more so we can get all this shit straightened out.”
“Corso did that. I wish he'd take the seat they keep offering him. He'd be so good for the council.” I mean that, too. Corso would be perfect for the council.
She hooks her foot around my calf and wiggles her ass against my crotch, another thing I love. “He wouldn't have if you hadn't been so adamant about it. Corso fucking hates politics. He wants to be left the hell out of it. If you hadn't made him understand how much weight his opinion held he would have let you, me, and Devon try to talk our dads into basically taking it upon themselves to dissolve two seats and absorb the power those seats held; which is pretty high handed. My dads love me, and value my opinion, but I wouldn't have been able to convince them to do it quickly enough to do any good. They would have considered it overstepping in an extreme way. Corso said it, made a solid argument for it, and they listened because they see him differently than they see me and Devon. Devon and I are their children, and as important as we are to them, we aren't leaders. Devon will be, but he isn't yet; and I don't fucking want to be. Not ever. Corso pushed them because you pushed him. You got this rolling, Nathan. And I'm proud of you.”
“You give me too much credit, honey. Corso would have done it if you asked him to. He'd do just about anything you ask him to do.” I can't accept praise for pushing for something that's the right thing to do. I do agree with Marcus, though. Corso should be on the council.
