Page 78 of The Beta: Part Three
Talia and Reid both immediately veto it, though. “No,” Talia says, drying her hands. “Alex cheats and, believe it or not, Corso is a sore loser.”
Alex comes in at the perfect time to pretend to be innocent and offended. “Excuse me, I do not cheat. Corso is a sore loser, though.”
Talia twists her mouth to the side and then her eyes light up. “Cards! We can play cards. There's a deck in the junk drawer. No spades, no gin.”
Alex does cheat, almost as bad as Trent; and it turns out that Corso is, in fact, a sore loser. I never would have guessed Corso, with all his noble and just ways ideals, would pout over being the first to be down to his boxers. I am in no way surprised that Talia is not only fully clothed, but she has accumulated a pile of our clothes on the floor beside her chair. The only thing keeping Nathan and I in our shirts is our injuries.
“I should have known better when you were so happy about shuffling.” Devon is side-eying Talia.
She throws him a saccharin grin. “I'm definitely happy with the result. It isn't my fault you guys can't keep your clothes on.”
“I also appreciate how this is going,” Jasper's eyes travel over all the exposed skin around the table. “How did you get to be so good at winning? It was Jamison, wasn't it?”
Talia pushes up from her chair and gathers the clothes she won. “No, well, Jamison did teach me the rules.” She waits till she's nearly out the door before she says over her shoulder, “but Bianca taught me how to cheat.” Then she escapes up the stairs.
“Did we let her win?” I don't feel like we let her win. I certainly didn't.
Trent starts cackling. “Hell no. I didn't, anyway. I thought Alex was supposed to be the one to look out for.”
~
There's only three weeks left until Talia's due date. Jasper is winding up for his next heat cycle, but it isn't like every other time. He's needy and cuddly like he always is, but this time it's such a huge contrast from how he's been since Talia's been pregnant. He's changed. He's so much more, I don't know, dominant? Assertive? Borderline aggressive with some things? Jasper has been incredibly insistent about Talia's needs being met, all of them. He has also been very attentive to her, especially during this last small stretch; and every second he isn't being cuddly and needy he's been broody and angry. This is the first time I've seen Jasper be angry about going into heat.
I mentioned it to Talia and her face darkened before she told me how it was when we were trapped at the compound and Devon was at the hospital, when Reid had to create a bond with him that none of us expected to need. “He was so angry, Kaleb. He felt so, so guilty because you were all in danger and gone, and Devon was in such bad shape. But he couldn't stop his system from functioning any more than any other omega can. He was shutting down without you all. It isn't like going into heat and needing an alpha, it was so much worse. He couldn't feel any of you, and Devon was barely a flicker. Despite his connection with me, he was declining so fast without his alphas tethering him. Reid was perfect, though. He was exactly what Jasper needed. Jasper is angry right now for some of the same reasons I hate going into heat. You lose yourself. He's going to lose himself and almost an entire week when I'm only three away from delivering. He's afraid and angry.”
I understand that, I really do. But I don't think there's anything that will make him feel better, or at least make it not so awful. The pressure and stress I feel in him is so heavy.
He and Talia are outside right now, discussing how hard they're going to have to fight Trent to put a tree house up in one of the massive trees on the lawn. They think Trent is the one to worry about, but hell might have to freeze over before Devon allows our kids to scale a tree. Not to mention Reid. Ever since the invasion, he, Alex, Trent, and Devon have immersed themselves in fortifying the property. Nathan has cameras watching everything covered from twig to pebble, but that isn't enough. The only thing stopping them from building a spiked wall around the place is Corso. He might go for the moat they keep talking about, though. Eventually. I thought they were joking, but apparently not because I caught the four of them looking at heavy equipment brochures.
Most of the leaves have fallen from the trees, with only a few shriveled, brown husks clinging stubbornly to their branches. The golden, late-fall sunshine is gorgeous, and my omegas look amazing standing in it. Then I remember something I wanted to do with Talia before she delivered. Trent is in the garage with Devon, tinkering with the disaster Talia calls a car. He's very conveniently wearing a blue flannel shirt. “Hey, Trent.”
“Hey, Kaleb.”
“Give me your flannel.”
“What? Why? It's dirty.”
Rolling my eyes, just a little, I hold out my hand. “Just give it to me. If you're chilly you can have mine.”
He shrugs out of it and hands it over. “I'm fine, it's not that cold in here. What are you doing?”
“I'll show you later.”
I head out to catch up with Jasper and Talia. They're still arguing under one of the bigger oak trees. “Hey. Come help me with something.”
“Do you think this would be a good tree for a treehouse?” Talia asks, still looking up into the higher branches.
I want to laugh, but I don't. “Honey, you'll be doing good to convince us to tie a tire to the thickest branch. Let's go around back.” The corn was harvested weeks ago, but there's still a corner of rows still standing for whatever reason. They're perfect for what I want. When we get back there I hold out Trent's shirt to her. “I know it's cold, but put this on.”
“Over my sweater?” She glances at Jasper then back at me.
“No. I want to take your picture. Nathan's sister had pictures done of when she was as pregnant as you are. We're too antsy to have a photographer come, but I'm not horrible at it. Remember that picture of the sunflowers and the butterflies at the farmhouse? I took that. I thought about doing this with one of the barrels at the distillery, but the light right now is perfect.”
Jasper smiles and starts helping Talia out of her layers. She's wearing her usual leggings and, so far, she's peeled off Reid's sweater and one of Devon's tee-shirts. There's a black tank top stretched over her stomach, only just covering her bellybutton.
“Are you too cold?” Jasper asks, fingering the hem of the tank top.
“I'm fine.” Talia lifts her arms and lets Jasper pull off the last shirt. “Bra, too?”
