Page 86 of The Beta: Part Three
The soft lighting is just right and the way her face softens and warms as she looks down at the babies is so perfect. I put the phone away and help her get sat up and settled. Talia doesn't button the shirt she's wearing; she just pulls it mostly closed. There is a column of exposed skin from her neck down to her stomach. That would make for a nice picture, too, but I don't want to take another. "Will you try to eat just a little? I'm worried that you aren't eating enough to keep up with the demands on your body while feeding three infants. You're always beautiful, but you've lost more weight than I'm comfortable with since they were born."
Talia heaves a sigh, but she takes a bite and talks around it. "Maybe you guys could give one of them a bottle while I nurse the other two. We've got all that formula in the cabinet; we should use it."
My heart squeezes just a little. I have been looking forward to feeding them from the moment we decided to have them. I just didn't want to say anything that could potentially hurt or offend Talia. New mothers are touchy about milk supply and latching and anything else pertaining to feeding babies; I have been on the wrong end of a scolding on a few occasions for saying something insensitive to one of my sisters. I was trying to be helpful, but I chose the wrong words at the wrong time and it was a lesson-learning experience. "I would very much like to feed them. The others would, too. Corso especially."
"And Kaleb," she hums. She takes another small bite of her burger, then says, "I need to talk about something, and I think you're the only one who will understand the way I need you to understand."
"Alright." I send up a prayer to whoever wants to answer it that it isn't something horrible.
"Jasper is changing. More every day. It's my fault."
That…isn't at all what I expected her to say. "He is. He is so much stronger now than when I created a bond with him. Change isn't always a bad thing."
"He was a sweet, gentle omega before me."
"He's still a sweet omega." I have a different understanding of Jasper than she does. I don't think Jasper was ever gentle; not even before Talia came to him. He's certainly not gentle now. Jasper is quite possibly the most vicious of all of us, and he grows more determined to ensure our safety and position every day. I don't think Talia would believe me if I told her that, though. Considering she's describing him as a sweet, gentle omega.
She puts her plate on the nightstand. There's more than half her burger left, and all but two of the sweet potato fries. This is going to become unacceptable very quickly. "He executed Jonas Pratchett on the lawn."
"Does that bother you?"
Her nose wrinkles with a little snarl. "Of course not. I'm glad that piece of shit is dead. It's just…when I first came to their pack, there was an attack. The rogues from the compound came after Jasper. I killed most of them, but Jasper took one. I was there to protect him when the alphas were out on a job, like I was supposed to. That was good, I was comfortable with that. Now things have switched, and I'm the one being protected all the time. That's not what was supposed to happen."
Ah. I have been waiting for this conversation. I've felt it building for months. "Is that such a bad thing? To be protected by your pack? Jasper might be an omega, but he's your mate, as well. He can't help his need to protect you."
"Nobody protected me when I was a beta. I'm still just me. I do the protecting."
Careful. I'll need to speak carefully. "If you recall, we tried to protect you. But you were too stubborn and sour to let us. These changes in Jasper are good. He's better for it. And," I take a deep breath, "it's okay for you to be soft. It was okay for you to be soft when you were a beta, but you couldn't let yourself be. You aren't alone anymore, Talia. You have all of us to help you and take care of you. We need to take care of you, Jasper included. Would it be so terrible if you let us?"
"I'm trying, but it doesn't feel right. Not really. In my mind, I'm all beta. Until some omega bullshit takes over, but still. I'm just worried that it's too much change for Jasper. He's never been anything but an omega, he's always been treated like an omega."
I reach over and stroke down the shell of her ear. "The changes in Jasper are good for him. He's happy. He's strong. You don't have to change everything about yourself, or anything. I just wanted to tell you that it's okay to let yourself be taken care of. You've carried too much for too long. Give us some of that weight. And please try to eat more than you have been. I don't mean to nag, but I really am worried about you."
She brings my hand to her lips and kisses my palm. "I love you, Reid."
I lean over and give her a real kiss. "I love you, Talia. We'll be alright. All of us."
Chapter thirty-six
Alex
Talia isn't doing well. She isn't exactly sick, but she's in a lot of pain. Obi says it's a clogged milk duct; that it's supposed to be something that happens to a lot of nursing mothers. But I'm not buying it. Talia is miserable. She can hardly lift her right arm without wincing. And her breast on that side is mottled and swollen. Obi told us to keep her drinking water, to put ice on it, and to let the babies nurse on that side more frequently. How is she supposed to do that when it hurts her so much to let them? I called my mom to see if she had any advice, but she just said the same shit Obi did. Reid's mom has plenty more to say about it, though. She's on the phone right now telling us how stupid we all are.
"So, you're telling me, you bunch of silly asses are sitting around wringing your hands while your omega, the mother of your children, is up there in agony? When any one of you idiots could have already solved the problem?"
Corso closes his eyes and pulls down the ends of his hair; and Reid pinches the bridge of his nose. "We're doing everything Obi said to do, Mom."
"I thought he was supposed to be some amazing omega doctor. All you've got to do is pull it out. Draw straws and send the winner up there with a bunch of flowers and a shot of that whiskey y'all make and just pull it out."
"We can't touch the swollen area enough to try to dislodge the clog, and we certainly can't pull on it." Corso tugs at his hair again.
"You don't need to touch it to clear it, Corso."
Corso can take all the time he wants to politely work out what she means while Trent and I scream shotgun into each other's faces and beat the hell out of each other to be the first one off the couch and up the stairs. I may or may not kick him back down them. Just a little. He'll be fine. And I'll bring Talia all the flowers she wants and a whole bottle of whiskey later if she wants it.
Jasper and Nathan have the screaming burritos in Nathan's room so Talia can rest. She's in Corso's room, curled up on his bed under a ton of blankets. I carefully slide under the mountain of too-hot and kiss her forehead when she opens her eyes to scowl at me. "Don't be mad at me, not yet, anyway. I'm here to try to help. Reid's mom says we have to pull out the clog."
"If you try to pull anything from anywhere, I'll punch you in the face."
