Page 2 of The Beta: Part One

Chapter 2

Devon

“We don’t need a beta. Especially not a female.” Jasper is livid, I can feel his hot resentment through my bond with him. And he’s right.

“No, we don’t, not a beta or a female. But my father called in a favor. We can tolerate her for a few days. We all know it won’t take long for her to do something stupid and then she’s gone.” I try to reassure him.

We’ve tried to let in females before, but it was obvious they were alpha chasers who wanted to come between us and that was unacceptable. Additional males are intolerable, especially when Jasper goes into heat. We’ve killed more than one for coming too near him, regardless of their intentions. Jasper is ours, our treasure to protect, even if it rankles his pride. We fought hard for him to accept us and to earn his respect; we won’t allow anyone to take him or hurt him, and we will do anything for him to remain happy in our care. And that includes this female beta we agreed to give a trial run.

His plump, pink lips are still in an angry pout and I can’t help kissing them. That helps a little and my purr that’s just for him doesn’t hurt, either. He knows this is a necessary evil, he just hates it. And he’s afraid.

I stroke his dark mop of hair and kiss him again, “Don’t worry, angel. It’ll be over in a blink. She’ll come in, fuck up, then be gone before you even have time to remember her name.”

He sighs and nods into my shoulder, taking in my scent. He’ll be okay, we’ll just have to give him a little extra attention and assurance that we would never want a female more than him. And not give this female any attention outside of absolute necessity. It isn’t that none of us are interested in females, it's just that our omega isn’t and that means we aren’t. Anything that upsets Jasper is a hard no for us, and he is extremely upset by a female presence in his home.

He tenses when we hear boots stomp up onto the porch. I plop another kiss on his head and perch him up on the island counter. Nathan and Trent stand beside him on either side, I stand at the corner of the island and cross my arms. I don’t want to give any impression of friendliness.

I nod at Kaleb and he goes to answer the door. I shoot a wink at Jasper, then set my face in a hard glare and face the kitchen entrance to the sound of the front door opening and footsteps coming back through the house toward us.

Kaleb stalks back into the room, the corner of his mouth drawn up in the smallest hint of a smile, and the female that trails behind him is a bit of a shock.

She’s tiny.

Tiny tiny.

How can she possibly be a beta? Males are larger than females as a rule, and male alphas are huge in comparison to beta females, but this girl is small. Smaller than Jasper, even, and we're all a head taller than he is. She might be just taller than five feet, and I can see the developed muscles and firm curves that make up her form, but it’s on such a delicate frame. Even her ears are tiny. Her dark hair is twisted up on top of her head and she’s dressed similarly to us, faded jeans, black boots, plain black tee shirt, none of the frills I associate with females, even betas. I can’t tell what color her eyes are because she is keeping them trained on the ground behind Kaleb’s feet.

“I'm Devon,” I begin the introduction, and point to my pack as I name them “Kaleb, Trent, and Nathan. This is Jasper, our omega.”

She doesn’t say anything, but flicks her startlingly blue eyes up barely long enough to register that Jasper is sitting on the counter. We all tense and I take a step toward her when she marches straight up to the counter. She kneels in front of it and presents her neck.

To Jasper.

She blatantly ignored every alpha in the room, absolutely didn’t show any of us a hint of deference, and went straight to her knees in front of Jasper, who has never had anyone submit to him in this way in his entire life, and gave him her neck. None of us says anything, including Jasper, and she lowers her head to the ground, touching her forehead to the floor.

Jasper is looking at her with wide eyes and a slight wrinkle in his top lip.

“You can rise,” I say, but she doesn’t move. We all exchange a look of both confusion and suspicion, and Trent’s eyebrows are raised to his hairline.

“Beta, you may rise. Kaleb will show you your room,” I try again, but she still doesn’t move. She’s deeply submitting to Jasper. Omegas are precious, rare, protected at all cost, but they aren’t typically, or ever, given submission before their alphas.

Jasper’s eyes are huge now and his mouth is parted in puzzled surprise. His eyes are darting between the beta on her knees and me.

I nod at him.

He shakes his head.

He goes back to staring at the back of her head. He was trying so hard to be pissy and dismissive when she walked in, but now he’s just confused; I can smell and feel his anxiety and it eats at me. I nod at him again and then toward her, but he presses his lips together and shakes his head harder. And she still just stays there on her knees in the highest form of submission she can exhibit.

“Jasper, baby, tell her she can get up,” Nathan says softly into Jasper’s ear. He’s still all eyes and anxiety, and I can’t smell anything coming off of her but submission. To Jasper. Only him.

He clears his throat and says, “You should get up.” She does, but she’s still giving him her neck, keeping her eyes lowered, and not acknowledging anyone but him.

“Um, please follow Kaleb to your room. He’ll tell you more about what’s expected of you here.” Jasper’s voice is a combination of nerves and curiosity.

She turns to Kaleb, waiting for him to lead her out of the room, still not looking at any of us. Kaleb shrugs and starts walking toward the set of stairs just outside the kitchen door. We decided to give her the entire attic. It’s finished, except for the ceiling, which is bare rafters. There’s a cozy little room in the basement next to the laundry room that we could have given her, but I didn’t want to be accused of forcing her to live in a closet. Besides, that utility room would be far more relaxing than the attic with the summer heat that’s coming. Finished doesn’t mean insulated or air conditioned. It means it will function as a bedroom until she’s miserable enough in the heat to throw a fit. Then she’ll be free to go.

“Why did she do that?” Jasper asks, his eyes narrowing as his nerves begin to turn from curiosity to irritation. He’s already moving ahead, “I hope she doesn’t think things like that will win her any favors.”

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