Page 41 of The Beta: Part One

Jasper gives him the same glare and huff he’s been giving me and keeps stomping across the porch.

I hear gravel crunching and see Talia sprinting back down the driveway, her gaze trained on Jasper.

She slows down as she gets closer to the house and Jasper stalks down the steps and meets her when she's just a few feet away from the porch. Rage is billowing off of him and her expression is switching back and forth from concerned to confused.

“What’s wrong?” she asks and reaches for him, but he snatches her hand out of the air and starts sniffing her wrist and up to her elbow. He reaches her shoulder and snorts, drawing back his head to growl at her. Not the sexy little growl he has when he’s aroused or playing; a deep, serious growl. Then he resumes his sniffing. He stops at a few points, her other elbow, her hip, one knee, to snort and glare at her. Then he yanks one of her braids to his nose, jerking her head with it, and buries his nose in it.

Anger flashes across her face for half a second and I think this is it, this is when Talia loses her shit. After all the early mornings, bullshit tasks, and shitty attitudes she’s put up with this is what will be her breaking point. But it isn’t. She just hands him the end of the other braid when he reaches for it. He spins her around and smells the back of her neck and lets out an extra vicious growl. Then he grabs her arm and hauls her into the house.

Nathan is in the kitchen and looks as confused as the rest of us.

I shrug my shoulders when he shoots me a questioning glance, and we all follow Jasper and Talia to his personal bathroom. He turns on the water and sets it a bit hotter than I’d be comfortable with and turns back to Talia, she didn’t move from the spot he parked her in.

I think for a moment what might have happened if anybody but Jasper tried to handle her like this, a mouthful of attitude would be the very least that would happen but she’s passively letting him jerk her around and move her where he wants her. He starts yanking off her shoes and socks and roughly pulls off her shorts, and smells them and before throwing them into the farthest corner. He leans forward and takes a lengthy sniff between her legs, and I see his fingers tighten around her thighs.

“Jesus, Jasper, that’s…” Nathan starts, but a mean growl rips out of Jasper’s throat and Nathan shuts his mouth.

He stands up and rips her tank top over her head, but when he smells it he snarls and throws it into the garbage can by the door. He grabs the band of her sports bra, about to take that off of her too, but remembers we’re all watching.

“You don’t look,” he barks, and we avert our eyes, making sure to look at him instead of Talia. I see her outline in my peripheral vision, purposefully not focusing on her form while he pulls the rest of her clothes off. He shuffles her into the shower and they both start unraveling her braids so he can wash her hair.

He isn’t gentle. He is aggressively scrubbing her hair and skin, and he’s using his shampoo for all of it. Then I realize what he’s doing, and it is astounding because Jasper is an omega. He must have found out she went to the bar and he can smell where other males have touched her.

“What the fuck is he doing?” Trent says quietly.

I cross my arms and turn away from the shower scene, “Remember that party we went to just after we claimed Jasper? When fucking James grabbed him and tried to pull him off into a corner?” Trent nods. “Remember when Devon got him back home?”

Trent thinks for a moment, then his eyes grow wide, and Nathan raises his eyebrows. “He’s pissed that someone touched her? But I didn’t think she fucked anybody.”

“She didn’t have to. He smelled every place another male must have touched her, and that’s probably the shirt she wore last night.”

Trent draws in a breath, “Interesting.”

“What’s interesting?” Devon comes up behind me, pushing his way into the bathroom and freezes when he sees Jasper, jeans still on and clinging to him because of the water, scrubbing Talia within an inch of her life.

Jasper stands up fast and puts his body in front of Talia’s, his back to us, blocking Devon’s view of her, “You don’t look.”

I’ve never heard his voice sound so… aggressive, dominant. It’s actually pretty sexy. Devon stares at Jasper’s back for a few more seconds and then turns to me, “What the fuck?”

I tilt my head, “Jasper is apparently territorial over his beta.”

Devon looks back at him again and I think his shoulders slump a little.

Nathan goes back into Jasper’s closet and returns with one of his button down shirts and a pair of boxers. He drapes them over the towel rack and leaves, motioning Trent to come with him.

I stay, more to stop Devon from doing anything unfortunate than any other reason.

Jasper turns off the water and reaches for a towel to wrap around Talia. Once he has it wrapped around her torso and tucked in tightly he pulls her out of the shower. He grabs another towel and starts squeezing water out of her hair. He sniffs her shoulder again and nods to himself.

“Get out,” he says, sounding more calm.

Devon and I step back into the bedroom and listen to the rustle of material as Jasper dries Talia. When he leads her back into the bedroom she’s dressed in his clothes and he has his hairbrush in his hand. She still hasn’t said a word. He pushes her to sit on his bed and he goes to work on her hair. After a few minutes he starts talking.

“No more bars. No more males outside of the pack. No more letting anyone else touch you.” He pulls the brush through her hair a few more times, then continues, “If you want to fuck, you fuck me.”

“Jasper,” her voice is quiet, like she’s trying to calm a wild animal, “It doesn’t work that way. I can’t… ”

She stops speaking when he winds a handful of her hair around his hand and pulls her head back until she’s looking up into his eyes, “It works however I say it works when it comes to you.”

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