Page 61 of The Beta: Part One

Chapter 23

Kaleb

It's been two weeks since the auction and Talia is still acting off. I thought it might be residual emotional weight from all the revelations that came about at the auction, but I don't think that's it. She isn't behaving differently toward Jasper, but she feels almost hesitant when she's with him, more so if Devon is near.

I love Devon, but he has a tendency to make decisions and take actions that affect the rest of us without discussing them with us first. Jasper has been falling deeper into his own funk no matter what any of us do to pull him out of it and it must have to do with Talia. The atmosphere in the house is almost back to being as tense and fragile as it was when she first got here. Nothing has actually changed but the overall feeling is heavier.

Nathan has nearly finished cleaning up the recordings from the auction. With any luck we'll have some solid evidence that can back up our suspicions that Alpha Crane and Alpha Pratchett are feeding information, names, and money to the rogues that are trying to stage an insurrection.

It wasn't just their animosity toward Talia and Jasper that made us suspect them, but it certainly didn't help. I knew Alpha Crane would try to pull something because he will always try to blame anyone else for his son's failures and mistakes. Mitchell's belligerent hounding of our pack has never been what could be called a mistake, but it falls firmly into the category of failure.

He failed to insert himself into a very powerful pack, and that is a reflection on daddy dearest. It was bad enough when Mitchell was born a beta, but for him to be as old as he is and still unaffiliated with a pack is a sore subject for Alpha Crane, and dear old dad has tried to damage Jasper's reputation and self-confidence almost from the moment we claimed him.

Alpha Pratchett wasn't even on our radar until he honed his attention on Talia. The anger and jealousy that clouded around Jasper when she had to go sit on Alpha Pratchett's lap was stifling, and it only got worse every time he whispered into her ear.

Jasper is exhibiting some intensely territorial behaviors when it comes to Talia that far surpass the ones he carries for us; probably because she's a small female and the first he's ever shown interest in. I was very surprised to learn that Talia has such a history with Corso Zaphir.

I've known Corso since we were kids but we've never been close; and he's always held himself and his pack apart from the drama associated with the council and its members. He wasn't mentioned in Talia's file, either.

If I didn't see and feel the heavy sadness that weighed on him when he and Talia addressed whatever happened between them I might consider him a possible threat simply because alphas don't enjoy losing things they want, and Corso wants Talia.

She hasn't said anything about him, not even when Jasper asked her, she just told him that there were no hard feelings and there was nothing to fear from Corso. Jasper is trying not to be jealous of the emotional hold Corso had on Talia at some point, but I'm trying to imagine her being soft enough with an alpha like Corso to even develop an emotional hold in the first place.

While she is as affectionate with Jasper as he can convince her to be, and despite what both Trent and Devon said about how she was in bed with him, she is not that way with us. She might make jokes and speak easily with Nathan or Trent, but all of her softness is for Jasper alone. A point that he is very obviously happy about.

The more I go over everything that was said and done on that platform at the auction, the more curiously unnerved I am at how focused some of the alphas at the table were on Talia. It is entirely too interesting that she looks and feels like an omega but is registered as a beta. That might be a lot of the reason Corso wants her, all the perks of both an omega and a beta; but I get the feeling that something far more sinister is happening as far as the Pratchett packs are concerned.

There's the obvious and horrific issue of what happened to Talia, which we don't know the full details of; but worse is their fascination with her. Seth's record in her file was scathing, likely a direct result of her turning him down and reporting him.

Jasper put Seth's potential disappearance on the table, which is a big deal considering he doesn't generally call for that level of violence. Part of me wants to know exactly what happened while she was with Seth's pack, and part of me is afraid to find out because I never liked him and it would almost be fun to facilitate his permanent disappearance, especially if I found out he hurt Talia worse than I already think he did.

His bastard of a father making excuses and covering for him his entire life is reason enough for his potential disappearance to be put on the table, as well. Alpha Tomas is who asked her to clarify her status, though; and that places him firmly in the threat category with Pratchett and Crane. With any luck we can find a trail of some kind to link one or all of them to the rogues and the surprisingly well-planned attacks.

All I can do at this point is wait patiently until Nathan finishes up with the footage, and in the meantime I can try to figure out what happened to change the climate here so drastically. I hope it isn't because of something Devon has done or said, but knowing him it probably is. I just hope I can do enough damage control to lighten the air.

Devon has been in the security room most of the day, helping Trent make sure all our security camera lines are clean. Usually Nathan does it, but his hands are full working through footage and linking timelines and conversations with names and packs. When I sit on the edge of the desk he tips his chin at me in greeting and continues confirming coordinates and angles with Trent over the phone. When there's a pause as Trent moves to the next camera he asks me what's up.

“Did you say something to Talia?” I have never been one to beat around the bush, he's also my oldest friend and we don't sugar coat things with each other.

“Nothing that she shouldn't already know.”

I press my lips together in irritation, whatever he said was enough to cause her to alter her demeanor so much that it can be felt by all of us even though she's not saying anything. “Well, for two weeks she's been walking around on eggshells and it is affecting Jasper. Whatever you said to her caused it. Clean it up before it festers, and don't go at her. She isn't doing anything wrong, she's actually doing as much as she can right. What did you tell her, anyway? Did you tell her to distance herself from Jasper? Because that isn't going to work, he wants her too much to let her distance herself.”

He sighs and leans back in his chair, “I just made it clear that her problems cannot touch Jasper, and if any trouble follows her here she'll have to go. I know he wants her, but we can't allow her bullshit to put him in jeopardy. I'd rather pick up the pieces of his broken heart than pieces of him.”

I don't necessarily disagree with him, but I do think that Talia would leave on her own before she let any of her trouble touch Jasper. Devon's got to know that, too, on some level. “Since we're talking about it, what do you think about bonding her into the pack? It's going to come up sooner or later. Jasper is getting extremely attached to her. I'd like us to have an idea of how to handle that before it comes up. I haven't said anything to Trent or Nathan yet, I wanted to see what you think first.”

His face turns dark and I know what he's going to say before he says it. “We aren't bonding her in. She can stay as long as Jasper wants her, but I don't want to deal with the fallout if she decides to leave. Look at Zaphir, he's pretty wrecked over her and he never bonded her into his pack. I don't want to deal with breaking a bond on top of dealing with the damage and mess of her leaving when she eventually does.”

Devon is delusional if he thinks Jasper's going to let Talia go anywhere, and he's doubly delusional if he thinks Talia would leave Jasper. You can't be in the same room with them without feeling, or at least seeing, how they gravitate toward each other.

Even so, I do agree that breaking a bond would be detrimental. I also agree with his point about Corso. He is obviously still carrying a torch for her and she wasn't bonded into his pack. I didn't get the chance to speak to him or any of his pack at the auction, but I have a list of questions to ask him that are absolutely none of my business.

One of the first questions on that list is what did he do to gain as much of her respect as he has, another is how close they actually were if he would still welcome her into his fold. I also question why she wouldn't jump at that chance. It's all well and fine to say you don't want to cause further hurt, but someone with her track record should be rolling over for an opportunity to have a place in a pack like Corso's. His pack is strong, solid, powerful, much like ours.

They are significantly more polite about their aims than we are, though. They would rather destroy you gradually from the inside out while we will just destroy you the moment we have enough proof to legitimize your destruction.

“Understandable, I even agree with you to an extent; but however you put it to her has made her so cautious that Jasper is feeling it. Hell, I'm feeling it. You didn't say anything that would make her take a step back from him?”

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