Page 71 of The Beta: Part One

“Maybe after we eliminate the threat she can come back,” he says without raising his eyes from the table.

I'm sure that will work out just fine.

This is going to destroy both Jasper and Talia.

She comes back in and doesn't acknowledge us. She walks through the kitchen and down the hall to Jasper's bedroom. I listen to their frantic murmuring voices grow louder and more emotional, then Jasper screaming, “NO!”

Every time she tries to say something else he yells no and then a door slams open and I can hear her choke back a sob. She walks back down the hallway and through the kitchen with him following close behind her. When she gets close to us she gives Devon a desolate look and tries to walk out the door but Jasper grabs her arm and tries to pull her back.

Devon steps into him and wraps his arms around him, allowing Talia to pull herself free and she runs to her car. I don't hear the engine start or the door shut over Jasper's wracking cries. He's screaming at her to wait, to please not leave, and he's fighting to get away from Devon so hard that Kaleb has to get up to help keep him from running into the yard.

I can't find the strength to do anything but stare at the door.

Over the next week Jasper doesn't eat. He doesn't talk to any of us. He refuses to leave his bed, and he refuses to change his sheets because they still smell slightly of Talia. Whenever I, or one of the others go in to check on him he turns away from us. The entire house smells like mourning and none of us can do anything to help him. I check on him throughout the day on the security camera but all he does is sleep and cry and stare out the window. This can't go on.

I go back into Jasper's room for the fourth time today and sit on the floor by the bed. Anytime one of us has attempted to lay on the bed with him to try to hold him and comfort him he has gone into a sobbing rage, so now we just sit on the floor. “What can I do, baby? Please, Jasper, tell me what to do to help you,” I say the same thing almost every day without a response, but today I get one.

“Go get her. Bring her back to me.”

It guts me. I don't know where she is, I could probably find her easily enough, but whatever agreement she made with Devon is stopping me. She agreed to leave if her presence put Jasper in danger, and I know she won't come back if the threat still stands.

“I'll try to make it safe,” it's lame, but I don't know what else to say to him.

Kaleb is on the couch when I walk through the living room on my way to the security room and I stop and look at him. We all look like shit. Guilt is eating us up. “We can't go on like this, Kaleb. We can't. He can't.”

He doesn't look away from the window when he responds, “I know.” But he doesn't know what to do any more than the rest of us do.

When Jasper still hasn't eaten anything two days later I've had enough. I normally would never, ever use my alpha voice on him because I don't ever want to force him to do anything he doesn't want to do, but he has to eat. He's visibly weaker and it's more than I can ignore. Devon is the one to force things, or Kaleb, never me, and I'm afraid that it might change something between me and Jasper. Not afraid enough to keep me from doing it, though.

I put together a light meal, some cut fruit and toast, and take it to Jasper's room where he's burrowed under every blanket and pillow he has. “Jasper, honey, I need you to eat something.”

He doesn't respond, doesn't move.

I put the plate on his nightstand and start peeling away layers until I finally get to him. He's curled around himself, his already pale skin is almost translucent and his hair is dull and tangled. When he looks at me his eyes are ringed with dark circles and he looks so broken I can't breathe for a second. I reach for him and he just looks at my hand.

“Honey, please eat just a little. For me, please?”

He looks away from me and closes his eyes, not bothering to fight to keep his blanket cocoon like he has every other time one of us try to pull him out of it.

“Jasper,” I say, letting the authority that he's never heard from me thread through my voice and his eyes snap to mine, “You're going to eat this food. Then you can go back to sleep. Sit up, I'm going to help you.”

He sits up and my heart shatters when tears fall down his cheeks. I swipe them away with the pads of my thumbs, it's the first time he's let me touch him in days.

I get a bite of peach on the fork and hold it to his lips, “Open,” and he opens his mouth just enough to slip the fruit inside. “Chew and swallow. I don't need you to eat a lot, just some. I can't let you starve. I'm sorry.”

He slowly chews, not taking his eyes off of mine. When he's done with that bite I give him another.

“I know you're broken right now, and I am unbelievably sorry. I have been working my ass off to try to figure out all of this so she can come back, I don't know what else I can do. Please stay with us, honey. Stay with me. I need you like you need her. Please don't leave me.” I don't realize I'm crying until he reaches up and wipes my cheek.

He takes the next bite I offer him without me having to force it and I sag in relief. “I'm trying so hard for you. I don't even care that you need someone who isn't me or them. I'm stuck. Kaleb is going tonight to go talk to Seth. I don't think he's behind this, he's not smart enough; but Kaleb thinks he might know something that will give us a direction to run in.”

Once he eats all but a bit of toast, Jasper finally speaks, “I don't understand what happened. She only said that she had to leave to keep me safe, that someone might hurt me to get to her. Devon won't tell me anything, neither will Kaleb. Trent just comes in and sits by the window without saying anything. Tell me what happened.”

His voice is gravely from being unused for so long but it's one of the best things I've ever heard anyway. “Someone from Seth's pack sent Kaleb pictures of Talia from her time with them. They weren't good. Then they threatened you.”

He looks at me for a long time and then asks me to see the pictures. I sigh, “Jasper, honey, you don't want to see the pictures. It wouldn't be good for you.”

He blinks at me and I know he's going to push it. “Show me, Nathan. She's mine and I need to know.”

---