Page 14 of The Beta: Part One

Chapter 7

Talia

“You smell extremely good,” Jasper says, shoving his nose into my back.

He and I have officially and magically clicked. After that dinner fiasco, that I’m still pretty disgruntled about, and the dancing, it felt like he just stopped trying to resist whatever pull he was feeling toward me and I did the same.

I am so very tired of being alone and not having anyone to share anything with that, at first, I thought it was just my loneliness reaching for him, but that isn’t it. There’s something, some kind of magnetic force that pulls him to me and me to him. I felt it the first time I looked into those sparkling green eyes, I just brushed it off as something else. Now, I don’t know what it is and I don’t really care, I’m staying with him from now until forever if he’ll let me. Maybe it’s because he’s such a special omega, or it could be because I think he’s so incredibly beautiful, I don’t know and it doesn’t matter.

“What do I smell like?” I ask him, continuing to knead dough for the fresh loaf I’m making for tomorrow.

He hums into my skin, giving me goosebumps, “Coffee, sweet cream, cinnamon. I didn’t catch it when you first got here, I think because I was actually drinking coffee at the time. But after you got me switched to the tea, thank you by the way, I could smell you more clearly. Sometimes I want to lick you to see if you taste like coffee, too.”

I chuckle, “You’re so adorable. If those alphas of yours catch you licking me they’ll shit bricks and kick me to the curb.”

He jerks away from me, completely horrified, “They wouldn’t dare. You feed us too much fiber for them to shit bricks. And stop calling me adorable. I am not adorable. I’m ruggedly handsome.”

I snort, “Ew, Jasper. That’s disgusting. And you can be ruggedly adorable.” I cover the bowl and flick a bit of residual flour into his face, “I’m serious, though, no licking. They tolerate me being close with you, but that’s a hard line. Your tongue belongs to them and they would absolutely hate it if you put it on me.”

Speak of the devils.

“What are you trying to put on Talia now? We don’t have a fancy ass event to go to, so she doesn’t need any more dresses,” Trent says, coming around the island counter to lift Jasper onto it and getting flour all over both of them in the process.

“Nothing,” I say before Jasper says something that will get both of us in trouble.

Jasper, bless his clueless, little heart, is oblivious to death traps or else enjoys them, and asks Trent, “Doesn’t she smell like a cinnamon latte?”

I pretend like he’s not trying to get me killed and start washing down the mixer.

“I honestly haven’t paid much attention to Talia’s scent, sweetness. I’m much more interested in yours,” he says and then I hear Jasper’s gasping laughter, which never fails to make me smile.

Then Trent carries him out of the kitchen and down the hall, likely to his bedroom. I think Jasper may be approaching his heat because I’ve noticed a definite increase in the amount of sex he needs from his alphas. I need to find out exactly when it might be so I can adjust his diet to be more supportive during that time.

“What are you smiling about?” Nathan asks, making me jump.

That’s another reason I think Jasper will have a heat cycle soon, everyone’s scents are so intense and lingering recently. Before the past several days I would have smelled him coming and he wouldn’t have startled me. Nathan's woodsy scent is so much milder than Jasper's or Trent's that I didn't catch it.

“Jasper and Trent,” I tell him.

He huffs and starts rummaging through the fridge. “Would you like me to make you something?” I offer. I’d like to say I’m offering to make him something to eat because he’s an alpha in their pack and I’m showing him deference, but that’s not it. I don’t want him to fuck up the kitchen I just cleaned.

He jerks his head up and raises a brow at me. Yeah, okay, unless it’s a scheduled meal I don’t offer to make food for anyone but Jasper. But come on, I just cleaned up and every one of these men have the ability to destroy this entire room making a bowl of cereal. He nods at me and leans against the island, “Yes, thank you. Anything is fine.”

Anything it is. He’ll get what I’m having for lunch, a peanut butter and marshmallow whip sandwich sprinkled with salty potato chips and a pile of spicy baby pickles on the side. His eyebrows knit tighter together with each addition to the sandwiches and plates until his face is frozen in disgust, and it turns into a full on grimace as he watches me take a big crunchy bite.

“You really are psychotic,” he tells me, but eats his sandwich. He even asks for a second one.

I wait until he has a mouthful of peanut butter and marshmallow to ask him about Jasper’s heat. “I need to ask a question that you’re not going to like answering,” I announce, and refill his glass of milk.

He waves me on.

“Do you know when Jasper will go into heat next?”

His eyes darken and he might sound threatening if his words weren't so sticky from his sandwich, “Why do you need to know?”

I answer around a bite of pickle, “I want to adjust his diet. A male omega’s nutritional needs change in the weeks and days leading up to his heat, and I just want to make sure he’s taken care of.”

Nathan’s relief is visible. “He’s due in two weeks. He’s been having spikes recently, he usually has them for a couple weeks before he actually goes into heat.”

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