Page 13 of The Beta: Part One

He stares for a few seconds then starts howling in laughter. “I miss everything. What did he do to piss her off? All I heard was him crying like the little bitch he is and that she stabbed him.”

I repeat the story, and he whistles lowly, “She’s probably as bad as, if not worse than you, Kaleb. Does this mean we have to keep her?”

We have a silent conversation and vote with our eyes and we all nod.

Nathan sighs, “Good. I’m tired of being a dick every single second of my life. I mean, I am a dick, but I like to relax sometimes. She’s not even that bad.”

I agree. She rarely speaks to anyone other than Jasper, and when she does it is strictly in relation to any work she needs to get done. She does everything we task her with well, and she knows which jobs need Jasper’s approval and which ones she can just do. Knowing that her reason for nearly making us late was not having room for more weapons instead of having a hair out of place is another reason I agree that she’s not so bad. Anyone who tries to bring more weapons is almost always okay in my book.

Still watching the dance floor, Devon takes a deep breath and exhales it on a resigned sigh, “Fuck me, I just realized I’m going to have to do damage control for two of you now since she’s staying.” He dramatically scrubs his face and I laugh at him. “It was bad enough with just you, but this is her first event with us and she’s already making waves and stabbing people. The two of you psychopaths are going to be a fucking nightmare to clean up after.”

I’m laughing but he gets a look that quickly sobers me.

“We’re not making it official. We’re not marking her, there won’t be any bonding. I won’t put Jasper through that break if she fucks up. I just won’t,” he says, and I agree with that, too.