Page 18 of The Beta: Part One

Then she jerks her head to the side to show Devon that she’s submitting to him, but the snarl on her face is so deep that her teeth are bared. She is the epitome of anger and disgust, but Devon must accept it because he sniffs her neck once and then leans away from her. She turns away then and stomps across the floor, embedding more glass shards into her feet.

Nathan, who has remained quiet this whole time, touches her arm as she passes by him and she jerks away from him with a little growl of her own, but gives him her attention.

“Let me look at you before you go upstairs, I can stitch you up if you need it,” he offers.

“I’m fucking fine,” she snaps, “I’ll clean all this up after I pick the fucking glass out of my feet.” Then she storms down the hall and up to the attic.

Nathan and I share a look. We’re going to clean up this mess, not her. And hopefully he can convince her to let him at least check her eye.

I can feel how angry and afraid Jasper still is through our bond. I want to tell him I’m proud of him for shooting one of these assholes, but I’m too relieved that he’s alright. If anything happened to him our pack would implode. He’s filled in so many gaps between all of us that we didn’t even know were there by just being him.

I know he needs to feel like he’s a bigger part of us than just our omega, and I try to make him see that he’s so much more than that. He needs to feel strong and masculine, but we forget that too much of the time. It isn’t his fault that the four of us are in a constant state of trying to court him.

Hell, before him I never gave being with a male a thought, but the moment I caught his scent I knew he was meant to be mine. I felt this intense pull between us and I have been doing everything I can since then to make him understand how much I need him and to convince him he needs me. He’s the only thing in the world that makes me want to be sweet, and I try to be for him.

Kaleb growls at the firm rap on the door that none of us are expecting.

Nathan and I exchange a wide-eyed look over the collection of bodies and glass, “Did you request a crew?”

He shakes his head and looks to Devon, who also shakes his head.

I straighten, drawing my gun, and make sure Jasper is safely tucked between Kaleb and Devon before I move silently toward the door and look through the peephole. I recognize one of the three men waiting there, he’s a beta I’ve seen in the training workshops. All three are dressed in tan jumpsuits and are each carrying a case and a big canvas bag. They look like a clean up crew, just not one that we’ve used before.

“Names and business,” I demand without opening the door.

The beta I recognize says, “We’re the party planners Talia hired.”

That was really fucking fast.

“Wait there,” I tell them.

I call Talia’s phone and her voice is quiet and tight when she answers, “What’s wrong?” she asks.

“Did you call a clean up crew?” I murmur into the phone.

“I did. Party planners. They should be here any moment.”

I open the door and wave them inside, “They’re here, don’t come down. Everything’s good.” If she comes back downstairs it might trigger another situation with Devon. I tell the crew to start in the entryway and go to tell Devon and the rest what’s going on.

Unsurprisingly, Devon has Nathan usher Jasper to one of the bedrooms to keep him out of sight and out of danger, and away from this crew we’ve never worked with before. They’re good. They don’t ask questions, they don’t make comments or jokes, they just get the job done. The only time the lead beta says anything at all is when Kaleb tries to help bag up one of the bodies; he told him it would be better for their process if he and the other household members stayed back and let them work. The crew doesn’t know us and they don’t seem to want to; they’re actually actively trying to avoid looking at us at all.

Devon, Kaleb, and I stay well back but still very present until the crew finishes and leaves. They go to Devon's room where Jasper is and I want to check on Jasper, too, but I know he’s being smothered by enough alphas; so I go up to look in on Talia.

She’s on the floor hunched over her legs trying to pick glass shards out of her feet, she’s already got a little pile in front of her. I clear my throat and she doesn’t bother looking up, “How’s Jasper?” she asks, “I have to go apologize, I shouldn’t have yelled at him. Is he alright?”

“He’s fine, the others have him. Have you worked with that crew before?”

She nods, her face screwed up in concentration, her bottom lip trapped between her teeth. She’d be cute if I didn’t know she’s trying to dislodge a million slivers of glass from her soles.

“I don’t trust anyone else” she says.

“Can I help you?” I ask. I don’t expect her to let me, but I offer anyway. There’s no way she can see to get all that glass out.

She must come to the same conclusion because she purses her lips into a tiny line and hands over the tweezers. I sit on the floor across from her and reach for her foot. She sticks it straight out at me and puts it into my hand, and the same question I’ve had digging into the back of my mind since the first time I put eyes on her pricks at me again. How is she a beta? Her build is so much more like what I expect in a female omega. She’s obviously not weak, though; and she’s definitely well trained.

I start picking pieces out, she’s done a fair job on her own, but there are a few shards and slivers that she would have had a difficult time reaching.

“Did you recognize any of those pricks?” she asks, and lays back on the floor to make it easier to angle her foot.

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