Page 3 of The Beta: Part One

I nod in agreement, “I wouldn’t put it past a female with her past to do something like that to throw us off.”

“Are you sure she’s a beta? Where’s her paperwork? I need to look at it again. She’s,” Nathan pauses, “small. Even female betas aren’t that small.”

I agree with that, too. Her file is in the security room. Maybe we overlooked something. Or maybe her paperwork is full of lies to trick us into letting a female omega in. The problem with Jasper being our omega isn’t that he’s male, all omegas are considered precious no matter their sex; the issue is that he can’t procreate with us.

My father, as well as my pack members’ fathers, were elated when he joined our pack. We fought our way through so many other packs to prove that we were worthy of him. It was tedious, and fairly bloody, and we’d do it a million more times.

Our pack is the strongest and most politically powerful of all the eastern packs, and any children we would produce would be just as strong and powerful. Our omega just isn’t biologically capable of producing any. My well-meaning mother has suggested many times that a female omega or beta could be brought in just to reproduce with, but we are so devoted to Jasper that we cannot even fathom, let alone entertain the idea of fucking anyone other than him. I wouldn’t be surprised if she tried to sneak one in on us, though.

I toss the folder onto the island beside Jasper, who snaps it up and starts combing through it again. He starts reading notes aloud, “Insubordination. Disrespect to pack members. Refusal to submit to alpha’s command. Will not appropriately integrate into pack order. Does not submit to alpha. Uncooperative with direct orders. Disrespectful to alpha. Disagreement with established pack member resulting in permanent physical damage to pack member and disciplinary action by alpha. Refuses to submit to alpha and pack order. Threatened omega. Refuses to submit to direct orders.”

He looks at me with his lips pressed together in distaste, “Devon, why is she here? Who thought someone with that track record would do well with us, much less survive? And why is she so fucking small? Betas are not small like that, even females. She’s smaller than me. Is there something wrong with her?”

I don’t know, and I tell him as much. This is going to be a disaster. I honestly didn’t look too hard at the specifics of her folder. I agreed to take her on as a favor and I knew that if she did anything stupid I’d just send her packing, or kill her if she did something stupid enough. I didn’t note anything health related to account for her size, and my father warned me about her shitty attitude. I was expecting the absolute worst from this girl, and I still do. I don’t know what she’s trying to accomplish by ignoring our alpha status, and I can only guess why she’d submit to an omega. I’m sure it won’t be long before we find out.

Jasper shuffles the paperwork back into the folder, “Other than a really bad attitude, an apparent fetish for disciplinary action, and a rejection kink, I can’t find anything wrong with her.” He rolls his eyes and sighs, “This is going to go so well.”

His sarcasm is adorable.

“So, your father sent her here to be put out of his misery? Because if she causes even a fraction of the trouble here as she’s caused literally everywhere else she won’t live to spread her poison in another pack.”

He’s right. He’s so right. Because I will not allow her to disrupt or damage our pack.

Kaleb huffs back into the room, “What do we do with that?”

I cross my arms and shrug, “Wait it out. It won’t take long for her to show her true colors. I’m not pushing official submission to us since she submitted so completely to Jasper. For now. Did you tell her what her duties are?”

“I did. She’s going to get unpacked then meet me back down here so I can show her where everything is. Jasper, do you want to be here for that?” Jasper predictably declines, I didn’t think he’d want to have much to do with her outside of the basics. She’s technically supposed to be here as a support for him, to help with errands and things like that, and to be here when we all have to be away to provide a secondary, last ditch line of defense until we get back home. Although, I don’t know what a beta the size of a gnat could do besides alert us to a problem and get hurt.

Our line of work is dangerous, we earned our reputation well. Before Jasper came to us, it was a whole lot of military-grade espionage assigned by my father; but after it became public knowledge that we’d claimed him things got pretty out of hand. Now we are more of a localized COT than the international terrors we were.

Jasper comes from an extremely influential family with incredible international ties. Every pack on the eastern seaboard without an omega was battling it out to show him they were the best choice for him. Even some packs with an omega showed interest in him because of his lineage and connections. We just wanted him, with or without his influence and power. We were his the moment we laid eyes on him, and he was ours. We just had to prove to him and everyone else that we were worthy of him.

There were several kidnapping attempts in the first few months after the claiming and every few months someone will try something again. We’re hoping that it will stop as time goes by, but as it is, we can’t take him with us to meetings or on missions. It’s just too dangerous; and it would be impossible to concentrate on anything but his safety so we’d be in danger of fucking up the mission. And then that would fuck up my father’s day.

It’s better for Jasper to stay home when we go. We try to make sure one of us is here with him, for obvious safety reasons and also to ease his anxiety and discomfort from being separated from us, but there are times when the job requires all four of us. That was one of the better reasons my father used to convince us to take on this beta. She can be here when we're not, can call us if there's trouble, and can put herself between Jasper and trouble.

“I think I’ll go hide out in my room until dinner, unless you need me for anything,” Jasper says quietly, he's uneasy and his go-to coping mechanism is to cocoon himself in his nest, preferably with one of us.

“Of course, baby. You go on, we’ve got everything here. I'll come check in on you in a little bit.” Yeah, he’s spoiled, but we want him that way. He needs the affection and attention to thrive even if he resents that need, and if he’s healthy and happy and well loved then our pack will continue to strengthen and thrive. He tries hard to remind us that he’s still a trained tactical menace, and not the precious omega we see him as.

Jasper can’t help how we feel about and see him. We know he’s as dangerous as we are, we just can’t fight the deeply ingrained, and genetically reinforced, urge to treat him the way an omega should be treated. He is a contradiction, his DNA demands to be doted on and adored, but his demeanor demands respect for skills and accomplishments that have nothing to do with being an omega. It doesn't help that he looks like a nymph whose goal in life is to make my dick hard.

He hops off the counter and gives each of us a little peck. I get mine on my chin. So sweet. I don’t think I’ll ever not think everything he does is adorable, even if he is a hard-ass about accepting it.

Half an hour later, the beta is back in the kitchen. Kaleb is showing her where everything is and how we like things kept. Well, how Jasper likes things; the four of us don’t actually care so long as the place isn’t a total dump. She’s asking pretty great questions, if I’m honest.

She’s making sure we have foods that best support Jasper’s system, asking what treats are his favorite, does he have a favorite cup, she even looks fairly disapproving when she finds out we cater to his espresso habit. She doesn’t ask a single thing about our preferences. It’s strange that she's so uninterested. Every beta, male or female, that I’ve ever known has fallen all over themselves to find out what their alphas like, but this one doesn’t seem to care.

That should irk me, I know it should, but it’s almost a relief. I was worried Jasper’s needs and wants would be secondary to ours because he’s not an alpha, and I actually like that she doesn't seem to be concerned with us. I don’t like it enough to not be suspicious, though; she's bound to have a motive.

“And what about your alphas’ preferences? Will you defer to them?” I force a bite into my tone. I want to try to piss her off fast so we can get all this over with. The sooner she shows us what she’s really about, the sooner things can go back to normal, and with the incidents recorded in her file it shouldn’t be hard to get her to lose her temper. I’m all ready to rip her head off, but her answer is so close to one I’d give that I just bite the inside of my cheek.

“Respectfully, I haven’t been accepted into your pack, and you aren’t yet my alphas. You are the omega’s alphas, and I will do all I can to adhere to your preferences because they are important to him, if that’s what he wants me to do.”

What am I even supposed to say to that? It’s such a blunt, dry truth, and she was respectful when she said it.

Trent is trying hard not to smile. He saw what I was trying to do, and he always thinks it’s hilarious when someone says something that should be rude but just isn’t.

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