Page 44 of The Beta: Part One

Chapter 18

Devon

How did Talia stop being the enemy?

How did she go from being something to tolerate until she couldn’t stand to be here anymore to something that I have to find a way to keep so that Jasper will be happy?

And I can’t even find fault with her. She has gone out of her way to be decent and helpful, and she’s been so good for Jasper. I knew he was lonely. We are his alphas, and his lovers. We live and breathe for his love and happiness, but she is his friend.

His friend who may soon be his lover, too. I don’t know how to process that. Jasper has never bothered to look at a woman before her, not even when he was younger and going through all the hormonal changes that we go through as we mature from childhood. Since he had that make out session with her, he’s been surprisingly interested in her.

When he was begging for her during his heat, it was excruciating to me because I couldn’t get her for him; and also because he actually wanted her. I wasn’t enough for him. No, that isn’t fair.

He needs all four of us, me, Kaleb, Trent, and Nathan. He needs every bit of everything we can give him. But when he was impaled on my cock, my knot lodged inside him, and he was still begging for her, it made me feel like I wasn’t enough for him. I haven’t talked to the others about it yet, but I know that Kaleb would have brought her in kicking and screaming and held her down for Jasper if it wasn’t so important for her to remain outside the nest.

One of the most torturous things I’ve had to endure to date is him crying out, begging for one of us to bring her to him so he could just see her, begging for her because he needed her with him, too. And one of the hottest things I’ve ever heard is him describing to me, in vivid detail, wanting so badly to ride me while Talia was right beside him riding Kaleb, so he could kiss her in between them sucking off Trent and Nathan.

He begged us to go get her so he could watch one of us fuck her. I’ve never refused him anything and it killed me to watch his face as I told him no over and over again. Then today, watching him scrub every scent off of her but his own, watching him put his clothes on her, watching him care for her the way I care for him, it hurt me.

Is it fear? Am I afraid of this girl? Afraid of her taking my place in his heart? Would she?

I don’t think so. She doesn’t want to take anything from me. She just wants to give everything to him, and that should be okay because that’s exactly what I want to do. I want to give him the entire world, and I think she might be the only other person who wants that as intensely as I do.

She hasn’t done a single thing to make me believe she wants to displace me or damage our pack. If anything, she has proven to be an asset.

Maybe I’m jealous. Fuck, I don’t know. And what’s the absolute worst is that I absolutely do want to fuck her. I have woken up with my hand on my dick more than once because I was dreaming about her spread out in front of me like a banquet. I haven’t been with or thought about being with a woman in literal years, Jasper has been more than enough to keep me satisfied. Maybe that’s it, maybe I’m freaking out because maybe I actually do want her, and that scares the shit out of me.

I can’t dwell on it, either. I don’t have time.

We have the auction coming up and Talia and Jasper had a brilliant and terrifying idea for the entertainment she and Jasper will provide. Something that will earn massive donations for this year’s chosen charities and should end up gaining a lot of excellent information in the process.

She and Jasper will play a game of truth or dare, there will be seats at the table that people can bid on in order to join their game, and every question or dare will cost two thousand dollars. All the questions and dares will be directed at either Jasper or Talia, and they each will have one veto they can play to avoid a question or a dare, the person who paid for it will have one additional opportunity for another question or dare without additional cost.

There are other rules, no dares can go against council or pack regulations, which will protect Jasper from being forced to do anything physical with any of the players, and neither of them are allowed to do anything that would endanger themselves or our pack. Each alpha of our pack will also have one veto, that rule is in place to provide an additional safety net for Jasper and Talia.

Talia’s mother is right. They had the attention of nearly every alpha at that dinner a few weeks ago, and they kept it for a few weeks afterward. There was so much buzz around the two of them, and it was all I could do to not be a dick about it. Everyone wanted to know about our beautiful omega’s tiny, little defender. Pictures were taken of them smiling and dancing and looking so lovely together that it is almost painful to look at them.

I, and even my father, fielded so many questions about Talia’s position in our pack. He seems to think it is just a matter of time before we bond her in, but I don’t know that I’ll ever be ready for that. I can keep her here for Jasper, but her being here and her being a permanent part of us are two completely different things.

“Soooooooo, that happened,” Nathan says, side-eyeing me from behind the security desk.

I wish I had some of his laid back attitude sometimes, just a little bit.

“It did,” I admit gruffly.

It did happen, but I don’t know what to say about it.

“Are we going to be okay with him fucking her?” he asks, moving his eyes back to the computer monitor.

The fact that he’s asking me like that tells me that he’s okay with it. I know Kaleb is okay with it. Trent would relish the opportunity to sit in on it, so he’s obviously okay with it. That just leaves me. He says we, but he means me, am I okay with Jasper fucking Talia. They’re all going to ask me until I give them an answer.

I hiss out a breath, “It will be good for him.”

And it will be. Talia is beautiful, and she’s such a delicate, pretty match for him. I couldn’t ask for a better partner.

“Yeah, but are we going to be okay with it?” he asks again, and I sigh again. I guess we will have to be okay with it.

“It’ll be fine. He’s our omega. He loves us. And if she hurts him I’ll just have to kill her.”

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