Page 46 of The Beta: Part One

Chapter 19

Kaleb

It’s already too hot to sleep. We’ve got the AC running and fans going, but the heat is becoming oppressive and it’s not even in mid-summer. I’ve been rolling and kicking around in my bed for at least an hour, and now everything feels too mussed and sweaty to be comfortable. It’s officially time to get up and walk around for a few minutes, and probably remake my bed.

Devon and Jasper are welded together with sheets tangled around their legs when I look in on them. Jasper is one of those people who clings to you when he sleeps, and Devon puts out heat like a damn furnace; so this is one time I’m glad to not be included in that sleeping arrangement.

Nathan is still up, working on some equipment at the station he has set up in his room; and Trent is starfished, bare-assed naked in his bed. I grab a couple bottles of water from the fridge for me and Nathan, and I’m pulling the sheets off my bed when I remember Talia in the attic. If it’s this hot down here with the AC and fans running, it must be roasting up there. I don’t think anyone even thought of giving her a fan. We really are assholes.

When I make it to the top of the stairs I’m sweating. Really sweating. From just climbing the stairs. It’s so hot in this attic that I can hardly breathe. It’s been growing steadily hotter for days, and Talia hasn’t complained. I don’t know who is more stubborn; her for sticking this out no matter the conditions or Devon for ignoring the conditions on purpose to make Talia miserable enough to leave.

Talia isn’t going any fucking where. That much is obvious. And Devon is putting unnecessary effort into being a dick. It’s complete nonsense. There isn’t even a real window up here, for fuck sake; just a little square of glass that is providing just enough moonlight in to make out her shape on the bed.

Talia is sprawled across it on her stomach, the sheets kicked down and hanging into the floor. She might as well be naked as all she is wearing is a pair of pink panties that are barely covering her ass. She doesn’t strike me as a pink-panties girl, but it’s definitely a happy surprise.

I’m standing beside her bed now and she still hasn’t stirred. It can’t possibly be because she trusts us so much that my presence in her room doesn’t trigger enough of a response to wake her. It’s just too hot, and her body is working too hard to regulate itself that I’m not even a blip on the radar.

I reach down and lightly place my hand on her back between her shoulder blades and have enough time to register that her body temperature is alarmingly high before she’s standing in the center of the bed aiming a gun at my face.

“What are you doing?” Her voice is calm, level, like she’s been awake for hours instead of less than a few seconds. It’s all I can do to keep my eyes from wandering down her body.

“Checking on you.”

“Why?”

“It’s very hot up here.”

“You’ve never checked on me before now. Has something happened?” She’s asking perfectly reasonable questions, but there’s still a gun pointing at me inches from my forehead.

“Are you going to shoot me?”

“No,” she says, and lowers her gun, “Jasper wouldn’t be happy with me if I did. Is something wrong?”

“Nothing’s wrong. But you can’t stay up here. Will you put a shirt on? You’re very…distracting.”

“Oh.” She hops off the bed and tosses the gun onto the mattress after she puts the safety on, then she grabs a tank top from under her pillow. It has unfortunately been worn quite a bit as the material is opaque. It’s clinging to her curves and I can make out her taut nipples trying to stab holes into it. The shirt might actually be worse than if she was naked.

“What do you mean, I can’t stay up here? What’s going on?”

I rub the back of my neck to avoid staring at her. “I mean, it’s too hot for you to be up here. I’m moving your room to the basement. I’ll get your bed moved down to the utility room beside the laundry room tomorrow. You’re sleeping on the couch tonight.”

“Oh. Umm,” she looks down at her front, “Let me throw on something a little more…more.”

Hard agree. I don’t know who would be more pissed off to find her sleeping on the couch in that tank top-pink panty ensemble, Jasper or Devon; and Trent’s eyes might actually pop out of his head.

She pulls a tee shirt from a stack on the table near the bed and a pair of shorts from the floor and throws them on.

“Come on,” I turn away and make my way back down the stairs. She follows me as we walk past Nathan’s open bedroom door, he almost falls out of his chair craning his head to watch us.

“Are you sure this is a good idea?” Talia asks, eyeing me as she sits down on the couch.

“It’s fine. You can’t stay up in the attic with it being this hot. You felt like you were on fire, and you didn’t even twitch when I walked into your room. It’s only going to get hotter, and staying up there is dangerous. We’ll get you settled in the room in the basement tomorrow. I’ll feel better knowing you’re down there and not upstairs dying of a heat stroke. If Devon has an issue with the move he can take it up with me. Goodnight.”

She hesitates for just a moment, but I hear her getting more comfortable as I leave the room.

Nathan is waiting for me to pass his doorway when I walk down the hall. “What’s going on?” he whispers.

“It’s too hot for anyone to be up in the damn attic, much less a four-pound beta who’s just stubborn enough to lay up there and let the heat kill her because of an even more stubborn alpha’s temper. Will you help me move the bed into the utility room in the basement tomorrow?” I’m whispering, too, even though she’s perfectly able to hear us from the couch.

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