Page 7 of The Beta: Part One

Chapter 4

Devon

“I don’t know what else we can do to bait her. Nothing that won’t turn the blame on us and get us sanctioned.” I’m listening to Trent and Nathan talk about new ways to convince our little beta that this is not the place for her.

Trent isn’t wrong, we’ve all done what we can to make her angry enough to exhibit some of those unfortunate behaviors listed in her file. The problem is that she’s weathering it all.

Trent makes her re-clean the kitchen every other night. Nathan, who doesn't have a mean bone in his body, has found reason to criticize nearly every single thing she does. I’ve flipped her room twice and her car once. Even Kaleb, who has the most level temperament of all of us, has been the most unpleasant and foul version of himself. We’ve done our best to either ignore her, be totally dismissive, or outright nasty toward her. She’s just not meeting us with anything but neutral cooperation. And what makes it worse is that Jasper is beginning to let his guard down with her.

I walked into the living room earlier today to find them having an entire discussion about some book they’ve both apparently read. I didn’t even know Jasper liked to read. It isn’t because I don’t care, I just don’t spend my time with him reading. Sure, we talk about plenty of things, all kinds of things, but I don’t read and he’s never brought up the fact that he does. I plan on asking him about it now, though.

I didn’t like the look she had on her face when I was obviously clueless about something Jasper was so interested in. It felt like she was judging me. And found me lacking. I’ve been edgy and in my head ever since, wondering if there are other things he loves that I haven’t asked about.

I know he worries about being a bother, even though he knows we all worship and adore him. He knows he’s important to us, but sometimes I think he only thinks he’s important because he’s an omega. That’s so far from the truth. I love everything about Jasper. He’s also extremely sensitive about being a male omega. It doesn’t matter that he's everything to us, he gets hung up on the fact that he can’t give us babies. We don’t care, we don’t live a life that would be conducive to raising children, we just want him.

Another thing Jasper has been concerned about in the past, and another reason why he is so upset by the idea of a female beta, is that before him the four of us were mostly attracted to females. It doesn’t seem to matter how often or how thoroughly we reassure him that we only want him from now until forever, that he’s our sunshine, our beating heart, he thinks we will eventually miss having a female under us.

He just doesn’t understand, we love him, he’s our world, and we wouldn’t trade him for a female if we had hundreds of them throwing themselves at us. Which brings up yet another reason for us to be wary of a female beta. Way too many female betas are alpha chasers. There have been so many that tried to make friends with our Jasper to try to get to one of us. I know he’s lonely sometimes without friends, but he can’t tolerate females because he’s too afraid of being used and hurt and we can’t tolerate males because we're too damned jealous.

“What do you think, Devon?” Nathan asks me.

I really don’t know. I can’t think of anything else. I’ve combed through her file more times than I can count looking for anything that might trigger her into an attack or into being disrespectful enough to one of us to send her packing, but nothing works. The only truly problematic thing she’s done is not submit to any of us like any decent beta would, any of us except Jasper, anyway. And that isn’t enough to have her recalled because I haven’t offered to accept her into our pack. She’s not marked, and she doesn’t have to submit to any of us as her alpha. She’s just required to give us the blanket of respect all alphas are due, nothing more, and she’s done that well enough. The closest she’s come to actual disrespect is when she cursed at me when she found me flipping her room that first time, but she didn’t rail at me and she even waited on the stairs for me to finish ransacking it without complaining.

Fuck it. “Let’s give her a month to let her guard down and then give it another go. Jasper is due to go into heat in six weeks. We’ll give her time to think all’s good, then trigger her hard and get her gone before his heat. I can’t imagine him being okay with her being here when he’s out of it like that.” They all nod, and that’s that.

“Next order of business. Next week we have a dinner. A fancy dinner,” I wait for the groans and complaints to quiet. “I know we hate them, but Jasper loves them. He enjoys being shown off as much as we enjoy showing him off whether he likes to admit it or not, so he’s very excited to get all dressed up and have fancy ass food and dance fancy ass dances with us and listen to fancy people talk about their fancy ass bullshit.”

Trent snickers at my abundant use of the word fancy.

“We have secondary reasons for attending, as well. Something is happening with the council. My father has unofficially asked us to talk to some people, ask some questions, maybe get some names.” That’s all business per usual. And now for the kicker. “He has also asked that we bring the beta, and wouldn't hear any excuses. So, we’re taking the beta.”

They react exactly the way I thought they would, with a resounding no.

I don’t want to take her, either. And I know how anxious it will make Jasper to have her go along with us. The problem is that I really can’t tell my father we refuse to take her. It would also be pretty bad PR if her mother starts shrieking about her daughter not being able to attend with her new pack, since all pack members should be present.

We could weasel out of it because she isn’t an official member, but those types of technicalities won’t win us any favors. “I know this isn’t anything we want, but we don’t want to leave her here alone, either. Let’s just work to make sure Jasper’s so happy that he doesn’t care that she’s with us.”

Because that’s definitely what’s going to happen.

Jasper’s every bit as thrilled with having to take her as we are. He doesn’t rage about it, and he doesn’t exactly pout, but he does require some convincing that it won’t be as bad as he thinks. I happily and thoroughly convince him with my mouth. I kiss and lick and bite and suck him until he’s a gorgeous little puddle, and then I go to inform the beta that she has a week to find a dress.

“No.” Her response is flat.

“No?” I repeat. thinking maybe this is the ticket to getting her out of here, this might be the line in the sand that finally causes her to snap.

“No. I’m not going to any dinner. It would be disrespectful and upsetting to your omega,” she explains, and fuck if it isn’t a legitimate reason for trying to refuse to attend a council dinner.

“Tough. You’re going. My father is requesting your attendance because your mother has harassed him.”

She pinches the bridge of her nose, “Of fucking course she has. I’ll call her and get out of it.”

Not happening, especially now that I can see that upsetting Jasper isn’t the only reason she doesn’t want to go. “No can do, sweetheart. If you want to keep trying to become part of this pack, you get to jump when my father says to jump just like the rest of us,” I watch her rip a hand through her dark brown hair, almost as dark as Jasper’s.

It’s loose right now, probably because she’s close to turning in for the night. She usually keeps it contained in either a braid down her back or a bun on the top of her head, and she looks a little less sour with it draping around her face and shoulders. “I can’t go, I don’t have a dress, or money for a good enough dress; and they won’t let me wear slacks. I know because I’ve tried for years. I’ll call my mother and make her apologize for bothering your father.”

Oh she really, really doesn’t want to go. I enjoy her grimace when I inform her that she will, in fact, be going, “No, you’re going. I’ll get you a dress. Text me your size. Shoes, too. It will make me look bad if you’re not there, and worse if you beg your mother to beg my father. Don’t worry, you won’t have to do anything but sit at the table, keep your mouth shut, and be a good representative of my pack.”

“Fine,” she bristles.

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