Page 32

Gideon

Bethany Wells was too tempting for her own good.

After hearing the way she had been treated by Cullen from Jensen, I was shocked that Cullen wasn’t sporting a broken nose.

Still, I couldn’t help but feel a little proud that she had slapped him.

After spending the drive to her choice of fast-food places and then her apartment in relative silence, I sped back to the house. My car smelled so fruity and tempting that I had a raging boner the entire drive home. I wasn’t the kind of alpha to get random boners. I was controlled, collected, but it seemed that whenever Bethany was near, my body had other ideas.

“Where’s the asshat?” I asked as I entered the kitchen, where Jensen was cutting some veggies and throwing them into a pot.

“Sleeping off the booze. Joey is dead to the world.”

“Does she need anything?” I asked, my chest tightening. Ever since Joey had been a baby, I had struggled with her being sick. Usually, I was logical and fixed things, but you couldn’t fix a sick child. Thankfully, we had a doctor in our pack, so he was usuallyable to keep an eye on things and reassure me when I started hovering like a control freak.

Jensen shook his head. “Honestly, Bethany took really good care of her. She fed her, kept her hydrated and comfortable. It’s just one of these childhood fevers. All Joey needs is rest and good food.”

“And Cullen was an ass to Bethany while she was taking such good care of our child?”

Jensen grimaced. “Yeah, he accused her of some nasty things, but from what I can tell, she put him in his place.”

I nodded thoughtfully. She was sweet and caring and maternal—everything we’d wanted Bella to be and were sorely disappointed—but at the same time, she had a fire to her. She wasn’t the kind to roll over and take someone talking down to her. Even if I didn’t condone violence, I respected her for slapping my pack mate when he deserved it.

Had I been there, I would have been tempted to punch him myself. Despite my desire to try and keep my feelings for Bethany professional and somewhat detached, I felt an overwhelming amount of gratitude toward her for her actions.

The rest of our evening was pretty calm. Joey was fast asleep, and we regularly checked on her while Jensen watched TV and I worked on my laptop.

Around eight p.m., Cullen came stumbling down the stairs. “Hey,” he greeted us as he padded toward the kitchen. He had dark circles under his eyes and looked worse for wear.

“How are you feeling?” Jensen asked, not looking away from the TV.

“Fine,” he grumbled. “I only had three drinks. It was just because I had them in quick succession.”

“Sure…” I trailed off. He was totally lying to himself; the sad reality was, we just couldn’t drink like we used to, given we were getting on in years.

“I need to go get my car. I can’t leave it on the side of the road in a college neighborhood. That’s just asking for it to get broken into,” he said as he walked into the living room, a bottle of water in hand, and collapsed onto the couch next to Jensen.

“Oh, you don’t need to worry about that. The car is here,” I said casually, doing my best to keep the smirk off my face.

Cullen frowned. “How?”

I turned to him with a grin, unable to help myself. Jensen was biting back a laugh of his own. “Bethany drove it back here.”

Cullen paled, and I could have sworn he turned a little green. “Oh, god…is it okay? Did she beat it up? She totally would have been within her rights to, but that thing was so expensive and so pretty…”

“You accused the woman who was taking care of a sick child of stalking you and kidnapping the child she was caring for,” I pointed out.

Cullen groaned, throwing his head back. “I’m going to need to get a new car, aren’t I?”

Unable to hold back anymore, Jensen burst into laughter. “Dude, your car is fine. She drove it back in immaculate condition and looked terrified of scratching it. Even after you were a complete ass to her, she drove your car safely.”

“Well, I didn’t think it was possible for me to feel like more of an ass, but apparently, it is.” Cullen groaned, closing his eyes.

“No matter our feelings on the matter, we have to agree that Bethany is someone we can trust. She’s proven to us time and time again, especially today, that she has Joey’s best interests at heart,” Jensen said, muting the TV.

I nodded thoughtfully. We always struggled to trust anyone else with our daughter, given our past. In the early days, when we had considered dating other omegas, we had found a few who had been far more interested in us than in Joey.

One omega even had the audacity to suggest we rehome Joey, like she was a fucking Pomeranian.