Page 14 of Beta and the Beast (Beastverse #2)

Henry

" H e finally named him?" Sam asks me, his beer bottle paused halfway to his lips. "How'd you even get them talking to one another?"

"That would be your sister's doing," I tell him, shaking my head at how easily Sarah made the alphas feel welcomed after being so dejected. She continues to make them feel welcome every day they're up at the bakery helping out.

She made Vilkas feel comfortable enough to come out and expected him to behave himself. It might've been the first time anyone, including myself, as awful as that sounds, has expected him to be good. I know he can be, but I've always expected the worst. It's something I now know I need to work on.

" What did my sister do? " Fenrir asks, his voice a low growl as he stares at me.

He still doesn't like me. He probably won't start liking me until I can get my teeth into his sister, and even then, that might not help.

The only reason he hasn't killed me yet is because he has no idea what all Romulus and I have done in an attempt to seduce his sister.

Not that it's been a lot, but ejaculating on her pillow is probably more than enough reason to want our head on a spike.

"The boys and I—"

" Don't want to hear it from you, " Fenrir snarls.

I don't know how he does it, but his eyes flick up and down my body, and I've never felt so judged in my life.

No one has ever managed to pack as much shrewdness in one look as Fenrir.

I'm not even self-conscious most of the time, considering no one makes fun of how we look more than Romulus, but Fenrir looking at me like he's found me lacking has me tucking tail a bit.

"Stop being an ass," Lilah, Scott and Fenrir's mate, comes to my rescue by placing her palm on Fenrir's chest and taking his attention off me. "Henry hasn't done anything to you."

" It's not about me. " Fenrir lets out an annoyed huff. " He said things about Sarah. "

"Romulus made one crude remark." Sam steps to my defense.

I hate that he's omitting so much of the other stuff Romulus has done.

Maybe he doesn't know about the jerking off or about the lock on the filtration system.

I imagine he knows about the latter, but it's still broken in Sarah's apartment.

I doubt either of her brothers would force her to live with my smell, especially with how much it's affecting her.

Sweet beta wishes she were an omega. She tries to perfume for us. Tries so hard.

Now is not the time, Romulus.

She'll be here soon. Her body wants us. She can't even stop herself at this point. She just doesn't have the anatomy to do what she wants.

I rub at my temples, missing parts of the conversation as Sam tells Lilah and Fenrir about Sarah helping with the younger alphas and making them feel better about themselves. I need to get myself under control because if I don't, I'm going to stink up the entire backyard during family dinner.

It doesn't help that Lucas looks at me and shakes his head like he knows I'm a lost cause.

He hasn't asked me about my intentions with Sarah, but it's easy to pick up on since I haven't been to our apartment except to grab clothes since I started staying across the hall from her.

My brother knows me, knows I don't chase betas.

Whatever I want with Sarah, it's serious.

Now, if I could just get her to see that, too.

"Look, it's easy helping them pick their names. You just look up cool wolf names and pick one at random." Sarah's voice has me stiffening in my pants in an instant.

It's not voluntary, and neither is the plume of my pheromones nor the low rumble of my purr.

Everyone turns to look at me, Fenrir with his eye twitching, the omegas smiling at me because they know why I'm reacting the way I am.

Even Sam and Lucas look more amused than anything.

The only one who seems unimpressed and unhappy with my reaction is the only one I want to be drawn in.

Sarah's left her hair free, covering her neck, much to Romulus's annoyance and my relief.

Her scent is faint, just like it always is, but Romulus and I zone in on it with no problem.

She's so unbelievably beautiful. The air is warmer than it was this morning, and she's stripped off whatever outer layer she was wearing, leaving her in jeans and a tank top now.

She frowns at me, but it doesn't stop my purr or her from continuing what she's saying. "I don't know what your obsession is with wolves. Is it because you're called alphas?"

"Yes, we're just that easy," Lucas pipes up, lifting his beer toward Sarah. "You should know just how easy we are."

Sarah's face doesn't turn pink. No, it skips it entirely until it's bright red, which signals how easily Lucas called her out.

I don't like her feeling uncomfortable, no matter who's doing it or for what reason.

It's not helped by the new fear Romulus and I unlocked after telling Sarah how we came up with names for Romulus and Remus when she seemed worried about Lucas's well-being.

It started as the slightest hint of us wondering if she found him more enticing because of his physique and ability to keep her safe.

We can also keep her safe, but Lucas and Remus fight for a living.

No one is safer than with them. Since then, we've been a little jealous of our brother, a little envious of what he has that our Sarah might find attractive.

So, with Sarah feeling embarrassed and us already being upset with Lucas and Remus for reasons they have no idea about, we launch ourselves over the table at our brother. The stupid asshole is ready for it. It's almost like he wanted this exact scenario to play out.

"Romulus, enough!" Sarah's voice has a tether directly into our mind.

Everyone else is talking, too, but do we care about any of them? No, we care about one little beta and the shrill way she tells us to stop when she doesn't like how we're acting. Romulus spins around to face her before we even get our hands on Lucas.

"You owe me twenty," Lucas says to someone, probably Sam. Romulus is too focused on how Sarah's chest is heaving in her tank top to care much about anything other than her.

" Enough of what, little beta? " Romulus asks, tilting our head to the side as he looks down at Sarah. There's a good chance he grabs for her and tosses her over our shoulder like the caveman he is.

Good plan. Let's do that.

Romulus takes a step toward Sarah, who takes a retreating step back.

Our lips twitch at the idea of getting to chase.

We don't even care about Fenrir's low rumble of a growl.

No, if anything, Romulus picks up the volume of our purr as if it can distract Sarah from the fact that we're seconds away from making it clear to everyone at this dinner that we're interested in her.

"Whatever you're thinking about doing, don't." Sarah's eyes go wide, her arms crossing over her chest, doing nothing but pushing her breasts up and plumping them under our gaze.

" Tell me what I'm thinking of doing, " Romulus commands, taking another step closer to her.

Her eyes dart around to the other people on the patio with us.

We should care about them being out here, but we can't. Not when Sarah is flushed and needy.

She's been needy for us since we flooded her apartment with our pheromones and haven't let the place air out.

She's nonstop hot for us, and no amount of her toys or her fingers is going to do her any good.

No, she needs the real thing, but I don't think she's at the point where she's going to ask for it yet.

Even worse, I think she's partially a masochist because she's doing this to herself.

She could've aired out her apartment, asked her brother to make me fix it, or asked me to fix it.

I would've. I had every intention of fixing it as soon as she asked, but she still hasn't, and it's because she likes being surrounded by my scent, being needy and achy and empty for me.

You mean me. She wants me to fuck her.

"If you're not thinking of giving Henry control of your body again, I'll be disappointed. So figure out if what you want is worth that."

" I'd never hurt you, " Romulus says through clenched teeth as though Sarah is implying he might. It's clear to me and everyone else in this backyard that she's proving she has Romulus wrapped around her little finger and willing to do her bidding without fuss.

Why fuss? I'd like to be wrapped around her. If she needs to feel in control in front of everyone, fine. She'll let me be in control where it matters.

Romulus lets me take over, and I'm left to fix whatever mess this display has caused. I rub the back of my neck, keeping my eyes on Sarah for a moment longer, so she understands just how good Romulus is willing to be for her. She steps up to me, her hand resting on my sweatered chest.

"I know Romulus would never hurt me," she says just loud enough for me to hear. Then she walks past me and shakes her head. "I need wine."

Fenrir is leaning against the house. His arms crossed over his chest as he watches me watch his sister walk away. He frowns, but then Scott is in control of their body when he pushes off the wall.

"My turn for pot roast," he tells me with a wiggle of his brows. "Plus, I don't think we've ever even talked to one another."

He slaps me on the shoulder before finding his seat at the table next to his mate. I take my time sitting down, trying to keep Romulus and myself calm. It doesn't take much to get us worked up. Not when it comes to Sarah.

"You haven't talked with him because Fenrir likes to get all big, bad alpha around him," Sarah says with a mocking tone in her voice.

I sit beside her, not hiding how I slide my chair closer until I'm invading her space. Her lips flatten in the adorable way they do when she's pretending to be irritated with me, but she returns her attention to the rest of the table when I start piling food onto my plate.