Page 27 of Beta and the Beast (Beastverse #2)

Henry

" D o we really need to do this?" Sarah asks, standing in front of Jace as if she's willing to take on her brother if he gives her the wrong answer. Sam is the only one out here right now. Scott's inside with the omegas.

"This is how we've always introduced new beasts to family dinner," Sam says, shrugging as though that's enough.

"He is a child."

Sam snorts, and I have to stop myself from doing the same. I mean, technically, yes, Jace and Vilkas aren't adults yet, but it's funny for her to be saying it about him.

"He's twice your size, Sarah," Sam says, mirroring my thoughts exactly.

"Oh, I'm sorry, did the world change, and suddenly age is determined by size?" she asks, looking at her brother like he's a dumbass, and even I feel a residual amount of her ire.

It's been a little under a week since Vilkas has been staying at her apartment on the couch. She told him to take her bed, but Romulus was not happy about that arrangement, and Jace and his beast weren't either. He told her he'd take the couch or find somewhere else to stay, and she relented.

It's been nice having him stay with her.

He cares about her and wants to protect her as much as I do.

I wouldn't be surprised if he ends up packing up later in life.

Some alphas prefer that lifestyle, one that isn't as popular anymore as it used to be.

But some still have the calling for it, and based on how much they cling to any kind of family unit, it's safe to say Jace and Vilkas will try to find a pack when they're older.

Since he's been staying with Sarah, Romulus and I haven't been able to court her like we'd like to.

Any moments we get alone are typically interrupted since the apartment isn't very big.

When she's at work, I'm at the center; when she's not at work, I'm either still at the center or bringing Jace over to her place.

It has Romulus on edge. He staked a claim on her but hasn't been able to fulfill it.

I need to bend her over and sink my teeth and cock deep into her. Mold her around us and mark her as mine.

I clear my throat to get those thoughts to dissipate. Sarah's still giving Sam a staredown, challenging him to argue with her again about Jace being a kid.

I pull my phone out of my pocket and dial Scott's number while the two stare at one another.

Jace is one part terrified because it's the first time he's been invited over to family dinner, something Sarah told him he had to go to because she didn't want him sitting alone in the apartment while we were both over here having fun.

He's also excited. Again, he's definitely got a pack mentality.

"Is something wrong?" Scott asks.

"No, I just need to know if you or Fenrir have ever tried to fight a child?" I ask, raising my voice so Sam and Sarah can hear me. Their attention snaps away from the staring contest they're in to glare at me in synchrony.

"No, and I told Sam he didn't have to do this whole thing." Scott pulls the phone away from his mouth, but I can hear him yell in the background. "Janie, go get your mate, he's being weird!"

Not even five seconds later, Janie comes out of the house to where we're all standing in the driveway. I hang up the phone and return to standing next to Sarah, my hand on her lower back, making as much of a claim on her as possible.

She's gotten used to us touching her more often.

A hand on the back of her neck, a brush of our fingers over hers, an arm draped over her shoulders.

The longer we're together and around one another, the more natural it all feels.

Not to mention how, more often than not, I find myself kissing her when we say goodbye or good night or when I wake up early as ass in the morning so I can eat breakfast with her before the world is even awake.

Being around her, touching her, kissing her, is the most natural thing in the world for us, or at least that's how it feels and how easy it is.

How easily we've slotted ourselves into one another's lives.

If she still has doubts about whether Romulus and I want her, she hasn't said anything, but I know she's planning something with Sam, something he refuses to talk to me about, even though my brother and cousin are in on it, too.

"Sam, we talked about this." Janie comes out with her hands on her hips, tilting her head to look at her mate.

"I'm sorry. I don't want there to be a fight at dinner," Sam says, throwing his hands up.

"There was a fight last week because of this one and Remus." Sarah points at me.

I try not to look too guilty because I'm supposed to be a good role model for Jace, and he doesn't need to know I jumped over the table to try to fight my brother because Romulus and I had a tiny sliver of dread that our beta might think he was a more suitable mate than us.

He still is.

She wants us, though.

She wants me, but I guess you can pretend she wants you, too.

"Fen isn't going to start a fight with a kid, and Vilkas isn't going to start a fight with a beast older than him," Sarah says, looking at Jace standing at her other side. He dips his head in a short nod, always willing to do what she says.

"Now that that's settled, let's go have dinner."

***

Watching Sarah eat is easily one of my and Romulus's favorite things to do.

Would much rather watch her wrap her lips around my cock than her fork. He grumbles in our shared mind as our eyes are locked onto where Sarah's lips are pressing together, the metal tines of her fork slowly visible as she pulls it out of her mouth.

Lucas kicks me under the table, forcing me to look at him so I can scowl in his direction. He has an amused look on his face, and I realize everyone is looking at me, waiting for me to say something. Did someone ask us a question?

"Uh…"

"Sam asked if you're excited about the renovations they're starting tomorrow?" Jace, out of everyone sitting at the table, is the one to rescue me from further embarrassing myself. I make a mental note to grab more of that ice cream he likes on the way home as a thank you.

"What renovations?" I ask, my brows pulling together. "Is this what everyone's been refusing to talk to me about?"

"I thought Sam was going to tell you," Sarah says, looking over at her brother, who gives her just as confused a look as she's giving him.

"Why would I tell him when you're the one always with him?" Sam asks.

Sarah rolls her eyes. "You're with him just as much at the alpha center."

"I don't spend the night with him," Sam grumbles under his breath, earning him growls from every alpha around the table.

The reaction is what he wants, though, his eyes sparkling when he looks at his sister.

For someone who wanted nothing to do with alphas, she sure has a lot who would jump to her defense if they think anyone might be disrespecting her.

"Well, I purposefully didn't tell you because I thought it was funnier this way and told Jace to tell the other boys not to tell you either." Lucas claps his hands together like he's some cartoon villain.

Sarah shakes her head, replying to her brother a little too late for it to sound believable, even though her words are true, "He doesn't spend the night."

I clear my throat, moving us back on topic. "What renovations?"

"We got permission from the landlord to knock down the wall separating the coffee shop dining room from the bakery's waiting area.

We're making it into one big shop." Sam leans back in his chair, watching to see what my reaction is going to be to that, and I don't think I disappoint him when I open my mouth to say something, anything, and have to close it because I don't know how to voice what I'm trying to say in front of all these people.

I turn toward Sarah, who's using her fork to push her food around so she doesn't have to look at me.

She's known about this the whole time. It might've even been her idea to help her coffee shop.

And I need to know if she realizes that it means we'll be around each other all the time.

If that wall goes down, and I know she's at the coffee shop, I'll be at the bakery just to be in the same building as her.

"You want this?" I ask, my voice quiet as though everyone at the table isn't listening.

Romulus flickers in control, not to fight them, but because he wants out when our little beta tells us she wants to be around us as much as we want to be around her. If she tears down that wall, our lives are more interconnected than they already are, and she's never getting rid of us.

"Can we talk somewhere more private?" Sarah asks, her eyes darting around the table, narrowing on one of her brothers.

Romulus is up and out of his seat before he gets confirmation that we can use Janie and Sam's house for our privacy. I'm surprised he doesn't throw Sarah over his shoulder and march her inside to the first soft surface he finds.

Need to hear her say it first. Need to know she's mine.

"Don't fu–" Someone hits Sam. I don't know if it's his mate or brother or my brother or Jace, but he doesn't get to finish whatever he's saying, and Sarah and I ignore him.

Romulus waits until the sliding glass door snicks shut behind us, and then he drags Sarah over to the couch and pins her body underneath ours.

" What did you want to talk about? " he asks.

His mouth is on hers as soon as he asks the question, keeping her from replying until he's had his fill of her lips against his, his tongue in her mouth.

The sweet scent of her as her arousal blooms in the air around us.

When he pulls away, he purrs in satisfaction at the lusty look on her face and the swollen pink of her lips.