Page 32 of Beta and the Beast (Beastverse #2)

Henry

B ury your face in her cunt.

Romulus is wide awake when my eyes flutter open. Of course, he is, and based on how tired our body feels, there's a good chance he was awake most of the night just staring at Sarah. I don't blame him.

After we finished last night and I held her for a bit, we took a shower together.

One where I was a complete gentleman and only fondled her the entire time I was soaping her up.

She commented on me having her favorite body wash, shampoo, conditioner, and her brand of razors.

I had the honor of being on my knees when she brought it up and kissed her right between her legs as she listed off everything else I filled this apartment up with that I thought she might need, like, or want.

Romulus let me have control until I tasted her sweetness, and then he was out, pressing her back against the tile as he lifted one of her legs over his shoulder and devoured her like a starving man.

He wasn't satisfied until she came on his face twice, and even then, he only relented because she was tugging on our hair too much.

"How late did we sleep in?" Sarah groans as she rolls over, her body arching as she stretches out.

"Not too late," I tell her, looking at the alarm clock on the side of the bed just long enough to catch the time before returning my gaze to her body as the covers slip lower. "It's only eight."

"That's late for me," she says with a smile when she looks at me. "Let me go brush my teeth, and we can figure out our plans for the day."

Plans for the day include: eating our mate's pussy and fucking our mate's pussy. All other plans can go fuck themselves.

While Romulus makes a great point, I don't voice it to our mate as she leaves the bed, wearing nothing except for a fresh bandage I put on her bite last night.

I watch her ass swaying, knowing she's adding to it just to get us worked up, and it works.

Romulus is in control as soon as she leaves our sight, stalking after her like a predator.

"Thank you for getting me a toothbrush," Sarah says as she starts brushing her teeth.

Romulus, who wants to drag her back to bed, huffs a little and grabs ours.

Sarah applies our toothpaste, and we spend too long with this mundane task before she spits first, and we follow suit.

Romulus doesn't let her rinse her mouth before grabbing her around the waist and carrying her back to the room.

" You're mine for the day, beta, " he growls, loving how she opens her legs for him as he crawls between them.

"And what are you going to do with me, alpha?" she teases, shimmying back on the bed as though she can get away from us.

" How sore are you? " he asks, surprising all three of us. Don't get me wrong, I know Romulus cares about Sarah and wouldn't do anything to hurt her, but fucking is kind of the only thing on his mind right now, and if she's too sore for that, then…

There are other things besides fucking. Get your mind out of the gutter.

"I'm a little sore," Sarah says, curling her toes in the bedspread like she's embarrassed that she might not be able to take us again so soon. "We can try, though."

" How about you let me enjoy you for a little while, " Romulus purrs, lowering us between her legs, grabbing her hips, and lifting her to meet our mouth. " If this is too much, let me know. "

It's not. Sarah lets Romulus stay between her thighs until she's spent and boneless, her voice raw from how many times she cried out his name.

By the time we shower for the second time in twelve hours, it's almost noon, and Sarah is eager to get downstairs and see how the renovations are going at the coffee shop and bakery.

I'm more interested in keeping her in bed, maybe waiting until she's not too sore to go again, but she wants to go downstairs, so we'll at least pop in and say hi.

Romulus and I might also be more than excited to have everyone down there see her bite mark, even though it's covered with a fresh bandage, and smell us on every inch of her skin.

Sure, the ventilation system will be on, but if anyone's close enough to her, they'll smell us all over her body.

Yeah, the closer we get to the entrance to the coffee shop with its door propped open, the straighter we stand, the more proud we are of the beautiful woman walking next to us, our arm over her shoulder, her hand around our waist.

"Well, good morning, love birds!" Gabe shouts when he sees us walking in, causing everyone in the building to turn in our direction. The room goes silent as his crew very purposefully looks anywhere but at my beta, and that alone is enough for Romulus and me to get our hackles raised.

"Where's Janie?" Sarah asks as she looks around the coffee shop for her sister.

Gabe rubs the back of his neck, his cheeks turning a soft shade of pink, as he bites back a smile. "Uh, look, you two are freshly mated, and the walls aren't very thick if you get my meaning."

Romulus doesn't like what he's implying, but it makes the reaction everyone in the shop is having make sense. They all heard my beta falling apart on my mouth–

My mouth. You did nothing but yap about how good she tastes and how pretty she is the entire time.

–and now they aren't quite sure how to respond. Sarah, thankfully, takes it all in stride. If she shows any signs of being uncomfortable, Romulus will be out and snarling.

"So, Janie left, that's fine. Where are you guys at on the renovations?" Sarah asks, her cheeks flaming, but her voice firm.

I tug her closer, my hand slipping a little lower on her hip. What can I say? I'm freshly mated to the most beautiful woman I've ever met. She'll be lucky if I'm not touchy and clingy every moment of every day for the rest of our lives.

Gabe walks us through what's been done so far, where they're working on tearing down the wall, a support beam they're putting in, and tells us it should all be done by the weekend.

Gabe's guys are respectful enough, though their way of being respectful is to ignore us altogether.

It's probably how Gabe told them to behave since Romulus is a beast, and they can be unpredictable.

My cousin knows Romulus doesn't like to fight, but that's not something that needs to be broadcast to all the other alphas out there.

"Oh, when Sam came by to pick up his mate, he told me that some paperwork came in for you at the center. Some foster stuff. He said it was probably important, but he forgot it on his desk when he came by."

"Thanks for letting me know," I tell him, a little annoyed because that's something I need to grab today, but that means getting further away from being in bed with my beta.

Sarah notices my inner struggle of going and grabbing the paperwork real quick or just saying fuck it and getting her back into bed because she wraps her fingers in mine and leans up close to my ear. "I bet by the time we get back from the center, I won't be sore anymore."

She lets out a giggle that has everyone, including Gabe, turning away from us because Romulus is out.

Some other beasts might not want anyone even looking at their mate, but Romulus couldn't care less about them.

He's too enamored with our girl, with how her eyes light up with her amusement and how she saunters away toward the exit, looking over her shoulder as if begging us to chase after her.

" Text Henry when you leave. He'll lock up the store tonight. " Romulus doesn't wait for Gabe to acknowledge what he says. No, we have a little beta to chase, one we'll never stop chasing.

***

The Young Alpha Center is pretty empty when we show up.

It would've been busy if we'd gotten here an hour earlier during lunch, but now most of the guys are outside playing on the courts we have or in one of the recreational rooms. I'll do a quick sweep before we leave to make sure everything's going okay, but we have volunteers who come every day to hang out with the younger guys, and the older ones know they have to behave or they don't have somewhere to sleep.

I have to unlock Sam's office when I get to it, but I have the keys to the whole place on my keyring.

We have to keep some files on hand, and sometimes, we have to fill out state-mandated reports that we don't need any of the alphas stumbling on in case they get the wrong idea.

There's a fine line between being mandated to report things and keeping the guys safe.

Thankfully, once they're eighteen, we have a place for them to stay and programs we can get them into to help with finding jobs and managing their emotions, mostly anger, since a lot of them have issues with controlling their anger.

"I haven't been up here in so long," Sarah says as she looks around Sam's office.

He has pictures of the family up all over the place, the latest one being one they had Lucas take a couple of weeks ago.

Fenrir grumbled under his breath about me being allowed in it, and Lilah shushed him, telling him he knew exactly why I was being allowed in the family picture.

Even Sarah didn't complain about it as much as Fenrir, though she did scowl at me when I draped my arm over her shoulders right before Lucas told us to smile.

"Did everyone know before I did?" Sarah asks, looking at the picture.

I move behind her, wrapping my arms around her waist and letting my scent envelop her.

She softens into me so quickly now that she's accepted what she means to me, now that we've marked her and given her some sense of this being permanent.

Romulus and I didn't realize how temporary she thought our infatuation was.

Not temporary at all. I'm going to obsess over her until I'm dead. Probably after that, too.

"They all knew I scent-matched you, if that's what you mean," I tell her, resting my chin on the crown of her head as her fingers trace over where we're standing beside one another in the photo.

"You what?" Sarah tenses in my arms.

"The first morning we met? At your coffee shop? Sarah, I was ready to bite you then."

She turns in my arms, her head tilted to look at me.

She thinks I'm lying to her, as though I'd lie about something like that.

Romulus comes out, not liking our mate doubting us so quickly.

He needs to make sure she doesn't doubt us for long.

The office door locks automatically, so there's no chance of someone stumbling in on us, but we won't do anything more than assure our skittish little beta that she's ours.

"You wanted me this whole time?" she asks, her voice thin like she can't believe it for some reason.

" Wanted you this whole time, " Romulus confirms. " Now, ask me how long I've loved you. "

Sarah's eyes widen, her lids closing comically slow before widening again. "You love me?"

" How could we not? " Romulus purrs, lowering his hands to her ass because even though he's being sweet, he still has plans for when we get back to the apartment on his mind.

" A beautiful beta who speaks her mind, who fights us, denies us.

" He snaps his teeth close to her mouth, whispering, " A brave woman, a caring woman, someone who helps others and offers aid without hesitation.

How was I supposed to not fall in love with you? "

"Romulus," she says his name, shaky and uncertain, but she makes up her mind, a smile curling at her lips as she locks her arms around our neck and tugs us closer. "I love you, too."

The kiss is not as sweet and gentle as it should be. Romulus has her up on Sam's desk before I can talk him out of it, urging Sarah further back so he can climb on top of her.

Not here, Romulus.

Why not?

Her brother's office. Our business partner's office.

Don't care.

He'll care, and then she'll care.

Romulus huffs, looking down at our beta with her lust-drunk expression and messy hair.

She's so tempting. It's hard for even me to see reason, but thankfully, I've already talked Romulus into not having her here.

He cares about making sure Sarah doesn't feel embarrassed about being with us, so he huffs and puffs, but he stands up and offers her his hand before giving me back control.

"I guess it's for the best," Sarah sighs.

She straightens out her shirt and smooths down her hair while I look over the paperwork on Sam's desk. We may have messed up his organization a little bit, but everything's about in the right spots.

I find the envelope addressed to me and tear it open.

I've been waiting for my approval as a foster parent to go through before we told anyone about Jace being unhoused.

Is it technically something I should've alerted someone about to begin with?

Yes, but if I did that, there's no telling where he would've ended up, and I knew he was safe with Sarah.

"Good news?" Sarah asks, peeking around my arm to read over the letter.

"Good news," I tell her, handing her the letter if she wants to read it more clearly. "And something we need to discuss."

"Oh, you were approved," she says with so much enthusiasm and light that I can't imagine her being upset with what it means for our life, how it changes things for her as much as it does for me.

Before I even have a chance to ask her if she'll have any issue with me housing displaced alphas, she looks up at me, chewing on her lip, and asks, "I should get certified too, right?

So we don't have to worry about moving between apartments? "

I wrap my arms around her, banding her tight to me so quickly that she lets out a little yelp of surprise.

She settles against me, her hand tugging on my sweater until she gets it underneath and presses her fingertips against my abdomen.

We don't speak for a long while. We just hold one another and embrace the future we'll have.

I might also have to hold Romulus back from wanting to pin her to the wall and have his way with her, but he's placated with the knowledge that we're heading back to the apartment after this, back upstairs to the bed we picked out just for her.

Then he can be out, and he can show our mate just how much we appreciate her.