Page 42 of Beta and the Beast (Beastverse #2)

Henry's Epilogue

Eight Years Later

" I forgot my beer," I say, biting back my laugh when I walk into Janie and Sam's living room just to have Fenrir growling and snapping his teeth at me from where he's lying between Lilah's legs on the couch.

I give them a quick nod and head for the kitchen, ignoring Fenrir's grumbling.

Sarah warned me that Scott and Lilah were still in the house, but how was I supposed to know that meant they were getting it on in the living room?

"What'd you walk in on?" Lucas asks, shooting me a smirk that doesn't have the impact he wants it to, considering one of our nieces is in his lap, tying the hair he's finally let grow out into teeny tiny ponytails.

"Something he's not going to talk about in front of my daughters," Sam says just as I open my mouth to tell Lucas pretty much the same thing.

"Is Jace coming tonight?" Janie asks, touching my arm as she moves around me to set something on the table.

Tonight, we fit around the giant table we chipped in and bought Janie a couple of birthdays ago, but when there are more of us, we pull out the cheap folding tables and folding chairs. Sam already has a table leaning against the side of the house with a pile of chairs in case we need them.

"No, I don't remember what he's doing, but I think they were all going out." He still comes around often enough, and he helps us fill Janie and Sam's backyard on most Tuesdays.

"Where are the girls?" I turn to my brother, who lets Remus out to sniff at the air. He relaxes in his seat right as Fenrir and Lilah come out of the house. Lilah's lips are swollen, and Fenrir looks a little frumpled.

"I saved your spot!" Jasmine says, excited because even though I've tried to be a favorite uncle, she somehow likes Fenrir of all people over me.

By the time I take my spot to sit, Sarah's already filling her plate, earning her a soft rumbling growl from me.

"You were taking too long," she says, flicking her hair hard enough that a little bit of it whacks against my face.

But she's a good beta, sliding her plate over to me and letting me fill the rest of it.

She doesn't even complain when I fill it up too much because she knows I like it when she gives me the rest. I never want her to be without.

I'd much rather give her too much than not enough.

Plus, I cooked about half the stuff on the table, so I can put as much as I want onto my mate's plate.

"And he's gone," Sam says with a smile, just in time for me to watch Lucas disappear around the corner of the house. "Will he be back to finish dinner tonight?"

"The girl's just got back," Janie says, as though that's answer enough, and it is. "We'll see them next week."

A loud growl sounds from the front of the house, heads turn downward, and necks get bared because Remus is a scary motherfucker when he's out, and somehow he's always out when he gets near–

" One day they're going to fight, " Fenrir says, fishing out another piece of roast out of the crockpot reserved just for him before ripping off a mouthful and eating like a caveman.

Eating like he's free.

You're only saying that because you're just as messy.

Sarah doesn't mind.

Sarah does, in fact, mind. Our sweet little wife has told us multiple times that Romulus is a monster when he eats, that she has never seen anything so grotesque in her life, and has called him out on having no table manners.

Does she do this because it's a thousand percent true?

Yes. But, she'd be lying to us if she also didn't admit that she likes how Romulus will growl at her and ask her if she wants him to have manners before pulling her to the ground to have his way with her.

Sometimes he has some courtesy and at least takes her to bed, but most of the time, when she starts poking fun at him for being feral, he likes reminding her that she likes him that way.

"Thank you, alpha," Sarah says just loud enough for Romulus and me to hear when I hand her the plate of food.

I stifle a groan because the woman knows how to get to us. She should be glad that we hand-fed her this afternoon during the slow period at the coffee shop, or she'd be hauled into our lap while I found the best pieces of food to hand-deliver into her sweet little mouth.

"Do you guys have anyone staying with you right now?" Sam asks, pulling my attention from staring at the pretty slope of Sarah's neck and how our teeth left perfect scars on her skin.

"No, we had a kid with us last week, but he returned home yesterday," Sarah says when she finishes chewing.

"Yeah, he was a good kid. He just got into a fight with his dad." I shrug. "The house was deemed safe for his return, and they all seemed to make up."

There are fights between alphas, and then there are fights .

This was one of the former, where there was no physical lashing out.

It was two alphas who needed to be separated until they could calm down enough to talk.

It happens with more families than most people like to admit.

Most of the time, it's right around the emergence of the dynamic.

The younger alpha doesn't know how to control the new hormones or power, and the older one isn't ready for someone who used to listen and depend on him to be suddenly vying for dominance.

It usually results in the two separating for a little while, and sometimes, if one or the other can't calm down, the younger one gets to stay with Sarah and me. And she dotes on them.

My little beta, who wanted nothing to do with alphas, will be the first one bringing them an overstuffed blanket and ice cream. It doesn't matter that they've been twice her size and a little growly. They all eventually succumb to her need to care for them.

"Man, do you remember that night Fen was kicked out of the house?" Sam asks, slapping his brother on the back, which earns him a disgruntled growl.

" I left, that's different, " Fenrir snaps, though the effect is a little lost with his mouth still full. " Plus, that wasn't a fight with Dad. "

"Dad couldn't be angry at anyone," Sarah tells me as though I haven't met the man multiple times and learned firsthand how chill he is for an alpha.

Even when Hazel's loose cannon of a whatever he is showed up to the wedding reception, her dad just grabbed the back of his neck and escorted him outside before any of us realized it wasn't Remus getting all pissy at something and having us all submit.

" And I would've kicked your ass, " Fenrir says, pointing his fork at Sam as everyone at the table scolds him.

"Language!" Even little Jasmine, sitting beside him, hits his arm, reminding him that her little ears can't handle such foul language. Fenrir grumbles but apologizes to his niece because he's a giant softie, no matter how much he tries to cover it.

" I would've kicked your butt, " Fenrir says, giving Sam a self-satisfied smirk.

"Except Janie told you to go cool down, and you both tucked tail," Sarah tells them with a laugh. "I can still hear her voice going up like five octaves until she was squeaking, telling you both to stop fighting and to get out of the house."

"What about you?" Sam lifts his chin in my direction. "Either of you ever try to start sh–stuff?"

I choke on a laugh before nodding. "Yeah, we tried, but you've met Lucas. Romulus and I didn't stand much of a chance, and he was much more level-headed than we were growing up. As soon as he got into fighting, there wasn't anything that riled him up."

"I'd say there are a couple of things that rile him up now," Hazel says now that she's at the table, looking down at what's left of the food. She falls into the seat Lucas abandoned and waits while food and wine are prepared for her.

"I'm done," Sarah says, pushing her plate toward me, forcing me to press my lips into a tight line when I see she's deliberately left good food that I know she likes on the plate. "Do not start."

"Or what?" I ask, head tilting to the side as everything except my mate disappears.

They don't disappear for her, though. Oh no, my wife is very much aware of what everyone else sees and how they watch us interact.

I also know the best way to rile her up, so I push the plate back a little bit because if I'm right, in about three seconds, she'll spray me down because…

I let Romulus out for a second, his pheromones filling the air around us fast enough that we get to watch our beta's pupils dilate before she grabs the odor-neutralizer from her bag and sprays us right in the face.

" You're playing a dangerous game, beta, " Romulus tells her, crowding her seat now that he's out of ours.

"Romulus, I swear, give Henry–"

He covers her mouth with his hand, a wicked smile tugging our lips. " What was that? I didn't hear you? "

"Go get a room." Hazel throws a roll at the back of my head, but Romulus doesn't mind at all.

It does remind him that he can play with our beta, but not at dinner and definitely not in front of the children. He hoists her out of her seat and tosses her over his shoulder.

" Thanks for dinner! " he calls out behind us.

Everyone else says goodnight or wishes us a safe drive to the apartment.

Well, everyone except for Fenrir, who grumbles something under his breath about wishing she was with a beta because he promised to make one piss himself.

I file that little nugget away to ask Sarah about later once she's exhausted and too blissed out to filter herself or try to be difficult.

"You're a caveman," she tells me, hitting my lower back, though I barely feel her feeble hits through the softness of the lilac sweater I'm wearing today.

" You like it when I'm a caveman, " Romulus tells her, and for once, our little beta doesn't argue with us.

We like all the ways she is with us. Difficult and prickly until we soften her. Sweet and teasing until we have her cursing and screaming our name. No matter how she is, we love her, and we love her more and more each day that she's ours. Our mate, our wife, our beta.

Well, mine since I'm the only one who's bitten–

Shut up and go home, Romulus.