Page 108 of The Beta: Part Two
“Jasper's the only princess around here. And Talia's the only one allowed to call him that, so don't unless you want your head bitten off,” Trent says as he hops off the table.
Obi makes quick work of us, none of the rest of us are anywhere near as dramatic as Trent. Talia and I do end up letting him give us a once-over to make sure we're good. He declares us fit and leaves before Talia's brother has time to get worried. Jamison is almost as bad as Elizabet is when he starts worrying.
~
I am positively shocked to find that in the chaos of the past few weeks Talia didn’t forget about the end of season cookout that I agreed to host. The meat for the thing arrived yesterday, and now my father, Daniel, Marcus, Kaleb, and Reid are stoking fires and readying grills. The show must, apparently, go on. People are already starting to show up.
Talia is in the kitchen with her mother and Bianca, who has done wonders to convince Daniel and the rest of her pack not to kill me. They’re making enough sides, salads, and desserts to feed an army. There will be around twenty packs here by evening. Thank fuck we all get along. And everyone knows to bring food, too.
There might be a little awkwardness around the fact that my pack killed a prominent alpha from the council, and there’s the matter of Seth Pratchett. He’s at a facility that specializes in the psychological and emotional injuries he sustained after actively losing his entire pack after they turned on him, losing an eye, being held prisoner by rogues, being forced to listen to omegas being tortured for weeks, the list is ongoing. His family won’t be here, but Alpha Pratchett sent Talia an obscenely expensive and massive bouquet of flowers with a letter of apology. She threw both in the garbage. I guess trying to forgive Seth and forgiving his shitty father are unrelated miracles.
I, for one, might not ever forgive Seth; but I will be compassionate. He was faced with an impossible situation, and then he faced something horrific. I can be compassionate toward Seth without forgiving him. Jasper will never forgive him. Not ever. I’m pretty sure Jasper still wants to kill him, and the only thing holding him back is Talia’s ability to understand and work at forgiving Seth. At this point, Talia has saved Seth’s life three times that I’m aware of, getting him out of the compound, stopping Nathan from slaughtering him, and now keeping Jasper at bay.
I am sitting at one of the picnic tables that magically appeared on the lawn overnight drinking a beer. Jasper is refereeing a game of tag for the kids who came here with their families. He looks great doing it. We’re eventually going to have kids to add to that game. Talia hasn’t mentioned it, but Corso has hinted obviously enough. He can’t wait for her to get pregnant and start having babies. I’ll never tell her, or any of them, but I feel the same way.
I want to watch her stomach grow. I want to hold a little baby that’s all of ours. I want to watch Jasper be a dad. I want to watch Trent lose his mind. Trent’s full of shit most of the time, but I’ve sat here and watched him fawn over kids this whole day and have multiple heart attacks when one of them does something just a little dangerous. Any kid that the bunch of us would produce is going to be a terror. He’s going to be a nervous wreck and I’m looking forward to it.
The day is a complete success until Talia has a heat spike in the middle of bringing out dessert. We all know as soon as her cheeks turn pink, the cinnamon dolce latte scent of Talia’s slick elicits an immediate response from all of us, even Jasper. The way Jasper and Corso snatch her between them and haul her into the manor is almost as shocking as Elizabet’s obvious happiness about the heat spike.
Most mothers are at least uncomfortable when their daughters are whisked away to be railed by their pack. Not Elizabet. She publicly admonishes the rest of us for not running into the house after them; and when she finds out that I am required to sit it out, she takes such pity on me. She even gives me a hug and extra dessert. It’s some kind of cake that tastes like summer and sunshine; lemons and blueberries covered in buttercream. It almost makes up for having to stay seated when I can feel what is going on in that house through my bond with Jasper.
~
A team of caterers, or whatever they are, arrived to clean up after everyone left for the night. There wasn’t even a crumb left on the lawn this morning when I came out onto the porch, or is it a terrace? I’m calling it a porch. Talia comes out of the kitchen door with a cup of coffee in one hand and a glass of something else in the other. Jasper is following close behind her.
The coffee is apparently for me. She hands me the cup and pulls me down for a kiss. I’m already spoiled for her kisses. Last night I slept between her and Jasper for the first time. It was complete torture, especially when she woke up having another heat spike and I had to help Jasper work her through it. She made me promise and swear to sit perfectly still, and not cum, while she licked away the precum that was dripping from my cock.
I did it, but it might have hurt less if I’d just fucked her. I kept my promise, though. Even when Jasper bit the front of her shoulder hard enough to draw blood, telling me that’s where our mark was going to go. Our mark is going on the front of the shoulder that Corso marked. I can’t fucking wait.
“It’s going to happen soon. I can feel it. Maybe today. I called my mother, she’ll send a team out as soon as Jasper gives her the nod. There’s plenty of easy food so you won’t have to go to much trouble. I expect pizza. Real pizza. With cheese. And fries like Danny serves at the bar.”
Jasper grins, “I can’t wait until you let us knock you up. Pregnant Talia is going to keep amazing food around. It’s going to be so awesome.”
“That’s where you’re wrong, princess,” she says, “if you think I’m strict about nutritional requirements now, you’re going to be miserable when I ban everything that isn’t fruit or a vegetable.”
“Nah, you’re going to want the good stuff.” I hope I get to spend every morning for the rest of my life listening to them argue with each other over food. I never thought it could be like this.
Talia was right. Her heat is going to hit her, and us, today. We’ve been watching her gather things for her nest all afternoon. She isn’t taking it into her or Jasper’s room, though. She’s walking around touching things and muttering, carrying one of the bigger laundry baskets with her to hold all the things she’s collecting. So far, she’s taken at least one thing from everyone’s room except Nathan’s. I think his feelings are a little hurt but he hasn’t said anything.
She’s in my room right now. She took a pillowcase off of one of my pillows, and now she’s standing next to the bed looking around at everything with narrowed eyes. When she turns that suspicious gaze on me I know what’s coming. She’s going to take something that I’m wearing. I watched her rip Trent’s pants right off his body earlier. He thought it was hilarious and wonderful.
It’s my shirt that she wants. I hold my arms up for her as she peels it off my body. She climbs into my lap and tortures me with a kiss that makes me ache. The only thing that stops her from ripping my pants off like she did Trent’s and fucking me right where I’m sitting is me. “Talia,” I say, gripping her waist, “I’m sitting this one out. Remember? To take care of Jasper.”
She pouts. Really, truly pouts. Because she doesn’t get to fuck me. I call Jasper for assistance. I’d love nothing more than to give her every single thing she wants, but I gave my word that I wouldn’t. Keeping my word with Talia is far and away more important than giving her what she wants.
Jasper comes in and asks her if she wants help carrying her basket. She sighs and lets him carry it out of the room. She’s taken something from all of us now, so I’m not sure where she’s going because it isn’t her room.
The question is answered shortly. Talia has invaded Nathan’s room. She claimed the corner in front of the book cases he had brought over, in almost the exact same location she ended up in at the farmhouse. Nathan is a little more than happy to watch her strip his bed and use his sheets and blankets as the base of her nest. I think he thought he had done something wrong because she hadn’t taken anything of his to add to her nest. He’s all smiles now.
I don’t stick around to watch her finish it up, I leave that to Nathan and Jasper. I go down to the den where the rest of them are watching a movie. It is supposed to be movie night, after all. But she couldn’t sit still for it, and Nathan and I went upstairs with her to keep her company.
They all look at me when I walk into the room.
“It’s time.”