Page 83 of The Beta: Part Two

Kaleb shoves Jay to his knees and holds him where Nathan can see him.

Jay doesn't look like a man looking his own death in the eye, he looks like the smug asshole who laughed at me while he made me bleed.

Jay has balls, I'll give him that.

He spits at Nathan's feet and sneers, “she liked it. You should have heard her scream for it.”

I flinch and nearly leap into Trent's arms at the sound Nathan makes.

I haven't been affected by an alpha's roar like this since I was a young girl. Trent doesn't quite pick me up, but he pulls me into him and brushes my temple with his lips. I want to look up at him, to see whatever expression is on his face, but I can't drag my attention from Nathan.

Nathan's teeth are bared in a vicious snarl. I don't know if he's moving slowly, or if I'm just registering his movements in slow motion as he shoves off of Seth's body and stalks toward Jay.

Nathan's hands snap out before Jay has time to make a sound.

I expected Nathan to break his neck, but the wet popping and sucking I hear is the sound of Nathan prying Jay's mouth open and ripping his jaw right off of his face. The macabre image of Jay's tongue sort of waggling loosely without the rest of his face will probably give me at least one nightmare.

My face must betray some of my horror because Trent guides my face into his shoulder, “don't look, honey. You don't have to see it.”

I don't fight to keep watching.

I can hear enough, I don't need the visual to go with the audio. I don't feel any sense of loss for Jay, but I've never seen anyone rip someone's actual face off before. And I never even considered the possibility that Nathan would be the one to do it.

When the noises stop, I chance a peek at the end result. There are recognizable pieces of Jay, they're just disassembled and in a gory pile at Nathan's feet. Nathan is covered in blood and bits of Jay are clinging to his hair and forearms. It's absurd, but I have the most insane urge to stop everything we're doing and find a place to wash that mess out of Nathan's hair.

I hate the idea of Nathan and his beautiful hair being tainted with any part of Jay.

Nathan is glaring down at his handiwork. His body is twitching and jerking sporadically.

“What's wrong with him?” I whisper to Trent.

“Rage. He’s enraged. He's never lost control like this before. Not in the entire time I've known him.”

“What do I do to help him?” I've never seen an enraged alpha. Not even my father or brothers.

Trent pins me with a look, “you don't do anything. You stay the fuck away from him until he calms the fuck down. I don't want to fight Nathan, but I won't let him hurt you.”

That's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard. Nathan would never hurt me, enraged or not. I shrug away from Trent, but he keeps hold of my elbow.

“Let me go,” I say quietly.

“Talia, don't,” Jasper sounds strained. He wants to go to Nathan as badly as I do. Probably worse. “He'd never forgive himself if he hurt you. Or any of us.”

This is ridiculous.

It's Nathan. Nathan would never, ever, in ten thousand years hurt me. I just know it.

“Nathan,” I call out.

He doesn't respond, but he does tilt his head to the side.

“Nathan,” I call again, and immediately regret it.

He moves so fast that I don't have any more time to scream than Jay did.

He snatches me away from Trent and grips my hair and one of my arms so tightly that I hiss. I'm going to have so many bruises after this is finished.

Nathan jerks my head to the side so he can bury his nose into my neck.