Page 22 of The Beta’s Heart (Five Fangs #5)

Tyler

One Friday in late July, Alpha Wyatt asked the gammas to give our luna beginner lessons in self-defense, so I volunteered to cover their afternoon sessions on the training field. There were two back-to-back fighter practices scheduled, followed by what we called Pup Patrol: Any and all little ones from ages two to ten were invited to learn and perform basic exercises—mostly different stretches and a few gymnastics—and it almost always ended up in lots of running around, especially on the days William and Winnie Barlow came.

I loved it, so it was no problem for me to fill in whenever, and especially today since it was to luna’s benefit. Emerson would have joined me, but he took his little brother, Thoreau, into Greenville to register for school. Angelo had done some research on their options, and he and Em wanted to make sure Reau got what he needed.

I was laughing over Rook Harrison and Wesley Barlow’s attempts to do handstands when Alpha Jay politely tapped on the alpha-beta link.

Yes, alpha? I answered immediately.

For the love of the moon, Ty, you’re our brother-in-law. Just Jay will do, he griped with a scowl and that, more than his words or tone, let me know something was up. Can you come over to the training center to be with Posy? Something … happened with Landry and my brothers and Q did not have a good reaction to it.

I was already waving at Evie Barlow—er, Mom— to let her know I needed her to come over, and she started jogging my way.

Did someone hurt luna?

Her feelings, Ty. She’s madder than a wet hen.

Luna is? I stopped and clarified, keeping my eye on Mom to make sure none of the pups tackled her in their enthusiasm.

Oh, yeah. She basically told them to kiss her go-to-hell. Wait a sec.

“Ty? What is it, love?” Mom seemed to know I was going to be called away because she grabbed my clipboard and coach’s whistle.

“Something’s up with luna. Jay wants me to come over to the training center to be with her.”

“Where are the other betas?”

“From what I can feel, they’re all already there. Listen, I need someone to mind the pups for the last five minutes. Most of the parents are already here, but Charlie said Honor’s dance class ran over, so the boys might need a lift back to the O— ”

“I’ve done this enough years now to have it all in hand, Ty. Just go to Posy.”

“Thanks, Mom.” Giving her a smile, I sprinted off, wondering why my crazy brothers-in-law kept screwing up with their mate.

#

Well, the alphas’ reactions were almost understandable this time.

Almost.

When I arrived at the training center, Angelo was chatting with Luna Posy, who looked like she’d been crying, while Thoreau happily capered around something laying in the middle of a mat.

A quick glance and quicker sniff told me that the ‘something’ was Landry, and my eyebrows puckered as I tried to work out what had happened here and where everyone else had gone.

I mean, I know Lan hasn’t been himself since Nia, but surely he didn’t do something to luna!

As soon as I had the thought, I rejected it. Landry Benson wasn’t that kind of person, even if he was going through a dark time. For a gamma, he was remarkably gentle in his interactions with others off the training field and more sensitive than most realized.

“Tyler! I’m so glad you’re here!” A tiny little she-wolf barrelled into me, wrapping her arms around my waist in a tight hug.

“What happened, luna?” I asked as I patted her back and met Angelo’s eyes. “And what’s up with Landry?”

Luna usually tried to downplay someone’s mistakes or skim over too much, but I knew the Angel of Death would give me the absolute truth, no matter how harsh or ugly it was.

“Well, Wyatt brought me here to have my first self-defense lesson with the gammas, which I did,” luna began, dropping her arms and taking a step back to stare up at me. “And then I tried a palm strike on Landry—”

“I wish I could have seen that! Did you let him have it good?” I teased, trying to lighten the mood since her red-rimmed eyes were welling up with tears again.

“It was in slow-motion, Ty, and lightly for practice,” she replied seriously. “Like this. Hold still.”

Holding still, I watched as she stretched up on her tippy toes, then bopped the heel of her hand on my nose, then the base of my throat, and finally my solar plexus.

“Okay. Sounds like a normal self-defense lesson.” I nodded.

“Yes, it was, but when my hand touched Landry’s chest, he had a violent reaction. It hurt him for some reason.”

I cut my eyes to Angelo, who nodded .

“Em was with her the whole time,” he said, his Italian accent making the words hum like a song. “She barely touched him, and he fell on the floor, screaming and convulsing. Luna, I’ll link him what happened if you don’t mind?”

She only nodded as she hugged herself, and I slipped my arm around her shoulders to draw her against my side while I watched Angelo’s memory. In it, Landry lay on his back on the mats, one hand gripping his chest and his other digging into the mat, his wolf’s claws extending and tearing up the thick foam.

Rio tried to pull Landry’s hand away from his chest, but it wasn’t budging. Then Alpha Wyatt was there, and together they pried Landry’s hand away to reveal a round reddish-purple bruise that grew bigger and darker. Purple veins suddenly popped out of the center and spread across his chest, and the bruise seemed to push oily ink into the veins, each of which pulsed and twisted like snakes.

“What in the world?” I breathed.

“A curse. Warm Hands, Cold Heart,” Angelo supplied. “Have you ever heard of it?”

I shook my head, my eyes wide as I watched the rest of the scene play out. Tris arrived with Ariel first, and she scattered the other gammas and Alpha Wyatt out of her way while she investigated. She and luna experimented and eventually realized that luna’s touch was drawing the curse out of Landry’s heart.

Ariel was supervising luna when the rest of the alphas showed up, followed by Crew with Sara and Matthew with Maria. The alphas, of course, were less than happy that luna was risking herself, so Angelo and his witches formed a circle around luna as she worked, and my beta brothers and the gammas ran interference with the alphas until it was done. Almost instantly, Landry looked better, his body relaxing and color coming back into his face.

“You did great, luna!” I tightened my arm around her in a gentle hug. “You saved him from a curse that no one, not even he himself, knew he had! I’m so proud of you!”

“Why couldn’t all of my mates have reacted like that?” she murmured with a little sobby hiccup, then the tears began to fall. “Jayden praised me like you just did, but Quartz growled at me, and the others were so mean! They yelled at me, Ty! Even Mason! And Ash called me stupid!”

“He did not!” I gasped.

“He asked how could I have done something so stupid, but it’s the same thing!” she cried, the side of my t-shirt growing wetter and wetter .

Is that why I’m here? I linked Angelo. All of the alphas were so mad, they ditched her? But where are the other betas and gammas?

With a dark smirk, he played the rest of the memory for me, and I watched with a mix of shock and amusement as little Luna Posy lost her temper and told those alphas just how the cow ate the cabbage!

Then, her voice changed into one of power, pure power like I’d only ever heard from the king himself. She ordered her mates to shift and go for a run until both man and wolf were calm and sensible.

A couple of ’em will be running forever then, I linked Angelo, who snorted.

Alpha Jay, of course, had to go along because of Quartz. Otherwise, he’d still be here.

Did everyone else go along on the run?

They didn’t have a choice, Angelo chuckled. It was the first time she used her full luna power. Since she didn’t know what she was doing or how to wield it, her order caught everyone with an animal spirit when she demanded they shift.

Ah. I bit back a grin as he showed me the flood of fur and feathers that fled out the door when luna threw it open and told them to GO! in such a power-laden voice that my skin shivered just hearing it in Angelo’s memory.

“Luna?” I cupped the side of her tear-stained face in one hand and brought it up so I could see her eyes. “Let’s check on Landry, then I’ll take you home.”

“I didn’t even make sure he was okay!” Her face crumpled up. “I’m being so selfish, over here crying and whining when he might—”

“He’ll be fine, luna,” Angelo assured her. “You heard the streghe . Some sleep and a few good meals, and he’ll be back to normal. Besides, Reau has been entertaining him.”

All of our eyes went over to where Thoreau had plunked down next to Landry, who still lay flat on his back in only his shorts, looking a little dazed as he listened to Reau rambling about Papa Gelo taking him to the zoo.

“ Papa Gelo ?” I asked with a grin, my eyebrows shooting up.

“Oh, and wait until you hear him say Mama Bubba!” luna chirped. “It’s adorable!”

“I’m sure Em’s going to love that.” I traded a side-eye glance with Angelo, who chuckled. “Beta Beast is now Mama Bubba.”

That made luna giggle, which was what I intended, and the tension in my shoulders finally relaxed.

Oh, I was still angry with my brothers-in-law for hurting my luna’s soft heart, but she was safe and smiling again, and that was good enough for right now.

#

“Will they ever come back, Ty?” Luna Posy whispered into my shirt as she cuddled into my side, and I wished for the fifth time that I’d had time to take a shower between Pup Patrol and bringing her back to the alpha house.

It not matter, Riv grunted. Sweaty stink not matter when luna need Ty-Ty.

His words seemed true enough, because she was latched onto me tighter than rust on bare metal.

“Of course they will, luna,” I assured her and rubbed my hand up and down her arm.

“But I was so mean to them!” she wailed.

“That wasn’t being mean. That was telling the truth.”

“But I yelled at them!”

“Then it was telling the truth with volume.”

That got a watery chuckle out of her, and I linked Peri yet again to see if those rotten alphas were finally on their way home.

They’re getting ready to leave now, she told me. Angelo and Reau brought Jay’s SUV over, so I gave Reau the praying mantis we found. He’s so excited to take it home for his garden.

The edges of my lips curled up a bit. Reau was a blessing to all of us, full of kindness and innocence. He reminded me a lot of River, actually.

Well, except for the whole “When me ’splode, me kill everyting dead !” issue my wolf had.

That’s good, Sunshine. I knew he’d love it. I laid my cheek against the top of luna’s head as her sniffles slowed down, knowing she was most likely drifting off. Do you think your brothers learned a lesson this time?

I do. Ash teared up, and Cole and Wyatt threw hands. We’re down a kitchen chair, and do not even ask if you happen to see glitter in the rug under the table. On the plus side, the swear bear is stuffed full, and Jay just told me to use it for something we needed or wanted.

Lost your temper, huh? I teased her.

Pfft! Not me, baby. Quartz. Poor Jay. He had to drop in an IOU for the last $26.

Then she linked me the scene of Q dropping one f bomb after another when she asked him to make a sorry card for Posy.

Sounds like you had your hands full, I snorted.

Same as you. Is Posy still crying?

She cried herself to sleep on me. I’m going to lay her down on the couch as soon as I’m sure she’s out .

Aww. I’d offer to go visit her tomorrow, but she’s going to be busy for a while. Each of the boys planned a day-long date with her.

Trying to bribe her into forgiving them, I scoffed.

Maybe a little, but they’re so sorry, Ty. They know they were wrong, they’re going to apologize, and they’re going to spend several days taking her places and making her feel special. What else could I tell them to do?

Sorry, Per. You did great. I’m just out of sorts.

I know you are. When you get home, I’ll put you back into sorts.

Glad you’re offering, I smirked, because I’m going to have a lot of adrenaline to burn through!

Then I closed the link before her sassy self could reply. Goddess knew, she delighted in working me up, and now was not the time to get hard.

Once luna fell into a deeper sleep, I eased her down on the couch, then sat across from her, watching and waiting. I was just debating whether or not I should cover her with one of the many blankets in the room when a vehicle came up the drive.

Taking a deep breath, I met the alphas at their front door, none too happy with four out of five of them—and River was close to snapping at the fifth one’s wolf. Even knowing he wouldn’t win that fight didn’t deter him, and I was holding him back by the slimmest thread.

“Where’s our girl?” Wyatt asked. “Is she okay?”

“She fell asleep on the couch about twenty minutes ago.”

“Ty—” Ash began, but I shook my head with a stern look, and he shut up.

Thank the Goddess for that. My calm was seriously cracked at the moment, which made it extra hard to control River, whose calm had cracked the second we saw her tear-stained face at the training center.

“You are my alphas, my brothers-in-law, and my friends, so all I’m going to say is, fix this and fix it fast.” I narrowed my eyes at each of them as River growled low in his throat. “And with the greatest respect, don’t ever hurt my luna like this again.”

“Thank you for staying with her, Ty,” Mase said.

I gave him a nod before I shouldered past them and headed out to my vehicle, muttering to myself as I climbed in and started the engine.

Put dicky in mate, Ty-Ty, River yawned . Make feel better.

“Why don’t you go to sleep, buddy?” I encouraged my wolf, whose temper had evaporated the second we stepped out of the alpha house. “It’s been a long day. ”

Otay. He curled up with his nose in his butt and his tail draped over his ears. Nighty night, Ty-Ty.

“Good night, buddy,” I said, glad at least one of us had come down from the adrenaline high enough to relax.

I myself was wound taut as a bowstring, and I knew my beta brothers felt the same. Anytime luna was threatened, whether it was physically, emotionally, or mentally, it immediately elevated us to combat mode. When we didn’t have anything to kill, it was harder to re-regulate ourselves, and we’d craved blood or death—or sex, as Riv had so rightly suggested—to bring us back to an even keel.

Well, Crew was practically back to normal when I linked him, so maybe Sara isn’t getting railed as hard as Maria, Ariel, and Angelo are, I smirked. I just hope my own mate can handle what I’m about to do to her.

#

Peri

Thank the Goddess for River.

Before he fell asleep, he linked Dove that Tyler was on his way home, mad as hell and strung out on adrenaline, and would probably need to “stick dicky in mate” to wear it off.

Prepared to be fucked good and proper, my girl , Dove snickered before she, too, joined River in dreamland.

Just hearing her say that made my undies damp, and I raced to our bedroom to strip out of my clothes since I had on one of my favorite fits and didn’t want it shredded by my mate’s impatient hands. That thought made me even wetter, and I had to clench my thighs together, my pussy already aching to be filled.

Good thing, too, because I was out of time.

The front door burst open, then slammed shut, and I fumbled with the hook of my bra as frantic footsteps pelted up the stairs. Down to my undies, I pulled off a sock and was hopping around on one foot wrestling with the other when Ty burst into our bedroom. Without a word, he pounced and tossed me onto the bed.

“Won’t be needing these,” he growled, ripping my undies off.

His eyes devouring my naked body, he stood and yanked down the front of his sweat shorts, his hard dick flying up to smack into his stomach, and I gulped.

“Tell me now if you don’t want this, Peri,” he said through clenched teeth, his voice thick and guttural. “Tell me while I can stop.”

For a second, I lay there, frozen. It was like a switch had been flipped, and I was seeing a whole new side to him. I loved his usual gentle, patient nature, but this ? Whatever this was, it ignited a firestorm of passion inside me, and my pussy gushed in response.

“Ty?” I waited until his eyes flicked up from my breasts. “Fuck me.”

With a snarl, he grabbed my hips and pulled me to the edge of the bed, then hooked his hands behind my knees and spread my legs wide open to his eyes.

“Give me your hands,” he growled as he stood over me.

When I did, he positioned them to take the place of his, and I shuddered as the thick fingers of his one hand moved to peel aside my dripping folds while the other grabbed his leaking dick and guided it where we both wanted it.

Then he drove forward, burying himself to the hilt in one smooth stroke.

I moaned as I felt myself being stretched wider than I knew was possible, but pleasure quickly overrode the shock of his thickness buried so deeply inside me.

Then he pumped his hips at a hard and fast pace that grew increasingly harder and faster as I held my legs open for him and met his rough thrusts with my own, my body responding instinctually to the primal rhythm he’d set.

“Feels so good,” he growled, his eyes half-lidded with pleasure. “I want to take you even harder.”

“Do it,” I begged. “Fuck your control, Ty, and fuck me !”

My words jolted him, and his eyes flashed with something wild and untamed. With a possessive growl, he withdrew almost completely, then slammed back into me with enough force to drive the air from my lungs.

“Goddess!” I gasped, my fingers digging into my legs as he hit places inside me that had never been touched before.

My body tightened around him, gripping his dick as he pistoned in and out, fucking me with deep, powerful strokes, and I was beyond words. Our skin slapped together, the sounds filling the room along with our grunts and moans and the headboard banging into the wall, and I gloried in it, not an ounce of shame in me, only a desperate need for my mate to keep pounding my pussy raw.

I felt my orgasm building, coiling low in my belly, and all that mattered were Ty’s endless, merciless thrusts, his upper thighs slamming into my ass cheeks over and over, and his heavy balls bouncing against my perineum.

“Tyler!” I screamed as everything spiraled tighter and tighter inside me.

His control snapped then, and he banged me like a drum, his rhythm falling apart, until, with a final, brutal thrust, he buried himself balls-deep and came with a roar as he emptied himself into me.

The force of his orgasm pushed me over the edge, too, my whole body shaking uncontrollably as wave after wave of pleasure washed through me. His dick twitched inside me, still pulsing out streams of his hot cum, and I clenched my pussy around him to squeeze out every last drop.

When he was spent, he collapsed on top of me, and I finally lowered my quivering legs and wrapped them around his waist. As I moved my hands to trace the scars on his back, he smashed his face into my neck, licking and sucking until he found my mate mark, then bit down on it hard enough to make me gasp.

“Ty!”

Do you hate me now? he linked me.

“Why would I?”

I wasn’t… I took you like an animal.

“Can you look at me?”

Giving my mate mark a final lap with his tongue, he slowly raised his head until I could see his baby blues and the emotions swirling in them, and I cupped his red cheeks in my palms.

“I loved every single second of it. You have nothing to be ashamed, embarrassed, or worried about.”

I didn’t hurt you or scare you?

“No, and why are you linking me?”

Can’t talk yet. Give me a minute.

“I’ll give you the rest of the night if you’ll do the same.” Since I could feel that he was still hard inside me, I ground into him and tugged on his shoulders, urging him closer. “Kneel on the bed and rearranged my guts all over again.”

I have a different idea.

Staying firmly lodged inside me, he slid us up the bed, then rolled over so I was on top, my legs draped on either side of his muscled torso, and I automatically sat up, planting my hands on his hard chest. He drew his knees up until his thighs pressed against my ass and locked his hands on my waist, then speared me with his blue eyes.

“Your turn,” he rasped.

“You just want to watch my tits,” I teased with a smirk.

When he responded with a soft moan, I leaned forward, grabbed the headboard, and rode the hell out of him until I could see he was getting close, his head tipped back and the muscles in his neck corded and tense.

Reaching down, I slipped my fingers into my pussy, needing a little help if I was going to climax with him, but he grabbed my wrist and pulled my hand away, then captured my other wrist and dragged both behind my back, pinning them at the base of my spine with one hand. That pushed my breasts out and, as if he couldn’t help himself, he sat up a little and latched onto one nipple, drawing it deep into his mouth and kneading it with his tongue.

“Please, Ty,” I begged, bouncing up and down on him in hard, fast pumps. “I need to come!”

Sucking hard on my tit, he slid his free hand between us and rubbed my clit furiously—and that was all it took for me to shatter into a thousand pieces.

I was vaguely aware of him releasing my hands and rolling us over, then drilling me until he gave a hoarse shout, but everything had faded to black around the edges, and my body felt boneless and weak, worn out from two intense fuckings and the equally intense orgasms they provided.

“Did you pass out on me?” a gruff voice murmured in my ear as strong arms gathered me up and pressed me against a sweaty, panting body.

“Mm-hmm.”

“So no round three?”

“Stop teasing, boy,” I croaked. “Your balls are drained dry and you know it.”

And a husky chuckle was the last thing I heard before I fell asleep.