The Duty of a Beta (11 page)

Alfred merely shrugged and stared out over the fields as if he didn’t give a damn either way.

Gunnar clenched his jaw as he took a deep breath and reminded himself that Alfred wasn’t the only one who should be making more of an effort.

“What’s going on with you and—?” the gamma began.

“What?” Gunnar cut in, spinning around to face Alfred square on.

Stay away from him! If you lay one hand on my mate
I’ll
…

It was only the growl that exploded from the back of Gunnar’s throat that kept the words back.

Alfred shrugged again, as if it was no big deal. But, at the same time, his eyes narrowed. An ominous light came into his expression. His interest was well and truly caught.

Gunnar rattled off curses inside his head. There was no way he’d shake the little bastard off Talbot’s trail now. Gunnar stepped forward, automatically seeking to remind Alfred that there was no way in hell that he’d win any fight between them.

“It’s so sad to see brothers falling out…” Alfred murmured. He dropped his gaze, but once more it was obvious that it had nothing to do with respect. He seemed to be averting his eyes simply so he could stare at nothing and suffer no distractions while he plotted.

But he was looking away, that was the important thing. There was no way Alfred could have seen his surprise.

Caden
…? Alfred thought they were talking about
Caden
?

By the time the gamma looked up, Gunnar had schooled his expression into something more suitable for the occasion. “What is your interest in my brother?” he demanded.

Alfred’s eyes were damn near sparkling. It had never been so obvious to Gunnar just how much the other wolf deserved his reputation as the pack’s trouble maker.

“No interest at all,” Alfred said, with another bloody awful attempt at innocence.

Gunnar folded his arms across his chest and stared down at the shorter man. “Alfred…” he warned.

The cheeky little sod actually seemed to bite back a smile as he plotted whatever the hell it was he intended to do to
Caden
.

That was one of the few things Gunnar couldn’t hate him for right then, not without being a complete hypocrite. He was having enough trouble forcing back his own amusement. Talbot might not be any sort of match for the sadistic little brat, but
Caden
…

Gunnar knew full well that
Caden
had wrapped men who had twice Alfred’s malice in them around his little finger with nothing more than a smile. The image of what he was capable of doing to Alfred if the other gamma got on his wrong side sprang up in his mind so fully formed, so perfect, Gunnar could barely keep back a howl of laughter.

If Alfred went after
Caden
—for a scrap, for a screw, or for anything else—it sure as hell wouldn’t be the trouble maker who won. And
Caden
would no doubt handle it just as he did everything else—with a smile on his lips and without getting one strand of floppy blond hair out of place.

As he turned and walked away from Alfred without another word, Gunnar finally allowed his smile to creep out. He might as well have
gift
wrapped Alfred for his little brother!

And if
Caden
would be distracting
Alfred,
and Alfred would be distracting
Caden
…

Quickening his stride, Gunnar didn’t bother to pretend, even inside his own head, that he was doing anything other than seeking out his favourite little wolf as he reached the farm house.

“Have you seen—?” he began, as he spotted Francis and
Steffan
out by the woodpile, apparently laughing with each other as much as they were chopping any of the wood.

“The alphas are both looking for you,” Francis cut in.

Gunnar stopped short. “Did they say what for?”

Francis shook his head. “They’re in their office.”

Gunnar turned away from the other wolves and strode into the building without any further delay. He’d made damn sure his face remained expressionless, but behind the facade of a good beta who never worried about anything, his mind rushed forward.

Caden
wouldn’t have gone to the alphas. That wasn’t his style. He liked to handle things on his own.

Alfred certainly would have gone to them, and really enjoyed landing two of his pack mates in it, but he obviously didn’t know enough to be able to do that effectively.

Of course, Talbot could have gone to them himself, but…

Gunnar’s steps sped up again. Talbot would only go to them if he was truly scared by what had happened between them the previous night.

Sneaking out of the younger wolf’s room before the other members of the pack woke up hadn’t left much room for gentle whispers and reassurance. There hadn’t been the opportunity for him to speak with Talbot since he’d left the house to complete another day’s work on the wall.

As possibilities rushed through his head, Gunnar’s concern for the omega had him at the alphas’ door in seconds. He only managed to remember to knock politely and wait to be invited into the room because he didn’t want to scare Talbot by bursting in unexpectedly.

“Come in.”

He opened the door with as much control as he could muster. There was no bang, barely even a creak of the hinges, and Talbot…wasn’t there. Gunnar stared at the chair in front of the alphas’ desk for a long time before that fact sank in.

“Gunnar?”
Marsdon
finally prompted.

“Francis said you wanted to speak to me,” Gunnar managed to say, with something that sounded impressively like sanity.

“Yes, we’ve decided to start work on the old orchard in earnest. It’ll mean you making some changes to the duties you’ve assigned the gammas.”

Gunnar nodded. He stepped forwards and lowered himself into the seat before the alphas’ desk. They just wanted to talk to him about his duties as the
defacto
foreman of the work parties. Nothing was wrong. Talbot was fine.

“It seems you have a good beta’s instinct for which wolves are suited to which tasks,” Bennett suddenly said, with obvious approval in his voice.

Gunnar met his gaze for a second.

“Talbot certainly seems to be enjoying his new task far more than either of us thought he would,” the alpha went on.

Gunnar looked away. “Talbot is…” He paused for a moment to clear his throat. “He’s far stronger than he looks. If he’s assigned more challenging duties, I think he might gain some extra confidence about his place in the pack.”

“Until now we’ve been very careful not to apply too much pressure to him,”
Marsdon
prompted.

Gunnar stared at the desk for a few moments, trying to think of a way to explain Talbot to men who had known him for far longer than he had, without offering his alphas an insult. “If he isn’t challenged, if all his skills and strengths aren’t made use of, I think there’s a risk he won’t understand how valuable he is to the pack. It’s important that he feels safe in the pack, but I believe he needs to feel worthy of it too.”

Bennett nodded. “He certainly seems to have changed in the last few days. We’re both very impressed with the way you’re handling him.”

Gunnar didn’t say a word. He didn’t even blink.

“Perhaps you’re aware that his parental pack also kept him very close, very cloistered. He tends to be very wary of wolves he doesn’t know very well. But you seem to have slipped past his defences. We’re both very impressed,”
Marsdon
added.

The beta kept his gaze on the paperwork covering the alphas’ desk. “Thank you,” he said, when it was obvious that he had to say something before the conversation could move on.

“It hasn’t been quite so easy for us to read how well you and Alfred are getting along,” Bennett mentioned, from the other side of the desk. He was as bad at pretending to be casual as Alfred was at pretending to be innocent.

Gunnar forced himself to look up and meet the alpha’s gaze.

“Have you two been able to spend any time together?”
Marsdon
asked. He was leaning against the cabinet behind the desk, right behind his mate. Gunnar met his eyes, too.

“Alfred is a fine wolf,” he said. He could have cursed himself as soon as the words left his mouth. Forget casualness and innocence, polite lies were obviously the weak point in
his own
verbal arsenal.

Marsdon’s
lips twisted into a knowing smile. “Let’s say he has the
potential
to be a fine wolf. The right mate could be the making of him…”

Gunnar nodded his understanding. He could be the making of the gamma if he was mated to him. The pack would be stronger for it. And every wolf who belonged to a pack knew that everyone was expected to make sacrifices to make the pack stronger as a whole.

“Do you think the right mate could be the making of Talbot, too?” he blurted out before he could stop himself.

Bennett’s attention had already strayed back to the paperwork on the orchard. He blinked as he seemed to struggle to change mental topic. Then he smiled. “We’re not in a rush to find him a mate just yet.”

“Oh,” Gunnar said.

Marsdon
chuckled as he stepped forward to pore over the plans with Bennett. “Finding a mate for an omega certainly isn’t one of your duties, Gunnar. No wolf would ask a beta to do that!”

Gunnar knew he was supposed to chuckle along with them. He managed to scrape up a smile, but couldn’t risk uttering a sound in case it came out as a low, heartfelt howl of anguish.

The conversation immediately moved on to the orchard.

Gunnar did his best to attend to his duties and pay attention to his alphas’ words, but part of his mind was still very much on Talbot.

He shouldn’t have mentioned the omega to them that way. Until he had, there had still been some vague hope inside him that they might reconsider which wolf he should be mated to.

As that hope died, it was damn near impossible for Gunnar to care about apple trees.

* * * *

Someone was watching him.

Talbot span around as the sensation sent a little shiver tingling down his spine. A smile was already rushing to his lips. He fully expected to see Gunnar standing there, arms folded across his chest and a frown gathering on his forehead as he assessed the work Talbot had already completed that morning.

Maybe if he was pleased with his progress, Gunnar would decide he should take a break and they could—

All those thoughts faded away as he saw a very different wolf standing in the exact spot where he’d expected to see Gunnar.

“
Caden
?”

“Were you expecting someone else?” the gamma asked, raising an eyebrow in a way that might have been more reminiscent of his brother if his brows were darker or his general expression more glowering.

He knows.

As their eyes met, Talbot had never been more certain of anything in his life.
Caden
knew about him and Gunnar. He didn’t suspect, he knew, and there was no way in hell anyone would convince him that he was wrong. Talbot swallowed rapidly as the thought sank in. He should say something, Talbot was well aware of that, but he couldn’t bring a single word to his lips.

The gamma slowly stepped forward and ran his fingertips over the edge of one of the stones Talbot had put in place. His touch was lighter and more delicate than his brother’s would ever be, yet Talbot still found himself holding his breath as if the wall would crumble under his touch.

“Gunnar was brought here to be mated to Alfred.”

Talbot shuffled his feet against the trampled-down grass near the half re-built wall. He waited for the gamma to continue, but when he glanced up he realised that
Caden
had no intention of doing that until he’d acknowledged the first fact that had been thrown at him.

“Yes,” Talbot whispered, half-wondering in what other ways
Caden
was more like Gunnar than anyone realised. “I know.”

“You could say that he’s practically promised to Alfred,”
Caden
pushed.

Talbot nodded. “Yes.” Maybe he
could
have said that, but he’d have done everything he could have to avoid it.

“So how do you think Alfred would feel?”
Caden
went on. ”Knowing that the wolf who is promised to him is running around behind his back, sneaking off to screw you whenever he gets the chance?”

Talbot closed his eyes, hiding from both the accusation and the truth behind it. “He doesn’t know that—”

“And how long do you think that will last?”
Caden
cut in, a growl creeping into his voice. “Neither of you is half as good at subtlety as you’d apparently like to think you are. In fact—you both suck at it! I’d give you a couple of days at most before the whole damn pack
knows
what’s going on under their noses.”

“I…” Talbot had no idea what to say. He pushed his mud-streaked hands into his pockets, before pulling them back out and folding his arms across his chest. He glanced down at his body language for a moment. His posture had nothing of Gunnar’s gruff determination about it. It was all weakness, all submission and a desire to protect
himself
as best he could as he hid from the less pleasant parts of the world around him.