The Duty of a Beta (5 page)

“Gunnar,”
Marsdon
began.

Talbot’s attention was already on the beta. He saw Gunnar give his brother one last glare, before turning his attention to his alpha. “Yes?”

“The dry stone wall bordering the north field.
Bennett and I inspected it today. Can you rearrange the duty roster and free someone up to rebuild it as soon as possible?”

Gunnar nodded. Talbot continued to study the beta in fascination, his fork halfway to his mouth, as the older wolf stared down at his plate as if mentally running it all over in his head. The second Gunnar looked up, their eyes met.

“Talbot can do it.”

Talbot blinked at him. He was vaguely aware that the whole table had once more fallen silent around them, but he was too busy trying to work out what the hell was going on to take a great deal of notice.

“I could do—”
Steffan
began from somewhere near the other end of the table.

He stopped abruptly when Gunnar turned his head in that direction, his expression making his feelings on the suggestion quite clear.

Once he seemed sure the gamma was appropriately cowed, Talbot saw the beta turn his face towards the alphas.

“Are you sure you’ve made the best choice?” Bennett asked him.

Lowering his gaze, Talbot quickly turned all his attention to pushing his food around his plate. He knew, just as all the other wolves in the pack had to know, that he wasn’t the best choice—not for re-building a wall, and not for so many other things. Gunnar could have his pick of wolf for either.

Talbot closed his eyes for a moment. All he wanted to do was jump up and rush out of the room, to hide from the facts of his station in the pack in a way he’d never needed to before. Gunnar didn’t need an omega for
anything
. The knowledge sliced deep into Talbot’s chest, as if it really was trying to cut his heart out.

“He’s the right choice.”

Talbot’s head jerked up. He stared, wide-eyed, at the beta for what felt like several consecutive eternities. He was sure he couldn’t mean that, that there would be a ‘but’ added to the sentence at any moment.

“I’ll take him out there and show him how to start re-building it tomorrow,” Gunnar said. He seemed to look from one of his alphas to the other, then back again.
“With your permission, of course?”

“What do you say, Talbot? Do you think you can do it?”

Talbot heard
Marsdon’s
words, but he couldn’t tear his eyes away from Gunnar.

The beta had picked him. He’d had his choice of all the wolves in the pack. They all knew that
Marsdon
and Bennett had given him free reign to assign the duties however he saw fit. There was no need for Gunnar to pick him, but he had.

And it simply wasn’t in Talbot to let the other wolf down, no matter how strong his own doubts about his suitability for the task might be. His need to please Gunnar overruled everything right then, his alphas’ concerns, the rest of his pack’s obvious doubts—it even overruled reality.

“M…May I try?” Talbot managed to turn towards
Marsdon
. He met his alpha’s eyes for a second before quickly dropping his gaze in due deference.

He looked back up just in time to see
Marsdon
and Bennett exchange a glance he had no way of interpreting. They were just as good at silent communication as the brothers were.

Talbot could only hold his breath and hope, as
Marsdon
raised an eyebrow at the other alpha. A second later, Bennett half smiled. He nodded his decision.

“If you want to try, you have our permission,”
Marsdon
confirmed. “Gunnar can work on it with you tomorrow and decide if you want to take on the rest of the project tomorrow night.”

Talbot nodded his understanding. He glanced at Gunnar just in time to see the beta do the same.

He was going to do the work Gunnar wanted him to do… He was going to spend tomorrow with the beta… Talbot took a deep breath as he smiled down at his plate. He wasn’t sure which fact pleased him more.

The idea of so many hours spent alone with the beta, in a part of the pack’s lands that were far enough from the farm house to mean they’d have relative privacy. That alone had his heart racing so fast his hand shook as he tried to lift another forkful of food to his lips. The possibility of being able to prove to the other members of the pack that Gunnar had made the right decision when he chose him for the task made his stomach turn over with nerves.

There was a slightly odd atmosphere around the table as the meal continued. Conversations gradually started up around them once more, but Talbot could only bring himself to be half aware of that, and couldn’t convince himself to worry about it at all.

“Have you finished your morning’s duties, Talbot?” Bennett asked, as they all rose from the table and those on kitchen duty that afternoon began to clear the plates away.

“I’m halfway through what I’m supposed to do today,” Talbot agreed, cautiously. “I’ll make sure I’ve finished everything before tomorrow.” There was no way in hell he was going to let anything stop him being there with Gunnar, not when the mere thought of it already had him half hard inside his newly-donned pair of jeans.

Bennett glanced around the room. “Francis.” The other wolf strode across to where they were standing, near the utility room door. “Keep things ticking over until Talbot comes back,” the alpha ordered with a nod to the laundry.

The gamma slipped through the door without a word. A second later, Talbot heard him emptying the machine of the load that had finished while they were eating.

“Follow me.” Bennett walked out of the kitchen and into the courtyard. There didn’t seem to be anything for Talbot to do but to trail along behind him as the alpha led the way to the wood pile at the back of the farm house.

Someone had obviously been working hard there earlier that day, but there were still several piles of logs
laid
out, waiting to be split. As Bennett took up the axe, Talbot automatically picked up one of the lengths of wood and set it on the chopping block, before stepping back out of the larger wolf’s way.

One swing had the log cleaved neatly in two. Talbot quickly replaced it with another piece of wood and picked up the split halves, stacking them neatly with the others that were ready to be carried inside and set next to the hearth.

Several more pieces of kindling met the same fate before Bennett spoke.

“Have you ever tried your hand at dry stone walling?”

Talbot shook his head. He’d already put a log on the block, but Bennett didn’t seem to have any interest in lifting the axe to chop it.

“I’ve never…the wolves who’ve assigned duties to me have never…” he dropped his gaze to stare at the length of
unsplit
wood some more. None of them had ever thought he could be capable of completing that sort of duty.

“No rank of wolf is born knowing exactly how to best fulfil his duties,” Bennett told him. “The instinct may be there, but the brain sometimes takes a little while to catch up on the details. That’s true for everyone.
Marsdon
and I had a few faltering moments too.”

Panic clenched around Talbot’s stomach. “If I’m doing something wrong…” he began, very softly.

Bennett shook his head. “You’re doing fine. So is Gunnar,” he added. “He’s a good wolf—and he has the potential to be a good beta for our pack. But that doesn’t mean every idea that comes into his head is a good one. He’s still learning.”

Talbot lifted his gaze for a moment and met his alpha’s eyes.

“So, don’t worry about tomorrow too much, okay?” Bennett said. “No one is going to be angry with you if it doesn’t work out. The only thing that will happen is that Gunnar will move a little further along his learning curve as a beta. Next time, he’ll make a better decision. No one will be disappointed in you, or him.”

Talbot nodded his understanding. He loved both his alphas, he really did. But as the alpha’s axe once more began to slice cleanly through every piece of wood in its path, he was sure he’d have felt a lot better hearing those reassurances from Gunnar rather than Bennett.

In that moment, he realised that the rest of the pack being pleased with him wouldn’t mean a damn thing if the beta didn’t feel the same way.

Chapter Three

“You can start here.”

Talbot watched Gunnar pick up one of the big stones that lay strewn around on the grass surrounding the damaged section of dry stone wall. It had obviously been down for quite some time. Moss was starting to grow on some of the larger stones. Grass had sprung up around them and was hiding some of the smaller ones completely.

As much as he tried to concentrate on those chaste details, Talbot continually found his attention drifting back to the way the larger wolf’s muscles moved beneath his shirt. Gunnar barely had to strain to lift the huge chunk of masonry. It was all Talbot could do to stop himself reaching out and tracing the lines of muscle with his fingertips as the other wolf strode past him.

“You’ll need to clear the area first—it’ll give you room to work, and let you see all your materials before you start trying to work out what stones you want to use where when you start rebuilding. For now, just set the larger stones here.” Gunnar set the big stone down on the grass to the left of the damaged length of wall. “And put the smaller ones there.” He tossed one of the smaller ones a little further away from the base of the wall to his right.

For several long seconds, Talbot could only stare helplessly at the task laid out before him. It was so far outside the experience he’d gained working on his usual
duties,
he didn’t know where to start.

Gunnar raised an eyebrow at him. That prompted Talbot into action. The beta had just told him where to start. All he had to do was follow the other man’s instructions. He could do that. Talbot quickly set about collecting up some of the smaller stones. He’d already moved most of them into the appropriate place when he realised that Gunnar had stopped working.

The other wolf was leaning against a section of the wall that was still standing firm a few yards away from that part that had fallen into disrepair.

Talbot glanced in the beta’s direction. The larger man had his arms folded across his chest, his legs stretched out before him as he leant back against the stonework behind his hips. He looked so perfectly relaxed, so in control, and yet, at the same time—

“I didn’t tell you to stop.”

Talbot blinked and quickly looked away as he realised he’d been caught staring. He turned his attention to the ground around his feet. There were no small stones left to be moved. He looked uncertainly back at Gunnar.

“Try.” It was nothing more nor
less than an order, and the beta had
been staring at one of the largest displaced stones as he said it.

Talbot considered the lump of rock very carefully. It was huge compared to the ones he’d just moved, but there didn’t seem to be anything he could do but attempt to follow the command.

The edges of the nearly square block were just slightly weathered and rounded off. Talbot found he was able to get his fingertips beneath it. Doing his best to squirm his fingers further under, he attempted to rock it from side to side in an effort to get a better grip on it.

It weighed far more than any of the laundry baskets he’d carried around the house the day before. There was no way in hell he was going to be able to move it more than a few inches. And it was suddenly obvious that no one from the pack was going to turn up and provide him with a smaller stone the way they’d given him smaller, more manageable baskets the moment they saw him struggling.

Hauling against the solid weight of it, Talbot was determined to at least make sure that Gunnar saw that he’d tried to follow his order. If he had to disappoint the beta, he realised, he’d rather Gunnar hated him for being weak than for being disobedient.

The stone moved. Only an inch or two, but it did move. Talbot heaved again. Another tiny bit of progress was made. Taking a deep breath, Talbot put everything he had into his endeavour. Several inches of ground passed beneath the stone as Talbot finally managed to lift it completely off the ground and transport it what felt like a truly substantial distance closer to the place where Gunnar wanted it.

A feeling of success rushed through him as it suddenly seemed possible for him to please the other man. Taking off his coat, Talbot hung it over the wall and returned to his task with more determination than ever.

The stone wasn’t very clean. By the time Talbot straightened up, having finally
wrangled
it close to where Gunnar had placed the other large stone, he was aware that both his clothes and his hands were liberally smeared with dirt from beneath the stone. The moss that had grown on the northwards side of it had been crushed against his body by his efforts, leaving green smears down his T-shirt.

But, when he looked across to Gunnar, the beta was…smiling?

Talbot held the other man’s eyes for several long seconds. His breaths had been rushing into his lungs more and more quickly as he worked, but the next one he tried to take snagged in his throat. There was no doubt about it. The normally so serious beta was actually smiling at him, a real smile and not just that half twist of the lips he usually favoured the world with!