Mated to the Alpha and His Beta (Lanie Stanton) novel Chapter 213

Chapter 213
Mason
I hated being this f ucking jealous, especially of Xander, but bitterness surged all the way up my throat as ! watched my half-brother move through the kitchen, pausing to press a kiss to Lanie’s hair, then baby Stella on her lap. Hell, I even hated the way he casually ran a hand along Zane’s back and shoulders when he moved
around the other man at the counter, where he was grabbing plates from the cupboard.
They were all so clearly a unit, and L..f uck. Who was in all of this? An outsider. Interloper. I might also be the true Alpha because we shared a father, but that didn’t make me part of what they all shared.
“They’ve known each other a long, long time, Mason. That’s all” Gabriela murmured by my side as she hitched Alaina on one hip. The baby fussed and gnawed a fist until Gabriela soothed her
My baby. No actual blood relation to Gabriela at all, yet the woman clearly loved the little girl. The same as I loved Stella, despite knowing I hadn’t fathered her.
Isaac squirmed, fussing in my arms as I glanced at the woman my father had been married to. The one. he’d betrayed. Xander had grown up with a mother, a father. He had a Beta.
But Lanie Lanie was mine.
Lanie looked up at me as I thought the word. Her eyes narrowed and her head tilted, but she didn’t say anything. She crooked a finger at me.
“Mason. Bring the baby here. He needs to be fed.”
“Don’t they always?” I joked.
Between the three infants, it sometimes felt like all we did was rotate through feeding, rocking, changing
diapers, bathing, and soothing babies to sleep. But I couldn’t deny how hot it f ucking got me to watch the
woman I loved being so maternal. Not for the first time, I imagined her belly swelling with my pup, and my
c ock throbbed.
Gabriela put a hand on my sleeve to hold me back for a second. “I’m glad you and my son have found a way to get along. I always wished…”
Her voice cracked, causing both Xander and Zane to look at her.
“I often wished for another son. A brother for Xander,” Gabriela whispered and lifted Alaina up so she could nuzzle the baby’s cheek. Gabriela’s eyes shone. “You are all so blessed. I hope you realize that.”
I did, even if I did hate parts of that blessing.
With a grim nod, not sure what to say to her, I took my spot at the table as Xander slid a bottle in front of
me. Isaac was already wriggling in my arms, ready to eat. When Xander put a hand on my shoulder, I tensed,
not sure what he wanted.
He waited until I met his eyes. “You need anything?”
1/2
unshed tears, but her lips curved into a smile. I shook my head.
“Just my…I coughed, clearing my throat, risking the next words. “Just my family.”
Silence fell through the entire kitchen. Zane turned from the cupboard, his eyes wide. Xander didn’t lift his
hand from my shoulder. He nodded once, firmly.
“How about a big old steak, too, little buddy?” Xander asked.
I almost bared my teeth at the “little buddy” until I realized he was yanking my chain. Was that how it felt
to have a brother?
I rolled my eyes. “Rare as you can make it, so long as it’s not still mooing.”
Gabriela sighed soft laughter and shook her head as she settled into a seat next to Lanie. “Boys. Behave
yourselves.”
“It’s what we are, though,” Lanie blurted.
When we all turned to look at her, pink flushed her cheeks. She gave each of us a short stare before
settling her gaze back on mine. She reached across the table for my hand. Our fingers linked.
“It might be unconventional, but that’s what we are. A family. All of us, she emphasized. “And if
you three are going to get worked up about it, you can all just…not. Got it?”
of
F uck, she was sex y when she got all tough like that could see the blaze in Xander’s eyes at her tone.
Zane’s, too. Were they thinking what I was? About carrying her into the bedroom and ravishing that sassy
mouth?
Of course, they were.
I didn’t love the idea. Hell, no. But I’d seen how they could share her, and I knew it was possible for more
than one man to love the same woman.
The question I couldn’t get out of my head, though…could Lanie love all of us equally?
Or would someone…me, for example, always be the odd one out?
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