Not just the Beta (Oriana and Slade) novel Chapter 101

Slade

Clay’s shift went well, he got an all-black wolf named Link. He was like most Alpha Wolves, though not as big as Hail, but bigger than Crystal, Dariah’s wolf. She’d come home to a very disrupted pack, but he’d sent those elites to go and get her instead of himself, so she wouldn’t be in his car with him when he arrived with Vance.

Because his father would have expected her to call or text him the minute she knew, connect a mind-link to him as soon as she was close enough to the pack if Slade had taken her phone from her. This way she’d been left out of everything that had gone down, and she’d gotten to play the shocked card when she got home.

They’d all run as a family with Clay’s wolf and bonded with Link as was expected, and the moment he’d been shifted back to his human form once more, Slade had put that boy in a headlock and knuckled his hair, like he’d always done.

The pack had laughed as he and Clay had ended up wrestling on the ground, Clay trying to stop him, he was stronger now that he had Link, but not strong enough to out muscle Slade, and he did actually enjoy it, having a bit of fun for the first time in a very long time. Could he realise have a happy family moment with either of his siblings.

He still had a good sibling bond with both of them, but after the moment was over and Clay headed off to be with his social group, Slade went back to his normal stoic demeanour, that had become his norm for the past two years.

He and the boys were going to take Dariah back to Alpha College in the morning because they were leaving themselves, and headed out that way. Driving out there to the East Coast, it would take them longer, but also give them a chance to stop off nearby other packs. Take a stroll about and around those packs, in the hope that they’d smell her, if Ori had back tracked across the country.

His father was standing out there on the packhouse stairs watching him and the boys put their gear in his truck, “So, your leaving today then?” he asked.

“Yes,” Slade replied. “I only stayed to get what I want, my new Beta. Now I will be going out there to find Oriana and convince her to listen to me. Bring her home, and then I’ll be taking over, and you’ll be stepping down.”

“And what makes you think, I will just bow down to you and let you do that?” his father asked.

“Hmm, do you not recall everything I have on you? To keep you in check right now.”

“And what, Slade? You think that will work forever, that I won’t just call your bluff at some point. I also have two other children I could seat, in your place, as the heir while you’re gone. That will solve that issue of your threat.” His father stood staring at him.

Slade held the door open for Dariah to get in the car, and she looked at him worriedly “Don’t concern yourself little sister, I can fight my own battles.” He told her, and she got in the car with a nod.

Slade turned and walked up the steps to his father, looked right at him and saw the anger in the man. “If you instate Clay, because Dariah, I know, doesn’t want to be the Alpha to the pack. She’s going off to train in Obsidian for her medical residencies. So that only leaves Clay. I’ll come back here father, and duel the boy for the right of Alpha. I’m four years older and a lot stronger than he is. I’ll still be training while away.

With Vance, do you really think Clay will win? Or want to accept that duel?” he asked.

“I don’t think you’ll duel your little brother, you love him.”

“I do.” Slade agreed “But the pack laws will be upheld while I am away, to the letter. I, as the future Alpha, am just doing my duty; going and finding, retrieving a lost pack member and my heir to the pack.

“Clay right this minute, has no actual claim to the seat of Alpha and neither does Dariah seeing that I have an heir. He or she is now in line after I am.” He stated and turned back to his car.

“I could turn you rogue anytime I like, unseat you by banishment, and your claim is null and voided. Two can play this game of threats, you know.”

Slade stopped walking and nodded, looked back at him. “Well, I guess you could.” He nodded “I wonder father, how the pack would feel about you doing that? When they all know I’m only leaving to go and search for Ori and my heir… Oh, did you miss the mind-link this morning I sent out at 5am, to inform the pack that I’m taking my unit to hunt for her, and bring her back… How did I put it?” he was quiet for about five seconds, “Right the wrongs that happened that day.”

A loud snarl came from his father, all anger and aggression at the realisation that Slade was acting like the actual Alpha to this pack, and leaving him out of everything, because an Alpha only had to include who he wanted to. He was also finding ways around that man to get what he wanted at every turn.

“So, go ahead and banish me, tell the pack a lie as to why you’ve done that. I think you’ll find father the elders will be all over you for that. Ori’s own grandmother, she came and had words with me this morning, and I told her the truth about that night, Ori and I.

“Not that I recall much, confirmed she was actually pregnant as well, that Anders picked it because her scent trail upon leaving the pack smelled different to even him. That I would not becoming back to the pack until I brought her home.

“With the exception of Yuri’s little brother’s first shift in two years’ time, of course. We will be following the pack laws even while away.” he told him all he’d done.

His father roared right at him “I’m the bloody Alpha, not you boy.”

“You deceived more than just me while I was at Alpha College, and you tried to coerce me, the moment I got home and things didn’t go to your planning and plotting.” He walked down to his car. “Oh there was once more thing, if by some chance I die out there, for any reason at all, that scroll will enact itself as well. It is bound with my blood to my intent alone. Do you know what my intent is, father?”

“You could bloody destroy this pack with something like that.” His father grated out.

“Then I suggest, father, you learn to follow the Wolfen Laws, the pack laws and become a wise law-abiding Alpha, from now on. It might just save your ass when I get home.” He got in his car and motioned for Vance to drive.

He heard Dariah sigh from the back seat “Would you really do that to mum and dad?”

“Yes,” he stated simply. Because it wasn’t a matter of would he do it. It was only a matter of when it would happen, was all.

“I thought Dariah knew everything?” Vance commented once they were outside the pack.

“Everything bar the scroll,” he nodded “Plausible deniability.”

“You didn’t want to play that hand,” Palmer sighed.

“No, but he was about to banish me, all of us, in order to seat a new heir, one that had nothing on him, and doesn’t know he’s not the right person to lead the pack. That he breached the Wolfen Laws of Coercion himself.”

“He’s still seen as fair and just in Clay’s eyes.” Dariah sighed “It’s not right what he did.”

“It’s not,” Slade agreed with her, “and only I have the proof of his wrong doings. Can unseat him at my will.

That scroll is likely the only way to keep him in check now.”