Not just the Beta (Oriana and Slade) novel Chapter 104

Maddie

She was staring at her phone as an alert flashed up, the home security system’s motion detectors had been activated. She sighed as the backyard came into view on her screen and saw Austin’s Mate stroll up through the backyard. Austin, she noted, stood out on the path that ran past the house down by the lake, that the local joggers and walkers used.

Sloan was not human, though Maddie had not scented otherworldly on her, it was likely with what she was seeing that she actually wasn’t human. Maddie sat down at her office desk in the back of the café, and flicked her security app to her computer and put her phone down. Ana was standing next to her, also watching what was going on.

“Busted finally.” Ana murmured.

“It appears that way. What do you think she is?” Maddie asked curiously.

“Don’t know, I thought she was human, but that filigree,” she shook her head “It was odd.”

“She’s got a masking spray or something that hides what she is, like we do.” Maddie mused out loud.

She saw Sloan chuckle a few times and then just really laugh out the front of the house, had showed him something on her phone and now though it funny. “I bet Sloan just found out I own The Sun and Light Gaming Company.” She was hedging her bets now, that Sloan had just figured it all out. Maddie’s name was there attached to her company.

“He doesn’t look too happy.” Maddie murmured.

“Sloan thinks it’s hilarious.” Ana stated “What now?”

“Nothing, they’ll either leave us alone, or want to talk to us. Let them come to us. I don’t think they’ve exactly figured out what we are. He didn’t set foot on the property until after she told him too.”

“She could be a witch, looking for a coven. We do claim to be sisters. A witch word.”

“Hmm could be.” Maddie nodded. “Let’s just wait and see what they do. I think that woman recognised we all smelled the same to her, like she does to whoever uses the scent masking cover she herself uses. A common denominator, so to speak.”

“She’s not so easily deceived.” Ana nodded.

“Mm, got himself a truth seer for a Mate.”

“I’d bet a full tracker and retrieval expert as well, and with that truth seer part attached to her, unlikely much gets past her, is used to looking for things out of the norm.” Ana nodded.

“Yes, likely she picked up on everything we said, possibly felt even, depends on what she is. Her own rank and how long she’s been in the business.” Maddie agreed.

She huffed when they picked the lock and stepped inside the house itself. “Trying to get one of us to go home and confront them.” She muttered, not liking it.

She could, however, watch them walk about and look around the house. There wasn’t actually much she could do about them breaking into their home. He was on the Wolfen Council. No one could stop him from investigating, couldn’t even tell him no, because they were in fact wolfen, and she had hacked not only his pack but the Wolfen Council.

They, however, didn’t touch anything at all, but she watched them both look at the photos on the walls. It would show them that the four of them and Ocean lived in that house. Confirming everything they now thought. Austin stood in her tech lab, and she watched him take pictures of everything.

He was in her house collecting evidence of who she was, and she wondered if he was going to come after her, as a member of the Wolfen Council. Her phone rang a few minutes later, and she sighed as she picked it up. It was Austin. She turned it to show Ana, and then looked at the computer screen once more and yes, he was on the phone.

He turned and looked right at the camera in the corner of the ceiling, and smiled at it, stated from what she could tell, there was no audio ‘pick up, Maddie’

Ana snorted and Maddie answered the phone two rings later, “Hey Austin, what’s up?” she answered as though nothing was wrong, and she was none the wiser to him being in her home.

“I’m in your lab.” He stated simply “Got yourself a nice set-up, I see.”

“What are you talking about?” she refused to admit anything.

“Hmm, The Sun and Light Gaming Co.”

“Yes, I own that. I am a computer programmer when not at the café. Is there something wrong with me having more than one business?”

“Not at all.” he commented, and she watched as Sloan handed him a photo, and he shook his head, then turned that photo to the camera for them to see, “Care to explain to me, Ocean with all these very large wolves?”

“Not really.” She snorted, as she leaned back in her chair, it was game over, and she knew it.

“Hm, you still think it’s funny, I see, Maddie.”

“Oh, come on Austin, even your own Mate thought it was funny, killed herself laughing out the front of the house, when she realised what was going on.”

There was a frown on his face now, and she heard his Mate chuckle once more. She was listening to their conversation.

“I’ve got cameras all over the house and yard.” She told him.

“You and your sisters need to come home and explain yourselves to me,” he stated.

“We have a café to run, Londyn has an event to photograph this afternoon, sorry Austin, we’re busy living our human lives.” She told him and it was true.

“Maddison Forester.” He stated in a flat, hard, no-nonsense tone.

“I’ll take that.” Ana indicated the meat he was carrying.

“Please sit.” Maddie waved them to the table, looked at Sloan and asked “And what are you, Sloan?”

“Not a wolf.” She stated simply and sat down, “Like you all are.”

“That we are.” Maddie commented. There was no hiding it, these two had already seen the picture of Ocean and their four wolves.

“A pity, he never picked up on it years ago.” Sloan chuckled softly.

“Agreed.” Ana snorted “she could have gotten all of him.”

“Enough,” Austin stated. “I have a Mate now, so none of that talk.” He stated as he sat down next to Sloan. “So are you all rogues?” he asked.

“Not all of us.” Zara answered him. “Londyn.” She shrugged. “Is not a rogue, nor part of a pack.”

Austin sighed heavily now and looked at Maddie, “The one you were researching, and the one you helped.”

“Yes, to both.” She nodded “Zara here is the other in that sss I sent. We’re all sisters now.”

“It’s very dangerous for Londyn out there like that.” He muttered “More than you could possibly know.”

“She’s fine, no one knows what she is, human like the rest of us.” Maddie told him.

“That’s a nice, unique scent masking spray you have. Where’d you get it?” Sloan asked her.

“Where’d you get yours?” Maddie asked in return.

“Korea, I have relatives there that make it.”

“Oh, well, I make my own.” Maddie smiled at her “It’s not for sale, just in case you’re wondering. I thought about it, would make me a fortune I imagine.” She nodded. “But then realised it would likely be used for the wrong purposes, by the wrong people. So I kept the formula to myself. My regular scent masking oil is now being widely used by many packs out there, generates a nice income, wanted because it lasts 12 hours, and doesn’t wash off if one gets wet.”