Not just the Beta (Oriana and Slade) novel Chapter 107

Slade

It had been seven years of searching for Oriana, trying to find one she-wolf in all of America was no easy feat. Not when she had the training on how one was tracked by others and knew how to hide herself. To stay out of sight of cameras, and below the radar of the human world.

He’d gotten intel that someone with her eyes had been seen in Maine and so this was where he and his unit now were. They’d spread out through the state. There were six packs here and plenty of forest for her to hide in if she was still a rogue. Plenty of schools in the human world for her child to attend, if she was not a member of a pack.

He’d come across one of his friends that he’d made back at Alpha College; about a year ago, down in Boston, and they’d gotten to chatting about why he was out here, and where his Beta was. Graham had stated “You know the girl with pretty eyes.”

He had recalled her just from the picture and so Slade had stated, “Turned herself rogue a while back, hurt by her family. We’re actually out here looking for her, trying to bring her back in.” then had asked Graham what he was doing out this way.

“I got me a Mate, she’s from out here,” Graham had told him with a smile. He was a fourth heir and moved to be with his Mate. She was the Gamma in her pack, part of the Alpha Unit, and technically outranked him.

Graham had called him a little over a week ago now, and told him he’d thought he’d seen his missing Beta. Had actually described her eyes to him as well, had seen them in passing down on a coastal town, had been walking with three women and a child, down near Bar Harbour, he’d been on vacation with his Mate, though he had stated he wasn’t certain if it was her, the women he’d seen were all human, as was the child as far as he could tell.

But Slade would let no stone go unturned in his search for Ori. He’d not asked about the child, no one knew about that. Left it alone in order to keep her safe from others, knowing there was an alpha-blooded child roaming about unprotected. He had wanted to ask if the child was a boy or a girl, but hadn’t, to keep that part of his life a secret.

It wasn’t the first time he’d gotten reports about her being in the state of Maine either. He had been here three times now in the past three years, searched out the areas of Bangor, Brewer, Stratton and Flagstaff Lake, now again in Maine, but down in Bar Harbour. She had to be here somewhere, in the state of Maine; it was too many times for her to be seen in the one state.

He stood with his unit looking at the map of Maine. It was the same map they’d used last time, and was coloured in, where they had been on their last trips. He had highlighted the main route from Flagstaff Lake to Bangor and now down to Bar Harbour. Graham he knew, lived just east of Lincoln, and had been keeping an eye out for her up there, for the past year now. Had told him he’d check the packs local to the state if he could, happy to help it seemed.

“It’s a lot of ground to cover.” Vance stated as they all stood looking at it.

He knew it was, but there were no other choices open to him. “We have to split up,” he told them ” Somewhere along this route is where she’s going to be,” he traced his finger down the 201 and along the 2, then down to the 1A.

“Graham said there are only six packs to his knowledge in Maine. His we know is out there by Lincoln. There’s one up by Ashland, and he’s been in that pack, is affiliated with them; she’s not there.

“Then there’s one here by Franklin, one over by Augusta, and that one we already checked out west of Stratton, and then that one up there by Clayton Lake.” he drew a rough line between all the packs to give them a search area.

“In the middle of them all, is my bet on where Ori is.” he sighed, it wasn’t a small search area. He printed out four copies and handed them out.

Watched as Vance put his copy down, “If we go corner to corner, and across the state, pack to pack, so to speak.” he stated and drew dotted lines as he spoke to show what he meant. “I’ll show us where the furthest point from all those packs are.”

“Yes.” Palmer nodded. “Also, the likely paths wolves would take to get from pack to pack on foot through the woods. The direct route overland in wolfen form.”

“We got ourselves a search grid.” Yuri added “We should hit the largest areas of non-wolf traffic first, it’s like she’ll be avoiding the packs and paths they use.”

They were back to thinking she was a rogue once more, since Graham hadn’t seen her in any of the packs he knew, and that woman he’d seen hadn’t had a pack scent, passed for a human, so they were under the assumption she was scent masked out there, still a rogue, maybe found other rogues to hang out with even.

He clearly remembered the words or threat he’d told his father before leaving, about what would happen if he tried to seat Clay in his place. So did his father, it seemed, and the man was doing what he should. Following all pack laws.

Lindal reported to him every week without fail, on the goings-on inside that pack, she to wanted him to find and bring back her childhood friend alive and well, to meet the child she’d had, wanted her home as much as he did.

He did not really respond to any of the Beta’s messages about his search for Ori, regardless of how they were worded, he barely gave his own father monosyllables. When he did pick up that phone that rang once a month, apparently to see that he was alive and well, and how the search was going. He occasionally got a call from his mother to tell him how Dariah and Clay were doing.

He knew how Dariah was. She reported to when she was inside the pack, and always let him know when she was going to be out of it for medical internships and couldn’t report to him, but she sent him emails on how she was doing in Obsidian, liked it there and, apparently Alpha Braxton had just brought home his Mate, were tethered to each other by his Mate’s father, she thought that was funny, and the Luna’s dad was a Werebear.

But answering his mother and father or the pack’s Beta or even his Mate, he had no inclination to do so. They had ruined the life of his future Beta, and for what? The possibility that she would scent him and reject him. So thought it was best to pass her over for her brother to stop that.

He’d had years to think about it now, how stupid he had been to let them convince him of anything to do with her removal, regardless of how it came about. Had plenty of sleepless nights, over her out there in the world alone raising his child. Why she’d not told him that was his own doing, and he knew it.

What would have happened if they’d not fucked her over, and they’d scented each other out? She’d have told him she was pregnant, it would have shocked him completely, but he’d smelled her; like his favourite cookie. Hail would have known it was his, and they would also never have doubted her words. He’d also suspected that they’d slept together, and tried to confirm it and gotten in a fight with her about it.

Her telling him she was pregnant, would have just confirmed his thoughts and he knew he’d have just smiled at her, yanked her right to him and growled “I knew I was right.” probably laughed, would have been happy to hear those words.

Hell, he’d likely have picked her up off the ground in front of everyone and claimed her mouth for himself. Carried her off to his suite and Mark and Mated her in less than five minutes.