Not just the Beta (Oriana and Slade) novel Chapter 109

Yuri

He was out in the woods walking toward the next town, when he’d seen her. A naked woman out in the snow, she was huddled there, her arms wrapped around herself, sitting against a tree, her head was down on her knees. Trying to keep warm, he thought to himself absently.

Though his hearing picked up a steady heartbeat, and regular even breathing, it surprised him a little, that there was no uncontrollable shivering or the chattering of teeth. He breathed her in and smelled that she was human.

He wondered how long she had been out here in the snow? Was she lost? Unconscious and on her way to being hyperthermic, she was going to die out here if he left her sitting there. She wasn’t his mission, but he couldn’t leave a human woman to freeze out in the snow in the middle of winter.

He made his way over to her and hunkered down right in front of her, reached out and touched her, aiming to keep his touch light and gentle. If she was lost, she was probably in some sort of trouble and waking her up

if she was asleep and not unconscious, having a man touching her likely wasn’t going to go down so well.

Her skin was warm to the touch, and it surprised him more than a little. She should have been freezing out here. “Hey are you okay?” he asked as her head lifted up, it appeared she’d been sleeping, and she had woken easily. She looked right at him, her eyes found his and Yuri’s heart hammered inside his chest.’ Oriana’ finally he’d found her, he would know those eyes anywhere, and right this minute, caught by the light of the full moon, they practically glowed like neon as she stared at him.

He saw her eyes widen at seeing him and yes, she knew who he was, recalled him, that was a good thing. He started to state her name and then there was just pain ripping through the side of his face and he was tumbling over sideways and backwards.

‘She bloody punched us. his wolf Bosco snarled, and then they were just free-falling off an unknown ledge,

then darkness rushed forward and unconsciousness claimed him.

His eyes flickered more than once before he finally fully regained consciousness, a groan came from him as he pushed himself up to a sitting position and felt pain in his jaw ‘Fractured.’ Bosco snarled inside his mind.

Yuri sighed as he saw the sun was up on the horizon, he’d been out cold all bloody night, he put a hand to his jaw and knew he’d passed out from the pain. The bloody woman could still connect a punch as hard as always, had that pure Beta-blooded strength, ‘You can heal it right?’ he asked Bosco. There was no pack doctor here to set it.

‘Take time, but yes. Fractured, not broken and out of place. his wolf was unhappy about the pain they were in, knew if they were inside a pack they would be given painkillers.

Yuri made a snow ball and pressed it gently to his jaw. As he looked about him, it was all he could do, try to numb the pain. He looked up to see how far he had fallen, 16 feet to the ledge up there, hadn’t felt the impact. That was at least something. There was nothing broken other than his jaw, the two feet of snow he’d landed in had likely cushioned his impact.

He tried to connect a mind-link to Slade, couldn’t get him and then remembered he wasn’t with the unit, they’d all spit up to search the various areas. Slade was south of him in another zone. Too far away to connect with, he stood and pat himself down with his one free hand, and found and retrieved his phone from his pocket, even that caused him pain. The tilting of his head.

‘Don’t talk. Bosco huffed at him ‘Keep jaw still, it’ll heal quicker.’

Yuri sighed, he could only do as he was told, he looked about him to find a way back up there to that ledge, so he could start to track her. But why was she out there in the snow alone, and sleeping naked in the woods? Where was her child?

It didn’t make sense to him at all. He did not pick Oriana for the type of woman to abandon her own child. He now wondered if something had happened to it? or if they’d somehow gotten separated? Was she out here looking for the child, had stopped to rest exhausted in her own hunt?

He looked at his phone as he walked along the ridge to find a way back up there, to where he’d seen her. There was no service out here in the depths of the woods, he was going to have to make his way into civilisation to use his phone.

He found a way up there and walked the edge until he was directly above where he’d landed, down in the snow, his body print still down there. He turned and looked at the place he’d seen her, looked at the ground and huffed in annoyance. There were no fleeing footprints, it had snowed while he’d been unconscious. Though not that heavily.

He moved his eyes slowly along the ground and found a few half-filled impressions in the snow, and headed off to follow them, heading north. He couldn’t smell anything at all, he now realised, and that thought brought him to a standstill, as he recalled she’d not scented of a rogue, nor of a she-wolf, had smelled human to him.

‘Unknown, naked, sleeping in the woods. I thought she was a human in trouble, freezing to death. Stopped to render assistance.’

‘Human?’ he got right back.

‘Yes, didn’t smell wolfen or rogue. Human, like Graham stated, but hit us with China behind her…it’s confusing. I only woke up an hour ago. She’s gone’

‘On my way, find accommodation for us all and let us know where to meet.’

‘Alright.’ he sighed. He knew he was getting the third degree when he could talk, that was a given. His decision now was where did he go from here? He didn’t know. He had Rockwood north and Greenville south of him, but there were many coves here on this lake and many other smaller lakes about, with homes on them as well.

She could be absolutely anywhere, might not even be here, might have just got up and left, fled away altogether once more. But at least this was an official sighting. He’d actually seen her with his own two eyes. Though it was odd for him to only get human off her, he hadn’t even picked up rank.

She’d found a way to hide all of that from them. Those around her, Graham had said, were human as well. That was going to make it more difficult to track her in the human world, but it would or should keep her safe from other rogues out there. If he couldn’t scent her, then neither could they.

He looked at the road before him, eeny, meeny, miny, moe, was the rule he was going to have to play by, though looking at the map on his phone, Rockwood was closer than Greenville. So he headed that way. He’d also been tracking her north through the woods and Rockwood was north.

So it seemed that was the right direction to take. He walked along the road and used his phone to find and book accommodation. Most places were sold out do to there being a ski resort here, but he managed to get a lakeside cabin that would sleep all four of them and texted the address to the group chat. Along with the cabin number, when he checked in, his jaw was finally fixed by Bosco.

Despite being unconscious all night, Bosco, fixing his jaw had made him tired. He was also hungry but couldn’t eat, had nothing on him, knew it was likely that one of the unit would bring food knowing his wolf was healing him.