Not just the Beta (Oriana and Slade) novel Chapter 117

Slade

They’d found nothing at all over the past few days. Vance had gotten coffee from Zara every day, sometimes twice a day. Although he’d gotten nowhere with his flirting, the girl just looked at him, and still shook her head, stated no to giving out her phone number.

He’d come back annoyed this afternoon. It could be seen, in the way he placed the coffee tray and food he’d ordered for them for dinner, on the table. It was supposed to snow heavily overnight, and so he’d brought them all dinner from the Java Hut, and actually bought quite a bit of food from there to feed them all.

It had only been he and Vance in there at this point, but that man had just bought enough food to feed a large family. Two mains for each of them and dessert along with the coffee.

The three of them had snorted, fully amused, when he’d stated that Maddie had served him and stated” Zara’s not in today.”

He’d turned that cup Vance was holding around, he’d not seen his name on it, but had seen something written on it, and wanted to know what it was. The other cups had Boss, Ames and Bosco written on them.

He’d wanted to keep his name from the town, so if Ori was here she wouldn’t hear it, and they were all just calling him boss. Ames and Bosco were Palmer and Yuri’s wolves, another way to deflect their names from being heard by her. If she was living in this town, Vance, she didn’t know, so that was okay.

On that cup were the words ‘Not for Zara’ printed neatly, and a smiley face under it. Maddie’s doing, no doubt.

“Her sister is mean.” Vance huffed. “Called me to collect my order ‘Hey you, not for Zara, your order is ready,’ then she smiled right at me and stated, please do come again, all cheery like. Her other sister burst out laughing, and so did two patrons of the café. Locals I guess, that also thought it was funny.”

He had actually chuckled himself; it was funny, Palmer and Yuri were killing themselves in their chairs. Not many women said no to Vance, and he was finding not only the girl challenging, but her sister as well. Not much made him laugh, but that was funny to him, denied by the sister, and she was actively taunting the man. She had no idea what he was, and treated him like any playboy that sniffed around her sister, he guessed.

“She’s just a human girl, let it go already.” Slade had shaken his head. “You might like her now, but when you find your Mate, she’ll be just a blip on your radar and forgotten.”

“I know that. I just like her; what harm is dinner?” he shrugged “She’s pretty and flirts right back half the time, it’s her sister getting in the way.”

“I’ll get the coffee tomorrow.” Palmer had smiled and Vance had frowned right at him, and they’d all laughed once more, knew right away that was not going to happen. Vance was, it appeared, on a mission. of his own.

They’d not heard the name Brianah at all on their walks about town, and neither had Palmer or Yuri, as they’d made their way around the lake. But they had heard Maddie was the owner of the café that Vance insisted they all use while here in town.

He’d also heard that she worked there with her three sisters. He’d been inside that café twice now, himself, and Vance every day, and neither one of them had seen the third sister, Just Maddie, Zara and Londyn. Apparently, there was another sister who’d been dating the local sheriff until just a few days ago.

The town liked to gossip as much as all other small towns did, and Ana the third sister hadn’t been seen in a few days. Not since she’d found out he was cheating on her.

They’d even heard how long the two had been together, a year and a half. The town folk believed Ana’s heart was broken and that’s why she wasn’t working in the café, a place the Sheriff would normally go and get his coffee. That girl was avoiding her cheating ex.

He’d also heard that the town had thought those two would eventually get married, had never seen them fight, it had taken a weary Ana, a year to be persuaded into dating him, even. He had Maddie’s tick of approval. Seems her sister got a say in who they all dated or just was the oldest, and her sisters listened to her.

You gotta love small towns, everyone knew everyone, and he and his unit were keeping their ears open, to listen to all the towns gossip. They even knew Londyn only worked in the café three days a week. She had a photo gallery here in town, and was a photographer when not in the café. Zara worked as a part-time teacher at the school and in the café with Maddie, as did Ana normally.

It had taken Plamer and Yuri four full days to walk round the lake, using their wolfen speed when no humans were about or people to see them, in the less populated areas and cutting through the woods from one bay or cove to another. It made for a quicker trip.

“No, it’s not.” he agreed and went back through all of the photos now, looking for Zara or Sara White. There was only one other, one up in whistler; that photo they’d seen of a family in the snow.

He huffed in annoyance, he knew models often worked with other models. Only twice had they modelled together, it wasn’t enough to go on, likely just a coincidence. If there had been half a dozen now, that would signify something else.

He leaned back in his chair and didn’t know what to make of it. Was it a mere coincidence? Or were the two girls connected in some way? They’d not seen Ori at all yet, and none of them had seen a child arrive or leave that school that was wolfen.

Perhaps Ori had just been passing through, and had simply stopped to rest before moving on herself, but if that was the case, where was her child? And why weren’t they together? That was really starting to bother him. She wasn’t affiliated to any of the packs here in Maine, so she would be more than a state away from her child. Why would she do that?

Their accommodation here was up as of tomorrow, and he’d already planned on moving them. Vance had found a place down in Greenville, no surprise, closer to that café and Zara. They were going to stay for one more week and if nothing came about, were moving back out to finish their grid search of the mapped out area they had been working on, before Yuri’s sighting of Ori. Though they would now base themselves here in Greenville, it was more suitable than their last base of operations.

Alpha Austin had replied with a simple “Where are you?” just this morning, and he’d sent back Moosehead Lake. There was nothing yet on that, and Slade wondered if the Alpha Council, or that Alpha himself, not only knew about it, maybe supported it and that was why there was no new response.

Maybe Ori had found herself a new pack and held a wolfen job, that had her travelling out in the human. world. Anything was possible. He wondered if he was encroaching on Alpha Council business, or if they thought he might be going to expose something. If he was, they’d be here in short order to shut him down, he thought. He was now just waiting to see what they would do. It was all he could do.

Though if he found nothing at all here, he was going to take a drive out to the Winter Moon pack, see if he could speak with Alpha Austin himself. It could be that she worked for him, lived inside that pack, and if she did, he would scent her out. Maybe lay eyes on his child if she wasn’t there.

Maybe all these years she was just inside a pack that belonged to the Wolfen Council, which would grant her not only sanctuary but a full guarantee that her alpha-blooded child would never come to harm either. He sighed as he thought about that. He couldn’t cause trouble, likely wind-up dead. He would have to go about this very diplomatically.