Not just the Beta (Oriana and Slade) novel Chapter 125

Slade

He was sitting with Vance out the back of the Sheriff’s station. Both of them were kind of annoyed about things, that man in their Peirce was not talking, he was actually in there typing away on his computer, likely checking on Slade like he’d said he would. Many hours they sat there before anyone even went in to talk to him about what he was going to do.

Only to hear that he was going to do nothing, that yes her real name was Oriana Vale, so that was something, and she knew everyone here in town. She definitely lived here then. Not just passing through.

What he wanted to hear was that Peirce would state her name.

Those men in there had no idea that he could hear them from out here, had no idea they were supernatural creatures with wolfen hearing. Hearing him state they weren’t on speaking terms due to his fuck up. That could only mean one thing to him. Ana was going to be Oriana.

That stupid man in there had cheated on her, with his ex-wife. He was going to beat that man one the minute he got him alone. She’d trusted him and liked him enough to be in a relationship with him, only to have him betray her. Could her life be any more painful?

Though hearing that officer Ross state ‘what about Ocean?’ had confused him for a second before he’d heard Peirce himself state ‘she’s down with chicken pox’ and he’d put two and two together very quickly. He had a daughter and her name was Ocean.

He saw Vance smile right at him, and even knew he himself was smiling now. After seven and a half years, he’d finally found out they had a daughter. ‘Congratulations, I bet she’s just like her mother.’

‘I hope so. he’d nodded happy with that thought.

He’d been right, she had named her something strong and unyielding. Though it was definitely a girl’s name. He’d not thought she would do that, had over the years thought because of her father’s constant’ you’re a girl’ attitude.

That if she’d had a girl, Ori would have gone with a unisex name like Jamie or Shannon maybe. He liked it, Ocean, he thought to himself, and smiled a little bit more. Wondered when he would get to see her himself.

Then he sighed a little as he recalled the special board in the café. There was an Ocean special on that board. It was a hot chocolate drink. A further confirmation that Ana was Oriana, he mind-linked to Vance, ‘

Maddie, Zara and Londyn are all her human family. She found an attachment out here, they’re helping her to raise Ocean. Do you think she lives with them or in a place on her own?’

‘I don’t know, but Ana is part owner of that café, and they consider her a sister’ Vance commented thoughtfully ‘We’ve not tracked a single one of them, they could all live on their own… Oriana, difficult to say, likely though you’d think on her own, being wolfen and they are all human, she wouldn’t want to risk them seeing China on the surface, and wolves do want to look at their pups, interact with them in human form. She couldn’t do that if she lived with them.’

He knew that was the truth, he could recall his own mother and father’s wolves looking at him, playing with him as a child even. Then he sighed heavily ‘She knows where all here Vance, you’ve been flirting with her human sister non-bloody stop since laying eyes on the girl.

‘Hm I don’t think that’s the issue. The way Maddie is, they know who you are, Ori wouldn’t know me at all, but you, I’d be willing to bet after seeing Yuri, she told them what you look like. The minute we walked into that café, that first time, our cover was blown.’

‘Just great.’ He muttered.

Peirce was not going to call her or go to her house. That man wasn’t so stupid, knew he’d have a tail on him and, yes, he was going to be followed, just in case. They had a full lead now, Ana was definitely Oriana, but she was now holed up in a house somewhere out there around the lake. It could be anywhere at all.

He got up ‘Peirce is not going to be the one to lead us to her, likely it will be one of the sisters. Let’s head for the Bed and Breakfast.’

Palmer and Yuri had checked them in before they got there and were waiting. They both looked at Vance’s happy smiling face and then to Slade himself “Did you get what you wanted?” Palmer asked.

“Yes and no. Ana is definitely Oriana, from what we picked up and heard them discussing inside that Sheriff’s station while we listened in, after we left. Though that Sheriff, he’s not willing to give up her actual name, or location, refused to call her and is refusing his men to drive out to her place.” Slade nodded.

“Then how do you know it’s her?”

“Cause that man fucked up his relationship with her and there not on speaking terms, that would be Ana who he screwed over, Maddie, Zara and Londyn’s sister from all accounts.” Vance answered. “But?” he stated and looked right at Slade.

“But?” Palmer and Yuri asked after a full minute of silence.

“I have a daughter, and her name is Ocean.” Slade smiled at them. “She’s currently out of school with the chicken pox.”

Yuri snorted “That’s a crock, we don’t get human diseases. A little girl, huh,” Yuri grinned at him.

“Now that’s got to make you happy.” Palmer smiled at him.

Slade could only nod, because for the first time he was happy, Ori was here, lived here. They had a daughter and he even knew her name. He had a female heir he could seat right in the Alpha’s chair, when it was time and any mate she got, would be moving to her pack.

He was going to prove his father wrong, prove Anders wrong, that there was nothing wrong with a female heir regardless of rank. He looked at his unit and smiled. “You’d best all have girls first. I want a full female Alpha unit for the next generation’s leadership. I’ll shove that right in their faces.”

He heard the three of them snort and Vance state “Gotta find our Mates first.”

“Well you can get on that now, though I think it will still be a bit before we get to see her. Ori’s holed up somewhere, and we don’t know if she lives with one of the sisters or not. Vance thinks not, due to being wolfen and them being human.”

“She also knows we’re all here.” Vance stated “Maddie, Zara and Londyn are her human family. So…”

“She knows everyone in town is what we heard.” Slade told them. “So it’s likely this is where she has been the entire past seven and a half years.” Palmer was no longer smiling, he noticed. He had his thinking cap

on, it seemed, “What is it, Palmer?” Slade asked.

“A girl pup?”

“That’s right, what are you thinking?”

“Maybe…” Palmer sighed “Let’s say she didn’t, not during the actual events of that night. Why she just stalked off and ended up at Lindal’s. Maybe she wasn’t planning on leaving at all… Then China told her they were having a girl. Say the next day. What do you think she’d feel? Finding out that bit of news, after everything that went down. Her own beliefs on why it happened?”

Slade sighed this time, she’d not just left the pack, had gone drinking and dancing, stalked off and rebelled at the Alpha unit, at himself even. Had he realised not intended to leave at that time, she was still inside the pack, trying to deal with what had happened to her.

Then, if China had told her they were having a girl, that was what likely tipped her over the edge, she thought about how male-orientated her father was, the Alpha himself was. A female heir for Slade and the pack.

He looked at Palmer. “She would have thought her daughter would be relegated to nothing if my next child was a boy. She thought Audrey and I were going to be Mates. So if we had a son, then her daughter, my daughter to her, with all that happened. I would pass that girl over for my firstborn son.”

“Correct.” Palmer nodded “That is what I am thinking, maybe the hacking off of her hair was more to her, than just looking different.”

“Likely so.” Slade now nodded “Not just about that card she left for her mother, with all her hair and that outfit either.”

“Unlikely,” Palmer stated. “I think she left because she found out she was having a daughter, something in her eyes, was yet again, just one more thing to create more disappointment in her father’s eyes.”

“You couldn’t even produce a son for the Alpha to the pack.” Yuri muttered, “I can bloody hear Anders’ words inside my head right now. Definitely, Hayden would have stated it. Just one more way to put her down in front of everyone.”

“Agreed,” Palmer nodded “She was already in pain and hurting, fought off bloodlust to protect her own child. Then to have gained that knowledge, she wanted nothing more than to protect her own daughter from all she had to go through.”

“She left solely because she was having a girl.” Slade murmured. “She didn’t want her to be treated like she herself was.” That had to be it, they all knew her well.

“I think that’s actually it. I always found it odd that she stayed for the month, hiding that pregnancy and then didn’t just flee away and go rogue while fighting off that bloodlust, as her life was ripped away from her.” Palmer was thinking out loud now.

“Left only after finding out; to give her little girl the life Ori always wanted for herself.” Slade stated it made complete sense to him.

“Finding her and bringing her home will be two very different things, I think.” Vance commented “If that is the case, proving to her your daughter’s life will be different inside the pack is going to be a must.”

“Likely so.” he agreed.

Though his plan from long ago was now likely enacting itself, because he knew Ori was here, and he wanted her to come home, and he knew he had to have it all sorted out before he would be able to bring her home even.

To do that, bring her home he had to have the current leadership of the pack fully investigated and everything laid out for her, so he could give her all the answers she needed. Prove he wasn’t the betrayer she thought he was. To have her realise this, and come to trust him once more.

That scroll was likely to present itself to Alpha Gretta any day now. He looked at Palmer and Yuri. “Shit is about to get real, back home.” He stated.