Not just the Beta (Oriana and Slade) novel Chapter 129

Slade

He’d gotten nowhere with Sheriff Lusso. The man had gone straight home from the police station, turned the T.V. on and then gone to bed later that night at 10pm. He was not going to lead them to Ori; as Slade had suspected. They might not be together anymore, but he wasn’t going to risk her or her daughter, he supposed to an unknown past.

He returned to the bed and breakfast just on 0530. Seeing as the sheriff was up and getting ready for work, he’d been awake all night long, thinking he might duck off in the wee hours of the morning, but no he hadn’t. Was not so stupid, he knew he had a tail, so sitting watching was a waste of time.

Palmer and Yuri had managed to find out where Maddie and Londyn lived, though they’d not heard or smelled anyone else in the house, so it appeared that only the two of them lived with each other.

They’d doubled back later on that night at 10pm and seen two cars in the driveway, a four-door ute and a Jeep, and everyone in the house appeared to be settled and sleeping by 11pm, the place was in darkness and everything was quiet.

Though they’d not gotten up close to the house, because the land had felt odd to them, it wasn’t rogue or wolfen but something else. Possibly a coven, he’d been told. They’d also seen in the dark that there were a few tiny red lights from cameras about the property. It was monitored. There was a company sign hanging off the front door, and they’d checked that out, it was a gaming company owned by Maddison Forester. She was an app developer, and worth quite a bit as well. They’d googled her while watching the house. She was worth nearly three million.

Yuri thought this was why she was able to deal with them so easily. She was herself a CEO, and likely used to dealing with not only programmers but, the banks and investors for her company. Likely wealthy arrogant men and women, that wanted results to make them money.

Though there was a curiosity about the land the house was built on, and Palmer had offered to try and charm Maddie at breakfast in the morning. But it was completely possible that those women were witches.

So he was going to make a judgment call when in the café as to what he saw, to see if it was wise to feel them out using that Gamma Charm of his.

Slade got out of the car he’d been sitting in all night and stretched out, he was tired and a bit stiff, he was aiming to get at least three hours’ sleep before being woken for breakfast at 0830. Vance had returned to the Bed and Breakfast earlier, after sussing out the neighbourhood around Peirce Lusso’s place, and got nothing. Slade didn’t see a need for the two of them to be sitting around all night while that man slept.

His head tilted slightly as Hail sat all the way up inside his mind, and they picked up the distinct scent of a rogue in the wind, he breathed in deeper, and it was female. Slade turned all the way around to face directly into that breeze and there it was not strong, but her chocolaty coconut scent, she wasn’t close by, likely off in the woods and some miles away. But he knew it was her Hail confirmed it was ‘China.’ And he was gone, off down the street on foot in the dark at full wolfen speed to track the scent.

He mind-linked to his entire unit, “I got Oriana’s scent out here on the breeze, get your asses up.” They would all be able to pull on his tether and track his whereabouts. He was not going to wait for them; that could see her get away.

Slade had no idea how far away she was. He could scent for up to 10 miles, and her scent, it wasn’t right there, only on the breeze; she could be gone, or close to it, for all he knew. But he was going to track that scent until he had her.

She was moving about in the hours of the morning before he would get up. He sighed, he’d been on the other side of Moosehead Lake all night, with the windows up and the heater running, he’d not scented her because he was likely too far away from where she was.

He came to a body of water several miles away, and snarled as he looked both ways. There was a lake as far as he could see, and her scent was still coming from the east on the other side of it. He had to make a decision, north or south? But he didn’t know this lake, which was the longer route.

Roared into the darkness, “Ori, I just want to talk to you.” knew if she was local her hearing would pick it.

His unit caught up to him as he stood and waited to see if she would respond to him; he got nothing in return. He sent Palmer and Yuri north and he and Vance headed south, tracking that scent all the way until he was standing looking at Yuri and Palmer once more.

They were all standing on land on either side of a part of the lake that was completely iced over, making the crossing easier for anyone trying to get from the north side of the lake to the south side of the lake. She had crossed between them, he could actually see wolfen tracks, it was China that was out here in the snow. Her wolf was running at full wolfen speed as well, from the distance between the paw prints, and how they dislodged the snow and her claws dug into the ice bridge.

She had come from the north, and was heading south “Track her back to where she came from.” He directed Palmer and Yuri. He and Vance continued on south. She was tracking around the lake, he realised, but then as they came to the most north eastern end of the lake, there were two tracks to follow.

One continued on around the lake and the other continued on east.

He huffed in annoyance, “She ran round the lake, is trying to confuse us.” As he picked up Palmer and Yuri west of him now, around the other side of the lake, though one tether was coming towards him and the other was headed north. Their path had split.

He mind-linked to Yuri who was coming this way. ‘The lake is a decoy track, you’re headed right for me.’

Got annoyance from his Delta down the line, ‘I’ll track back to Palmer.’ He stated and Slade felt him stop and then was moving away once more.

He turned and headed deeper into the woods where the terrain changed to more mountainous, and he and Vance had to split up themselves. He could pick up her blood, in one direction and her scent in another. He hoped she wasn’t injured out here.

He got a mind link from Palmer and Yuri. They were splitting up on their end as well, and it wasn’t just her they could scent out here now, there was another female rogue on the loose as well. He picked that up himself a few more miles east, then there were two female scents of blood.

All four of them were all over the place, and he was keeping an opened, multi mind-link to all of them. It was going to cause him a hell of a headache later on, but they all knew only to actively talk to him if they needed to.

He passed through a craggy valley and deep gorge and up over a mountain following a hiking trail, he thought, and found himself standing in a valley. He looked at his watch. The sun was up now, though there had been deep mist all around him. It had suddenly cleared, and he looked at his watch 0830 in the morning.

‘About 10 miles east of you from what I can feel, I found an old portal. Her scent goes right to it. Got me two rogue scents up here actually,’ he stated as he realised, yes those two female scents were here ‘Beta and Delta ranked.’

‘Wolf tracks leading in?’

‘It’s a portal, Yuri, the ground is clear of snow for a good ten meters or so.

‘Are you back-tracking or going through?’ Palmer sighed down that mind-link.

‘I have to go through, I guess. Vance will stay here, and I’ll only be gone long enough to scent if she went through is all, and where it goes. Then I’ll come back and we’ll make a plan.’

He cut the mind-link and rubbed his temples as that headache crashed into him for being connected so long. It would be severed anyway when he crossed into the otherworldly realm. “Good luck,” Vance stated.

It was pitch dark on the other side of that portal, then lighting just ripped through the sky and struck the ground right before him and he stumbled backwards through the portal he gone through and fell onto his ass.

“Quick trip.” Vance laughed.

“Damn near got struck by lightning.” He muttered and got up, tried again, only to have the same thing happen again. Vance raised an eyebrow at him, “you get anything at all?”

“Everything is scorched and burnt. That was all I got, then nearly struck by lightning again.”

“It’s protected, in other words, and only those allowed can use the portal.”

“Likely so.”