Not just the Beta (Oriana and Slade) novel Chapter 140

Slade

He’d restrained himself, he thought, where Peirce was concerned that night, as he walked into the café that morning, and it was just him, he’d left his unit back at the bed and breakfast. He looked right at Maddie and then walked over to her at the counter.

“Good morning, Maddie.” His eyes moved to her sister, “Zara.” He nodded to her.

“What can I get for you?” Maddie asked him.

“A proper introduction,” He stated. “My name is Slade Southerland. I believe you and your sisters know exactly who I am, as I do who you all are.” He told her simply.

Maddie raised an eyebrow at him. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.” She commented casually.

“I’d like to know who’s in charge of your family?” he asked. He had to keep it to human talk, because there were humans sitting in here having coffee.

“I don’t know what you mean,” she stated.

“I think you do… Your boss, which one of the four of you runs the show?” he asked.

“We all hold equal standing,” Maddie stated and folded her arms across her chest.

That confused him more than a bit. Equal standing could mean anything. They could all have the same bloodline, be the same rank. Or maybe none of them were in charge and there was someone else he’d yet to see. “Alright, then who do I need to speak to, to get a meeting with your sister Ana?” he placed that half-torn photo he’d taken from Peirce’s home on the counter in front of her.

He watched as Zara looked at the photo over Maddie’s shoulder. He did know it was recent, but he also had other proof to prove who he was looking for was their sister. He pulled out his phone and accessed his photos, touched a screenshot of Ana with her specialty coffee from their own website, and turned it to face them.

“Ana is or was part of my social group. I’d like to speak with her. Who do I talk to in order to get that to happen.” Then he turned his phone back to himself and accessed his own private photos and showed her the picture of Ori with Palmer and Yuri at the full moon after they turned 18. Turned it back to her.

“I’m sure you can recognise two of my men in this photo, Palmer and Yuri. I was at college when it was taken and that’s why I’m not in it.” he pulled a photo from his pocket and placed it on the counter, the one he’d shown to Peirce in the sheriff’s station.

“Here is Oriana or Ana to you, and I, at our 18th birthday celebration.” He saw her look at it and say nothing but her hand reached out, and she picked up the half-torn-up photo and looked at him. “Where did you get this?” she asked after a moment.

“I took a midnight trip to the man that is now her ex, who I hear cheated on her. He’s a little… bruised and broken right now,” he shrugged.

His eyes moved right towards Zara at her amused snort. She thought it was funny that he’d hurt that man.

“Please Maddie, I just want to talk to Ana,” he stated.

“It’s not up to me,” she finally answered him, and slid the two photos back across the counter to him.

He stood and thought about that, not up to Maddie! She was definitely the one that presented herself as being in charge. He’d seen her pull both Zara and Londyn into line, away from his own men, and clear her

voice, and they fell into line at the sound of it. “Is Ana in charge?” he questioned, wondering if that was what was going on.

She was a pure-blooded Beta and only one other bloodline would outrank her, that being an Alpha. He had no idea if there was an Alpha in this group or not.

“No,” Maddie snorted. “You might find the one in charge a little more difficult to deal with.”

“I can do difficult. I am reasonable myself,” he nodded. “Could you see to arranging a meeting with this person?” he asked.

“Maybe,” she commented, “likely she’ll want something in return. Nothing is free in our world.”

Their world! He thought. “And which world would that be?” he asked. He was actually curious about that.

There was still a debate over witches or wolves.

Each badge earned them something new for their mermaid to interact with, play with and make friends with. A fairy, a dragon, and a unicorn, the final stage had that unicorn touching its horn to the mermaid’s head, and she was gifted legs and could then ride the unicorn around on the beach and off into the forest.

Apparently, Vance won that game. He had more points than Yuri did, and although they all achieved the same milestones, it seemed to depend on the score one got, which depended on the words they came up with; as to what the creatures looked like, if they were simple or sparkled and glittered and the colour choices were different as well.

A lot of thought had gone into the creation of this app, he thought, as he got to see the milestones being achieved. He sent Yuri down to pick them up lunch, he was the only one of them that would appear to have no ulterior motives for being in the café. Londyn wasn’t there that he’d seen, and Yuri had no idea what Palmer had picked up on, and they would not be telling him either. They would know the outcome on the full moon.

It was going to be a long few days, he thought, but he had to play by their rules. They knew who he was, and now understood he and his unit knew who they were; or at least that they were otherworldly.

He was curious about who their boss was. If they were wolves, why hide themselves as they did? And live this way? He sat and thought about that. There was no pack here in Greenville or on Moosehead Lake, but Yuri had stated the ground out at the house was otherworldly.

It hadn’t felt wolfen to him. Slade thought about that, and looked at the app. He’d listened to Maddie, followed her instructions, but only now did he realise what he should be doing.

This app would tell him what they were, it would have some sort of otherworldly logo attached to it. He accessed the contact us, and blinked at seeing Maddison Forester as the app owner, but was then a bit confused when he saw that Wolfen Council logo on there as well.

Were they affiliated with the Wolfen Council? It took him about 30 seconds to realise that meant they were wolves and were all rogues at that. They had no territory, he frowned again. How could rogue wolves have a tiny slice of land, that didn’t feel like wolfen land…?

It was Palmer later that night who muttered all of a sudden into the room “Just bloody great.” And turned his phone to show them another otherworldly logo. It was plainly there for all to see, and they’d all missed it, because it was like a watermark that was simply embossed into the app’s background of the homepage.

The bottom half was a wolf howling in the forest, and then it had nine fox tails that completed the top of the circle, and he understood right away it was a pack symbol.

“It’s a den,” Yuri suddenly piped up, “the land I felt, it was odd, not wolfen, I think belongs to that Kitsune, in the logo.”

“Now that’s some protection.” Vance nodded. “We’ll have to tread carefully.”

Slade sighed. There weren’t many pairings like that, and he could only think of one, and it was relatively local; only an eight-hour drive away, “Alpha Austin.” He murmured, and that man was also part of the Wolfen Council.