Not just the Beta (Oriana and Slade) novel Chapter 146

Ana

It was a restless night for not only herself but Ocean as well, and she ended up pulling her into her bed with her, and holding her close. China pushed forwards and purred softly for Ocean, just like when she had been very little, and it did help her to finally fall asleep, though it was now very late.

Ana doubted she’d get much sleep at all. Her mind was switched on and was unable to shut off. She had to deal with Slade now, after all these years, and didn’t exactly know how to do that anymore. It had once, a very long time ago, been an easy thing to do, not so much now.

She had been blindingly mad that very day everything had happened to her; but to become who she was now and allow herself to move on completely from it. To be able to be truly happy; which she actually had done, and was very happy in her life. She had to actually let it go and leave it in the past; no longer feel anything about it or think about it.

Because without doing so, how could one be truly happy when hanging on to all that anger, pain and suffering? One couldn’t. It would always be there eating away at her. So, over the past seven and a half years, she’d actually been able to let it go and forget it, move on with her life.

She hadn’t even actively thought about that place or those people in many years, not for at least two full years, and being happy and in a relationship with Pierce had kind of just let her really move on from it. She recalled and understood what had happened, of course, but it was now just in the past.

Did she really want to go and have to dig it all up once more? No was the answer and she knew it. No longer did she have to be someone else to please anyone. She was just Ana now, that other girl who she’d grown up as. Maddie, Ocean, Zara and Londyn, their love and friendship, had all healed her wounds.

Punching Yuri had been purely instinctual on her part. She’d locked eyes with him, recognised him and kind of just freaked out and panicked at seeing him after all that time. It was simply a shocked reaction, to which she had then let that panic consume her completely, and gone back to her old self, the one that needed to run away and hide from them all.

But she wasn’t that person anymore. No, she’d grown up a lot since that day, become her true self, and she liked who she was as well. The happy, confident woman that had lain buried within the insecure girl she’d once been.

So why should she hide from them? She’d not actually done anything wrong at all. So why was it she needed hide? It was that insecure girl she had once been, rising to the surface and she only now just realised it.

But it wasn’t who she was anymore. She’d learned who she was now, had grown up, and she was a good person, and she wasn’t out there looking for anyone’s approval, and she didn’t need it either. She also had no ties to that place, other than Slade himself, and well, really, was she tied to him? No. She wasn’t actually tied to him in any way, she wasn’t his Mate, she hadn’t been his girlfriend back then, they’d never dated. She nor he had ever looked at each other in that way, not once. The only person with a tie to him was Ocean. He was her father; that was all.

They were just three men she had once known and one she didn’t. Though something itched in her brain about that Beta, it was likely he came from an affiliated pack and maybe somewhere along the line she’d met him when growing up.

Though she had no problem with him, she was also curious as she lay there in the darkened room as to how Vance had become the Beta of that unit. From what she’d heard from her sisters, he was funny and charming, got along with the others quite well.

She’d listened to Maddie the other night, about how she thought Slade and his unit had been out of the pack trying to track her down. That Maddie had looked into Highland Hills herself, out of curiosity about what they were up against. That is what Maddie had told her. She could understand that.

Tonight, after Ocean had gone to bed, Maddie had sat down and put a file in front of her and murmured “I want you to look at this.” Then she had simply walked away.

Ana knew Maddie had been in her lab since getting home, working away all by herself and didn’t want to be disturbed, working on some project, and she now understood this folder was the result of that project Maddie had given her.

Maddie was expecting Londyn and Zara to move once that full moon came and Yuri scented out Londyn himself. Then, if Maddie was also gifted a Mate in Palmer, then three of the five of them would all likely go back to that pack.

Maddie had been in investigation mode; she’d stated once before, she’d need time to look into a Mate and his pack before making any decisions about accepting or rejecting a Mate. That was now what she was doing, because deep down she knew the signs of a Gamma’s Mate, and she had it, had reacted violently to the use of Palmer’s Charm on her. Only a Mate would do that.

She was now just hoping that Slade wouldn’t expect her to fall into line, roll over and do as she was told, like she’d always done inside that place. She wasn’t that person anymore, and that was not going to happen.

She could, however, be an adult about this, be civilised, and she knew it, but she would not be going back to that pack to live under the rule of Slade’s father and his Beta. No, that was not going to happen. She was also not about to subject Ocean to a pack like that, where only the men were important, and the women were second-class citizens. Hell no.

She might just have to call Austin, and actually accept being a part of his pack, to keep her daughter from having to feel how she felt growing up. Austin, she knew, was a good man, was trustworthy and fun at times. She and Maddie had enjoyed their games with him, and so had Zara and Londyn. She smiled to herself. Until Sloan had figured out what they were.

Even Ocean held her hand out to Austin every time she saw him, almost a little expectantly, for a bead to go in her hair. Ocean had no fear of Austin at all. She smiled up at him every time she saw him. Liked him and Austin always gave her a bead.

Though he had curbed her trying to take one from his own hair long ago, she’d tried more than once growing up, and he’d told her if she didn’t do it, he would bring her a bead when he visited. Which he’d kept his word.

They all still thought it was funny that Ocean had ripped a bead from his hair when she was just a tiny toddler. Ocean also now had seven beads in her hair across three small plaits, and had told Ana she was going to have hair like Austins when she grew up.

Ana had smiled at her and nodded. Hadn’t discouraged it, if her daughter wanted to have a head full of braids or dreadlocks, Ana would simply let her.

She finally closed her eyes, a slight smile on her face, she would send Ocean right to Austin for that, or have him come to Ocean to get her hair done. She’d also remind Ocean to try and snatch a bead from his hair while she was there.

Thinking about Ocean being all grown up and happy, settled her and China, and finally sleep claimed them.