Not just the Beta (Oriana and Slade) novel Chapter 147

Maddie

She watched as Slade came into the café and looked behind him for the rest of his unit. “It’s just me today,“he commented.

She smiled at him, “trying to appear friendly and non-threatening?” she asked. The morning rush was over and there was currently only herself and Londyn in the front of the café. She knew Ana and Ocean hadn’t slept well and Zara was off handling a delivery that was late for no apparent reason.

“I am actually always friendly and respectful to those around me, unless they’ve done something wrong,” Slade stated in response to her question.

Maddie raised an eyebrow at him. She’d heard what had gone down in that pack, “You can say that, but until I actually see it…” she shrugged and watched him frown right at her. She’d yet to hear his side of the story and with all his searching over the years, she did suspect there was more going on than Ana likely knew. But till she knew it, she only had Ana’s side to go on.

“You’ve not completed all the levels in the app… till then.” She shrugged once more.

“Maddie please,” he sighed, “I’ve already seen both Ana and Ocean. I just want to talk to them is all.”

“Hmm, I’ll tell you what, Slade, how about, if you can win the word chain game, I’ll put you right in front of the one you’re up against.”

She watched as his frown deepened, and she heard Londyn snicker as he stated “It’s randomly generated.”

“Is it now?” she smiled at him. “Or could I, who created that game, all those games. Opt to go in access it and intervene in that, because of who you are. Pit you up against one of the five of us?”

He was staring at her with slightly widened eyes. “You’re a tech?” he stated after only a moment’s thought.

“Mm, I’m considered a prodigy at that.” She smiled right at him. “Do you think, Slade, you can beat me at my own game?” she was actively laying out a challenge for him now. No Alpha liked to lose and nearly all of them would accept a challenge to show they were better.

Maddie could see he was actually thinking about it, trying, she thought, to decide how to go about this, turn it to his favour, so to speak. It was unlikely he could do that without knowing anything about her, which she knew he did not.

“Before accepting anything, I’d want to know which of you I’d be up against?” he finally asked.

Not so dumb after all, she thought. He was logically minded, it seemed. “It won’t be Ana, I’ll tell you that much. Though I believe Palmer is currently struggling to gain ground…” she smiled at him, chuckled just a little.

She watched Slade look from her to Londyn and back, and it dawn on him that Palmer was likely pitted up against one of them, which he actually was, herself in fact. She was actively trying to suss him out, after

what she’d learned and what better way to do it than a word chain game. The words he came up with and used, could tell her how he thought about things.

“Can I pick the rank I’m to be pitted up against?” Slade asked after a full minute of thought, and Maddie knew that he was trying to turn the odds to his favour.

She snorted, fully amused. He’d forgotten what she’d said the other day, it seemed, about their unusual ranking system. “If you like, but be warned, you don’t know what rank any of us actually are.”

“Now you say that, but Ana is a Beta, Ocean is an Alpha child, and I now know that Zara is a Gamma. So that’s three out of five that I understand.”

“Now you say that.” She mimicked his words back at him, “But do you recall I told you we are all equals?”

But cute as a button could also refer to Ocean for Slade. He’d seen his daughter now and she was cute as a button. Quick as a whip simply referred to how quickly Londyn would respond to him in this her new game.

“Coffee’s on the house if you can win, for all four of you, for the entire time you’re here in town,” she offered. “I’ll even let Vance come and order from Zara.” Then she shooed him out of the café.

He had absolutely no idea that Ana and Ocean were in her office, resting after the morning rush. They were both tired, and she’d sent them back there to nap, figuring they could use it. He couldn’t smell them, and therefore he didn’t know that both of them would have heard every word he spoke.

She watched Ana stroll out of her office and look right at her. She’d not intended to hide from him, and Maddie knew this, she just wanted to test the man’s patience was all. To see if he could sit down calmly and discuss everything that she thought was going to come up. He was going to need to have patience.

She understood that most Alphas had the reputation of always wanting, or expecting, to get what they wanted from those around them, and getting furiously mad when they didn’t get their own way. She was going out of her way to not give him what he wanted to test that herself.

It wasn’t just Ana that was going to have to deal with him, but Londyn as well, and she did actually arc up at other Alphas that challenged her and tried to assert herself before them. Especially if it involved something around her sisters.

Maddie was trying to suss out his temperament, because he’d not really interacted with any of them until he’d found out who Ana was. He had that one run-in with Londyn over dads caring about their kids. Only the kids didn’t know about it.

Ah! That was it…the man already knew about Ocean, he knew he had a child. Somewhere along the way he’d figured it out or perhaps someone inside that pack had, and they’d told him.

The question now was how to figure out if he was only here for his child or for Ana and his child? Though Zara had said his words felt true, that he’d not lied, perhaps it should be herself sitting down for this conversation, and not with Slade but with Palmer.

That man couldn’t charm her even if he wanted to. She shook that thought off. No, not her, it was going to have to be Zara, she could feel out all of them, get them all to tell the truth about what was really going on. None of them would get past Zara.