Not just the Beta (Oriana and Slade) novel Chapter 150

Slade

Dariah was quiet for a long moment, and then she sighed heavily down the line at him before murmuring,” I didn’t know all that you were going through. I’m sorry, Slade. I wish you had confided in me more.”

“I couldn’t. I needed to keep you out of it,” he told her gently.

“Still, it’s a lot for you to have gone through, and to handle, much more than I understood.” She sighed once more. “Have you been able to talk to Ori yet?”

“No, but we have a dinner set up Monday night, myself, my unit. Ana and all her sisters. I’d just like for it to be a proper introduction to all of them. They are still scent-masked, I need to know exactly what is going

on, even Ocean smells human like they all do.”

“W… What? Did Ori lose China because of what all of our parents did to her?” she sounded a little on the horrified side to him.

“No,” he reassured her. “They just seem to have found a way to scent-mask themselves and appear human. Palmer thinks it’s the necklace they all wear; they are identical.”

“Oh,” she sounded relieved, “that’s a neat trick though.”

“That it is.” he agreed. “How’s Clay handling all of this?” he asked after his little brother.

“He wasn’t in the room with the Elders, but he got to see the anger when they all came out and understood something bad is going on. Though he is annoyed that I was instated over him,” Dariah sighed. “He was here, and I was, as you know, in Obsidian. He told the council he was 21 and old enough to be in charge.”

“So, he’s got Roman’s attitude now?”

“Mm, he said something about I’m rarely in the pack, so it’s his right to be in charge.” Dariah muttered, “So, yes, I guess he is falling into father’s thought processes.”

“How’d it go down?” he asked, curious now himself about his little brother’s attitude.

“Not so well, Alpha Hailey asked him directly what the pack ascension laws were.”

Slade snorted, “Eldest, regardless of sex, is next in line.”

“Yes, and I was recalled, so he was informed, not so politely, “your sister is next in line, with your brother not here, and then there was a dispute I heard. Something about he was the only child of the Alpha and Luna that lived in the pack all the time. That you and I don’t count.”

Slade frowned at that and shook his head.

“Great grandfather snarled at him apparently along the lines of ‘Do you want to be lumped in with Hayden for those beliefs! end up where he is?” Dariah murmured.

“How’d that go down?” he asked.

“Clay snapped his mouth shut, and hasn’t spoken to me at all since my return and being instated. I think, as do the elders; father has been grooming him to take over the seat in secret. His way of thinking is very much like father’s.” She muttered.

It didn’t really surprise him, his father couldn’t do anything in the open, without that scroll being enacted, he was still biding his time, trying in all likelihood to find a way around it. Or a way for him to do so without Slade knowing about it.

“You’re alright inside the pack?” he asked, knowing she still found it hard to be there. She still loved Art, was drawn to him and couldn’t seem to let him go. Both she and Art were still un-mated as well.

“I’ll only be staying until you come home, and then I’ll leave again. I’ve still got two years of studies. I could do it here, I suppose, but… I will stay in Obsidian for it. I think that is for the best.” He could hear the sadness in her voice.

“Perhaps Dariah, it’s time to let the two of you choose each other. It’s been over five years; it’s acceptable to choose each other. Art is always worried about you, your lack of wanting to be in the pack. He asks after you all the time, wants to know you’re doing okay.” He sighed.

He knew Obsidian held massive mating balls. Dariah had informed him they could house 500 guests at a time. She’d been there for nearly the entire time since leaving Alpha College at 19 and was now 23. Surely if she was going to find a Mate she would have done so by now.

“Mother and father won’t allow it, said he’s not the right bloodline. I tried to get them to agree six months ago, practically begged them, told them I still loved him… They stated they would refuse it, and if I pushed the subject, they’d… banish Art.” He heard the pain in her voice, “That they’d make sure I never saw him again… Would never find him…” he heard the catch in her voice and just knew his sister was trying not to cry. “I don’t want that for him. For it to be my fault, if something bad happens to him.”

Slade scrubbed a hand over his face, understood that was likely exactly what would happen to Art. “They just can’t help themselves, but meddle when they should not.” He half grated out.

“It seems that way,” Dariah murmured. “I’ve got to go, please keep me in the loop with you and Ori.”

And he knew why, so he wouldn’t come back to try and help her. That would see his search for Ori stop in its tracks, and she didn’t want that. She had allowed herself to suffer in silence, and learned to hide her

pain from him. Because she believed he should be out here, and nothing and no one should interfere in his hunt for Ori.

Not even her own pain, not even the threats that Roman and Elise had made against Art. She’d not misunderstood their meaning either. He’d gotten it from her pain. They’d not only banish Art, but kill him as well, to keep her from being mated to him.

Something that he knew was stated in the full privacy of either the Alpha Office or the Alpha’s suite.

Something just between her and them, and Dariah had not dared to tell a soul, for fear of Art suffering the consequences. Not even Art himself, she knew he would relay it to Slade.

His little sister was in so much pain, but still trying desperately to hold herself together in order to give him the time he needed to find Oriana. She had made him believe she was doing well inside another pack, had managed to get it past Palmer, even.

His wolf came to a stand still out there in the woods, and he didn’t exactly know where he was. Though he did pick up the scent of a female rogue, it was not Ana’s, that much he did know.

Hail turned his large head and found himself looking right at a silver wolf. It shifted and Zara stood there before his beast. She took slow steps towards him and reached out a hand slowly and touched him.

Hail saw her as no threat to them. She was one of China’s sisters, and he would never hurt one of them.

That would hurt China and their daughter.

She was Gamma-blooded Slade realised as she stated “It’s okay, I have you.” Her voice was soft, and her hand slid slowly over Hail’s large head, as that southern drawl rolled out of her.

She stood right there next to his beast and just patted him gently. “It’s going to be okay.” She told him, and

he felt himself and his beast start to calm down.

Hail lay himself down in the snow and just let her calm him, and she settled herself right there next to him, and Hail curled his tail around her, to help keep her warm in some small way. A small show of kindness, just like she was giving him.