Not just the Beta (Oriana and Slade) novel Chapter 158

Ana

It wasn’t exactly comfortable for her sitting here at this table with him and his unit, but it was what Ocean wanted and Slade was being very polite right this minute. Trying she thought not to offend her or make her angry and want to leave the restaurant.

Londyn was sitting chatting with Yuri, and Ana was glad that she was. It would be good for her to be that close to him. She’d feel relaxed by his scent, and likely feel much better than she had in the past few weeks. It seemed she was down there building a good connection to her Mate. Not that Yuri understood that.

“Where is your Mate?” Ocean asked after their meal had arrived. She really took after Maddie sometimes with that direct I need to know and want answers. Likely going to be tech when she grew up as well. She enjoyed being in the lab with Maddie.

Though that question completely shocked her, and the entire table went quiet as they all looked at Ocean. It was an all-wolfen question, and though Ocean knew better, she’d not been taught to say wife. She supposed that was a mistake on her part. Though it could pass for just talking about mates in the human world, she supposed.

“How many siblings have I got?” she asked while everyone stared at her. It seemed her little girl really wanted answers to her questions.

She was looking at Ocean as much as everyone else was, and Ana nearly sighed out loud. She had already asked if his Mate and Luna would hate her just because she existed. There was more curiosity in Ocean than Ana realised.

“I’m not mated, Ocean,” Slade answered her in the same manner. You have no brothers or sisters at all, unless…” his eyes moved to Ana. “Your mother has other children.”

“I don’t.” Ana stated honestly.

“What happened to her?” Ocean asked, “Mum said you had one, when she left.”

Ana did sigh this time, she had told Ocean she didn’t know and that she should ask him about that herself.

Ocean was now doing that, and it appeared she was not going to hold back or bottle it up and not ask.

“That was an error in my judgement. That woman was not mine, led me to believe she was and, in the end, come…that day to find out, there was nothing. She lied to me,” he told her, telling everyone there at the table.

“Coercion,” Palmer stated from his place at the table.

Ana frowned deeply and turned to look at Palmer. He nodded at her. “A lot happened that very weekend, Ana.” Palmer sighed. “It wasn’t just you that got hurt.”

“I don’t want to hear it,” she stated, cutting him off.

“How can you be led to believe that?” Ocean asked. “I don’t understand, you, we, can scent them out.”

“Ocean, please remember where you are.” Ana murmured.

“I don’t know how else to put it.” Ocean looked at her.

“Then perhaps you should ask another time, in private,” Ana told her.

“Why?” she asked right back. “He’s here I should know. You should know.”

“Ocean, I will try my best to answer that. Your mother probably wants to know as well,” Slade offered.

“It’s got nothing to do with me.” Ana shrugged, and it didn’t. He was not her Mate.

He looked right at her, “Audrey, displayed things that were mate like. Pretended to hide it from me as well, acted as though she was hiding what she was feeling in sight of me, so I would come to think she was feeling the bond…”

He sighed, “I was young and stupid. I believed her when I shouldn’t have. In the end, it came out she was not who I thought she was, and her father was the one who had her do that to me, in order to be affiliated with Highland Hills is all.

“Very messy and I’ll speak to your mother Ocean about it later, and she can relay it to you in terms she thinks are appropriate, that you’ll understand. But here is not the right place,” Slade told Ocean. “Were you concerned about that, Ocean? Her coming across you?”

“Yes, why wouldn’t I be? Anyone you… Marry isn’t going to want me around… So, you should also go, so it doesn’t happen later on,” her little girl muttered.

“Ocean please.” Slade sighed.

“I like living with my mum and my aunts. I don’t want a stepmum who will dislike me, or brothers and sisters that won’t either.”

“I assure you, Ocean, there will be none of that. I wouldn’t allow it,” he stated firmly but gently.

Ana was watching him now. She’d caught something In his voice, but wasn’t exactly sure of what it was. She encouraged Ocean to eat her meal before it got too cold.

“You’ve raised her to question everything?” Slade stated.

“Yes, there are also no lies in our family. If Ocean wants to know something, she can simply ask and get an answer from any of us. She is actively involved.” She told him because she wasn’t having her daughter kept in the dark.

“Wise,” he nodded, “too many things happen, when one is kept in the dark or people hide things.”

Her eyes met his and her hands stilled over her plate. He was implying she’d not told him and kept secrets from him on purpose. She’d not meant to, had been going to tell him. Had opted not to, In the end, to not ruin that Mate Bond of his and Audrey’s, and, well, that had turned into something else. And she’d not thought he’d deserved to now in the end.

“I don’t mean you and Ocean,” Slade stated. “I actually understand why you never told me. Why you left even! I also don’t blame you Ana, I never have. It was in part my own fault, I do know that. My own words to you that very day, when you picked me up from college, that was what stopped you from telling me.” he told her.

She was frowning at him. “What do you mean, never have.” She questioned him.

“I’ve known all this time, I was…” he sighed. “Too distracted to actually realise that you smelled different to me because you were pregnant, I’m sorry about that… However, the pack Beta picked it up, the night you left.”

“Like he would care.” She muttered and returned to her meal. She didn’t want to discuss those people.

Ana looked at her curiously, but Maddie was looking at her phone, a full frown on her face. “I’ve actually got to answer an important email.” She sighed. “Let’s go. I’ll want to use the computer in my lab.”

“Lab?” Palmer asked, and even Ana could hear the curiosity in his voice.

“Yes, I’m a tech among other things.” Maddie stated. “Come on munchkin, I think you’re about to get a new hair bead soon.”

“Really?” Ocean smiled up at Maddie right away,

“Yes.” Maddie nodded with a chuckle. Even Ana smiled at her daughter’s eagerness, she stepped away from the table with Maddie and Ocean.

“Ana, may I give you something to read? It’s in my car. I’d really like you to look at it before our next meeting.”

She sighed as Slade fell into step with them. “You can do as you please, I imagine.” She stated, he was an Alpha and would do as he pleased.

“Ana please, I just want to sort things out is all, to show you what went on Inside that pack on that weekend that you don’t know about. It’s all documented.”

“To your liking, I imagine.” She muttered.

“No, it’s not. Nothing about that weekend was to my liking, not for a single second. A lot has happened and you need to know. Considering 90% of it revolved around you.”

“I’m aware of what happened to me, I was there,” She told him.

“You were not fully aware Ana, because neither was I, nor Palmer and Yuri. Much more happened that night, those days, than what you saw or heard. Please, it’s just a folder of the events that neither you nor I were involved in, but revolved around both of us.”

“Like I said, Slade, I don’t need to care about that place or anyone that is there anymore.” She sighed. He was like a bloody dog with a bone, he just wouldn’t let it go.

“Not even Lindal? She asks after you every time we talk, twice-weekly in fact. As do Art and Dariah. Our whole social circle asks about you, if I’ve found you or talked to you. Your Grandmother still prays you’ll come home. They all, I, myself, want you to come home.”

“That is not my home, Slade. It never was, just a place I should never have been born into.” She told him and got in the car.

“Ana don’t say that, please… it’s our daughter’s future, hers to inherit one day, and she will be.”

“I doubt that, the moment you have a son, she’ll get…”

“No, she won’t.” he cut her off. “I will never pass her over for anyone. She is my daughter, and the rightful heir to Highland Hills. That, is also what I want.”

“Good luck in getting the elders to agree to that,” she stated simply.