Not just the Beta (Oriana and Slade) novel Chapter 159

Gretta

From what she was hearing, whatever was locked away securely in the pack’s archives, was likely going to have most of the answers to the puzzle that was laid out before them, and in need of piecing together.

What Roman didn’t understand was that his hand was coming off regardless. They could not take him down to the archives to personally unlock it now. They’d seen all manner of things, including blazes being lit inside archives from outside, with a simple verbal command; that a voice recognition program could recognise and destroy everything in that room to hide the evidence of crimes.

Roman could do anything on the way down there, try to attack one of them, or try to kill himself even, in an attempt to avoid being punished.

She wondered how Dariah was feeling about this, the talk of removing her own father’s hand, just to gain access to the pack’s archives. She had just told Clay to go inside. That he didn’t need to be there for this, but she hadn’t walked away herself.

“You don’t think your father should be in charge of the pack, do you?” Gretta asked her.

“No, I do not,” Dariah stated very simply, and she heard the slight growl that came from Roman. She watched as Dariah turned and looked at her father. “Slade is a much better choice as the Alpha for this pack. He respects the pack members’ wishes and follows all the pack laws… Father here, chooses what to follow and when. As he sees fit, I suppose.”

Dariah sighed and looked at Gretta. “It’s one of the reasons I don’t stay here in the pack, not the main reason but one of them.”

“That is good to hear; about Slade, I mean,” Gretta stated.

“When will you bring him home?” Dariah asked. “I’ve not seen him in years and I miss my brother.”

“I’ll bring him in soon.” It was Austin, “All of them, your brother, his unit, Likely Ana and her unit as well.”

“The child?” Dariah asked. She would not state her niece’s name before these wolves on the shaming post.

“Hmm, I doubt Ana will leave her child behind, not even inside my pack. Though I get the feeling she is not going to want to come here. My mate, though, has a good standing with them all, as I do. We’ll request it and… hopefully we won’t have to force the issue.”

“I wouldn’t force the issue. Ori won’t respond well, I don’t think.” Dariah sighed. “It’ll have to be willingly. On that note, do you think she will hear Slade out?”

“I honestly don’t know the answer to that, Dariah, but Maddison, that’s her eldest sister, will try and sway her into it. She’s got a bright mind and reads well between the lines, loves her sister and wants her to be happy as well.”

“Sister?”

“Yes, Ana is blood bonded to three others, she has three sisters that love her unconditionally,” Austin nodded.

Gretta smiled. That was a good thing to hear, to know a young Oriana had found a way to live a good life out there. “Now Dariah, you do understand that Austin is actually going to remove your father’s hand in a moment.”

“I’ll go willingly.” Roman gasped.

“Mm, but you weren’t willing to, before that threat,” Gretta stated. “So how do we know if you’ve got a fail-safe down there that can only be active by you being there, something that you can activate before we could stop you.” she shrugged. “We on the council are not the type to take that risk, so your hand is coming off.”

“Best you tell me the correct one as well,” Austin stated “Because if I have to come back up here to get the hand that actually works, you’ll be watching me remove your Luna’s hand, and it will be twisted off in the same way as yours will be.”

She watched Roman turn and look at Elise, horrified. “What can you expect, Roman?” Gretta stated, “When you all involved the Wolfen Council in coercion and I dare say on a bigger scale than anyone here yet knows.”

“It was one time and only to try and contain Ori to this pack,” Roman grated out. “There is no need for all of this.”

“There is no point continuing to lie,” Gretta stated. “The seers will pull the truth from you; nothing will get passed them. I heard from Dariah that Clay is getting a chosen mate. You’re pushing for it but the girl’s parents are stalling. I am curious as to why?” she asked.

“Her parents state she’s too young to be a chosen mate is all, but Clay likes her, and she likes him, so why wouldn’t I want my son to be happy with a girl he likes. I want all my children to be happy,” Roman told her.

She heard Dariah mutter “Yeah right.”

“I doubt that very much. Because if that was the case, you’d never have screwed over Slade in the first place.” Gretta shook her head. The man was never going to tell them the truth without it being forced out of him.

Slid itself back into the wall and the three of them walked into the archives of the pack. It was a well-lit file storage room. All the filing cabinets in here were organised by year, and then alphabetically; That was standard wolfen practice. Though there was a glass room at the very back, it looked to be a clean room, and they headed for it. That hand opened another door. They found other filing cabinets, all bar one, were not of this pack. They had other pack names on them, and she sighed “Here we go.”

This was where all those deals no one was meant to know about went, ones that couldn’t be computerised because that would leave a trail, and it was likely each one of them actually had a bloody fingerprint of all involved singing it, attached to the contracts as proof of validity, something that needed to be kept at all times. A blood seal, to seal the deal.

“Dariah, can I ask you to send down two dozen warriors to bring these filing cabinets up to the war room please?” She asked.

“Of course, Alpha Gretta.” Dariah nodded, and her eyes were glazed over a moment later.

“A good Alpha she’d make,” Austin murmured.

“Likely so, we might just want to keep track of her for council replacements in a few decades.” Gretta smiled. She was happy that it wasn’t just her thinking that.

“No, thank you,” Dariah stated. “I want to be a pack doctor and nothing more.”

“You say that, but all councils need pack doctors as well,” Gretta told her. This young lady had spent her year at Alpha College with Belladonna and Gil. Though Bella had moved on from the council, when her son needed to attend regular wolfen school.

Everything in this room was removed, and taken to the war room under council supervision, and they sat and looked at them all. 15 three-draw filing cabinets; all were labelled with other pack’s names on each of the three draws. One filing cabinet had Highland Hills written on it.

That was where they were going to start, to see just what had been going on with Slade and Oriana. That scroll’s report still came first. Above all other things that they might find, and consider secondary investigations.

The seers would get here for two more days. They had a long way to come, and there was no portal here in the human world close to this pack. The nearest one was back at her Alpha College, so they would get driven from there to here when they arrived.

A full escort of council warriors, either the day after they arrived sleep on the way here, or they’d sleep at the college and arrive the next day. That was completely up to the seers. None could tell them what to do, they moved about the realms at their own pace.

Many of them had foresight and knew when it was time to rush or if there was no rush at all, but they did all endeavour to arrive in a timely manner.