Not just the Beta (Oriana and Slade) novel Chapter 197

Ana

She sat down on the lounge along with Maddie and Zara and looked about the suite. It hadn’t changed at all over the years.

“I would normally offer coffee or snacks but, you all just came from breakfast,” Ember stated, sitting down across from her and her sisters. “I’m sorry Oriana, that it has all come to this. But I am glad that you still have your kin bond to me. I’ve always felt it, and it never got severed when you cut yourself from that Beta family. A part of me did fear you might no longer have it all these years.”

“Why is it still there? It shouldn’t be,” Ana asked. It was a little on the confusing side, and she was curious about how it remained intact.

“That is quite simple, yet not so simple to explain at the same time. It might be difficult for you to understand. But I believe you will also get all the details I’m about to tell you from the council, those seers downstairs will see it, both Bronnie and Anders will have the memories to be seen.” She sighed heavily and then looked right at Ana.

“I will tell the tale as I know it. But firstly, our kin bond is still intact because I am your biological grandmother.”

Ana frowned at her but didn’t interrupt her. If this was something she’d kept hidden for 25 years, it must be hard to say it out loud for the first time. It was obvious to Ana that Ember didn’t want her to find out from the council, but from herself.

“Anders is not your biological father. He is actually your uncle, is as you know, my brother’s eldest son. I, was passed over as the pack’s Beta even though I was the firstborn, because I am female… I should have been the Beta for this pack.” she murmured.

“I had a son once. He was only a year younger than Anders.” She took a photo from an envelope on the chair next to her and put it on the table, slid it across the coffee table to Ana.

There was a young man with dark brown hair, and he had her unusual eyes. Ana picked it up and looked at it. No one had eyes like hers. But here she was looking at a man that had them. It was no wonder Ember had reacted so emotionally to Ocean’s eyes. She was looking at her dead son’s eyes, in her great-granddaughter. She knew she wasn’t the only one looking at it, both Maddie and Zara were too.

“Orlando, was his name.” Ember sighed sadly.

“Was?” Ana asked.

“Mm. There was an unfortunate incident that resulted in his death before you were born. No one could stop it. He and Anders, even as cousins, couldn’t deal with or accept the incident, and a Beta on Beta fight happened in the end. Anders won that fight and Orlando was killed during it.”

She could hear the sadness in Ember’s voice, and Zara got up to go over there, but Ember waved her off, “I like to feel my sadness my child, allow me that.” Ember stated and waved her off.

“The incident?” Ana asked. She was still confused, but she had no doubt this man in the photo was her father. She not only had his eyes but his hair as well, and she’d always held a resemblance to Ember, that she now understood.

“It was terribly sad, and it does happen on occasion in most packs. Can’t be helped at times. Every pack has laws around it and how to deal with it. Which all get evoked or Duels to the death happen. Because it causes everyone involved pain.” Ember sighed once more. “Which it did. As I recall it, Bronnie and Anders were mated to each other about a year when it happened, when you were conceived.”

That made her look away from the photo, as a horrid thought popped into her mind about how she was conceived.

“Don’t think that.” Ember rushed out. “Orland was a good man, and would never do that.”

“But you just said.” She was confused.

“I know… Let me finish, then you can ask questions… Bronnie was walking and talking with Orlando up on the Alpha floor. They were friends and got along well… she went into heat and… Orlando was un-mated at the time, so he couldn’t resist the scent of her heat and both he and Bronnie mated, due to the heat consuming both of them… it wasn’t supposed to happen, he did apologise profusely, and you can imagine Anders, he felt all of it, got hit with the pains of betrayal on his way back to the packhouse to tend to his Mate’s heat.”

Ana was now just staring at her, though she heard both Maddie and Zara sigh heavily. She watched Ember pick up the photo of Orlando off the coffee table and touch it. “A lot of people knew about it, the heat drew other males, but also a lot of us, the elders, and we had to fend them off of Bronnie. We couldn’t stop what was going on with her and Orlando, it was too late. We did manage to get her to her room after the mating stopped. Anders arrived and went right to his Mate, complete the days of her heat, there was nothing else he could do.

“Orlando kind of just sat there, afterwards he felt utterly guilt-ridden and ashamed of himself. We could all see it. Jelena could feel it, tried to help him with it even. Bronnie had pain and guilt because she knew what it would do to Anders, even though it wasn’t done on purpose. She’d just been mated and she, herself, in her heat, had actively mated Anders’ cousin.” She put the picture down on the arm of her chair.

She was more than shocked by the tale she was listening too, but she could also see how it would tear apart the lives of so many. An unexpected yet unavoidable incident that ruined many lives.

“How come I’ve never seen a single picture of Orlando before now?” she asked and she’d not.

“There was a deal struck, promises on both sides, mine and Anders. He would raise you to be a Vale Bloodline Heir, and I would never speak Orlando’s name. Then, when you were born and had Orlando’s eyes, not something we were expecting, another deal was struck. No one inside this pack would acknowledge Orlando existed, that you would never see a photo of him, his eyes, and know you were not Anders.

“He was wiped from this pack, all files and photos of him destroyed, so you would never find out. So Anders never had to see him and be reminded of what happened that day.

“I argued against it, he was my only son and I didn’t want to lose all the photos of him. To never be able to say his name again, inside this pack or out of it. As compensation, a new deal was struck, one that would see you take your rightful place as the actual Beta Heir to the pack.

“It technically should have been you anyway, because I should not have been passed over for just being a girl. Orlando would have been seated instead of Anders and, therefore, you are the true Beta Heir by packlaw, just not Vale family law. The deal I struck for my complete and utter silence; to never speak my own son’s name, to agree to have him struck from the pack would make you the pack’s next Beta Heir.”

“This is why Anders always favoured Hayden over me. I was never his and my eyes were Orlando’s, a permanent reminder of that incident.”

“Yes, regardless of the blood bonding, looking at you caused him pain.” Ember sighed softly “I, however, thought everything was fine inside that Beta Suite, you rarely looked unhappy, and as a toddler you smiled and laughed all the time, there didn’t appear to be a difference in the way Anders treated you from Hayden.

“I did see the sibling rivalry later on and put that down to the Vale family laws conflicting with the pack laws. Hayden knew what they were as well. I knew Anders was very strict with you, but you handled it, and I thought he was just making sure you, being a girl, could do the job of being a pack Beta.”

Ana nodded. That was what everyone saw, because she couldn’t be a girl and cry about it, because she’d be seen as unfit and too emotional to hold the responsibility of being the pack Beta “I learned very early on, if I cried about things, I was considered a whiny girl to him. No Beta could ever be a girl full of uncontrollable emotions. That was something not allowed as a Beta.” Ana stated