Not just the Beta (Oriana and Slade) novel Chapter 201

Slade

He sat in the war room; everyone was there including Ana, though none of her sisters had come down, and she looked closed off to him, but he left alone. Palmer had told him to, told him to, in less than a minute of her walking into the room, ‘She doesn’t want to hear the hurtful truth about her parents.

She’d sat where directed to and frowned as she looked at all the information that was up on the boards and laid out on the table. He knew she wasn’t just glancing at it, was taking it all in.

*These scrolls do not tell us where to start, only hold the information of the goings-on from each person’s point of view.” Hailey addressed them “This could take all day and night to get through.

“So, I encourage you to just simply raise your hand if you need a bathroom break, are hungry or want to stretch your legs… I doubt it’s going to be a small amount of information or only about what happened the day of the incident that you reported as coercion Slade.

“There are, from what I can tell, going to be many things that will have been seen during this investigation and anything relevant will be looked at: from Mating Alliances born of deception, the magically imbued stones to stop wolves from scenting out there Goddess Gifted Mates.” She shook her head

“As well as pack dealings, such as fraudulent funding coming into this pack, likely under threat of war or take over; protection money paid to this pack to stop Roman from attacking them.

“The selling off of both male and female wolves, some under the guise of being told they were mate-less, we have now learned from some of the mating alliances. Who imported the imbued stones and why they did it? Though we now know those stones actually came from the Luna’s home-pack.” again she shook her head.

“Just how many accounts of coercion and deception and what level it all is, none of the seers at this time have gone off to hunt down anyone else inside the pack, to indicate pack member involvement in any of this that lay here before us.

“Nothing we ourselves have read, indicates to that at this time either. It appears so far that only Roman, Elise and their units were involved in this horrid mess. We are all hoping it will remain that way.” she told them all, then looked at Gretta.

“Gretta, this investigation started as a scroll in your hands. Please be the first to read a scroll, I do, however, wish to start with the Luna’s scroll, not the Alpha’s. She looks far worse than all of them out there. Was pushed harder than the others, and kely holds more secrets. I believe this atrocity… started with her.”

“I can do that.” Gretta nodded and stood up and collected the scroll marked Elise Southerland.

There was no rank or pack name attached to it, just her name and the date.

Slade sat there horrified at what he was hearing about his own biological mother. That it was indeed her who had set him up to be betrothed at birth to Silvie. Her grandmother was a dark witch, in the coven that belonged to the Darkened Paws Pack, and though she herself held no magic, her mother was half witch, half wolf and then mated off to a wolf, so Elise had been born all wolfen; not witch.

She’d been brought up by that coven and understood everything about her dark witch lineage, and she was just like them. Had agreed to mate with Roman and allow them to experiment on the wolves of Highland Hills, to help her coven find a way to create a spell that would hide the mate bond from wolves; not just the scenting out, but the mate bond sparks as well.

It had taken over a decade of trial and error to perfect it, on she-wolves mostly. They’d learned that some mate bonds could transcend the witchcraft, and that regardless of the bespelled item they wore, their Mates could still scent them out, even though the she-wolf herself didn’t scent them or feel the sparks of the mate bond.

Fights had broken out and wolves died over it, as they tried to claim what they had scented out, but their Mate refused to acknowledge because they couldn’t scent them back. No one could tell a wolf they were their Goddess-Gifted. If both pairs didn’t scent each other, it was considered an act of coercion against the one that couldn’t scent the Mate.

Visiting Alpha’s for mating balls killed those trying to claim what was not theirs in order to protect she-wolves here in Highland Hills from being claimed against their own will. Elise had stood back and watched it all unfold. Reported it, and those she-wolves were then free to be mated off because they had no Goddess-Gifted at all anymore.

But that led the coven to reconsider things and come to the decision that both of the bonding pair needed to be wearing a bespelled object, which, of course, they couldn’t do for all bonding pairs, but could do for those there in Highland Hills. So, they had a foreseer from their own coven, look at the wolves they wanted to put the imbued stones on.

To search out their Mate, and blood or hair was sent to the foreseer to allow them to do that from the Blackened Paws Pack. None here needed to encounter them that way. This allowed for those bonding pairs inside Highland Hills to have both parties of the pair be gifted and imbued stone to wear.

What they’d done to him and Oriana, shocked him completely. They’d had a seer look at him, and it had been foreseen that he and Oriana were a Goddess-Gifted pair and would bare a child right away from their first coming together. Before, both of them were 19.

To avoid this from happening and getting him into that birth betrothal, he’d been sent off to Alpha College on purpose, before the full moon came into effect, and their bond could snap into place.

They’d needed this because Oriana wouldn’t wear the imbued item, and they devised a plan to have her willingly turn herself rogue before the next full moon, effectively stopping them from scenting each other. It hadn’t been their original plan, only decided upon after Oriana’s refusal of the imbued gift for getting her wolf.

The very way she had been raised had worked against them and ingrained into her to never look like a girl, so she’d ruined their plans, to keep them apart, and a new one had to be devised. Which had then been upturned and ruined once again, by him and her having sex the night before he’d gone off to Alpha College.

They were all also aware she was pregnant, and had done everything in that month they could do to get her to leave, including having it look as though Slade had turned on her, something they needed to do in order to force her hand.

They’d all known how much he liked Audrey and hadn’t even had to do anything at all with that girl, her and her family had done more than enough to coerce him, and that was actually to their benefit, they thought.

Not one single thing they’d told him had been the truth, other than the foreseer having seen them as a Goddess-Gifted pair, something they had to stop at all costs, to continue on with their plans. They had all intentionally harmed Oriana, knowing she was pregnant with his child, and all in order to get rid of her, and he could be mated off as per his father’s agreement with the coven. Gretta put the scroll down, the entire room was completely silent, and he turned his eyes to Ana. She was his actual Goddess-Gifted Mate and the fact that she wouldn’t wear that bracelet meant that they had a bond that was strong enough to transcend the magic of the watch he wore. She would have scented him out that full moon, regardless. He wondered if that band from Alpha College would have detected it, if he’d still been wearing his watch.

Their lives had been ruined and torn apart, and for nothing other than sheer greed.

“Ana?” he murmured, and her eyes turned to him. His parents, hers, had ruined everything that he’d always wanted. Ruined their bond and friendship, the trust they’d had between them.

“Only the full moon will tell.” She stated and stood up “I’ve heard enough.” She stated with a heavy sigh, and turned and walked from the room.