Not just the Beta (Oriana and Slade) novel Chapter 38

Slade

He stood there staring at Anders now, Hail had shifted him back, at that one word ‘pregnant’, she had smelled different to him, from the very moment she’d picked him up at Alpha College, he’d told her as much, hadn’t realised what it could mean, because he was too bloody wrapped up in his love bubble with Audrey, and he knew it.

A month had passed since he’d seen her. “Who’s?” he half whispered, not really wanting to hear or know the answer considering all that had happened in the last 24 hours.

Slade watched as Anders raised an eyebrow at him now, “It’s likely yours.” He grated out coldly, suddenly angry with him, it seemed.

“No,” he shook his head “It was just one drunken night, that I barely…” he dodged out of the way of the fist he saw coming, well, actually Hail got him out of the way. “No,” he denied it” She told me she had a boyfriend.” Slade stated shaking his head.

How could she be pregnant with his pup, and not only not tell him, but go rogue and take that pup with her? No, she wasn’t that kind of person, he knew that.

“There is no boyfriend, that I saw, that the tail I had on her saw, and they did track her every move after she started changing, from a distance so she wouldn’t know,” he snarled “No wonder she was holed up in her room.”

Slade’s eyes met Anders now, as he recalled being told, and by everyone, that she had holed herself up in her room, changed the lock to the Beta suite even. She’d known and was trying to hide it from everyone. His brain was in overdrive, thinking back on everything she’d said, all he’d seen with her since she picked him up.

He’d told her he was getting a Goddess Gifted Mate, that Audrey could feel the tingly sparks of their mate bond on her skin already. In that car that day she’d looked at him, asked him near on instantly “Do you scent her?” “Are you sure?” she had been going to tell him, and he knew it. She wasn’t irresponsible, she had been going to tell him.

He’d told her she smelled different, tried to really smell her, recalled now the exact expression on her face, then the threat that followed it, “Do you remember the last time you did that.” She hadn’t wanted him smelling her, picking up on it, if he smelled her all deep like that, it was possible that Hail might have realised what was going on.

She’d dressed differently as well, layered up a shirt over a top, casual loose-fitting jeans instead of the usual slim-fit jeans and tee-shirt or blouse. He could picture her in the car, the way the shirt was knotted even, right over her lower belly.

His own words and sheer happiness about Audrey was, he now understood, what had changed her mind on telling him. “Fuck.” He murmured.

“That is what got you into this mess.” Anders snarled at him as Palmer and Yuri turned up and asked what was going on, but he was just staring at Anders. That man was angry and blaming him?

He felt his own anger rise “My fault.” He snarled at the man “This shit show, what made her go rogue, is not my fucking fault.” He grated out “You and father, the Alpha unit, fucked her over, and now she’s gone rogue.” He pointed at the man “She is pregnant and alone, out there with nothing.” He roared at the man. “You all did that to her.”

“What!!!” both Palmer and Yuri gasped.

“It’s your fault Slade.” Anders yelled right back at him “It’s your pup, there is no one else’s it could be.”

“What!!!” his unit gasped again. He could feel them staring at him now.

“You and father fucking ripped her from her position, took everything from her, that’s why she did this, left.” He yelled right back.

“She left because you don’t fucking remember fucking her.” Anders snarled at him, and Slade and Hail snarled right back at him. Then Hail was just ripped out of him, and launching himself at the pack’s Beta, as he to shifted, and they were suddenly fighting it out wolf on wolf.

There was yelling and screaming, people everywhere, trying to stop the fight that was going on, and he and Anders were both forcibly shifted back by his own father; as he Alpha Ordered them to shift, and they were hauled apart by their own units.

His father demanded to know what was going on. He looked right at the man, still furious, he was also to blame for this mess. It would have been different if only they’d let him tell her the way he wanted to, the way he’d planned to. None of this would be happening, she’d still be here. Safe where she belonged.

“Ori.” He snarled at his own father. “Is pregnant, Anders can smell her, she smells different to normal, even I can smell it. You all fucked this up so badly, that she now hates everyone of us. Is pregnant and turned herself rogue anyway, to get the hell away from all of us. Likely pregnant with my pup, the future heir of this pack. And he dares to blame me, you were the ones to fuck her over, demote her in such a manner that she hates us all.” He yelled at him.

“What?” his own father blinked and turned to stare at Anders for an explanation.

“Her tracks are over there.” Anders stated and stalked off back towards the pack. Slade was just standing there now, he didn’t know what to do. Didn’t even know exactly when she had left the pack or gone rogue even. Hell, where she had chosen to go rogue. He felt a hand touch his arm and turned to look at Palmer. “When?” the man asked.

He even knew what he was asking. “The night before Alpha College, I was drunk and so was she. I thought we had.” He explained to Palmer, “My memory of the night is not so good, I couldn’t get her to admit to anything. Then with Audrey and I,” he muttered, “I actually forgot about it altogether.” He was more than annoyed with himself. “She would have told me, I know that.” He muttered.

He watched both of them sigh heavily themselves, but nod their heads. They, too, thought she would have told him. But it was Palmer that spoke “It’s why she suddenly stopped hanging out with us, she was trying to keep it a secret.”

“I know.” He murmured. They were all actually to blame, bar Palmer and Yuri, who’d also been blindsided themselves, had no idea what was going on until his father had made that announcement.

“No, it’s not that…the bloodlust,” he stated “That’s why it didn’t evolve, why she didn’t get lost to it, and kill Hayden. It would have killed the pup,” Palmer stated.

“She’s going to keep it.” Yuri murmured thoughtfully.

“She’s not going to want to come back here.” Slade told them, and he knew she wasn’t, certainly wasn’t going to want any of them to be near her pup, they had all betrayed her in her eyes. Deemed unworthy to be around the child as far as she was concerned, untrustworthy, likely to China as well.

He turned and headed for the pack himself, made his way to his father’s office, pulled his pants on and looked at everyone in the office. Her father and mother, her brother even. He could feel anger welling in him, off Hail, as well, as they looked at Hayden.

None of them had wanted her to be the Beta. Not her mother, not her father and certainly not that brother of hers. His own father had shoved her from her position, all because they thought she’d be his Mate, and she wouldn’t want to be his Luna, just his Beta, only now he knew they weren’t Mates at all.

“You all fucked Ori over.”

“Watch your words, Slade.” His father snarled at him.

“No.” he roared right back “You pushed Hayden on me, to step her down, because you lot.” He pointed at them all “Decided amongst yourselves, deluded yourselves into thinking she was my Mate. Yanked her from being the Beta, so she wouldn’t, in all your eyes, argue with herself over it, about not being the Beta and reject me.” He held up that moonstone band on his wrist at them all “I did not scent her. This proves it; she was not my Mate. You all screwed her over for nothing.” He roared at them. “Now she’s fucking gone.”

He could feel hands on him, knew it was Palmer and Yuri trying to stay him from doing something he might regret. “If you’d not fucked her over, not brought that shit’s.” He snapped and pointed at Hayden, “training forward, she would have stopped training herself, unable to shift and Palmer would have figured it out, in less than a bloody freaking minute, and none of this would be happening. But nooo, you all thought you knew best. Now she’s gone rogue, because she’s been betrayed by all of us, in her eyes. Including me, the father of her pup.”

His eyes moved right to Hayden, and he watched that boy’s eyes go wide. At the news he was hearing, he saw him actually step behind his own parents. “Afraid are you?” he grated out at the boy. “Your sister wouldn’t have been, she would stand her ground in the face of a fight with even an Alpha Wolf.”

“Slade, that’s enough. Let it go, we have to focus now, on finding Oriana.” His father snapped at him “Get your head in the game, pull yourself together. You know her best, Palmer, Yuri, where would she go?”