Not just the Beta (Oriana and Slade) novel Chapter 58

Slade

He sat and waited, watched as both Palmer and then Yuri read those instructions, “Your intent?”

Yuri asked him.

“To not date it. To only have Alpha Gretta open it when I asked her to, I think it’s needed as insurance against my father, the entire Alpha unit and…” he sighed heavily, “all our mothers. They were all in on it, discussed it and sorted out what they thought was the best way to go about things, and were very wrong. Should have left it alone and let things happen as the Goddess saw fit.”

“Yuri and I?” Palmer asked.

“I know you weren’t in on it, but knew what was going to happen, prior to it actually happening, and didn’t intervene, so…the Alpha Council or the seers will investigate your part in it as well. I, too, will have to be investigated.” Slade nodded, “I am willing to be, because I only stepped her down willingly, because of what I was led to believe, were the consequences of that Alpha on Beta wolfed out fight, between my father and Anders. I thought and was led to believe that my father was going to banish the entire Vale family over it.”

He scrubbed a hand over his face at their shocked “What?” They still didn’t have all the facts.

“Yes, father told me he was already looking at new Beta’s 2nd and 3rd heirs that he knew, to replace Anders and Ori. That Anders himself was already upstairs packing even.” Slade informed them. He’d kept a lot to himself over the past few months, so the boys wouldn’t feel like he did all the time, angry and annoyed with the pack’s leadership.

“Slade, that never happened.” Palmer frowned at him.

“They fought and then all four of them, your father and all our fathers, including Anders, went to the Alpha Bar as though nothing had happened.” Yuri sighed. “I don’t think we’ve even gotten the whole story, all the full deception by the sound of it.”

Slade stared at them now, “Great, so I was actively deceived by my own father, to have him get what he wanted. I, too, was fully betrayed as well then. The heir to the pack?”

“Why?” Palmer frowned.

“Who the hell knows exactly what lengths they went to, and it was all for naught, just ruined many lives within, and now without the pack.”

“What was the deal he struck with you? To have you step Ori down, how’d that come about?”

Palmer asked after several minutes of contemplation.

“I had to agree to take Hayden as my Beta and accept a Chosen Mate of his choosing, if Audrey wasn’t my Mate, come the full moon. In order for the Vale family not to be banished from the pack.

“So, in theory,” Yuri sighed, “It was all just a ploy to get Hayden into the position of the pack’s Beta, and Ori stepped down.”

“Sounds like it.” Slade nodded “I honestly don’t think they’re fit to rule and run the pack.” he put it out there for them to hear; his own thoughts. “This,” he tapped the card for the scroll, “Will cause ramifications for all of our families both our fathers and mothers, that’s the issue right this minute”

“What started it?” Palmer asked, “Made them think this was the right way?”

“Apparently they walked in on Ori and I having sex.” He muttered “that’s what started it all.”

“Just sex? That’s it?” Yuri frowned “Wolves fuck all the time, all over the place, for whatever reason they see fit.”

“Agreed,” Slade nodded “Unfounded and fact-less reasons for all their plotting and planning. I don’t even recall having sex with Ori.” He muttered, he was still disappointed in himself about that. “I was too drunk to recall how it was, only recall a brunette from behind.”

He saw both of them look at him with a somewhat annoyed and disappointed expression. “That,” he pointed at their expressions, “is how I feel about myself.” he told them “Disappointed in myself completely. I’m also 100% certain that Ori remembers it all.” He’d been closed-lipped about him

and Ori all this time, didn’t need everyone knowing what a callous bastard he’d turned into, by not remembering.

“Why now?” Palmer asked him, tapping the card on the table.

“I’ve spent the entire year at Alpha College going over all the Wolfen law books, to see if I can overthrow my father and his unit, without having to actually duel him for it.” he told them honestly”

It’s not looking good. I’m only 18, and I don’t think I have the muscle to beat him in an actual Alpha duel. Not a full challenge. So the only way is this.” He tapped that card himself now.

“But if I do nothing, I’ll ascend naturally at some point. I don’t know what to do. Hunting for Ori is my most pressing need. But even if I find her. It then becomes a question of how do I get her to come back home to the pack, after all that has happened?”

“Likely won’t be able to.” Palmer sighed now, “That’s why this, isn’t it? To give her all the evidence that it was not you that betrayed her.”

“Yes.” Slade nodded “It’s the only way I see her coming home to the pack. But it could take years to find her.”

“Decades or never.” Yuri murmured.

“Yes, so this doesn’t need to come into play until we find her. I can call Alpha Gretta when I’ve found her. Let them investigate the matter only when it’s actually needed, even if it’s after we take over.” Slade stated. “I’m not planning on being in that pack until I find her, so if I do it now, or before we take over, who will run it? As much as I don’t think they deserve to, I kind of also need them to at the same time, so I can focus solely on finding Ori.”

“This is a show of good faith, something she’ll actually need.” Palmer nodded. “You have to do it, regardless of when. A back-up plan, so to speak.”

“That they don’t.” Both Palmer and Yuri nodded “Lindal is still mad. I’d be expecting a tongue lashing from her when you get home.”

“I already took it, she also knows that I’m not giving up on Ori and will be hunting for her, won’t be letting it go. She will help me if needed with bringing Ori home.” Slade informed them.

“That’s good, she still glares at both of us,” Palmer sighed. “Gets annoyed real quick.”

“Just leave her, she actually knows Ori was pregnant, picked it up herself, also knows the child is mine.”

They were both staring at him now. “No one knows that. Bar the Alpha Unit and our mothers, all of us, and Hayden, none of us are allowed to talk about it.”

“She was Ori’s closest female friend, and asked me if I knew who that father was. I couldn’t lie to her. I took the hit she dished out.” He sighed.

“Ori will be looking to put a beat down on you when we catch her, you know that right.” Palmer sighed “Seeing any of us could bring it all back to her and set off that rage she contained, on the day to save her child.”

“It won’t evolve.” Slade shook his head. “She’ll contain it still, knows about bloodlust, how dangerous and all-consuming it is. She won’t risk the danger of it to her child. That’s not who she is …but a beating? Yes, likely that will happen, and I’ll take it.”

“What if your child is right there?” Yuri asked.

“It might well be that it’s our child that beats me, depending on how long it takes us to find her. We have no idea what she will tell him or her about me, about the pack. What happened?”

“Do you think you’ve got a son or daughter?” Palmer asked him thoughtfully.

“I don’t know.” He sighed “Kind of hope it’s a girl.”

“Why?” they both asked him.

“Because she’ll love and raise her the way Ori herself should have been. She will be emotionally stable, I imagine…a son?” he sighed heavily. “She could raise him to come back and challenge me, my father, for the pain we caused her. She was raised to believe boys were stronger and better, she might see having a son as a way to extract revenge later on.”

“She could do that with a girl.” Palmer frowned at him.

Slade shook his head, “Could, but won’t. She will raise a daughter with love and kindness, respect all the things she wants. A son, could look like me or her dad, even. Cause emotional conflict, inner turmoil and pain. It’s unpredictable for me, considering the way she left.”