Not just the Beta (Oriana and Slade) novel Chapter 90

Ana

She and Maddie had explained to Londyn and Zara about their life here in Greenville. How Maddie had been there for a few years, and owned that café they’d first seen them in. How Ana had come here pregnant with Ocean not really knowing what she was going to do with her life, and Maddie had taken her in. Found a way for them all to become a real family even.

That they had blooded bonded to each other, willingly accepted each other, and that was how they were now able to mind-link to each other. Because they had a true kin bond. They’d taken their own necklaces off so that Londyn and Zara could smell them and they both agreed that they did scent of the same family.

Londyn and Zara had been here for three days now, just staying put inside their home, and Maddie had returned to work at the café and left Ana with them, because she was expecting Austin to turn up, and he had the day after she’d requested assistance from him. Reliable he was, it seemed.

He’d taken her sss seriously, though he’d not stuck around, which had given them time to get to know Londyn and Zara. To gain their actual trust and see the girls not leave town the minute it was clear. Ana and Maddie had offered to tell them the truth of their history, all the details they’d skimmed over that first day.

It was their way of trying to get them to want to stay, to show them how long they’d been here and never been found. That they were actually safe here as long as they wore those necklaces all the time, or a bracelet if they wished. Then she and Maddie had encouraged them to tell their own history in full detail. A bonding moment.

Zara had sighed and nodded “It’s only fair I guess, we know yours.” Then she’d taken a breath in and stated “I’m 19 as you know, though I left my pack a few months before I turned 17. It was taken over by another Alpha in a war, and we lost the battle to him. He got rid of all the leadership heirs as well, though only the male ones, regardless of how young they were. Killed them to prevent any future attempts of them trying to reclaim the pack, I suppose.

“The girls, we were kept for his benefit, to be mated off later on for some dealings he was making for himself. One Alpha’s daughter, though she accepted her fate to another, it got her out of the pack and off to another. Likely she understood it was for the safety of what should have been her pack; she had been 18, left with a deal being struck about treating the pack members well and not harming them. The Beta’s daughter fled and got away. I don’t know where to.” She shrugged. “That just left me. I was also the youngest in my family, and the only girl that survived the battle. My older sister was out in the war and was killed during it.

“That new Alpha, his name’s Dirk Beastly, aptly named I think, was going to mate me off just like my Alpha’s daughter, to a Gamma from another pack, told him that with me as his mate his heirs would be pure-blooded. All he wanted was me gone from the pack.

“Though he told me I would be useful to him, being so pretty and all, that I would earn him a good dollar…that Gamma, after looking at me, understood how young I was, and wasn’t all in, he told Dirk he had to look after me until I was of age and then and only then would he come and collect it.

“He didn’t want the council breathing down his neck if they found out he was mated to a 16-year-old girl. Some decency in him, I suppose.” She shrugged. “Though he had me alpha

ordered to find out if I was a virgin or not” she shook her head, “Which I was, so he also made a deal with Dirk, that I was not to be touched or abused in anyway, he’d only accept me if I was still pure and inexperienced.

“A part of me thinks it was his way of safeguarding me, because he looked at me right before he left and touched my face as though he was studying me, but I felt his charm on me, kind of weird, but I felt like he was doing his best to protect me. he stated ‘I’ll come back for you.’ and though his tone was harsh, there was something in what I felt that didn’t add up.

“I wasn’t treated very nicely inside that pack, got hit and kicked about, shoved up against walls and basically treated like a poor unworthy omega, in an unhealthy pack. Though other than being a punching bag for those that wanted a piece of me and weren’t allowed, I was okay I guess.

Then, about six or seven months later I’d missed the bus to come home from school. Well, I kind of got shoved off it actually and it was my saving grace. The school was a good 20-minute drive from the pack and as I started to walk back, Jetta just shifted us, and we ran the hell away from that place. It was the first time we’d been on our own since the take-over.

“We were getting at least a 40-minute head start if Dirk noticed I wasn’t pack, in the packhouse, that was. I was his personal omega, so he could keep an eye on me, and know if someone touched me when they weren’t supposed to.

“Being Gamma-blooded, I could keep myself relatively safe from harm, could charm my way out of trouble, I found myself in the human world, with police or store owners, homeowners, when I was caught stealing food or clothes, money even to try and not starve out there, as a homeless person.

I came across Londyn about six months after that, and we’ve been together ever since. I honestly don’t think anyone is looking for me, not that Gamma. I was to be mated off too. Likely when he found out I’d run away, he’d probably be happy I’d gotten away. Or that’s what I like to think.

“Why do you think no one is looking for you?” Ana asked.

“Because I had a billboard advertisement about a year ago and it was all over half a dozen states.

Including the one I came from.” She shrugged “I’m in magazines all the time for clothing and accessories, a few makeup advertisements even.”

Zara looked at Londyn and smiled at her. “Now this one here confused me and Jetta, when we came across them. We got the Alpha blood right away but…who knows where she’s from? She doesn’t smell of a pack scent to me.”

“Yep.” Londyn nodded “Mum died when I was like eight in an accident on the way home from work.

I was sent to live with my grandma after that, up in Tennessee. I did not have a nice time, thought I was going crazy, hearing a voice inside my head.

“Turns out it was Apple my wolf, though I didn’t understand that it was fuzzy and didn’t make sense. I only got half the words and sometimes it was all jumbled up. I confided in grandma and the doctors put me on some medication, which only made it worse. Apple got very aggressive about it and roared and yelled at me, which only freaked me out even more.

“Then the night Apple came, and ripped out of me, not so fun either. The drugs I was on from the doctor, hindered her quite a bit and…” she sighed heavily. “All I knew was that for the day before, I was feeling unwell, hot and sweaty and angry with my grandma, yelling and screaming at her. It wasn’t pretty.

“Then when my first bone cracked, it was in front of my grandma, and my hand kind of just snapped at an odd angle and then my fingers. I was screaming, she was screaming and then more bones cracked. My grandma passed out completely at one point, terrified beyond belief I suppose.

“Apple shot me out of the house, even as there was banging on the front door from the

neighbours, yelling about that they’d called the police, were trying to get into the house to help us, from whatever was going on in there. All the screaming in terror, they were hearing I guess.” She sighed, “who knows, I came across Zara while I was out in the woods completely naked and terrified still. I don’t know how long I was out there. Thought I was some sort of monster. Zara talked me down, and we’ve be together ever since.”

“I had to use everything I had on her.” Zara sighed, “and I wasn’t fully realised to my bloodline, it took quite a bit. She kept looking at her hands and body, and kind of screaming at herself. I’d never seen anything like it, but her terror and fear we got that loud and clear. It was obvious to Jetta and I, she had no idea what she was. e were also in wolfen form, and her wolf recognised us as their own kind.”

“Sweet Goddess,” Maddie murmured as Ana sat staring at her. “You had no idea what you were, and became realised to your wolf on your own, with no prior knowledge.”

“Yep. Like I said, not fun.” Londyn nodded.