Ori stared at her, waved a hand at the tray of snacks, “You’re here to bribe me with that, this is how you and father always do that.”
She watched her mother chuckle and sit down, “not much gets past my girl. Come sit sweetie.”
She sat, even took the offered milkshake, even though she knew whatever it was she wasn’t going to like it.
“Alpha Roman has decided that for this coming week, you should let Hayden train with Palmer and Yuri.”
“Right and what will I be doing while they train?” she asked.
“You can still train on your own, or with the regular warriors.”
“A week? Or till Slade comes home in a year and makes his final choice?”
“Of course not that, sweetie. Just a week is my understanding. It’s to see if Hayden’s attitude is different without you, that’s all this is about.”
“Right.” She nodded, and was more than unhappy about it.
“One week, Palmer and Yuri are going to be tough on him. He has to train Alpha type training every morning at 5am for seven solid days and a few afternoons, as well as hand to hand, agility and wolfen training. Pull his weight, two border patrol shifts as well, not be late and don’t complain.”
Nothing he couldn’t actually do, she thought. If he was willing, “Fine, I’ll have a week off, take the time to sort out my uni degree then.” There was nothing she could do about it, if it was an order from Alpha Roman himself.
It had taken all of a week of Slade not being here for her to start to get shunted aside. She’d insulted him the last time she’d seen him. This could well be it. She saw her mother out, and just sat and stared at that tray of snack foods.
A female Beta? Was there even actually such a thing? All the units she’d seen were male. She really did want to show everyone there could be women in the Alpha unit, that it didn’t always have to be men that held the packs leadership.
She did know there were female Alphas out there, quite a few of them, but even they had male units. The wolfen world really sucked sometimes. It was male-dominated and things needed to change.
A week, she thought, seven days. She wondered if that seven days would turn into 14 and then 21 and then a full month. If she’d be relegated to standard warrior training. Not much of a challenge for her there. She was used to bringing down Gamma and Delta-ranked wolves, and could even, on the odd occasion, bring Slade down as well, though he had to be off his game for her to do that.
It didn’t happen often though, but it annoyed him a lot when she actually won and laughed about it. He didn’t like his Beta putting him down. She didn’t know if it was because she was half his size or if it was because she was a girl?
He usually called training quits when she won, didn’t like all her smiling and taunting, or the ribbing he got from Palmer and Yuri. Though she did wonder what it was that distracted him and put him off his game at times. It just kind of seemed to come out of nowhere, and he never stated what it was.
She just figured it was girl trouble with his latest fling. She did always find him with a girl later on, on those days. Likely she thought he was distracted by thoughts about that girl she found him with; he was technically a horny 18-year-old, not just the future Alpha.
Slade
He had been more than shocked to hear from Palmer that Ori was in the cells, back in the pack, and had damned near fallen off his bed. “Why?” had been his shocked response.
He knew Ori was not a rule breaker, though he’d not heard from her at all since she’d dropped him off, not even gotten a ‘I’m home safe’ text or a ‘hey how’s alpha college going?’ it had been a few days even and still nothing.
She was apparently going to be locked up for the full moon. That wasn’t right. Then he’d heard why she was in there. Bloody Hayden pushing his own agenda, he’d sighed when that call had ended. Had actually scrolled through his contact list to her number and had almost called her.
Had then realised that he wouldn’t be able to, because she was in the cells and wouldn’t have her phone on her, it would have been taken off her. Nothing went into the cells with you.
He didn’t even know what time she would get out of them. This was one of the times he hated being away from the pack, not knowing what was really going on, or being there to step in. His father had not told him about it, and likely didn’t want him to know.
Slade had turned back to his studies only to get a photo later that night; of his unit all dressed up for the full moon, both Palmer and Yuri there in nice suits, and there between the two of them was Ori, and he was more than shocked at the sight of her.
He’d never seen his Beta all done up like that, not even on her 16th, or when she got her wolf. She’d rebelled against those pretty dresses her own mother had picked out for her, and ended up in jeans and a blouse for her 16th, and of all things, which still made him laugh to think about; those baggy overalls for the getting of her wolf, her stubbornness at times could make him really laugh.
Now he was looking at her as not only a girl, but a young lady. Her long dark hair was even out splayed around her, one never saw that or rarely so, only after shifting and even then, she was very quick to pull it up and tie it back.
Her hair in this photo was all brushed out and framing her lovely face, she was wearing make-up, and that dress, bloody hell, she looked utterly stunning, clearly her mother’s choice. He couldn’t imagine Ori choosing that for herself.
She was even smiling at the camera for his father, who had sent him the photo; Slade had zoomed in on the photo. There was no filigree on her neck, nor either Palmer or Yuri’s. He had sighed a little with relief at the realisation that she was still unclaimed. Then, he’d had to shake that thought off. It would happen at some point, and they would all have to deal with the fallout.
The message under the photo read, “None of your Unit got a Mate, son.” He had felt more relief at seeing those words.
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