He looked out the window of the dining hall, and could see that things were well underway for Dariah’s first shift. It had been planned months ago and nothing, not even losing Ori as his Beta, was going to stop it.
Because you couldn’t put off or delay the inevitable, a wolf came the full moon after one turned 16, 90% of the time. And he already knew his sister could talk to her beast, that her name was Crystal. He’d called her the day she’d turned 16, to wish her happy birthday, seeing that he hadn’t been there for that.
His attention returned to what was left of his unit. They still didn’t look happy and were just watching him. He sighed “just ask what you want, or state it plainly.”
Yuri smiled a little. “You know you sound like Ori, she always tells us to state it plainly.”
He just nodded because she did.
“Did they at least tell you why they did it that way?” Yuri sighed “Dad is closed-lipped on the subject.”
“They did, and to be honest, it was completely unnecessary.” He told them, though he did not tell them what their father’s or his father’s thoughts on it were, even though he knew they wanted to know, they were both sitting staring at him kind of expectantly.
“I’m not going to repeat it.” He stated simply “Unfounded and no proof is all I will say.” He sighed.
He was also not going to tell them about him and Ori hooking up before he went away. If she’d not done it herself over the last month, then it was clear to him that she didn’t want them to know. He certainly wasn’t going to say that all their parents had seen it either, and that things had snowballed out of control from that very moment onwards.
Knew if he did mention it, that Ori herself would just have one more reason to hate him right now, she also had enough going on and didn’t need to deal with these two teasing her, or ribbing her even playfully about it. Something they would normally do with each other, but it wasn’t the right time. Likely never would be after last night.
It was a private and personal matter between him and her, and he’d not even told her yet, that he knew about it. Wasn’t likely to, seeing as he could only recall the barest of details, and what their fathers had told him. Again, something he didn’t think she would want to know: that their parents had seen them having sex.
He himself honestly wished they had not seen it at all, because if not, none of this would be happening, they’d not have pushed Hayden’s training up and shoved her aside, certainly wouldn’t have relegated her to nothing as she was now. She’d be sitting right here with him, Palmer and Yuri, hanging out like normal, only now she wasn’t, and he didn’t know if everything would ever go back to normal.
Oriana
As she expected, everyone was busy inside the pack preparing for Dariah’s special day. She’d looked at her new hair cut after Lindal had headed off that afternoon herself, though she’d kind of looked at her with a slight frown after really hugging her and murmuring “I’m sure you won’t get into trouble if you opt out today. I know you don’t want to go, so just don’t.”
Then she’d leaded back from her kind of looked at her a little weird, had touched her face and looked right at her “everything will be okay, you can stay here with Beckham and I, for as long as you need to. Our house is your house now.” Then she’d sighed a little and turned and headed off for the day.
A bit weird, and it had taken only a few moments of thought after Lindal had left, for Ori to realise the girl when hugging her had likely felt the pups’ heartbeat, and realised there was actually more going on here, with Ori, than anyone knew. But likely wouldn’t bring it up because Ori herself hadn’t mentioned it to anyone.
It was unlikely Lindal would tell anyone, she wouldn’t even know whose it was, she thought, or had done so; like everyone else, that she herself was a virgin. Lindal had no idea how far along she was or who the wolf was even. She definitely wouldn’t go and say anything to the pack’s Beta family, not with all that was going on.
Ori sighed and went and changed her clothes. She had been in her pj’s all day, went through that suitcase of hers and found some easy-fit jeans and a t-shirt, pulled on one of her men’s shirts. Had looked at herself in the mirror, she looked very different indeed. If she didn’t actively look at anyone it would definitely take them a moment to realise who she was, they would have to smell her to know.
She knew that big celebration for Dariah was about to start up there outside the back of the packhouse. Could actually feel like 90% of the pack up that way. She would normally have gone to it, actually liked Dariah.
She was tiny and sweet, always smiled at everyone, was polite and well-mannered, but there was a part of Ori that wondered if Dariah was like that because it was expected of her to be like that. Much the same way it was for Ori herself.
She was not going up there to enjoy the festivities, just couldn’t do it. Not only was she not in the mood to smile at all, she actually didn’t really care at all about the pack celebrating one of the Alpha’s children. Didn’t she realise, care about anything at all!
Though she couldn’t sit still, and do nothing, she was very restless, and so she mind-linked herself around the border patrollers to see if any of them wanted to let her take over their shift, so they could go to the festivities. That had taken some doing, she got many responses of, they couldn’t just hand their shift over to her, like they had once been able to, because she was no longer the future Beta, and couldn’t stop them from getting into trouble or being punished.
She had actually only found one on the southern border, and when she’d connected to Art she had actually been relieved to feel that connection. He was part of her social group and was 18 like she was. He’d been quiet for a long moment, and she’d sighed ‘Please Art, I just can’t go to that celebration and be around them all. It’s too hard. But I can’t just sit around and do nothing either. I need to keep myself busy. You know I can handle a border patrol.’
He did know that, it was actually part of the future Beta’s duties once or twice a week to do border patrol. She could handle it without issue, and had been doing it since she was 17.
‘If Ethan says it’s okay, then yes. But you contact him about it.’
She’d sighed a little but done as he’d wished, connected a mind-link to Ethan, he was in charge of scheduling the border patrollers for the pack. ‘Ethan it’s Oriana, I’d like to take over south patrol, zone 2 please. Relieve Art from his shift for the night.’
‘Why?’ he’d responded.
‘Honestly, I have no interest in being anywhere near the Alpha or his unit, or the future Alpha and his unit at this time. So I’ll work the afternoon shift and make myself useful.’
There was silence for a long moment ‘Alright, that shift finishes at 2200.’
‘I know what the shift times are, I’ve done many boarder patrols.’ She answered, and she did; they ran three 8-hour shifts round the pack borders. 6 to 2, 2 to 10 and 10 to 6. Simple easy, no fuss. ‘Inform the current Beta, I’m on patrol on the border, and to leave me the hell alone, unless he wants a wolfed out fight.’ She stated, she wanted him to know she was working, and on the border, so he wouldn’t concern himself with her leaving the pack. Was just on the border doing her job was all.
More Kickass Werewolf Reads
Dive into our collection of free werewolf romance novels—where fierce Alphas, daring heroines, and heart-stopping twists await. Every story burns with forbidden desire, loyalty, and destiny. Don’t wait—here’s a world where love bites hard and nothing is stronger than the call of the mate.
Leave a Reply