“Nothing life-threatening, likely wouldn’t risk Slade being injured. Just something to close out your window of time was all. A slow leak in the back tire. So, you would have gotten, like I don’t know, a quarter, maybe halfway there, before you got a flat.”
“Just a flat? That’s easily fixed.”
“Yes, if you had a working spare, it wasn’t he punctured that beyond repair, so by the time you got a tow and a replacement tyre or two, which could take hours out there in the human world. You’d have not gotten home on time. Likely wouldn’t have even gotten Slade to Alpha College on time either.”
“Right, so regardless I’d have failed.” Ori muttered.
“Yes,” Lindal nodded “He really does want your title and rank, doesn’t he?”
“It does seem that way.” Ori nodded and got in her Nissan “Thanks for letting me know.” She stated before driving up to the packhouse in her car, like she had left it.
Ori smiled right at her brother as she hopped out of the car, he was up there waiting alongside her father, Anders. Her father nodded to her “Well done girl.” He told her simply. Hayden, on the other hand, looked more than annoyed by her early return.
“Did you speed, daughter?”
“Maybe just a little bit, managed to catch every green light. Slade arrived early, and I got back within the allotted time.”
“You did.” He smiled at her.
“Not a single thing went wrong.” She chirped happily “though I’m beat, it was a long drive.” And it was they’d left at 8am, and it was now 8pm, and she’d not had much sleep last night. She was actually tired.
“To be expected. Go and get some sleep.” Her father told her.
She walked right passed Hayden, “What’s wrong brother, did you think I would screw up my mission?” she smiled right at him. “Not going to happen. Dad told me to plan for all contingencies. And I did, all of them.” Then she turned and headed inside and up to her suite.
She showered and crawled into her bed, at least her body no longer ached, and she didn’t have to worry about dealing with Slade anymore. Though how it would go when she had to go back and pick him up in a month, she didn’t know.
She was intending on just letting it go and pretending it never happened at all. She had a full month to figure out how to act normally around him. She might well be over it by then and able to just be her normal self, no awkwardness with him.
She had plenty of things here to keep her occupied and help her forget about it, so that was always good, and with him not here to remind her every day or ask questions about that night. It was likely she could just let it go.
There was also a full moon just two days away, her first one since she turned 18, a pretty big deal for most wolves, the first time they would feel it set and be able to scent out their Mate if they had one here in the pack.
Most wolves were excited to find their Mate, but really, who paired up at 18? It rarely happens, once or twice a year. Ori didn’t think she would be so lucky, her life here, though it had been pretty cushy for the most part. A fun, enjoyable childhood.
She always had Hayden in the background, breathing down her neck, trying to take what was hers, she had to fight to keep everything she had. To be the future Beta to this pack. She felt like she had to fight every day sometimes, to retain what was her actual birthright. Being the firstborn into the Beta bloodline.
She let it go and allowed sleep to claim her. Slept like the dead until her alarm went off at 5am, got a solid eight and half hours sleep. Was up and dressed, bright-eyed and raring to go. A bounce in her step even.
Maybe she’d just been tired and grumpy, stressed out yesterday with all that had gone on. She felt much more like herself this morning. She grabbed a banana and water and headed off to the training grounds. Was the first one there and shook her head at Palmer and Yuri as they jogged over to her.
“Sleep in boys?” she asked with a snort “Punishment for being late. Five laps, no wolf assistance. Off you go now.” She grinned at them, she was in charge without Slade here. He’d normally set ten laps as punishment for being late. They all hated that.
She, however, had a whole year to make the boys want her in charge of training, like her that little bit more than their own Alpha. She watched the two of them laugh, “Oh, playing the nice game are we?” Palmer grinned at her.
“You’ll love me more than Slade and by the end of the year, you’ll think he’s too hard a task master. I’m a delight.” She winked at them and even joined them, on the five laps, something Slade didn’t do.
She was going to train them hard like Slade did, and do the hours as well, but there would be a bit of fun thrown in. Slade was all Alpha out here on the training ground and, honestly, it wasn’t necessary. As long as they trained and learned, built on the skills they already had, it was fine.
“You’re in a good mood.” Yuri smiled at her.
“I slept like the dead. Am wide awake and raring to go.” And she really was. “I also beat my brother at his own game.”
“What?” they both asked with a slight frown.
“Don’t worry about it.” She smiled. “Come on boys, pick up the pace. This is punishment.” She told them and ran off ahead of them for them to keep up. She was fast even without China, liked having that pure Beta blood, kind of gave her an advantage over both of them.
They did the five laps and then the regular run all the way round the pack’s perimeter at full wolfen speed. She really did like being able to beat them both. They may be taller and bigger, but China was faster. Also, didn’t want to be big and buffed up either, like they were. Like most Betas were; didn’t need it.
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