‘When you say not so well???’
‘Call me, better we talk about it than text.’
Just bloody great, he thought, and put a call to Palmer, even made it a live video call so he could see them, and it was them, both Palmer and Yuri waiting on him.
He was really frowning now, to hear Ori had been asked to let Hayden train with Palmer and Yuri without her, had been told she could train with the regular warriors. It was no wonder her replies were curt; the girl was likely ticked off and upset. He wasn’t happy himself; he still had a few weeks before he could come back for his sister’s first shift.
“I’ll try to sort that out.”
“They said for a week only, to see what he’s like without Ori around.” Palmer murmured.
“You don’t think that’s all it will be?” Slade asked.
“She doesn’t feel that,” Palmer sighed.
“You felt out my Beta?”
“Mm.” he nodded “I am the Gamma, and she is a girl, easy enough to do.” he shrugged “She’s in her room. The door locked, is pissed off.”
“No real surprise.” he muttered “I’ll call dad after class tomorrow.”
“Hmm, that could help. But, maybe leave it for the week. Let’s see if the boy will act up and blow his own chances. He doesn’t like being told what to do, and I’m currently in charge of him as of tomorrow.”
“You don’t think he’ll like it?”
“No, taking orders from a Gamma the rank below him, I’d bet not. Let’s wait and see if they extend the training. If they do, you put that call in, we’re already a unit, right?”
“Yes Palmer, Ori is the choice I made, she is a good Beta,” he told them.
“Good.”
Oriana.
She came to a halt in the packhouse foyer, had been downstairs getting food for her suite, it was late, and the place was relatively quiet. Likely all the pack members were off in their suites. She’d been in her room for a solid week now, had come downstairs just to get food.
She’d stayed away from Alpha unit training and had actually just focused herself on sorting out her degrees to study at uni. Business was a given part of her job as the pack’s Beta. This pack ran into the live event promotions for big sporting events, owned a digital billboard company, had a modelling agency and a voice actor agency, was also one of the most predominantly used language translation companies.
Half of the pack could speak two or three different languages and could be hired through the Highland Hills translation company for business, hospital/patient use, law firms, court hearings and law enforcement needs. Whether it be for reading or spoken translations; it was all catered for.
Ori was also going to get her masters in Japanese. She had been studying it since she was five. Her father spoke it fluently, so he had been teaching her all her life. She knew Slade could speak Mandarin and that Palmer was good with French and German. Yuri spoke Russian because it was his grandparent’s heritage, but their pack could speak and translate just over a hundred different languages.
She had spent the week sorting out a double degree, wasn’t completely settled on a double degree or not, she had just been going to study business full-time and her language part-time. There was no real rush with her language degree, she could speak fluent Japanese. Just didn’t have the paperwork to go with it. So, part-time was fine on that front.
But now, as she stood there in the darkened foyer and her hearing picked up the conversation she was clearly not meant to hear. Her heart sank, it was her Alpha and his unit in the Alpha’s office; discussing stepping Hayden up to the future pack Beta and stepping her down.
She just stood there and listened to them, debating between themselves, the pros and cons of Slade having her by his side. She’d not caught the start of their conversation, but they were discussing the time off she’d need for her heats. Then, when she had a pup or pups, how her duties would be effected. She would need to have months off from training where she would de-condition, and then she’d have children to look after.
They were planning to remove her from her position regardless of if she stayed here or not. A female in an Alpha unit was seen as a liability to them. She knew it was what they thought, that she would let the future Alpha unit down, once mated off. She could go into heat at any time, even off pack territory, away from her Mate if he was inside this pack.
She stared at that office door and nearly walked in there to state how she felt, when she heard Slade’s voice come from it. “I understand, and I’ll think about what you’ve discussed.” She froze on the spot at his words.
“We’ll need a decision by the time you come home in two weeks. We need to sort this out quickly. You understand, as the future Alpha, this is about the pack’s strength, not your friendship with Ori.”
“I understand, I will approach it from the future Alpha’s point of view,” Slade stated.
Ori turned and walked away at that point, even Slade was talking about replacing her; that hurt, he’d always stated she was his choice for the pack’s Beta.
Now she was likely going to have it ripped away from her because she was a she-wolf that could go into heat, would get pregnant and bear children at some point. All of which were vital in growing the pack’s next Beta generation. But now it was seen as a weakness to the leadership of the pack.
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