‘Weird.’ Palmer had texted him near instantly.
‘How so?’ he sent back. Though he was expecting or had been an irate phone call from Ori herself, about what the hell he’d done. He’d not gotten one at all. She was still ticked off about her position being in jeopardy, but she did text him back if he asked her a direct question.
He did know that she was really distancing herself from not just him, but the entire unit as well. Palmer and Yuri had told him as much. She wasn’t hanging out with them anymore, was locked away inside that Beta suite, though they also told him that she went clubbing and dancing nearly every night.
That she’d taken to wearing very little at all, when out clubbing, they were of the opinion she was in a full-blown rebellious state. And the more her father harped at her about her clothes, the skimpier they got as well, and the later she stayed out. Actively trying to piss her dad off, it seemed.
That Anders himself was worried about the girl’s state of mind. He’d never seen anything like it and didn’t understand where it was coming from, apparently. She’d been told they were just training Hayden up because he was the second heir, and he needed it, for when she mated off out of the pack, was all. That she was still the future Beta, that not even that had worked.
He’d also heard that her words to her father had ticked the man off, gotten a quote on that; ” The Alpha told me to go and do what all 18-year-old girls do.” And apparently that was exactly what she was doing. Acting like a defiant 18-year-old. Drinking and partying every night.
‘Your dad and Anders wolfed out against each other.’ Yuri joined the conversation.
‘Everything alright there?’ He wouldn’t know if his father banished the Beta’s family over it.
‘Apparently so.’ Yuri responded.
‘???.’ He sent.
‘They’re quiet but…’ It was Palmer.
He sighed, he was likely getting the chance to find his Goddess Gifted at that rate, his own father had backed down. He knew Anders would never sell his own daughter off like that. He still thought of her as his little girl, only she wasn’t so little anymore and was on a full defiant streak.
‘So all good? Dad didn’t do anything stupid, like banish the pack Beta and his family?’
‘Not that we know of.’
Slade realised banishing the Vales would actually solve his father’s problem. His thoughts stopped at that. Would his father go so far as to banish that family in order to get him to take a male Beta? The Beta had just wolfed out on the pack Alpha. His mind was racing now, and he put a call to his father, and it was picked up on the 4th ring: “Slade?”
No son, he noted, that wasn’t a good thing, he only really got called Slade, for formal announcements, admonishments, or if his father was unhappy.
“Did you banish Anders and his family?’ He asked.
“Not yet,” his father muttered, “it will likely come tomorrow.”
“Don’t do it, father.”
“Why not? The man himself attacked me over your crude word usage of Oriana.”
“Then blame me and not the Beta’s family.”
“Anders, I believe, is already upstairs packing, likely knows it’s coming, Slade. It’s what all Alphas would do to a disloyal pack’s Beta.”
“Just don’t do it.”
“Why would I not? We have pack laws for a reason, and that will solve my problem with your Beta as well. I’m currently looking at the other affiliated packs, second Betas, for you, right now. There are half a dozen your age, so plenty for me to line up and you to run through the paces and pick one to your liking. When you come home from Alpha College in a year.”
Slade was quiet for a long minute, so this was his father’s plan to get what he wanted. The man was doing everything he could to rid Ori from the Beta position, was going to go so far as to banish her entire family. He didn’t understand it. He closed his eyes for a minute and really thought about what he could do to stop this. “What will stop you from doing that? Their family has been with ours for many generations.”
“10 generations.” His father commented, “and what do you mean, by what will stop me?”
“Negotiation.”
“With who son would I negotiate with over this? Who’s got something that I want? That can be bargained for to keep them here in the pack.”
He sighed now because there was one, him, he was the one that could negotiate on her family’s behalf and, seeing as it was going to be his fault her family was getting banished, it was up to him to stop it now. “I do,” he muttered.
“Do you, what do you have? Explain that to me son.”
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