She didn’t say anything. What was there to say? She knew what was about to happen. Today was going to be the day she realised, Alpha Roman had let her perform one last Beta duty, it seemed, when they pulled up she was going to be taken into the Alpha’s office and demoted, be passed over for her brother, and then he would be announcing it to the pack, a few minutes later, likely while she was made to pack her stuff and move out of the Beta suite.
Her eyes fell on the front steps of the packhouse as she drove up to it, and there on the top step was Alpha Roman and his unit. Right there on the next step down was Slade’s unit with Hayden all dressed up formally in his pack suit, lined up there in order of rank. He was being formally presented to Slade as he got home, her demotion and announcement already made, only she didn’t know about it.
She heard Slade sigh very heavily, and turned to look at him, and she saw his eyes move right to hers and there it was; the guilt she’d thought she’d see if he knew. “You knew.” She stated as pain filled her, he’d been in agreement to do this to her, and like this, they’d been in this car for seven bloody hours, and he’d said absolutely nothing, had slept practically the whole bloody trip home even, clearly didn’t care at all how it was done, had known and said nothing.
“Yes, I’ve known for a while it was actually…”
Oriana
“Don’t you dare.” Ori grated out, she didn’t want to hear those words come out of him. All this time, on the drive home, she thought he was being blindsided like she was, that he was on her side, but he wasn’t. She yanked the car to a full stop, right where she was supposed to, and got out, all her anger on the surface.
Her best friend, the father of her pup, had just stabbed her in the back like everyone else. He knew, and for ‘a while’, that just meant he’d known for days in all likelihood, and had not even bothered to tell her, he was no different to those up there on the packhouse steps.
Ori’s eyes moved from the Alpha Unit to her brother, that bastard was standing there in her place, and had the hide to smirk right at her, so very smugly that he had gotten her position here, and easily so.
Had been chosen by the future Alpha himself, his hand hadn’t even been forced, and she knew it because if it had been, he would have told her, he’d not told her because he knew how she actually felt, about all of them up there on those steps, trying to get rid of her from her position.
He was no different to any of them, she now realised, he could bloody well go up there and stand alongside all those that thought she was not good enough, because she was female. She’d never really expected him to side with them, she realised. Deep down inside, she truly had believed he wanted her for his Beta. Would fight for her position here within the pack.
But he was no different in the end to every one of them up there.
“It’s been officially announced already,” Alpha Roman told her. He knew she was not stupid, what it meant for Hayden to be all dressed up and standing there like that. She was out and Hayden was in. He didn’t actually need to verbalise it, that was just pack protocol for the Alpha to voice a demotion.
“Moved into my suite yet!” She snarled at Hayden, and she nearly shot off the mark to kill him. when he nodded right at her, and stated “yes, your things are in mum and dad’s suite now.” She could actually hear it, he was enjoying this moment, he’d won the game and was rubbing it in right here, at the moment she felt the most betrayed she’d ever felt in her entire life.
Rage filled her as she realised not only had they announced it, when she wasn’t here, they’d already packed her up and moved her out of the Beta suite as well, putting her right back inside her family’s suite.
She’d had nothing to do with her father or mother for weeks now, yet that was where she was supposed to go, back to the people that had birthed her, only to be disappointed in the fact that she was a girl. So disappointed that they’d had a boy in short order, and let it be known, all her life they wanted him to be the Beta heir, not her.
Two people that had stabbed her in the back from the day she was born, now they had gotten. what they wanted, as much as her brother had. No one here actually cared about how she would feel, about what they had just done either. Not her parents, not the Alpha and likely not the Luna, not her own friend. Was he really her friend?
Would a friend allow this to happen? To let it play out this way, blindsided was one thing, but full-blown disrespect and everything happening while she was not even inside the pack to hear about it. No, a friend would not do that to you, he was not her friend. Was just the future Alpha to the pack, he was exactly like his backstabbing father.
Ori saw both Palmer and his father Charlton move towards her, as she hurled her car keys at her brother and yelled, “why don’t you just take everything that is mine.” And then turned and stalked the hell away from all of them. He was damn lucky she couldn’t fight right this minute, couldn’t actually shift to her wolf. They all were, because China would be out of her for the backstabbing and betrayal from all of them if she wasn’t, nothing would contain their rage.
She turned and stalked furiously away, did not want to look at any of them anymore.
She knew Palmer was going to lay hands on her, it was just him chasing her, she’d actually heard his dad state, “Son, don’t touch her.” At one point, and knew that man himself, the actual pack Gamma, had come to a halt and wasn’t going to touch her, he was a very wise man.
She didn’t want either of them touching her right that minute, those Gamma-charmed hands would not be sensing her out, not that she was thinking at all about her pup, she was blindingly mad, and it wasn’t just her. China was ticked off as much as she was, for the way they’d done this to them.
She and her wolf were bloody angry and the only thing right this minute keeping that brother of hers alive, likely her own father as well, for not holding that boy to the same standards she’d been held to all her life. Was the fact that she was with pup. If she wasn’t, she’d be on a full rampage to kill that brother of hers, and she knew it, nothing would stop her and China from wiping that smug look off his face.
She also didn’t want to calm down. She had a right to be angry. This she knew was not how things were done. Behind closed doors, in private with full explanation, though she didn’t need that, it was because she was a fucking girl. His hand landed on her shoulder. “Ori, we didn’t know. Please…” she didn’t really care that he or Yuri didn’t know right this minute, was too consumed by her own anger, turned and punched that boy with all she had, and saw him stagger about and kind of turn and hurry away from her. Both his hands to his face.
She continued on down the road, uncaring of the time or even where she was going. Most of the pack members were in their homes already. She was just stalking away because she had nowhere to go, not really. She had lived her whole life inside the packhouse up in the Beta’s suite, she had spent the majority of her life with Slade, Palmer and Yuri even.
Well, that was no more, she thought bitterly, as she felt hot tears burn her eyes, she walked blindly keeping them at bay, for who knew how long before she just stopped in the middle of a pack road.
Stabbed in the back by her own father, her actual Alpha, and Slade himself, he’d said he would never choose Hayden over her, yet here it was and he’d done it. She’d seen the guilt and heard those words which she’d cut off herself.
‘I’ve known for a while, it was actually, the rest of that sentence was ‘my decision,’ or ‘my choice.’ Why she had cut him off. She didn’t actually want to hear those words, from his lips to her ears.
He’d always told her not to worry about it, she was his choice, and it was up to him, who was in his Alpha Unit, who his Beta was. Yet he’d chosen Hayden in the end, and hadn’t even bothered to tell her; that was what hurt the most. The not telling her part, keeping it a secret to let it out like this.
She wondered as she stood there how long he had known that it wasn’t going to be her? When had he actively made the choice? And decided not to tell her about it! That had been the worst of it, not only blindsided her, but deceived her and so bloody easily as well. She was supposed to be his best friend. She guessed that was all a lie too.
He’d had Goddess only knew how long to tell her, played at her still being his Beta for who knew how long. Could have been days, weeks, months, or her entire life. She didn’t know. If it happened sometime over the last month, he could have called her, sent a text to warn her, he could have video called her, written a bloody physical letter. Hell, he was at Alpha College, he could have sent her an official Wolfen Scroll.
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