“You’d be better off with my driving him,” Hayden stated.
“Let it go, son.”
She looked passed her brother and to Slade, “Are you coming or am I leaving your ass here, Slade.” She hollered, knew that clock her father had her on, would start the second he felt her leave the pack, and he would be feeling for it. Along with her return.
Slade strolled down the steps all casual like he always did. The damned man was annoying at the best of times. He was testing her patience, and she had little right this very minute. She was still sore from last night, and didn’t exactly know how sitting for so long was going to go. She was actually more comfortable standing up.
He got in the door she was holding open for him, as her Beta duties dictated she was to do, bloody old-fashioned rules. She snapped it shut the minute his feet were in, and walked round the car to get in behind the wheel.
Grit her teeth against the uncomfortable feeling of sitting, she still ached in her nether region, she shifted ever so slightly and looked at her father when he stated “Ori. Don’t screw this up.”
She just nodded, her eyes moved to her brother, and she saw a smirk on his face, and narrowed her eyes on him, and that smirk was gone the instant before her father turned to look at his own son.
She drove away from the packhouse more than annoyed. She could also feel Slade’s eyes on her, as she turned off the main road and headed for Lindal’s place, parked the car out the front. “Out.” She muttered to Slade’s raised eyebrow.
“What for?” he asked.
“Because Hayden did something to my car, to make sure I don’t make it back on time, we’re switching vehicles.” She told him.
“Why would he do that?”
“Why do you think?” she asked right back as she got out, mind-linking to Lindal, asking to borrow her car for the trip. The woman mind-linked right back with full amusement ‘That will be uncomfortable for Slade.’
‘He can suck it up.’ If she was uncomfortable, because of something he didn’t even remember, then so could he be.
“You want me to take a look at it.” She asked as she walked out the house holding her keys, and her garage door rolled up.
“Sure, put it out of sight too.”
She hauled Slade’s luggage out and the food and put them in the back of Lindal’s 2015 Mazda 3. It was a much smaller car, and she saw Slade get out of hers finally and state “I ain’t getting in that.”
“Yes you are, get in, or they’ll know something is wrong, they all know how long it takes to get to the front gate. That is Lindal’s pride and joy. There ain’t nothing wrong with it.”
“Got a brand-new engine and everything.” Lindal smiled at him “it won’t break down.”
He was just standing there staring at it with a frown. “Get in or Hayden will be your Beta.” She muttered.
She saw him sigh and finally get in the car. His height of six-three and broad shoulders didn’t suit the car, but it was a tricked out ride, looked brand new. Lindal’s dad was the pack mechanic. This car was likely the most reliable in the entire pack.
She knew Slade had a four-wheel drive of his own, to suit his much larger frame, but Lindal was only slight of build, not a warrior or even training to be. She was following in her father’s footsteps, going to be working on the pack cars alongside him.
Lindal’s car also didn’t bother her. Ori was only five-nine with an athletic build, she didn’t want to be an all-muscled up she-wolf, and actually didn’t really like that look. She worked out and was fit as a fiddle, had a nice four-packed abdomen, but was not looking to bulk up.
She had pure Beta blood flowing in her veins, didn’t need to be big and bulky to be strong and fierce, that came with her bloodline. She also knew it would come in handy later in life. The enemy would see her, a female Beta, with a slight build, and think she’d be easy pickings, when she was anything but.
Slade
He could smell Hayden in the car, he realised as she got out of it. Slade took a deep breath to smell it himself, it was faint, but yes it was there. It hadn’t been the last time she’d driven him in her car. Ori, he knew, had owned it now for two weeks, and that boy had a car of his own, a Jeep Wrangler; it’s what the boy wanted even.
The question was why could they smell that boy inside her car? He frowned and got out. She’d said he’d sabotaged her car; would her own brother actually do that, go that far to get her position as the pack’s future Beta?
Slade did know the rivalry for it was there, between the two of them, but his choice was clear for all to see. Ori was his preferred Beta, and yes, he’d heard, not only his own father, but her father as well, discussing the ascension of the future Beta. That by the time he was home from Alpha College, Hayden would be 18 and a half, old enough to take up the role as his future Beta.
He had to sit and listen to them debate it sometimes, he stayed the hell out of it. They knew his thoughts on the subject. They brought him into the room, just so he could hear them talk about who was the better choice. He also believed that they listened to Hayden go on about how Ori would likely mate off out of the pack, so it was just better to put him in as the pack’s future Beta as soon as he turned 18.
Slade was of the opinion that Ori could make any mate she had, come here to be with her in this pack. She was the future Beta, his second in command, and he didn’t see her giving that position up, for any old wolf that scented her out. If she attracted an Alpha Mate, and she was to be a Luna to a pack, then yes.
But any other wolf, even Alpha ranked, if not the actual Alpha to a pack or the future heir to a pack, then she could have him come here to this pack. Stay on as his Beta. That was what he’d told them and that was, as far as he was concerned, the end of it.
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