‘She’s pregnant Lindal.’
‘I’m aware.’ She’d responded.
He followed her out into the foyer after those words, shocked him to know someone inside the pack had known that, and latched right onto her, she’d looked right up at him and shot down the mind-link ‘Doesn’t want that pup to be raised like she was, deceived like she was, screwed over like she was. Left to raise it by herself, with love and care, I imagine.’
‘Do you know whose it is?’ he’d asked right back.
‘No, I only found out because I sensed it before coming to Dariah’s celebration. I said nothing, figured she’d tell me when she was ready. I wonder though if she told him before she left.’
‘She didn’t.’ he said a little sadly ‘It’s mine, Lindal, or we think so.’
That had stopped the mind-link conversation, and she’d grated out “When?” and he’d told her, hadn’t even gotten out of the way of the slap he’d seen coming, just took it, for such a tiny she-wolf she packed a wallop, he’d even stumbled backwards from it, had forgotten her mother was actually warrior class.
He’d held up his hand to his father to stop him from rounding on her. She was angry and had just found out what they all had. His nor her father had told the pack that Ori was pregnant, though they all knew she’d gone rogue and were to report to them if she contacted anyone. from inside the pack at all.
He even thought he deserved that slap to his face. It was the least of what he deserved. Lindal had stalked away from him that morning. Bronnie had arrived and opened that box to see all of Ori’s hair in it, just hacked off in long and short bits. They’d been searching for her knowing what she looked like, but now they had no idea, she’d cut that hair off before leaving the pack.
But it wasn’t the hair that had him furious, it was the card that was in there, the words in her own mother’s handwriting, the offensive words to Ori, after all she’d gone through that day, her own mother had written words that compounded on her pain ‘Really Oriana, you think this is appropriate attire for your status.’ Under all that hair was the white outfit she’d worn in the nightclub that night.
And the response on the back of that card ‘Yes, perfectly fitting for my new status, as fucking nothing.’ His eyes had moved to the Beta’s Mate and a low angry snarl had come out of him How could you do that to her, say that when you knew she was already going to be hurting.”
Bronnie’s eyes had moved right to him, there were actual tears in them, and she’d shaken her head. “It wasn’t meant to be like that. Taken like that. I had her suitcases, something she was supposed to come and get after the full moon, after you two scented each other out and Claimed each other, it was…” he heard the slight tremble in the woman’s voice “meant to be a funny play on words for the future Luna status she’d have, after you and she marked and mated and came out of your suite.”
He stared at the woman. “So you were in on this as well?” he muttered “Does the entire Luna’s unit know?” he’d asked his father and got a simple nod of the head. It had ticked him off a lot. Not even his own mother had seen fit to stop this plotting and planning, had gone along with it.
“I don’t understand any of you.” he’d muttered and stalked from the office, though it had been Art who’d mind-linked to him before he’d left pack territory to go back to Alpha College, and told him that Oriana had short blonde hair now, had changed her look. There had been an apologetic note in his voice as he’d said it. Slade had not really said anything at all, so even searching through the airport camera’s looking for a brunette was a waste of the tech teams’ time for the past three days.
Now that search, had to start all over again.
Ana
She was standing looking at Maddie as she gave instructions to her employee, Dylan, about closing up the Caf?. She’d pulled a young man in for the evening shift that would cross the dinner rush to replace her, and he was like 16 or 17, Ana thought, a casual employee, one of the local teens.
She had made the decision to trust the woman. Ana had spent the afternoon watching her, the way she was with her employees and the customers, both the regulars that lived here as well as the holidaymakers, here for the summer.
Maddie had just gone about her regular day, talking to everyone that she served, and she did seem nice. The people that lived here in this town liked her, smiled, laughed and chatted with Maddie as if they’d known her for a long time. Ana could see she did need to hire someone for the summer rush, and the influx of tourists she was getting.
Maddie was the only one on the serving counter, making coffee, tea, hot chocolates and what was known as the Maddies Special. A gingerbread flavoured cappuccino or latte. Even Ana had tried that one out of curiosity. She liked gingerbread, and she liked the Maddie Special. It had a unique soft ginger flavour with a real hit of nutmeg.
Ana had taken the time to try and decide if it was wise to trust this woman, who claimed to be a rogue she-wolf but didn’t smell like one at all, didn’t look like one either, she’d sat at a corner table where she could view the entire caf?. Maddie didn’t ask her to leave, so others could sit down. And she was too busy to pay too much attention to Ana.
Though Ana thought it was more that Maddie wanted Ana to assess her and come to the conclusion that she wasn’t trying to dupe her, or find a way to kidnap her. Likely Maddie also understood that Ana herself was a pure-blooded Beta ranked wolf, she would be able to pick that up under the scent of rogue.
Maddie was a tall lean woman with black, very curly hair, tight little ringlets that were pulled up into a mass on top of her head, her skin was a lovely shade of brown, that practically radiated sometimes when it caught the light. She was beautiful, her skin was flawless. She was wearing nice clothing as well, a blue, slim fitting off the shoulder top, that hugged its way down to her hips and a pair of nice fitting dark blue jeans.
She wore a pair of chunky black lace-up boots that added two inches to her height, not that she really needed it, was already Ana thought five-ten. Maddie certainly didn’t dress like a rogue or act like one either. There was no hiding for this woman, nope, she was out in the world acting like a human. Living her life how she chose to from all appearances.
She actually kind of dressed like a fully ranked member would inside a pack. Those clothes were brand-name clothes Ana realised. She also wore bare minimal make-up, just nice soft pink lipstick to keep her look natural. Though she had black eyeliner and mascara with golden eye shadow, which made her chocolate brown eyes really pop.
Though she did wear a pair of blue Ralph Lauren reading glasses, kind of matched her outfit, she didn’t need them if she was a wolf. Their eyesight was keen, wore them just to make her look more human, she supposed.
The girl moved with ease around her Caf?, and she was still trim taught and terrific, she did have all the markers of a she-wolf, even though she didn’t scent like one. This intrigued Ana to no end, and she was curious as to what her bloodline was, where she had come from and what her story was.
Not that it really mattered, just simple wolfen curiosity, Maddie had stated she’d been there for three years, so if that was the case, she had run away at 17. It was kind of sad to know that, leaving before she’d become 18 could only mean she’d come from someplace not so nice.
Though Ana had run away, and from a pack that was actually well liked by all those around them. She was just the one that didn’t fit in. So maybe this was what happened to Maddie, it didn’t look like the woman was suffering from any kind of deep-seated trauma.
She’d opted to believe the woman, who’d told her she smelled different, and even picked up that she was pregnant; she wasn’t showing yet, though she didn’t think it would be long now; no human could do that just from looking at her a few times when she came in to eat.
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