“Yes, we will,” Ana nodded, her little girl would be able to fight like a demon, and likely before she even had her wolf too. She would start her training early, at just five, to make sure she could take care of herself.
Slade
The days at Alpha College started to roll by, and it was up to Palmer and Yuri to train Hayden as the new Beta. They had been told by his father, they had to train him up now; that he was the future Beta.
Slade had not cared for this comment at all, didn’t want that boy as his Beta, but had told Palmer and Yuri, who he also knew didn’t want to have Hayden as part of their group. Had told them to just do it for now. When he got back from Alpha College, he would sort that shit out.
Then had really thought about it for the next week, and put a call in to Palmer and Yuri and told them to put that boy through the wringer. Let him see just what a Beta’s training was actually like, that he was a year and half behind and needed to catch up. To make him train harder than was actually necessary, and tell him if he wasn’t fit and up to Slade’s expectations by the time he got home. It would only get worse for him.
That if Hayden so much as whined about it, they were to up the boys’ training schedule even more. To make that boy jump through all the hoops that Ori had, had to. And if he didn’t like it, punish him as her father would have Ori. That if Hayden did anything that was seen to be out of line.
They were to call him irresponsible, lecture him the way Anders would have Ori, to punish him like she would have been. He knew that boy had never suffered any kind of punishment from his own father. Was entitled because of this, why he thought Oriana’s reaction to him being seated in her place was, her just being a girl.
He’d spent a solid week after that, working out a tight training schedule for his Gamma and Delta to put that little bastard through. Actually wrote it up and emailed it over to both Palmer and Yuri. Including the list of punishments he thought was appropriate for the boy if he whinged and whined about his training schedule; went behind their backs to Anders about the training or even to the Alpha, and told them he thought it was unfair.
That Slade was pushing him too hard. That wasn’t going to go down so well with Slade either, and any phone calls he took about it, regardless of who it was from, would only incur that boy more of Slade’s wrath.
Hayden was going to learn the hard way, that you don’t betray your family, that you don’t complain about being trained for the position that he’d wanted and gotten, but didn’t deserve to have. Any trouble from him at all was now going to see that boy put on the border patrol on the night shift at that, 10pm to 6am. To make sure it was given to him on the night before, he had Alpha Unit training in the morning, which started at 0500, and he was to attend that training, then go to school that day as well. No exceptions would be made. His grades had to be maintained and Palmer and Yuri were allowed to keep track of those as well.
He flicked off an sss to their pack school’s headmaster and told them, any drop in Hayden’s grades must be reported to Palmer and Yuri and that boy had to maintain the same grade. point average as Ori had to. Then he asked to have a copy of Hayden’s current grades and Ori’s as well, so he could see the difference.
Slade knew that Anders had made Oriana’s life very difficult, and he believed it was because he’d been hoping that his own daughter wouldn’t be able to handle it, and not only want to renounce her title, but actually do it. Which would have seen Hayden naturally ascend up the line into the future Beta position. Effectively giving Anders, what he wanted, his son the position that his daughter had held.
He was now pushing Hayden in his own way even though he wasn’t there. Maybe he could get that boy to quit and renounce his position himself. He didn’t think that Hayden was suitable for the position of the pack’s Beta. So was now pushing him to his limits in order to punish him for his part in Oriana’s removal from his unit, and the way that boy had been happy about it, been smug about it right to her face, in her moment of pain.
Hayden might be a Beta ranked wolf by blood, and he’d already heard before the shit had gone down that he’d tried to pull rank on Palmer and Yuri, but that card was not going to work with Slade. Palmer was to tell him they were older than he was, had seniority on him. That they had two years of Alpha Unit training under their belt, and he had nothing.
That he had to listen to them, do what they told him and train when and how he was told to, give him that schedule Slade had drawn up, or he could simply remove himself and renounce his position to the entire pack and become nothing at all.
To tell Hayden, or remind him that Slade didn’t care about having him as part of the unit, and he could find himself another Beta in a heartbeat within another pack, if he didn’t like his new training regime. To remind that son of a bitch that this is only what Ori had, had to do all her life to maintain her position. If he couldn’t do it himself, then he clearly was not as good as his sister was.
He was hitting that boy where it hurt, and he knew it, pitting him up against his own sister, who worked damned hard to be able to be the future Beta. Had done everything without so much as a single complaint. He wanted to show his father and Hayden’s dad, that Hayden was not worth the title they had given him. Was going to be making that boy’s life a living hell, even though he wasn’t even there to do it himself.
Requested written weekly reports from Palmer and Yuri, to detail all the boys’ infractions, all his whinging and whining. What his own father or Anders had come to them and told them about, what they thought about the training regime and the punishments dealt out to that boy. And Slade was betting that Anders was going to be coming to defend his boy.
He was going to compile a list of reasons why Hayden wasn’t worthy of the title he had been. given. Going to present it to his father and Anders, to his own mother, and Ori’s mother as well, call a full formal meeting when he was ready to and out that boys shortcomings in full. For all to hear and see why he was not worthy of the title of Future Beta. How he could not ever measure up to Oriana and the effort she had put in. That boy was going to go down in flames, and he was not going to be Slade’s Beta, was going to get that boy to either renounce himself, or get rid of him the moment he had a replacement. Which he would be doing. Hunting for a new Beta the moment he got back from Alpha College, he was going to let that boy think he was part of the future leadership and then bam rip it out from him without warning.
He’d explained his plan to Palmer and Yuri, for when he got home. That things were going to change, that they were to simply follow orders for now, be a good future Gamma and Delta, and not do anything other than train that boy. Not to become closely bonded to him, do not truly befriend him, he would not be keeping his title as the future Beta; regardless of what the pack’s current Alpha and Beta wanted.
This, all his training was just a way for Slade to punish that boy, and then when he got back, and the truth of his plans were out for the current Alpha Unit to see. They’d know he was also punishing the current Beta and his Mate for their own mistakes in treating Ori, their own daughter, the way they had.
He was going to let not only Hayden believe he was going to be a part of the future of the pack, his actual Beta, only to not actually do that at all. His own father and Anders would have no say in it at all. He was the future Alpha of the Highland Hills pack, and they had screwed up his life.
They had screwed up Oriana’s life, the life of the next generation as well if he couldn’t find Oriana and his child and bring them back into the pack. They had fucked everything up in just one 24-hour period of her life.
He honestly didn’t know if the current Alpha and his Unit, their Mate’s even; who’d all been in on her demise, were now fit to reign, they had meddled in her and his life. Taken their thoughts and turned them into matters with no facts to back them up and ruined Oriana’s life, his life, their child’s life.
He didn’t think that they were fit to run a pack after all they’d done, he just wasn’t old enough to go back there and remove his father from the seat of Alpha. He didn’t think, at this time, he had the strength or power to duel him for it either, in an effort to rid that pack of ones that thought they knew better, acted on something when there was no evidence to back them up at all, had in fact gone against all the wolfen laws and ruined two lives completely.
He had no idea if they’d ever find Ori and his child. She knew how to hide herself away, cover her tracks and had done so, was still doing so. There were still no leads on her. She’d simply vanished after getting off that aeroplane. Likely to never be seen again, was he knew, of the opinion that she was never coming back.
Not that he was going to give up on her so easily, she belonged next to him, had been there all his life, and he was going to get her back. Slade didn’t care if it took him half his lifetime to find her, he would never stop hunting for her. Knew if he did find her, he was going to have to not only apologise but have proof to give to her, that he had cleaned up that pack, changed things.
That he had punished his and her parents for what they had done to her, to him even. That started now. He would document everything he did from this moment forward, to show her that he’d never once given up on her. Hunted relentlessly to find her and bring her home where she belonged.
Ana
It was quite an adjustment becoming a mother at just 18, and not only for Ana, but for Maddie as well. Having a newborn baby to look after was not actually an easy thing, and even having Maddie there for full support, it was still hard. The two of them were raising little Ocean, and at times they were both tired.
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