Not just, the Beta

CH 15

Oriana.

She pulled on that new dress she bought for herself. It was fitted all the way up to her neck and hugged all of her body down to her mid-thighs, she tightened the side strings and shortened it just a little further. Stood and did her make-up, left her hair out and put on those nice black three-inch Pixie boots she bought.

Then she looked at herself in the mirror while she played with the ruching across her hips, and down her thighs until she was happy with the way it sat, and put on her new jewellery, turned this way and that, smiled at herself. She looked pretty good as far as she was concerned.

She liked the olive-green colour of the dress, smiled at herself in the mirror, a night out, it was just what she needed. A night of dancing to not think about how her life was falling apart right that minute. How, in two weeks’ time, Slade would be convinced to make her step-down and how he’d step Hayden up, into the future Beta position.

As much as they’d grown up together and had been friends for 18 years, he was an Alpha and the future of this pack. She knew he would listen to his father, hell, he might be told to remove her, or he would not get the pack until he did. It was entirely possible, and she knew Slade would if it came to that, otherwise, like her, he'd be nothing, and he would not want that.

That thought stopped her, and she saw it this time, in her mind. The way she was losing her position, if Slade agreed, she'd have to step down. If he refused, his father could threaten to have him removed. So, he'd have to step her down to keep his position for himself. Then there was the possibility that if Slade still refused to step her down his father would just remove her himself. He was the current Alpha and could overrule everything here. Until Slade actually took over and became the Alpha, and even that was at Alpha Roman’s discretion. Roman could hold out and not ascend Slade until he had stepped her down.

She was, it seemed, on the way out and all because she was a girl. A female Beta. She thought about all of that, Slade always told her she was his Beta. She wondered if he'd argue her case and stand his ground? Or fold under the weight of his father and the Alpha Unit? She could only hope he would fight to keep her as his Beta.

If he decided against it, she'd likely not forgive him, she would always know he had let her go. If his hands were forced, she could understand that, but not if he chose it himself, of his own free will.

She didn't know what she was going to do about the life growing inside of her. Would likely just tell him, when she picked him up from Alpha College, it wasn't like she was going to be able to hide it for very long, a month, maybe, depending on how long it was before she started to show.

She wasn't an Alpha, just a Beta, so her pregnancy would probably be four, maybe five months. She didn't really know, she herself had been born at four months being a Pure-blooded Beta, so at least that, four months, she thought, was around the time she would have hers.

Ori walked out of her suite to find Palmer and Yuri standing right there waiting for her. She saw them blink at the way she was dressed and how she looked. They'd never seen her like this, she always wore jeans and a T-shirt or a blouse when going out with them. A dress and one this short and this figure hugging was a no-no, in her books, because some wolves had wandering hands and sticky fingers.

She watched them look her over, openly stare at her and then murmured, “Up here boys.”

Saw Yuri pull himself together and hit Palmer, who shook his head and cleared his throat “Where are you going?” Yuri asked.

“I'm going dancing. I need a night out. What can I do for you boys?”

“We came to check on you, you've been holed up in that room for like a week now,” Yuri stated.

“Working on my uni application is all,” she shrugged.

“Oh yeah, I forgot about that, I gotta start that too, the lockout is Monday.” Palmer sighed.

“Don't miss the cut-off date, or you'll get in trouble yourself.” she said; realised that was the Beta in her telling them not to get in trouble, trying to keep them out of trouble, as would be the Beta’s job. She turned and walked down the hall. They fell into step with her, and she looked at them, “Do I need an escort?” she asked.

“No.” they both frowned at her, and as she trotted down the stairs, they were still there.

“Ori, we always hang out together, it's normal,” Palmer stated.

“Yeah, you been ditching us this past week,” Yuri muttered.

‘Ditching them’ she thought “I did not ditch you; you're training up the next Beta I believe.” she muttered, and knew they were, they weren't privy to the conversation she’d overheard, “I was asked to stay away.” nor did they know...she cut that thought off right there, had a Gamma trailing her didn't need that getting out.

“That's not true, it's just...”

“Let it go. I already had a meeting with the Alpha Roman, and you get to continue to train my brother until Slade comes home. That's what he told me, so I'm on the outs or will be,” she muttered.

She found Yuri’s hand on her, “Ori, we’re just doing what we're told.”

“I understand.” she nodded, and she did. “I'm not mad at either of you, just not training anymore, apparently I don't need it. Hayden, however, does.” she stated simply as she stepped down into the foyer and headed for the front doors.

“Oriana.” she turned at the sound of her father's voice and looked at him as he stood with Alpha Roman and the rest of the unit, Charlton, Palmer’s dad and Dalton, Yuri’s dad. “Yes father?”

“Why are you dressed like that?” he muttered. He seemed unhappy with her dress code.

“I'm going clubbing,” she told him.

“Not dressed like that you're not.” He grated out.

Ori looked down at her dress. She was actually pretty well covered and wore less when training and way less when swimming. “Why not?” she asked, “I’m going to get me a boyfriend.” she shot at them all over there. “I'm 18 and allowed now, even got me the Alpha’s permission. I believe his words, father, were ‘go do what all 18-year-old girls do,’” she smiled at him, “so, I'm going to do just that.” She watched his eyes move to Roman, who she saw sigh now himself.

Yes, not once had she rebelled against anything in all her life, always been 'the good daughter,' well-mannered and followed all the rules, demands and orders, tests. But she was still a teenager, barely 18 at that. She’d always shaken her head at those girls who went around the pack rebelling at everything.

Became spoiled little brats, with attitudes to match, girls that were out of control. She just hadn’t understood it, till this very minute. Well, now she was one of those girls, she turned and walked out of the packhouse. Her father, well he could blame his Alpha for her attitude, but really, it was all their doing.

That plotting behind her back, to get rid of her and step up her brother. She was likely to lose her position on her own, the minute the news that she was...shut that thought off. She would tell Slade, and they'd have a six-hour drive to discuss what they were going to do about it. She heard both Palmer and Yuri being called by their own fathers and continued on without them. She didn't need chaperones anyway.

Slade was in for a hell of a shock when she picked him up, and she could well imagine the dead silence and then denial. It was, what it was, and it was too late now. They'd likely both screwed up their own lives. In just a few drunken hours was all.

What their families would do about it? She didn't know. She wasn't his Mate, and she knew she didn't want to be tied down at 18. It was likely the two of them would just become single parents, and share the raising of their child. She let it go, had to stop thinking about it. This was her night out to not think about anything.

Ori strolled into that pack’s nightclub at 11pm, stepped out onto the dance floor and stayed there dancing until two in the morning, before returning to her room. She’d been up since 5am, she was exhausted.

She didn't even get up when her alarm went off at 5am like normal, just turned it off and went right back to sleep. She didn't need to get up for training, until... Ah, not at all anymore, nope, with pregnancy there were rules, none were allowed to train, so no more early mornings for her, no more long hours of training. She didn't even have classes to do at this time. She could in fact just lay in bed and do absolutely nothing for the next two weeks.

Well, at least by then she should have figured out what to tell Slade. She sighed that was not going to be a comfortable trip home, considering he'd been trying to figure out if they'd slept together or not on the way there. Well, this she supposed would answer his questions, with a resounding yes.

She found herself in a group chat along with Palmer and Yuri that afternoon, as well as Slade himself. Palmer had opened it, wanted to know how Slade was doing and get some pictures of how it was there at Alpha College.

The timing she thought was too convenient, likely they’d had a meeting with their Alpha and his Unit, about how her own father had seen a difference in her. One that he clearly didn't like, and was trying to pull her back into line, by having her chat with the three of them. Like they always did, she did normally listen to Slade, but her father didn't know, she knew there was no point anymore.

She sighed, the damned thing dinged every few minutes, and she was getting more annoyed by the minute. She picked it up after an hour and blinked at the pictures there being sent from Slade.

Slade had sent quite a few of him and the new friends he'd made, his dorm room, none of the grounds that wasn't allowed, apparently. It was one of the rules, and it didn't really surprise her that much, she'd seen it anyway.

‘Can you lot shut up, I'm trying to study.’ she typed into that group text.

It dinged in less than 10 seconds ‘hungover more like it 🤣’ Palmer wrote.

‘Did we wake you, 🥱you got in at like 2am, I hear.’ Yuri added.

‘I'm not allowed to drink. ☹😤😮😠’ from Slade.

She rolled her eyes, ‘like 2am’, so she was being watched. ‘How do you know what time I got in?’ she typed.

‘Your brother mentioned how mad your dad was this morning.’ Yuri responded.

Ori rolled her eyes and tossed that phone away. Of course, he had her watched. He was likely looking to see her being irresponsible and have a legitimate reason to remove her from her position, as the actual future heir to the Beta line, before Slade could do it.

It didn't seem to matter to anyone how much she actually wanted it, trained for it, or had earned it, only what their thoughts on her being a female Beta were, what they thought it meant for the pack in the future.