The Beta's Arrival

Chapter 5

Helen's POV

The next day, he wasn't there. He wasn't there all day. Something must have happened, but I wasn't going to complain. Instead, I did my best to eavesdrop on the conversations his friends were having, hoping someone would let something slip, and I would find out who hurt my sister. James may have been the one to take her, but the way he reacted when we were talking made me think he actually didn't harm her. Would he have really left her alone with others and left? If he did, then when he came back and saw her in that shape, was that when he decided to help her? Even if that were the case he never apologized. He didn't want to own up to any part that he had in what happened. If he had, then maybe things could have been different. Maybe.

I made my way to the cafeteria as soon as the bell rang. I tried to sit near the table where his friends usually sat and then waited. If anyone would have been allowed to attack my sister, then it would have been them. It had to be them. He didn't associate with anyone else. Slowly, I ate my food while I waited for their conversation to turn from sports and other mundane topics to something of more interest. However, to my disappointment, they never breathed a word of what happened to my sister. I needed to find a way to get the information from them or possibly learn who would have been part of it. But how?

I decided it was better to follow the more talkative of the group, Page. Although I doubted she had anything to do with what happened to Diane, she did enjoy talking about the affairs of the guys. She enjoyed flaunting that she was part of the group with the most popular wolves in the pack. She would snitch without realizing she had done so. Between fourth and fifth I managed to separate her from a group of girls she was telling about the latest wolf gossip. However, she knew that there was something going on between James and I which took precedence over whatever gossip she was in the middle of spreading.

"What's up, Helen?" She asked as she bounced over to me.

"Nothing much, but I did have something to share with you," I said with a smile. I knew better than to ask her straight. She would avoid it because there was nothing in it for her. So it would take giving information in order to get information.

She happily followed me outside to where I knew we wouldn’t be overheard. “Are you going to tell me now,” she huffed from behind me.

I peered around, trying to decide if we had indeed gone far enough. I needed to be sure I would be the only one to hear what she said. If she felt safe in telling me then she would speak far more freely. “Yes, sorry. I had to be sure I wouldn’t be overheard,” I explained as I turned around to face her.

“It must be something good that you have to tell me if you’ve brought me this far away from listening ears,” she said with a smirk.

Now I had to think fast. I had only waved the idea of gossip in front of her, but I hadn’t actually thought of anything particularly good to tell her. I had hoped that once I arrived at the “safe” location something would just come to me, but it seems I was wrong. “Yes, have you wondered where James has been today?” I questioned. She would either know or be curious about it.

“Of course not. I know he is at the packhouse under some kind of house arrest because he didn’t listen to his father,” she said with a shrug and a look of disappointment.

One more piece of information I didn’t know before. “Do you know what rule he broke then to be locked away in the packhouse?” I pressed. Partly, I wanted to see if she knew or if this could be my bit of information to share in order to get what I wanted from her.

“Not exactly. All I know is that his father had told him not to do something and he did it anyway. Now he is told he can’t leave the packhouse for an unknown amount of time,” she told me.

My turn. “He was supposed to stay away from me, but he didn’t,” I informed her in a hushed tone. I couldn’t be a hundred percent sure, but I was sure enough that the Alpha would put some kind of safety measures in place. Not the ones I wanted, but something at least.

She looked shocked for a mere moment before she pulled herself together. “No, really?” she asked. I nodded to confirm. “Wow, why would he have such a rule?”

I tried hard not to appear as confused as I felt. Why? What do you mean why? I wanted to ask her, but I knew I couldn’t. I needed her to help me. “For what he had done to my sister,” I whispered as I looked around trying to make it sound like something scandalous, which it was, but I needed to make it more so.

“What did he...” her voice trailed off as though she came to realize something.

“I was sure you knew. I thought you were part of the popular group,” I said as I looked at her with confusion, hoping she would reveal more simply because she thought I knew more.

“I am. Of course, I know,” she practically hissed at me. “I just wasn’t sure how much you knew.”

“I know more than what you think,” I responded, trying to sound as though I knew everything.

“Oh, then you knew he took your sister,” she wanted to confirm.

“Yes, he sent me a picture,” I confirmed. I need her to feel safe to speak freely with me.

“Oh, that’s right. I told him not to do that. It would only make things worse between the two of you, but he wouldn’t listen to me. He thought that for some reason you would see the picture and rush to save her and somehow end up in his arms,” she told me. She was there to some degree.

“I thought you would be in on it, but I wasn’t sure since James seemed pretty set on it only being wolves involved,” I said, hoping it would rial her up a bit.

“Do you know where he took your sister?” she asked in shock.

“I had an idea, but my parents wouldn’t let me go to get her. They were afraid of what would happen if I upset James the future Alpha,” I lied through my teeth.

“That makes sense, but I still would have thought they wouldn’t have wanted what happened to her to happen. I thought they would have gone to save her,” she smirked.

“If we had known exactly what was going to happen we would have,” I responded in truth. I would have gone after him. I would have saved her no matter what. I wouldn’t have waited around thinking he wouldn’t do something foolish.

“True, I wouldn’t have left my sister alone with those guys,” she chuckled. She mentioned them. She’s getting closer to spilling their names. I knew she was there now to some extent, but was she there when my sister was tortured?

“Why did they go so far?” I asked, hoping she would tell me. Praying to the Moon Goddess that she would tell me.

“James never told them to do anything. He told them just to watch her, but then he left. We both did. After that, I guess they couldn’t control themselves,” she said with a shrug. She was unfazed by what happened to my sister. She really didn’t care, and so I knew she wouldn’t tell me what happened if it incriminated her in some way.

“I see. So was he upset then when he came back and found what they had done to her?” I don’t know why this matters to me. But maybe I wanted to know if he still had some humanity left in him. I wanted to know if he had given the order or if he had truly been unaware.

She didn’t speak for a few minutes, she was thinking. “Well, he was upset, of course. They should have followed orders,” she said as she shook her head.

“So it was Liam, Olivier, Asher, Dylan, and Evan,” I said in a hushed tone.

For a moment, she peered at me, trying to read me. “Wait, did you not know?”

“I do now, thanks to you,” I responded with a smile. “Thank you.”

“No, you can’t tell them I told you,” she said in a panic.

“I won’t as long as you keep me informed on anything they have planned against anyone in my family,” I responded. This was the only blackmail I had on her. It had to be enough.

“Fine,” she agreed angrily. “I’m going now.” She rushed away from me and went back into the school.

Names. Now I have names. That’s all I needed. Now all I had to do was wait. I knew they would get their wolves before me. Some of them already had them. But I also knew my wolf would be stronger. I was a Beta and none of those in his group were Betas. Well, except for Dylan, but he was second-rate at best.