Gamma's Energy Attracts

Part 23

Julia’s POV

Terri and I are on our way to the BMB Packhouse elevator when I spot him in the common room.

“Conner!” I yell, no longer caring about who might turn this way to look at me. He looks shocked that I hollered out for him, and more shocked when I run into the room half-filled with guys to hug him. It takes him half a second before he smiles his widest grin and wraps me into one of his bear hugs, lifting me up so I dangle a few inches off the ground. 

“I was worried about you, I was going to talk with you after the public bitchfest but you left early,” he whispers near my ear. Conner is my real friend. With him, it’s not him always trying to protect me. I mean he is my guard often, but he never makes me feel like it’s his job to watch after me like Terri, Mrs. Alpha, even Beta Colin does. Conner will hang out with me when he’s not working. He’s like a big brother (big as in he’s tall with huge muscles, just as large as Mr. Alpha) even though I am technically older.

“I’m okay. Better than okay.” I say as he drops me down. He looks me in the eye to make sure I’m not fibbing before he looks down at the two pups now attached to his legs. 

“Oh no!” He says dramatically, “You gave me ticks! They’ve latched on!” He picks up a leg and shakes it, pretending to loosen the Carissa-tick off of him while she squeals with joy. “UGH! There’s one on my other leg!” he lets Carissa down to shake his leg with Atlas on it. He’s more vigorous with the shaking this time because Atlas is holding on tighter, a challenge for Conner to do his worst. “Oh well, I guess I’m stuck with them for life!” He stiff-leg stomps towards the elevator with both of them still attached.

“Dude, it’s your turn next,” says a harsh voice I was hoping to never hear again. Sitting on the couch with a girl who is not his Mate dry humping him is Mr. Hot Mall Jerk, he’s eyeing me, but he’s holding the video game controller and talking at Conner.

“I’m good, man,” Conner says nonchalantly.

“You would rather hang out with Baby Deer? You’re joking right?” Mr. HMJ looks down on me, well up at me, in disgust but you get the picture. For once it doesn’t bother me. My wolf rolls my eyes for me.

“Yes, I’d rather hang out with my best girl, Julia,” Conner snarls at him stressing the fact I have an actual name, causing Atlas to make a mean face and snarl at him too. I couldn’t help but snicker at the dumbass looking dumbfounded he’s being reprimanded by a pup. A pup with a convincing Alpha snarl, but a pup nonetheless.

“And these huge ticks!” He looks down at the kids again, “They are as big as three-year-olds and one of them is ferocious! Listen to him snarl! I wonder, how will I get them to let go of my legs?” He makes a show of scratching his chin to ponder the problem. “Maybe tickling will work!” Conner bends over and gives each of them a tickle under their arms. Rissy squeals and lets go running over to Terri, who has been watching us as she leans against the door frame, twirling her knife. Atlas Squirms and giggles but doesn’t let go so Conner just walks over to Terri with him still attached.

“Hey, Atlas, do you know how ticks stick to people and animals? They bite really hard,” Terri has that evil mirth glinting in her eyes. Atlas, of course, opens his mouth wide to take a big chomp out of Conner’s knee.

“Atly, NO!” Carissa and I say at the same time. Atlas might not listen to me, but he would never ignore his Rissy. Atlas carefully grips only the denim of the pant leg with his tiny teeth and shakes his head, making loud chewing noises as he pretends to bite his kneecap off.  

“What’s up, Terrier?” Conner asks. 

“Jules and I are getting dolled up and heading to the mall. Alpha gave me his credit card,” Terri tells him. She opens her eyes wide, waiting for Conner to pick out all the inconsistencies with this story being attached to me. “We are hittin’ up the bar later.” 

“Are you?” Conner gives me a skeptical look, he knows I usually would do no such thing.

“Yu-p” I say popping the P, grinning at him.

“Sounds good, I’ll come with you guys.” Conner waits until we get into the elevator before he says anything else. “So are you going to fill me in or what? I heard a rumour, from that…” he stops himself from cussing in front of the pups, “That mouthpiece in the living room said you were rejected?”

“What’s rejected?” asks Carissa innocently, looking up at Conner with all eyes and wavy black curls.

“When a wolf doesn’t want their Mate,” Terri says quickly trying to shut down any more questions that would be hard to explain to the pups.

“That’s stooopid,” Carissa replies, saying the word ‘stupid’ the exact same way her Mama says it.

“Yeppers, my Alpha Princess, that’s what I think too. You should ask your Dad about it,” Terri chuckles. I really hope she doesn’t go back and ask Mr. Alpha about it, he won’t be very happy. 

“You missed Alpha Stav’s little speech, he definitely knows he made a mistake,” Conner quips.

The elevator makes a lurching stop as Terri looks at Conner, “Oh? Do tell.” Terri is blazing with curiosity.

“Maybe later,” he looks down at the kids. “Atlas, I think you’ve chewed a hole in my jeans.” Atlas lets him go, there’s no hole, just a huge wet spot. “Actually, I think Alpha Tucker filmed it with his phone.”

He looks up at me, “You didn’t answer my question. Give me the short version.”

“Yes,” I shift around a bit uncomfortable, knowing he will want all the details later. My wolf pushes at the surface, not wanting me to backslide with my new confidence. She stands me up straight.

I watch Conner suck in his cheeks and bite down, something he does when he’s trying to keep his anger under wraps. ‘Did he reject you?’

‘Yep and I accepted,’ I tell him firmly.

Conner’s eyes flicker to the dark of his wolf, and he closes them before the pups notice, he snorts out a puff of air, flaring his nostrils. ‘Did he????’  I know he wants to ask if we had s*x, but I know telling him will make him even madder.

‘We do not need to lie to him. The facts are the facts,’ my wolf is willing to tell the whole world because she’s still angry at Erik, but it might better not to let him and Terri know.  Terri is unstable and vengeful on a good day. Confirming ‘the facts’ as my wolf said, might make her downright murderous. 

“Yes,” Sage hisses out loud. “It no longer matters, the ties that bind us to him have been severed completely. Julia doesn’t need him, she has ME now.” 

Conner opens his eyes to look at my wolf’s presence. “Hey, your eyes aren’t glowing! Does that mean…” he asks shocked. 

I grow out my claws and fangs to show him. “I shifted last night! My wolf’s name is Sage,” I say, thankful he’s distracted from the s*x thing for now. 

“Yo!” says Terri, getting his attention to hand him her phone. “Stav sent me the photos last night.” I look down and see a photo of me and her as wolves with Mrs. Alpha squished in between us in her human form and she’s laughing.

“That’s awesome, Julia. Is that why you seem so different today?” I shake my head yes and he grabs me in a hug again. “I’m so happy for you!” then he says, ‘F*ck that guy, your wolf is right, you don’t need him.’ I bury my head into his shoulder, so he doesn’t see my eyes starting to water. 

Happy tears, I tell myself. 

“She ain’t gonna need us following her everywhere anymore,” Terri tells him quietly.

“Just because you have your wolf now you can get rid of me that easy,” He lets the hug go so he can hold me by the shoulders and look into my eyes, letting me know he’s serious.  That’s when I feel the tear slip down my cheek.

“Thank you. Thank you for being there for me. You’re my best friend, Conner.” I start blubbering. I am a mess.

“Damn straight I am. I already told you that you’re my best girl.” He wipes the tears. “Let’s get you all done up so we can go to the mall and hit up the food court. How does one of everything sound?” I laugh at the memory. The last time we were at the mall together, I couldn’t make up my mind on what to eat, so we got one of everything and shared.

“Me’s too!” Atlas pulls on Conner’s hand to get his attention. Atlas is a bottomless pit.

“You bet! I need a hungry Alpha warrior to help eat all that food,” He smiles down. Conner is really good with pups. “I also need an Alpha Princess to help with all the sweet treats.”

“Splitsies!” Carrisa cheers happily.

*****

“It's too short! It's halfway up my thighs!” Mrs. Alpha tells Terri for the third time. It's not, the dress looks just fine. It’s what Terri calls ‘Flirty’.  She said that s*xy is too much for novices like Mrs. Alpha and I when we were looking through the dress shop.

“If I bent over, you would see my panties,” she continues to grumble. I don’t know why, it’s not like Terri will let her take it off now that she finally convinced her to put it on.

“Stav doesn't allow you to bend over in public anyways. I could’ve bought you a dress that you can see the panties standing perfectly still and in an upright position. Trust me, they had all kinds of micro-minis, this is nothing!” reminding her of some of Terri’s questionable outfits.

“What if someone came up the stairs behind me?" the Mrs. is whining now. The stages of acceptance are 1: Criticizing, 2: Complaining, 3: Whining, 4: Getting acceptance from others, and finally, 5: Resigning herself and just dealing with it.

"It’s a hotel, there are no stairs. Even still, Stav or I would be the only ones allowed to walk behind you. You know what, we'll go poll the Alphas," Terri is cutting the whining short today and moving right into stage four.

"All of them?" the Mrs. gasps and holds onto the door frame while Terri is physically pushing her towards the stairs.

"Hell no! Tuck, Lincoln, and Stav. Liberal, median, conservative.” Terri pries her fingers away from the woodwork.

“They're all biased. Especially Stav!” 

“No, Stav would be the most conservative voice of reason. He wants to see some thick thighs, but he won't let you go anywhere with your booty halfway showin', trust me. Then Lincoln, cause who wants others to think their sister is a MILF? Tucker appreciates the female form, but he’s also rich and snooty about how the upper echelon should look and behave.” 

The males were all waiting in the living room for us to get dressed. “Tell her she looks nice and it’s not too short for going out,” Terri says sternly, making sure they know the right answer give before they even open their mouths.

“Short? Hardly, unless we going to a funeral?” Tucker snorts out trying to keep in his laughter. "This evening dress is more coverage than most young females wear to work, Caly. I promise you will be the most overdressed chick at the bar.”

"I'm not most females. I’m me,” Mrs. snaps at her college buddy.

"Isn't that what all the basic b*thches say?" Tucker says tongue in cheek.

"I'm not basic, I am an old married Luna with children." She gives him a dirty glare. Boy, if looks could kill…

"You’re stressing over nothing, Caly. Would you like a pumpkin spice latte?" Tucker says sweetly, setting the trap.

"Yes, please… Wait…” Tucker can no longer hold in his uproarious laughter, and her brother Lincoln joins in. Mr. Alpha and Conner are being smart and keeping their mouths shut tight. She looks around the room and she finally gets it,  “F*ck you, Tucker! That wasn't fair! When have I ever turned down a latte? For your information, I prefer vanilla!" Like that makes a huge difference.

“You look beautiful, Little Mate,” Mr. Alpha says to her while we all pretend that we didn’t see him sneak in a pinch to her b*m. He takes her by the hand and leads her to the door, all of us trailing along behind.

We pull up to a fancy hotel, the whole thing is practically made out of glass, with its huge floor-to-ceiling windows. Most of them are mirrored glass, but the ones on the ground level show into the reception area, richly decorated in whites with gold-trimmed everything. This place is swanky.

‘I thought we were going to a bar? This is a really rich hotel,’ I ask Terri privately, so I don’t sound like the nerdy introvert I used to be.

‘It is a posh hotel. The bar is upstairs on the roof. It’s exclusive.’ She fills me in quickly. Translation, if we weren’t here with Alphas, we wouldn’t be getting in. Well, Terri probably could, and if the bouncers didn’t agree she would just knock them out.

A woman comes over to greet us and hands Alpha Tucker a bunch of plastic cards, escorting us all the way to the elevator. She’s definitely checking her Alpha out, she offers to see to his “Room service needs, personally.” Eww. I wonder how many wealthy patrons she makes that same offer to?

We hit the thirteenth floor and I am amazed by the club. It’s the same white and gold theme, with gauzy curtains dotted with tiny pearls separating the private seating areas. A rainbow of coloured lights dances against the white background. I look up, the lights are moving from spotlights on tall poles outside to highlight the hotel from the outside. There is a stained-glass roof above the bar, making the colours we see in here.

“You can always guess the first-timers. I thought it was pretty cool the first time I saw this place,” Mrs. Alpha says to me and Conner, who is also looking around with his head on a swivel. A woman wearing the same dress/uniform as the she-wolf downstairs but in all black sways her curvy hips towards us as she eyes Alpha Tucker. She takes us to a sitting area with these buttery soft, white leather couches. He tells Mrs. Alpha to order for the group, she asks for shots and a few pictures of sangria. 

When it arrives everyone grabs a few shots, except me and Mrs. Alpha. She pours out two glasses, one for her and one for me. “Try this Julia, I know you don’t care for plain liquor. Sangria is mostly wine sweetened with fruit juices.” She’s right, the sweetness mostly disguises the alcohol, it’s really good. 

After a few drinks, everyone pairs off and hits the dance floor. Terri drags me out there. I want to try to enjoy this night, even if I can’t dance. My wolf reminds me that we have never tried to dance. She’s right. Terri stands behind me, hands on my hips, swaying me to the music until I get the hang of it on my own. I can see Mr. and Mrs. Alpha doing the same exact thing, but he is holding his Mate closer to him, and they are grinding on each other. Mrs. Alpha is a bit drunk, laughing about whatever he’s whispering in her ears. They look so happy.

Terri swings me around the other way unexpectedly and pulls my back into her torso. “Jules. Don’t panic but that f*cktard from the mall is just exited the elevator. He’s got that walking piece of excrement former Mate of yours with him,” Terri hisses near my ear. I don’t look, I just sniff the air for confirmation. Over all the smells of sweat and expensive colognes or perfumes, I get the distinct hint of sweet oranges with spice. It’s still a good smell, but it doesn’t call to me the way it did yesterday. I take another sniff and notice my body doesn’t react or get excited either.

‘The bond has been broken, there is nothing left to miss,’ Sage reminds me. 

“You good, or do you wanna bail?” Terri asks me, concerned about me. 

I think about it, but there isn’t any real reason we should leave. “I just started to have fun.” The truth is I am enjoying being out.

Terri lets go of my hips and heads back to the table for a few more shots. She’s whispering something to Conner and he looks towards the entrance. He makes his way to the dance floor with a smirk on his face. He grabs my hand and twirls me around before pulling me close to him, his arm protectively around my waist and my back to his front as we start to dance.

‘Which one is he?’

I take a quick look in their direction.  I haven’t been noticed by my former Mate or the HM Jerk, yet. I describe his clothes so I don’t say something stupid like gorgeous messy brown hair, or sexy lean muscles. Something that would lead Conner to believe I still had the hots for my Mate. Erik and Hot Mall Jerk are both sexy, it’s their attitudes that need a make-over. 

‘The guy with the heather-gray outfit and the obnoxiously large watch is the jerk from the mall.’ I had already spilled all the gory, embarrassing details to Conner about the day I went dress shopping before the Mating Ball. 

‘Terri thinks we should make the f*cker jealous.’ Conner twirls me around again, this time I end in his arms facing him. ‘Or if you want to leave now, we can go out and find his car. You can use your new claws to poke holes in all four of his tires.’

I break out laughing. Maybe a bit too loudly, the sangria hitting me all at once. Unfortunately, it causes both jerks to look our way. Conner sways me so my back is facing them.

I feel many pairs of eyes focusing my way. Mr. and Mrs. suddenly dance a little closer to us, Terri stomps across the floor with such force I can hear her heels on the marble floor over the music. Alpha Tucker beckons a security guard over to him.

“If he touches you inappropriately, I’m going to rip his hands off. Fair warning,” Conner says loud enough our whole party to hear. I don’t know if Erik heard him or not, I’m still facing the opposite way, but I smell him getting closer.

“Julia!” he calls out my name like I am some wayward child, and Sage lets out a low and threatening growl. I turn around slowly. He makes a move to wrench me out of Conner’s arms when a bunch of growls join my own.

“Don’t f*cking touch her, last warning!” Conner’s voice is deep and blended with his wolf’s.

“She’s my Mate!” he bellows out and now everyone in the damn bar is looking at us. My Pack is tightening the circle around me. “Who the f*ck are you?” he jacks his jaw in Conner’s direction.

“This is my friend Conner. Conner this Hunter, my former Mate.” I say boldly.

“What the f*ck are you talking about? That is not my name!” He reaches for me again, Conner drags me back about two feet. He changes tactics, he’s a bit more desperate. “Julia, please. I just want to talk to you.”

“Why? Did you seriously forget you rejected me?” This time I reach out and take his hand. “Do you feel that? That is the feeling of no sparks, not even a tingle. Our bond severed just like you wanted, Hunter. It’s over.” I drop his hand, but he grabs mine this time.

“My name is Erik!” 

“I like Hunter better. It suits you.” I say coldly. 

“What the f*...Why would you even say that?” he looks so confused it’s comical.

“You are a hunter! You took your one glory shot and you killed the Baby Deer. Don’t bother feeling bad about it now!” I scream, not realizing how much anger I was holding in. “I don’t want you. I got something way better out of this raw deal.”

“What?” He looks back at Conner. Maybe he thinks he’s my new boyfriend or my Second Chance Mate or something, but I don’t bother to correct him.

My wolf starts clawing forward, I don’t try to stop her. She gives my hand a powerful tug and that brings Erik falling into us. I sense her eyes turning green, and she whispers to him, “Painful circumstances can bring about great changes," and to prove her point, Sage bares our fangs snapping them near his face in a threatening way. She grows out the claws holding his hand, pushing them deep enough to draw blood. "I can shift. Julia has me now.”