Gamma's Energy Attracts

Part 25

Caly’s POV

Julia's green eyes are trained on me, but she is unseeing of the world outside her head. There's no riddle this time, or is there? A collector, who would that be? They are looking for me for sure, the All-Mother. Julia said ‘us’ and ‘foreseeing’; does that mean Julia, Tabitha and I; the Pack; or me and the pups? 

There’s a chorus of roars from the Alphas, making the dishes rattle on the table. I’m rattled too, the noise jump-started the fast beating of my heart, I'm shaking so bad I feel light-headed. 

Stav launches into protective mode, he pulls me against his chest and fumbles with his phone, “Colin! Lock the f*cking Pack down now! Tell Ryan to get to his preggo until further notice!” he screams into the phone. We need to get home, now.

I try to think of a plan. We need to protect everyone, I lift my phone, but I can’t even unlock the damn thing with my unsteady hands. Terri grabs it from me, “Who are you trying to call?”

“Lincoln, he needs to warn Moon’s Heart.”

“He’s still nearby, try linking him.” Duh. I’m not much better than Julia in high-pressure situations, I forgot I could link him if he was in town. 

‘Lincoln, can you hear me?’

‘Yup, I am chillin' at the airport. What’s up, little Sis?’ he says purely to annoy me.

‘Someone is looking for me, Julia saw it. I want you to warn Beta Cyril to lockdown the Pack just to be safe.’ 

‘Got it. Good thing you got me before I went into the air. I will keep a close eye on the girls.’ I almost forgot Lincoln didn't come alone, it’s better to remain vigilant and stay together while travelling. As for his Pack, I would have just phoned Cyril myself or had Theressa do it since her nerves were unflappable. 

Everyone was on the phone or mind-linking. Terri was organizing Aggie to get our younger Pack ready to “rapidly deploy” as she called it as if heading home immediately was a covert military exercise. Darius was on the phone with Gamma Carl, Jase's Father since Jase is still on paternity leave, about “necessary precautions”. Tucker was calmly ordering breakfast since “We had to eat anyway”, no f*cks given. Kat and Anne returned, and with a shake of his head Elder Darryl motioned to the Lunas 'Don't ask' in front of the pups.

Completely unaware my kids showed off their chips, Atlas picked BBQ ranch ribs and Rissa got poutine. I can't imagine how either flavour would taste, but the shop really must have every flavour. Now I want real poutine, the energy is waning and I am famished. I can't think without food. Julia and I downed cup after cup of coffee while we waited on breakfast.

Platters of food arrived, the server told me the chef wanted to make everything palatable for the pups. It must kill a Michelin chef to make egg muffins like a fast-food drive-thru, but then he surprised me with the real Canadian bacon, peameal bacon and not just sliced ham, with a delicious hollandaise sauce on the side that I dipped everything in. There were hash browns with truffle oil, pomme de terre frits (which is French for potatoes in tiny fry sticks by the looks of it), every meat imaginable and fruit. For the kids’ he made “Des enfants heureux”, which in my limited French is happy kids or happy babies? Placed flat on a tray was adorable smiley face pancakes and thinly sliced fried potatoes that he had put accessories on, like mustaches and eyeglasses made of ketchup as well as leafy greens and purple cabbage for hair. There were even pretty pieces of veggies carved in fancy designs like hares. Presentation really is everything, the kids were tickled pink. We still had time to talk, since the kids were on a mission to eat everything on their trays.

“Calypso, I can offer you my wolves as an escort,” Darius said casually, not to alert the pups.

“Thank you, Darius, but you live in the opposite direction and your Pack could be affected, too. I’m sure we will be fine.” 

“My Queen, Conner and I are going to be scouting in wolf form, I need to teach him what to look out for when guarding a convoy. We will be down two drivers, maybe we could use the extra wolf-power,” Terri frowns, trying to work out whatever she has planned in her head. Conner just looks excited, always eager to try something new. 

“Looks like I’ll be driving then,” I say, causing Terri to snort with laughter.

“You don’t know anything about defensive driving. I can’t picture you losing a tail or doing pit maneuvers. You are staying with Stav.” 

“Looks like it’s up to BMB, I’ll loan you a few people. Beta Tree would love to go with Aggie, and I can find another driver and some warriors,” Tucker offers.

Before I can even protest, his Father adds, “Let Micah drive the other vehicle, I will leave him at Terri’s disposal until further notice,” Elder Darryl’s words are barely out of his mouth when Terri’s head snaps up and her smile glints with evil intent. She loves being in charge, and over someone like Micah who is nearly as cunning and devious as she is? She will be in her glory.

“I guess I am out-voted,” I mumble, but I’m not really surprised. The pups are now playing with the ‘potato people’. “Alright, if you're playing with then you aren’t that hungry.” Atlas jams a few potatoes into his mouth and folds a pancake into his fist before he hops off the chair. Road pancakes. He’s already such a little man, prepping for road rockets. Carissa was sitting on Grampy’s lap, gets down and gathers both bags of chips. Already a little lady, looking out for the boy and picking up after him. *Le Sigh* Where did I go wrong?

We drove in a loose line on the way back to BMB territory. Our young wolves were outside with their suitcases sitting on the huge wrap-around veranda of the Packhouse, ready for Terri to load up the cars. I Julia and I went to Luna Anne’s to pack up everything else. The Lunas wanted my assurance that I would call each of them to let them know when we arrived safely and again if anything went down. They love their Alphas, but they can’t always trust them to pass along information. They are still from the older generation when Alphas kept things from them under the guise of ‘not upsetting them’. I know Stav would like to be that way, but he learned very early on that I could sense the tension in the air, so there would be no hiding sh*t from me.

When we had everything gathered we headed back to the Packhouse to say our goodbyes. Tree and Aggie were already loaded into a vehicle with both Ryan’s sisters and a few others. Micah was leaning against the railing, pretending to be casual, using a switchblade to clean under his fingernails. His van was loaded up, I was surprised not to see him behind the wheel.

I turn my gaze in the direction of his scrutiny. He was watching Terri argue in angry whispers with someone she had shoved against the back of the van so I couldn’t see who it was. He was watching her like a hawk, he’s so much like her, it’s scary. 

“What’s going on?” I whisper.

Without dropping his gaze, he says, “Someone is trying to hitch a ride to Blood Pact. Terri has put her foot down, so I'm waiting for the show to start."

We were going back to Blood Pact with nearly everyone we had brought with us, minus two girls who had found their Mates. We actually had three girls find their Mates, and it dawns on me I need to save Erik from Terri.

I hustle over to the van, Micah surreptitiously following behind me, but I catch Stavros’s eye as well.

"What seems to be the problem?" I say sternly as I cross my arms over my chest.

"I'm going back to BP to be with my Mate," Erik says with a brave face, as though he thought I would be his saviour.

"That's not your decision to make." I shoot a warning look at Terri, it isn't her decision either. "Julia!" I call out even though I know she has snuck in behind me. She literally takes two steps forward to be at my side. "Did you want Erik to come back with us?"

"No." She didn't hesitate to answer and Erik looks crestfallen. Too bad.

"Then it's settled…" 

Before I can turn around he's begging for anyone to listen to him, "Please Luna, Silvermoon already left!" I shrug my shoulders, I guess he will need to arrange a bus ticket. He tries his former Mate again, "Julia! Baby Doe, please. Did you get my letter? Did you keep my number?"

"Um...No?" She says bewildered. 

"Listen, Erik, give her your number again so we can get on the road. I am trying to be nice, but we have important things we need to attend to." I say firmly to end the argument. Julia hesitates but I nod to her hand with the phone in it. She can decide if she answers his calls later. He recites his number and I double-check the number Terri gave me. It rattled off her tongue too easily earlier, it wouldn't surprise me if she gave me a fake number that's just one-off from the truth so she can claim it was an accident or a slip of her forked tongue. Turns out it was the correct phone number, so I feel a tiny bit guilty thinking that Terri would lie to me if she thought it was in my best interest.

"Load up!" I say with finality. Another round of hugs and goodbyes and we finally get on the road. I breathe out a sigh of relief, thankful to be finally moving. It's not even 10 am and my eyes droop with the motion and the soft sound of the tires on the asphalt. Car rides always make me sleepy. 

My car door opens and Stav gently shakes my shoulder, we made it home already. Colin was waiting for us, he gives me a hug before releasing the kids from their car seats with happy banter, before grabbing the luggage out of the back. Atlas insists on carrying a bag when he sees his Dad and Uncle Colin doing it, and I am sure that he handed him Carissa's bag on purpose, silently teaching him to look out for girls in his life.

"Rosemarie is preparing a late lunch for us, while you tell me everything that happened at Blue," Colin says excitedly and like always when anyone mentions Tucker or his Pack, he starts humming Blue Moon as we head up the stairs. He's relaxed and in a good mood, so I know we haven't had any unwanted visitors since Stav called to warn him.

"We'll have to wait til after the pups feed," I warn him.

"That juicy, huh?" He says with a quirked brow. I "Mm-Hmm," a response.

Our apartment smells delicious and the kids run straight into the kitchen to say hi to Rose. I have to haul them back to take off their coats and shoes. Rose has already poured drinks, there are salads and two different pasta bakes. "Rose! You didn't need to go to so much trouble." I tell her as I collect my hug.

"Nonsense! We are glad to have you home. I can't take all the credit, Nonna Mary made up the pasta, since we didn't know when y'all was fixin' to be back. I just had it warmin' in the oven. There's two more trays o' pasta in the fridge for later, she didn’t want the pups or Colin to be missin' their weekly rations."

"I'll call to thank her later. Do you hear that, Colin? Nonna's onto you and Theressa’s getting out of Sunday dinner scheme."

"She has no proof!" He says with a smirk.

"She don't need no proof, she's a Mama and a Nonna, she just knows," Rose scolds him lightheartedly.

Terri lets herself in, Julia and Conner come in behind her. I hear noses sniffing, looks like we have three more joining us for lunch.

****

Julia's POV

I grabbed Conor on the way inside the Packhouse. I knew he was probably tired from running, but I wanted to do something to take my mind off my i***t Mate. What would be bigger than a giant mural? I needed permission to start on the pup's new bedroom, and I would need to go down to the hardware store to pick out colours. Even with my new wolf, I knew Terri wasn't going to let me wander down to the store during a lockdown without protection, hence the need for Conner. I wonder if I will ever be allowed to go by myself? I'll have to convince Mrs. Alpha, she’s the only one who wants me to be independent. 

We lucked out, there was a big lunch spread out. I wasn't very hungry, but I didn’t run home. I watched Conner wolf down plate after plate and after, Mrs. Alpha eagerly agreed to let us go shopping. I think she was trying to get rid of us so she could talk to Mr. Beta about the Mating Ball without upsetting me. I wanted to tell her I wasn't upset, but I just let it go. My wolf didn't need to hear it, and she was always in my head now. It's a bit weird for me, honestly, Sage is pushy and opinionated. 

We walked in silence as I mapped out what needed to be done in my head. We were inside looking at paint rollers with long handles before Conner spoke, "Do you want help? I can't draw, but I can reach the high parts on the wall so you don’t have to rely on ladders all the time."

"Sure. I'm painting each wall in one main colour first," I grab two hand rollers, trays, and a bunch of plastic liners. We head to the wall of paint swatches, asking Conner’s opinion on shades of blue for night and day, and which orange looks best for sunset. I'll need some small tins of basic colours, the rest I will blend myself.

'Are you okay, Jules?' Conner asks privately, I must have zoned out. He's holding a large box filled with the supplies, the receipt in his hand.

'I'm okay, just looking forward to painting.' We head out from the store, it’s pretty quiet, the stores are open but most people are inside because of the threat. Leo at the Bakery has put away the outdoor seating for the winter, he has only one table occupied inside. "You want to get a snack?"

"Sure." He lets me pick out all the goodies, I make sure to get two cupcakes for the pups. Once we are outside again, he says, "Do you want to talk about it? I know this is all a distraction from your Mate."

"Former Mate," I remind him and he laughs.

"Okay, former Mate. What are you going to do now?" he gives me a hip bump as we walk.

"What do you mean?"

"Are you going to call him or block him? Are you going to try dating or are you going to wait for a second chance? Sh*t, you probably have a hundred things going on in your head right now."

"I've not given it much thought. I was never expecting to find a Mate who would be willing to accept me, so at first, I was nervous about finding Erik. When it seemed like he wanted to be with me, I fell hard and fast and I went along with it. That was kinda stupid, I guess. So when he was second-guessing us and panicked, wanting to reject me, I just agreed and left." I shiver as the last memory flashes in my mind. "I've never thought about dating but there's no guarantee that I have a second chance." Who would I even go on a date with? The only unmated guys I know are guards, and I am only friendly with Conner… I look up at Conner. His face is a mask I can’t decipher. Would he be interested in dating me? Is that why he's asking? I'm not ready for anything right now. That's going to make sh*t real awkward, I need to find out. 

"I don't know what to do with him, he keeps changing his mind. He's too wishy-washy." Maybe I can talk to him when he gets his mind straight. "What about you? Do you ever think about dating?" I blurt out. I suck at playing coy.

"Nah. I have no idea what my parents would think about me sowing any wild oats, but I know the Luna wouldn't be very happy with me dating some random chick. She's always tried to help me, even when the Alpha disagreed, so I kinda don't want to disappoint her, ya know?" I had heard the story of how they met while he was shifting, so I knew how important she was to him. That's good, we can still be best friends. Internally, I sigh with relief. I realized it was easier to walk away from my Mate bond than it would be to give up Conner. He was the first person I was worried I would lose if I took my Mate or when I got my wolf. "Guess you'll just have to put up with me until we find our Mates." He laughs and I laugh with him.