Alpha's Energy Crisis

Part 5

Stavros’s POV (Blood Pact)

After Caly texted me I went looking for Colin. I headed to the office and found him and Terri sitting in my office drinking. Naturally, the conversation was about her.

“Terri, he told me that a member of the council asked him for fifty-thousand to secure a contract with Caly. Tucker thinks he got her on a bargain!” Colin pours himself another glass, his ice cubes are still okay, it hasn’t been too long since he started pouring, I reckon.

“Tucker never mentioned that to me, but the Council wouldn’t do that. I bet that was only Elder Giles.” Terri tells him as she downs another full glass of whiskey like it was only a shot.

“I know that, but you need to find out whatever you can. Are they actually going to investigate Giles?” Colin is still overly concerned, so he’s definitely not that drunk.

“Maybe,” Terrier responds vaguely.

“Why only maybe?” I holler. Colin almost jumped out of his seat, so he’s starting to feel the buzz from that bourbon. Terri doesn’t even glance my way, so her instincts aren’t drowning in booze, yet. I grab a glass and some ice before I stand over Terri, who is laying with her boots on my f*****g couch. We have a staring concert and I win, she moves her feet just long enough to let me sit down and then her boots end up in my lap.

“I’m not sure they believe just Caly, they think she’s hiding something. None of the others are speaking up about it. Jules is terrified so Mist doesn’t want to come forward and have them find out she wants to stay here. They don’t think we are safe enough for Caly, I doubt that they will feel differently when it comes to Jules. Jase and I are too close to Caly, and even though it came from the wolf’s mouth, anything we heard from Caly is all ‘hearsay’. All the Ranked wolves who might testify are also linked to Caly. It’s one she-wolf against the machine.”

“Colin and I can make a statement.” I am determined to make the Council believe me and get that prick Giles out of Caly’s life for good.

“Sure thing, Boss. Oh wait, Caly’s trying to protect you, and they already know something's up, so no dice. Perhaps if we got Darius, Tucker, and Colin on board...maybe, just maybe, they can dig the wax out of their ears and listen.” Terri has abandoned the glass and tips the bottle to her lips before her next question. “Did anyone actually talk to her yet? Are we doing anything for her at all?”

“Tucker asked for me to send her remaining things, she used her own phone to call me as soon as it arrived.” Colin is very quiet, brooding is unusual for him.

“What did she say?” I try to ask casually as I hold out my glass towards him to fill. He shakes his head 'No' without actually looking at me. She called and actually spoke to him? All I got was a text. I try to tamp down my jealousy. It’s not his fault he was always nice to her and they got along so well. I didn’t put any effort into making her my friend at all, in the beginning. So we barely have any connection besides that of our Bond. There's a long pause while he thinks about what she said. I pull my glass back and Terrier takes pity on me, pouring me some of her whiskey.

“Well, she was trying to sound upbeat. She said thank you for sending her things and for the treats. Caly mentioned she had a good first day of work. I brought up the idea of coming down to visit her, but she was hesitant. She thought it was too soon and didn’t want to cause a rift between us. She was worried you might consider it a betrayal if I went to visit her. I tried to tell her you weren’t mad at her, but it got really quiet after that.”

“Has she reached out to you, Stab?” Terri quietly asked. I know she and Colin are probably banking on the fact that she won’t want to talk to me at all. Hell, I was surprised she texted me.

“We were texting just before I came down to find you guys. She said she had a busy day, the treats were perfect. I told her I missed her, she said she missed me too. Then we said goodnight.” It was just a few typed lines, but Goddess, how badly I had needed to hear them.

“Really?! Let me see your phone.” She slides it out of my back pocket before I can stop her, not that I was planning to. She also types in the pin number. How does she know that? That f*cking she-wolf would make an excellent crook.

“Why do you sound so surprised?” I shot back.

“Because I totally thought we were going to have to start right from scratch. Or worse, she may have been out for blood. I want you to know that if I had to turn your balls into a necklace to make her happy, I would have volunteered.” Terri raises her eyebrows at me, letting me know this isn’t a joke, she totally would have done it.

“I’m sure you would,” I grumbled. “I think you’re forgetting you are supposed to be my friend, too.” I see her reading s**t off my phone, probably nosing around in some of my other business. "It doesn't take that long to read five or six texts. What are you up to now?"

"Chill. Just copying a few numbers. Caly, the Mother-Tucker, Darius." Then she starts creating new contacts in her phone.“Meh, I think you should be grateful that I remember you and I are buddies, I've wanted to kill Caly's Mate several times…" She fixes on me the evil eye when she hands me back the phone.

Terr slaps her thighs and rubs her hands together, "Alright, next topic, eating and sleeping arrangements."

"Why?" Colin asks, his words are still understandable but somewhat garbled. He’s moving pretty quickly through that bottle, I hope he’s not expecting me to babysit him.

"Jules and Mist can't keep sharing a room. You said that you would let Mist and Kev stay here. They haven’t ever been able to live together, so they are going to be as disgusting as Ryan and Tabi in the PDA department. Mist won't want to be down two or three floors from Jules.  She's seventeen, anxious and incredibly naive. Jules has a strong connection to her wolf and can use her wolf to seek, but she's never even shifted. She’s defenceless, she just can't go wandering alone around the territory by herself. The Packhouse isn’t much better with all the testosterone we have packed in this place. When she’s seeking she gets in a tizzy it can be hard to understand what she really needs. She needs her own room and a guard when Misty can’t be with her. So...are the renovations up on the sixth floor done yet?”

“Nearly. They are doing the kitchen last, which is fine for Stab, you know he can’t cook. What are you thinking of?” Colin asks her.

“Either you empty out the storage rooms and make them into new bedrooms, you convert the office into another bedroom, or one of you moves upstairs. Renovations take time, the longer it takes the more Kev is at risk of them figuring out he is mated to Misty, or that he helped hide the goose that lays their golden eggs. Speaking of food, Ryan took all three ladies for meals today, but what if he’s working?”

“Colin can move upstairs for now. Julia can have his room.”

“She feels safe with Colin. You should be the one moving your ass.”

“I am not giving up my room!” I holler at her as I shove her feet off me so I can reach for Colin’s bottle. I need to pour another drink. I am not leaving my room unless Caly comes upstairs with me. That space was supposed to be where we started our new life together. Down here her scent is still present if I lay on her bed.  My memories of her in my bed are still there, movie nights and feeling her warmth all night long. I can’t go a day without f*cking thinking of that time she went down on her knees in the shower for me. I don’t want to be in a brand new space that feels cold and has nothing to remind me of her. I don’t need to feel any more emptiness in my life.

I realize no one is saying a damn thing because my friends are ignoring me and are just mind-linking each other. F*cking conspiring against me is more like it. Colin’s bottle is within easy reach so I grab it and head back to my room, so I can be alone with my dreams of Caly.

*****

Colin and I missed training again this morning. He came into my room to wake me at 9:30 this morning. He looked pretty rough, he hadn’t shaved in two or three days, it doesn’t appear he’s had much sleep either, his eyes showing red veins and underneath them were dark purple rings. He has a mop of wet hair dripping onto the collar of his dress shirt. He didn’t bother with a suit jacket or tie either. Being clean and dressed is all I can hope to get from him today. I wonder how late he and Terr were up talking? He was pouring cold coffee into a cup while he waited on me.

Terri bounced into my office an hour or so later. She seems awfully f*cking cheerful this morning, she looked as spry as ever, not suffering from a hangover in the slightest.  It made me snarl at her, and she stuck her tongue out at me. I want some of whatever happy pills she’s taking. 

Just as I was about to tell Terr to go be little Miss f*cking sunshine somewhere far, far away, the sound of my phone ringing interrupted me. As if having a headache wasn’t bad enough, it was one of the i***t twins, I pinch the bridge of my nose before I angrily snarl into the phone “Yes?” I listen to this twerp go on and on about the rising costs of doing business for less than five minutes before I lose control of myself.

“Why the f*ck are you calling me? Wait, I don’t even care. If you want something for the business, you can call Colin.” I growl out and disconnect the call. Why can’t anyone around here just do their f*cking job, and leave me the hell alone?

“Who was that and what did they want?” Terr asks, she can be so nosy.

“The i***t twins, Drew and Darren. They wanted permission to buy another Bulldozer, since renting costs have gone up.”

"You need to stop doing that s**t!" Terr growled at me.

"Stop doing what?" I ask her. She’s twirling that knife of hers, I’m sure I’m not going to like what she has to say.

"Avoiding s**t. If someone calls you they want an answer from you, dinglenuts! Do you think people call you voluntarily? No, you're a total asshole, especially on the damn phone. If they thought they could easily get a reasonable and quick answer from Colin they would call him! This means anyone phoning you is doing it against their better f*cking judgement and risking great physical bodily harm because you are the only one who can make it happen. Stop being so friggin’ wishy-washy." I knew she wasn’t done trying to worsen my nasty-ass headache.

“Colin! We need to retrain Stab!” She hollers out to the other room. For Goddess’s sake, he’s only in the next room and the damn door is still open! “Why are you yelling, Terri! Do you not have a damn hangover?” Colin asks her.

“No, I don’t, because I know when to cut myself off, and I also know when I go overboard there are only three ways alcohol dissipates: activity, removal and time. So I drank like a gallon of water and pissed some of it out before I went to bed, then I sucked it up and went to morning training. I notice neither of you boys went to training this morning.” I roll my eyes, Terr can be real sanctimonious sometimes.

“Whatever. What did you mean ‘retrain Stab’? He’s an old dog now, how are we going to teach him new tricks?” There he goes again with the stupid dog puns.

“He needs Wolf-the-f*ck-up lessons. Can’t you see he’s lost his edge? If he can prove to Caly that he can make good choices and stick to his guns, she might be more inclined to come home.”

That’s not a terrible idea, actually, but I can’t tell her that. 

“Okay, where do you suggest we start?” Colin asks while he rubs at his temples.

“First, Stab is going to phone whichever of the two idiots he was talking to and listen to their reasoning. Then he’s going to say a simple answer, even if it’s just a yes or no. You, my friend, are going to grab all the water bottles out of the fridge and both of you will meet me outside when you’re done.” She crosses her arms over her chest and glares at me with her ‘don’t f*ck with me’ attitude. Sanctimonious and bossy. Fine, I will call the i***t back.

I redial the number and speak as soon as it connects. I don’t bother with stupid s**t like greeting and farewells. I already tried to keep my cool once, he should be grateful. Pleasantries are Colin's forte, not mine. “Drew. The bulldozer. How much has renting them gone up?”

“Alpha Stab. I’m surprised to hear back from you, I..”

“Drew, let me make this clear. You have two minutes to explain the problem, or you can wait for Hell to freeze over before Colin gets a chance to get to your request. We are short-staffed at the moment.” One adorably short staff member, to be precise.

“Yes, Alpha. Monthly contracts have almost doubled. A local rental company declared Chapter 7 bankruptcy, causing the price to drive up at the other big-three rentals. The good news for us is that they need to liquidate, and they are holding an auction next Monday.”

“I want one of you two to go to the auction. Don’t send some f*cking site Manager. If you can get what you need, buy it, then email Colin and CC me with the details.”

“Thank you, Alpha!” I hang up.

“Forty-seven,” Theressa announces. I just look at her and wait for my explanation. “You were able to listen to a problem and make a decent decision in forty-seven seconds. Colin would have researched the s**t out of bulldozers, made five emails as long as book reports over the span of two days, trying to figure out something he actually knows sweet-diddily-f*ck-all about and then it still would have required to come to you for approval. Now get your ass up, we are going for a run! Twice around the territory, once around each way.” She wants us to go once around in our human form too! Yep, nosy, sanctimonious, bossy as well as f*cking evil.

*****

"Are you done trying to kill us yet?" I moan. I feel I could probably puke up a few internal organs, but I’m not giving Terr the satisfaction of seeing me that weak. I lean over and put my hands on my knees, just in case.

"I guess so. I'm done listening to your whiny butts for now. So tomorrow, I want you to use your phone. You will take all your calls and you will deal with every one of the problems that arise. No 'I'll call you back', or 'let me think about it'. No pawning it off on Colin, either. If someone needs to be called, do it yourself! Just deal, got it?" I stand up straight and nod my head, and mock her to Colin when she turns his way. Then she mule-kicked me right in the junk! I crumple and land hard on my ass. Colin has the decency to make the ‘Oof!!’ nose and wince instead of just laugh at me. I'm adding b***h and s*dist onto Terrier’s list. 

"Don't think I don't know when you're being stupid, Stab. You too, Colin, don't think being a pretty boy means I won't take a shot at the family jewels if you cross me.” Colin sits on the grass across from me and pulls his legs up to his chest, it might look casual, but I know he’s just trying to make his balls less of a target in Terri’s eyes. “Oh FYI, I'm not going to be around for the next few days. I'm heading out tomorrow morning."

"Where are you going?" I ask suspiciously.

"After I make sure you two arseholes go to training tomorrow, I'm headed to my other job, duh! I got a call early this morning. Then Friday night, I got me a hot date. Hopefully, if it goes well, I'll see you guys maybe on Sunday. Don’t think you can skip training on Friday and Saturday, remember, I have eyes everywhere." She points to her eyes then at both of us while wiggling her fingers. That witch is hexing us or using some kind of voodoo to keep us in line, I swear! “And what will you be doing the rest of the week, Mr. Big Bad Alpha?” 

“Working. Answering my own damn phone, and dealing with s**t immediately.” I recite. I feel like a child.

“Good. Ciao, Boys!” She happily trots off. 

“That’s why she’s in such a good f*****g mood, she’ll be away from us for a few days.” I lament to Colin.

“It’s karma, it has to be. I told Caly you and I wouldn’t drink ourselves stupid every night, and clearly, I lied. She didn’t say anything about Terri drinking though, that must be why she’s still able to function.” He replies. “What do we do now?”

“Eat. Link Rose to make steak and potatoes. I’m going to grab a shower while I wait,” I tell Colin.

“Sounds good.”