Her Alpha Mate 39

Freya:

A week later...

It was crazy how life could change overnight.

Who would have thought that one day you would wake up and find that someone you loved was missing?

How was anyone even supposed to deal with that?

It seemed like everyone handled the situation differently.

Zack and I were immediately called into a meeting with his counselors to discuss what we should do. They were convinced that Juilet had conspired with the Griffins and demanded that we go to war. We had to convince them to back off and not jump to conclusions about this mess.

I did not believe Juilet would betray us. I had complete faith in her.

If she was planning to work against us, why would she leave Gigi behind? Even though she supposedly hated us all, there was no doubt that she loved Gigi with all her heart and would not dare put her in danger.

Not to mention that she had made the blood oath with Zack, who would have felt it if she had really betrayed us.

Up until now, the only people who believed in Juilet were Zack, me, his family, my family, Alpha Peter, Chance, and of course Reece.

I could not imagine how Reece felt. He was devastated when he finally realized that she was indeed dead.

He stopped coming out of his room, stopped eating properly, and refused to shower. According to Zack, he did not want to wash off the smell of Juilet.

I had only seen Reece once that week, and that was when he was extremely drunk. He stumbled through the pack screaming and crying for Juilet until Zack and Chance found him and brought him back.

Needless to say, any alcohol that was available was locked away after he nearly poisoned himself. Instead, he stayed in his room and kept out of sight of the pack, who did not know how to keep their mouths shut.

Everything felt so rushed.

The Alpha Ball was coming up that week, and that's when Zack and I were supposed to talk to the other alphas and hope they would help us against the Griffins.

I had no idea how we were going to pull it all off, especially since Reece was completely out of commission.

I heard some footsteps coming quickly down the hall. As they entered the kitchen, I turned around, thinking it was either going to be Zack, Chance, or Gigi.

But it was Reece.

I marveled at his clean appearance-he had finally shaved and showered after almost a week.

"Look who's finally out of his room," I grinned, reaching for a bowl to give him some oatmeal. He rolled his eyes and sat down on the bar stool.

He seemed deep in thought, and I was not sure if I should bother him or not. But curiosity won out, and I pushed his bowl over the island and gave him a small smile, "How are you?"

He chewed slowly, as if forcing himself to eat, "Fine."

I took this as a sign that he did not want to talk and went back to cutting up the berries.
"Do you want strawberries or blueberries with that?"

"Neither."

There was a soft clink as he put his bowl and spoon in the sink.

How quickly had he eaten? I had given him a whole bowlful.

"Where's Zack?" he asked coldly.

"In his office."

Before I had finished my sentence, he had disappeared from the kitchen, and not a minute too soon. Gigi shuffled in and rubbed her eyes tiredly.

"Morning Gi," I said, forcing a smile. She nodded and plopped her face down on the table. I chuckled, patted her on the back, and set a glass of milk in front of her,
"Drink up."

She yawned and gave me a small smile,
"When is Juilet coming back from her vacation?"

"Soon, kiddo," I lied, praying that my lie would eventually become the truth.

She nodded and started sipping her milk,
"Chance said he would teach me how to box today.

"Did he? That's great, sweetie," I grinned and sat down across from her with my breakfast.

"Yeah, he said something about boys and their wandering hands. What did he mean by that, Freya?"

I searched for an age-appropriate answer, "He means that boys can be very mean and push you."

"So I hit them when they push me?"

I cringed at the thought, but nodded in agreement, "Sure, why not?"

She was silent for a while, and I exhaled softly. Hopefully she did not have any more questions I could not answer.

"What's a BJ?"

I almost choked on a blueberry and stared into her innocent, round face. She stared at me as if waiting for an answer.

Why did this have to happen to me of all people? Why could not she ask me about something else, like heaven?
I cleared my throat awkwardly, "How do you know about a BJ?"

"From Hunter. He was talking to a woman and asked her for a BJ."

"Did he say anything else?"

"No. He just said, 'I want a BJ.' So what is it? I think I want one, too. That sounds cool."

My she-wolf looked like she did not know whether to laugh or hide. I, on the other hand, was ready to rip Hunter's head off.
The idiot needed a filter for his mouth, or at least needed to learn not to talk about such things in front of Gigi.

Suddenly a thought came to me.

I smiled a little, "Remember how we watched Barney yesterday?"

She nodded.

"Well, you know, Barney's friend's name is.
BJ."

"So Hunter wants to be BJ's friend?"

"Not exactly. He wants to have a friend like BJ because BJ is very nice. Hunter doesn't have many friends."

"Oh. Well, I like Devin. I can be his friend named BJ."

"You can."

The front door opened, and I heard a familiar hum from the foyer.

"Morning Gi. Morning Freya," Chance said, entering the kitchen with a grin. I rolled my eyes in amusement as he emptied the oatmeal into his bowl, leaving nothing for everyone else. Once he was seated, he looked back and forth between the two of us, "What're we talking about today?"

My eyes widened and I was about to answer him when Gigi chirped, "BJ."

Chance's eyes got as big as golf balls,
"Blowjobs? What the fuck, Freya?"

I stepped on his foot under the table, making him wince.

"What's a blowjob?"

My eyes scowled at Chance, even though I'd a sickeningly sweet smile on my face, "Yes, Chance? What's a blowjob?"

He swallowed hard, "It's a job where you blow.....balloons. F-for birthday parties."

"Oh."

I suppressed a sigh of relief when she seemed uninterested in the subject. She went back to eating and playing with her doll's hair.

Meanwhile, Chance's ears were coloring like the strawberries he was eating.

I wanted to laugh when I saw how excited he was.

He gobbled the rest of his oatmeal and almost ran out of the house.

"Is he okay?" asked Gigi, wincing as the door slammed.

"He's fine."

***

Zack:

I wanted to pull my hair out. Nothing made sense anymore. How could Juilet disappear without the Border Patrol noticing? I'd questioned the men on duty at least three times that night, and they all said they hadn't seen or smelled her.

I began to think that one of them had lied to me. There was no way they wouldn't have seen her leave, even if she'd supposedly flown away in her prehensile form.

There was a soft knock on my door.

"Come in," I snarled gruffly, unrolling a map of the pack. I examined the boundaries carefully to see if there was a hole or something in the lineup through which she could've slipped.

"Zack."

"What do you want, Reece?" I stared at my beta in disbelief. I probably shouldn't have been so shocked, but considering how many times he'd gotten drunk and how many times he'd cried, I didn't expect him to be up for a while.

He gave me a wry smile, "Yeah."

"Not that I'm not happy to see you, but what're you doing here?"

"I'm your beta, aren't I? How long do you want me to neglect my duties and leave them to Chance to do them?"

He entered the room and reached for a stack of neglected papers lying on my desk.
"Do you need to get this done today?" he asked, skimming the pages.

I frowned and watched him get to work.

He was too calm. Too calm. Too steady.

Something wasn't right.

"Reece," I interrupted him gently, "why are you here?"

"I told you why I'm here."

"I meant why are you here doing paperwork? I expected the first thing you'd do when you came out of your room would be to go looking for Juilet."

"Who cares about Juilet? I don't. Who needs a mate anyway?"

My wolf raised his head and growled at him, making me groan.

'Not now. He didn't mean anything by it.' I said.

'Mate is good. You need a new beta.' Dickson said.

'He lost his, so fuck off.'

My wolf growled again and started pacing, keeping an eye on Reece.

"Reece, what's wrong with you? You liked Juilet a lot. Hell, it seemed like you even loved her."

"Yeah, well, things have changed. She left me," he muttered, scribbling a few notes in the margin of the paper.

"She didn't abandon you. She just... left."

"That's right."

"I'm sure she's a good reason for that. Maybe she went off to spy for us, as we'd planned?"

"If so, she'd have at least left a message. But she didn't even do that. She just disappeared ... And right after the Luna ceremony. Doesn't that seem awfully suspicious to you?"

"You can't be serious," I frowned, "She-"

"Look Alpha," he said mockingly, "you don't have to believe me. After all, you've changed too. And not for the better either.
You've grown weak."

It took all my strength not to reach for him and lace his neck. My wolf was ready to turn and force him to take back his insults.

"Beta Reece," I growled, seeing him clutch his pencil tighter at my warning tone.

I took a deep breath and slowly calmed my angry wolf.

He was only lashing out because he was angry and hurt, not because he was serious.

Reece got up and walked to the door, papers in hand.

I let him go and returned my attention to studying the map.

"You know, you were right." I didn't raise my head at his words. He continued anyway, "Men have to have expectations of their partner. Otherwise, they end up accepting a stupid bitch who eventually lets them down."

With those last words, he walked out and closed the door behind him. I sighed and rubbed my forehead tiredly.

He was about to turn back to me.

Suddenly the door banged open and
I jumped up in surprise. Freya rushed in and stared at me worriedly, "Are you okay?"

I blinked, "What?"

"I felt a wave of anger come through the mating bond. I thought something had happened," she stammered.

I shook my head and nodded at her. She approached me cautiously, watching my face for signs of anger or frustration. I pulled her onto my lap, buried my face in her neck, and sighed softly.

There was no better stress reliever than smelling the scent of one's mate. She made me feel at peace.

"Reece's having a nervous breakdown," I murmured, tickling her mark.

She gently disengaged from me so she could look me in the face, "Did he say anything?"

"He seems ready to reject Juilet."

She stiffened. "We need to find her, Zack. Before he does something stupid on the full moon day."

"I know," I murmured, kissing her temple. Freya looked like she was about to say something else when her cell phone started ringing. We exchanged glances and she slowly pulled it out of her pocket.

"It's an unknown number," she almost whispered.

"Answer it."

She pressed the answering machine and put it on speaker, "Hello? Who's this?"

A static could be heard in the background before a frantic female voice called her name, "Freya? Freya?"

Juilet.

"Juilet? Where are you? Are you okay?" Freya asked loudly over the static.

I quickly mind-linked one of the pack's trackers. 'Find out where the call on Freya's phone is coming from. And do it fast!'

"Freya, you've to listen to me. The griffins have been lying. They're attacking before the second full moon."

"What do you mean?" I snapped.

"Zack, they're attacking next week."