Mate's Call (Code of the Alpha)

by Lola Gabriel

  THE END

  Click Here to Read the Entire Shifter Pursuit Series

  2

  Discovering the Dragon

  The last note was struck, and there was an uncomfortable silence as the group looked at one another, knowing they had not done their best work.

  And we all know whose fault it is, Erin thought angrily. Before she could say anything, she was overrun by the conductor’s voice.

  “Let’s take it again from the top,” Andy called, tapping his baton against the music stand and stifling a sigh. “Brianne, try to focus this time, please?”

  Erin scoffed and scowled at the keyboardist with annoyance. “Would it kill her to practice?” she grumbled, blowing her brown bangs away from her face. She had spoken loud enough to catch everyone’s attention, but Erin didn’t care. “We go through the same thing every rehearsal. If everyone else can put in the effort, why can’t she?”

  Erin always felt that she put in more than enough attention to her craft, and it angered her that others didn’t take their music as seriously as she did.

  What’s the point of doing something if you’re not going to do it well? she wondered, casting Brianne a baleful look.

  The skinny blonde averted her eyes purposefully, but Erin was sure Brianne could hear the almost palpable glowering emanating from her body. Andy chose to ignore her outburst, once more rapping his baton and commanding focus.

  Sighing, Erin put her silver flute to her lips, arms poised to begin the piece. They started again, and she noted with satisfaction that Brianne was playing better now.

  See? She just needed a little push in the right direction, Erin thought smugly.

  Her irritated words had inspired Brianne to do better, no matter how harsh the others believed she behaved. The piece ended, and the band applauded at the smoothness of the final round.

  “Good work, everyone!” Andy called, and Erin could hear the pride in his voice. “See you on Thursday!”

  “Andy,” Brianne called tentatively, nervously glancing around. “I can’t make it on Thursday. I have a family function, and—”

  “Are you kidding me?” Erin demanded, interrupting her. She spun, her dark waves fanning behind her as she glared at the keyboard player. “We have to practice,” she said, “and now you’re skipping out on sessions you so desperately need? No way! This is the fourth practice you’ve skipped this month.”

  “Erin,” Andy said warningly. “This doesn’t concern you.”

  “Doesn’t concern me?” Erin echoed, folding her arms over her chest. “I am part of this band, aren’t I? We all made a commitment when we joined, but it seems Brianne isn’t very committed. I’d understand if she needed to miss rehearsal because of an emergency, but seriously, four practices in one month is ridiculous!”

  “Why are you always so mean to me?!” Brianne cried suddenly, tears filling her brown eyes. “I try to be your friend and you’re always so angry at everything I do!”

  Erin was taken aback by the words, and she stared at the girl in genuine surprise.

  “I am not being mean to you,” she replied, shaking her head, her brow furrowed. “I’m just stating a fact. We need to practice harder because you refuse to work on your own. You can’t just miss rehearsal again! If you don’t show, there’s no point in any of us showing. Why should we work extra hard to hide your mistakes?”

  “Erin!” Andy snapped, his patience exhausted as Brianne began to cry. “Wait outside for me.” Erin opened her mouth to protest, but Andy pointed toward the door sternly. “Go!”

  Sighing, Erin shrugged, grabbing her purse off the floor and gliding toward the exit with her usual grace. She leaned against the exposed brick in the hallway, examining her perfectly manicured nails as she waited for the graduate student to come out and give her a lecture.

  It wouldn’t be the first time she had been reprimanded by the conductor, and it likely wouldn’t be the last.

  He should be praising me for saying what he won’t, Erin reasoned, but she knew he had to remain diplomatic in his position. It wasn’t her problem. If Andy would be a little stricter with the players, Erin wouldn’t have to open her mouth and do his job for him.

  She pulled out her cellphone and began texting her sisters at Kappa Mu Pi.

  Bri screwed us again. Need a drink, she wrote, sending it in a mass text.

  In seconds, the responses came back.

  Can’t. Studying, Ali replied.

  No great shock there, Erin thought wryly.

  Beth and I are at Benny’s, Kellie answered. Come join us!

  No, thank you, Erin laughed to herself. That can only mean they’re on the prowl tonight. I just want a quiet, no-nonsense drink and someone to vent to.

  She told Kellie as much.

  Not tonight, came several other messages, but Erin was not discouraged. She was not above going for a drink alone.

  Maybe I’ll ask Andy to come, depending on how annoyed he is with me, she joked to herself, swallowing a mischievous grin at the idea of taking the uptight grad student to a bar.

  As if on cue, the door flew open, and Brianne stormed off down the hall without looking at Erin, tears still streaking her face.

  For a moment, Erin felt a smidgen of guilt, though she immediately dismissed it.

  I do it for the greater good. She has to toughen up, especially if she wants to be a musician.

  “Erin.” Andy appeared at the doorway, and with a sigh, he said, “Come in, please.”

  “If you expect me to apologize, it’s not going to happen,” Erin informed him, her heels clicking against the tile as she rejoined him in the music room. “We’ve asked her a thousand times to—”

  “Erin, you need to be a little less…” Andy paused, like he was searching for the right word to use as Erin waited impatiently.

  “Assertive? Bossy? Demanding?” she offered, hoping to speed the process along. They were all words she had heard before, but they didn’t faze her. Erin knew what she wanted and had no problem getting it.

  Sticks and stones, she thought ruefully.

  Andy’s mouth became a small frown. “Listen, I know you take music seriously, which is great,” he said, “but this is also supposed to be fun. Sometimes your criticisms are too harsh.”

  Good! Erin wanted to scream. That means they’re learning their own flaws! She didn’t want to admit that the words gave her a spark of pride because she knew that was not the answer Andy wanted. Instead, she managed a solemn expression.

  “Well, I am sorry that no one takes you seriously,” Erin told him gravely. “But I see that you’re okay with that, so who am I to say anything, right?”

  She relished the look of anger flashing over his pale, freckled face.

  “Of course they take me seriously!” Andy sputtered.

  Erin shook her head, managing a look of sympathy on her face. “Obviously not, Andy. You allow everyone to walk all over you, and it shows in the music. But if it doesn’t bother you—”

  “Erin!” he snapped, as if realizing he was being played. “I need you to stop being so hard on the other members of the band. We are a team, a family!”

  “And I need the other members to get their acts together!” she retorted. “So that we can be a functional family.”

  Andy paused and studied her face for a long moment before speaking again. “Erin,” he began solemnly, “I think that you should take a break from band for a while.”

  Erin began to laugh. “You’re funny,” she chuckled. “I’m the best player you have.”

  Andy nodded in agreement. “You are by far the most driven woman I have ever met,” he conceded. “But you are bad for morale.”

  Abruptly, the smile slipped off Erin’s face as she realized he was serious.

  “What?” she gasped, her green eyes widening in shock. “You’re firing me from band?”

  Andy quickly shook his head.

  “Think of it as a break,” he replied hurriedly. “I’m starting to believe that maybe
you’re under too much stress, and maybe you’re taking it out on everyone else. Just take a breather for a week or two and come back when you’re feeling a little bit more relaxed, okay?”

  Erin could not believe what she was hearing.

  And in the meantime, she thought, everyone is going to know that I was let go? No one will take me seriously when I come back!

  She glared her blazing eyes at Andy.

  “If I leave, I’m not coming back,” she threatened. “You’ll have to find someone to replace me on flute.”

  Andy seemed to swallow a sigh as he averted his dark eyes downward. “Erin,” he said, “I think it’s best for everyone if you take a—”

  “I heard you the first time,” Erin snapped. “And I just told you that if you insist on doing this, I am not coming back.”

  She tried to maintain his gaze, but he could not meet her eyes.

  “Well, I’m sorry you feel that way. But…” Andy trailed off, his sentence hanging in the air between them.

  Erin felt her face flush, and she bit on her lower lip, certain a stream of profanity was about to escape.

  He’s not sorry. I bet they have all been looking for a way to get rid of me since day one. Jealousy is an ugly thing, she thought, enraged.

  “Fine,” she replied quietly, determined to keep her composure. “If you’ve already made your decision, I can’t argue, can I?”

  She whirled around and began to walk away from the room she had spent endless hours in, always doing her best. Maybe she had been harsh, but she wanted to be a part of something great, and she always felt like she pushed people to reach their full potential.

  “Erin, don’t be angry!” Andy called after her. “You’re so talented, and—”

  His last words were lost as she pushed her way out of the music hall and into the cool early autumn night.

  Erin’s head was a mess as she rushed across campus, trying to reconcile what had just occurred in her mind.

  I spoke the truth and I got cast out of the band. Is this happening?

  A deep anger began to grow inside her, and Erin’s pace increased as she crossed through the brightly lit quad.

  I just got fired for the first time in my life, she realized. She wondered if it was an omen of worse to come. She turned her gaze upward, as if to silently yell at the heavens, and she froze mid-step.

  Something was soaring through the thin, barely visible clouds above her head.

  What is that?

  Her eyes tried desperately to adjust to the formation. It was larger than any bird she had ever seen, but what else could it be? Certainly not a plane—it seemed to have a wide wingspan, though the distance was far too great for Erin to define it.

  Suddenly, it seemed to pause, its head turning toward her as though it could sense her staring.

  Erin gasped aloud as eyes as green as hers bored through the void between them.

  Was it… was it a dragon?

  Without warning, the beast let out a silent cry and vanished as if it had never been there.

  Her pulse thudding, Erin peered throughout the sky again, seeking out the strange creature, but it was nowhere to be seen.

  Did I imagine that? She wondered, willing her heart to slow while she cautiously began walking again, her neck still craned toward the sky. Gulping back her awe, she picked up her pace, suddenly feeling vulnerable in the open space between the buildings.

  I need a drink, Erin told herself. I’m seeing hawks and thinking they’re dragons.

  Another text came in as Erin sat at the dimly lit piano bar, but she ignored it. She suddenly had no interest in talking to anyone. Besides, Grassy Green’s was one of Erin’s favorite and lesser-known haunts, especially during her bad times, and she didn’t want anyone to disturb her.

  She just wanted some time to think about everything that happened. Erin was assertive and knew what she wanted out of life, and she wasn’t afraid to go after it. Even though Andy treated her like she was a royal pain in the ass and thought her behavior was too severe, that wasn’t her true nature.

  Erin was kind, loving, and would do anything in the world for people she cared about—and that included members of the band. If she went back home, she would have to face her sorority sisters, and in that moment, she didn’t want to plaster a smile and her face and pretend like her spirit wasn’t crushed.

  It was funny how, in half an hour, her entire outlook had changed, and not exactly for the better. At least, it didn’t feel like it had been better.

  No, Erin concluded, turning off her phone and placing it face-down on the bar. I will stay here and wallow alone.

  Seductive and slow jazz music piped through the speakers as the bartender approached her. Erin noted that he eyed her appreciatively.

  “Are you old enough to be in here?” he asked teasingly. “I don’t want to get arrested.”

  Despite her dark mood, Erin smiled coyly. “Oh, that’s too bad,” she replied. “I like a bad boy.”

  The man laughed and leaned over the bar, his blue eyes twinkling. “What will it be, Erin?”

  “Double vodka martini with an olive,” Erin answered. “Shaken.”

  Colin, the bartender, released a low whistle. “Rough day?” he asked, turning back to fix her concoction. “I know you only save the doubles for the big guns.”

  Erin suppressed a reply, knowing it would come out with all the venom she held in the pit of her stomach. But it was not in her nature to unleash, regardless of what the people from band thought. She was composed, elegant. She did not lose it in public, no matter how tempting it might be.

  “I’ve had better days,” she said, shrugging. “But it’s nothing your martinis won’t fix, Colin.”

  There was no need for her schoolmate to know about her humiliation. There would be enough time to deal with that later, when her termination became public knowledge.

  No, tonight would be about licking her wounds and regrouping.

  I don’t need the school’s music department, she decided. I’ll join a private group, with real musicians who take pride in their work. Brianne and Andy can have each other.

  “Want to talk about it?” Colin pressed, but Erin shook her stylish dark hair and sat back to take in the bar.

  It was a Tuesday night, so the quaint bistro bar only held a sprinkling of patrons, despite its proximity to the college. That was the reason Erin had chosen it that night. She knew there were less chances of running into someone she knew there.

  As Colin poured her drink into a frosted martini glass, Erin turned her head back to him and spoke the first words that came into her mind.

  “I saw a hawk outside,” she told him. “Biggest one I’ve ever seen.”

  The statement sounded inane when she said it aloud, and Erin wondered why she had mentioned it at all. Did she really have nothing else to talk about?

  Colin’s dark eyebrow rose in polite interest. “Well, this is Colorado,” he replied, smiling. “We do have big birds.”

  Erin immediately felt foolish for having said anything. You need a distraction, she chided herself. You’re rambling about birds to take your mind off what Andy said.

  Colin slid her order onto the bar.

  “Start a tab?” he asked.

  The front door opened, and Erin’s didn’t answer as her attention was on the man who had just entered the establishment.

  She was certain she had never seen him before. She would have remembered his chiseled features and full mouth; yet there was something familiar about him, and she could not tear her eyes from his profile as he seated himself on the opposite end of the bar without so much as a glance anywhere but downward.

  “Well,” Colin breathed, staring at the man. “A blond god among us.”

  Erin nodded in agreement, casting him a sidelong look. “Yours or mine?” she asked, and Colin shrugged.

  “There’s only one way to find out,” he responded, winking as he swaggered off toward the stranger.

  During one of the fi
rst times she had come there, Erin had found out that Colin was gay, and sometimes they both found themselves attracted to the same patron. More often than not, they simply watched from afar, but with this particular man, there was no way they wouldn’t approach him.

  Erin found her eyes glued to them, as if trying to memorize every feature of the newcomer.

  His attractiveness went beyond a head of thick, wavy hair and high cheekbones, but Erin was having difficulty pinpointing what elusive quality of his kept her own green eyes fixated upon him. There was a certain aloofness to him, a quiet dignity that Erin wanted to break into.

  She watched as Colin leaned across the countertop to speak with the man, but she could not hear what they were saying.

  Oh, please be straight, she pleaded, gritting her teeth. Let something go right for me this evening.

  Erin waited with baited breath as Colin turned away, his face falling with disappointment, and a stab of elation coursed through her.

  The distraction she had ordered had arrived.

  Thank you, Universe, she called silently, fully turning her body toward the newcomer.

  “He’s all yours,” Colin muttered sullenly as he walked by.

  “Put his drink on my tab,” she told him without shifting her gaze. She was willing him to look at her, but he seemed consumed with whatever he was doing.

  He’s probably some suit waiting on news of a deal, Erin surmised, gauging his age at about twenty-five. He certainly didn’t seem to be a college student.

  Colin muttered something incoherent, and Erin grinned genuinely for the first time since before band practice. She didn’t need to hear the words to know that Colin was being a sore loser. She watched as he placed the man’s drink on the bar in front of him. From the bartender’s hand gestures, she could see he was explaining that she had bought the drink.

  Erin held her smile, expecting him to raise the glass in thanks and invite her to join him.

  To her absolute shock, he did neither. He simply lowered his head, taking a sip of his drink as he pulled his cell out of the breast pocket of his button-down shirt.