Julie

by Foster, Sherry

  Well, he would just continue with his plan after a few minor adjustments. He had three Alphas to meet with in this country. Only two had been guaranteed, Marcus and Trey. Gammon had been a long shot from the beginning. He had heard Gammon didn’t allow other Alphas unless they were bringing a female to stay, or had a female at the school. Marcus did not have any unmated females except a couple of toddlers if William was correct. William wasn’t even sure of that bit of information. Trey also had a couple of underage females. In both cases, according to William, no mates had shown in their packs. Trevor knew if he started sending a male or two at a time to visit the others and they proofed for the mate-bond he would lose that pack member. He was prepared to lose some men if it meant they would find their mates. Who knew, after the female reached the age where the male went from protector to mate the couple might chose to relocate back to Australia. Of course by the same token he could gain a couple of males if the females he had refused to move. The males always went where the female felt the most secure. Maybe in the old days going to the pack most needful of the skills of the couple had been the way to go, but those days were long past.

  He would have to make those arrangements first thing in the morning. Better a sure thing with two Alphas than a possibility with an Alpha like Gammon. Maybe Gammon would appreciate him backing out with the current event. He couldn’t imagine living with what Gammon must be going through right now.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Gammon leaned his head against the mausoleum. When he had left his house his only thought was to go to Jutoh. He had forgotten Jutoh walked the other side now. He wanted answers. He wanted to understand. He was halfway to the cabin before he remembered his father was no longer there to answer questions. He needed time though so he kept running. He could feel Dimitri and Nikita following him.

  When he reached the cabin he had taken time to change clothes and wait for the other two men. They weren’t far behind. Now all three men stood outside the mausoleum, silent sentries to a man no longer with them.

  “I felt them die. I felt their pain. How could Mikhail have survived and me not know? Why didn’t he call out? Did he call out to us? Were we so blinded by our own hurt we didn’t hear his? What will I say to him? What will we say? Eight, we left eight of our own on that snowy tundra that day. Did we condemn them to die by not searching for them? What happened to the other seven men?” The anguish in Gammon’s voice was an echo of the anguish in all three men’s souls.

  Some bit of remembered conversation trickled through Gammon’s head. Jerking up he looked at the other two men. His best friends, his Betas and the only other two left alive who knew what happened all those centuries ago. If his anguish was great how much anguish must they be living. They had not lost a mate so in theory they should have been able to feel Mikhail still lived. They should have known if others survived. At least, Gammon was certain those thoughts would be the ones going through Dimitri and Nikita’s minds. His pain was great but theirs had to be equal to his. He could not change the past but he could forge the future.

  “The little one, Julie, she spoke words other than numbers. According to Willow the little one claims to have her own mountain. Perhaps her mountain will have finally found someone to heal his heart and soul if we get him up here.”

  Dimitri looked at Gammon, his mind still trying to cope with finding out he left part of his pack behind. At first the words Gammon had spoken did not penetrate his thinking, when they did he pointed out the flaw, “If he was her mate then he would have found her. He would have moved the earth to find her.”

  “Not if she never met him. Mikhail’s Beta was the one who found her in the States. Found and fell in love with her according to William. But without the true-mate bond he could not track her.” Gammon turned toward the cabin as he spoke. He was too old to run away and if the shock had not been so great he never would have left his house. He sent a mental caress to Mia and let her know they were returning home.

  While the men changed out of their clothing and closed up the house they discussed the situation concerning Julie.

  “All I am saying is the little girl claims to have a mountain of her own. How many shifters have you ever seen reach the size of myself and Mikhail? Not counting our father.”

  “Truthfully? None, I have never even met a human the size of you or your brother in over four centuries I have walked this earth. But if she never met him how would she even know about him?” This time Nikita was the one to point out the flaw in the reasoning.

  “Sure, I will grant you we don’t know the whole story but let me ask you something. If you met a girl and fell in love who would you tell her about to convince her you could protect her better than anyone? Shit it’s cold. Shift now, we can finish this as we run. I am too old to stand outside in this kind of frigid weather discussing anything.”

  The pack, I would tell her of the pack and the Alpha who leads the pack. I would … are you saying the guy Dennis probably talked up his pack and his Alpha, who is just as much of a mountain as you are and that is all the poor child has to go on and is using something she heard to claim protection from Mikhail? Shit I will never remember to call him Edward. I guess if I can learn to call you Gammon over the name you were born with I can learn to call Mikhail Edward. Now do you see why Dimitri and I never changed our names. Ought to stick with the name you were given when you were born is all I am saying. Always gotta make things difficult for other people. Nikita took a moment to throw in the old argument.

  Kicking up snow as they ran the men were silent, mulling over the situation with Julie. A few miles had passed before anyone spoke again.

  I admit Nikita and I have only second hand knowledge of how a true-mating works but I think you have to at least be in the vicinity for the wolf to know. The child is not mature and has never met Mik-Edward so how could she possibly link any talk Dennis may have had with her to having her own mountain? I don’t think she could have been talking about Edward. I think she had see you as her protection also. If Allison was going to claim you as her Alpha and by extension her protector and her mountain then Julie probably wants to fit in. God knows she couldn’t have fit in at the prison from what I have heard.

  I don’t know. What did Jutoh say about how I was as a pup around his mate. Always underfoot and they had not even had my Natasha. We don’t understand and never have understood how the magic of true-mating works. I never should have been given a second true-mate. Everyone would have said it does not happen. But I have Mia and no one can deny she is mine.

  Gammon, I never felt him. I mean, I felt him die, just like the others. How could he have lived and me not feel him? Did others survive and we left them to die? Dimitri could not hold his anguish in any longer.

  Stop it. We failed our pack. We can’t fix the past. All we can do is forge a future greater than any our past could ever give us. Now we have to find out if Mikhail can ever forgive us.

  Best learn to call your brother Edward. You know how touchy you were trying to get the pack to call you Gammon when you took a new name.

  Nikita?

  Yeah?

  Shut up.

  I am just saying.

  Great you had your say. You have had that same say for over two hundred years. You don’t like the name, we get it. Guess what? I don’t give a fuck. I do have a plan though so speed up I want to get back to Mia. She is climbing the walls right now. The entire pack felt me blank out against everyone and she has done nothing but field phone calls for the last four hours. The two of you might want to open the pack bond back up. I am not the only one the pack is concerned about right now. Apparently we gave them a shock when all three of us went blank. Prepare to be bombarded though, I have been reassuring everyone we are still alive for the last few minutes. Perhaps we should not all three go silent on the pack again. Next time we get a shock like today what say we take turns dealing with it.

  Yeah sure man. I will make sure to put that on my to do list. I have a better idea. L
et’s not get anymore shocks like this one. Honestly bro, I don’t think I could handle it. Losing Jutoh yesterday. Finding out your brother is still alive today. My shock-o-meter is full for the next five centuries. I think William went above and beyond when meeting your challenge of not letting two feuding Alphas in our territory though. Next time you issue such a challenge try to warn us.

  Nikita?

  Yeah man, I know, shut up. Gammon?

  Yeah?

  You know how I always said I never wanted to find a mate because I watched what losing one did to you and Jutoh?

  Yeah Nikita. We have also noticed you disappear every time a new female is brought up here. As if disappearing will make the mate-bond not stick when you do show back up.

  Yeah well, whatever. Why you always have to give me grief about that? Anyway, I think I have changed my mind. Hey why did you stop? I thought we were in a hurry? Nikita slowed to a walk and turned around to stare at Gammon and Dimitri. Both wolves had abruptly stopped at his pronouncement and were just staring at him.

  What the fuck did I just say about having enough shocks for one day?

  Actually Gammon, you did not say that, Nikita was the one to say something.

  Dimitri?

  Nope Gammon sorry, not shutting up. Nikita, shut up. I am with Gammon on this one. No wait, no sorry Gammon, I really have to know why Nikita changed his mind. Go on Nikita, if Gammon gives you any more grief, we can take him. I mean, together, with a few more of the pack, while he sleeps, if Mia will tie him down first but we can take him.

  Ok fine. I admit, I am curious also. Come on, if we don’t get back soon Mia will probably tie me down for you. Talk and run, talk and run.

  Well, I have been thinking. You know when we get back the first thing you are going to do is go to Mia. She can’t fix your problems but she damn sure can hold you while you work through them. I realized today when we were standing outside the mausoleum, I have never known what it was like to have someone hold me through the rough times and celebrate the victories with me. I have pack and I have always considered pack to be all I wanted. But finding out about Mikhail was probably the worst shock and the best and worst news I have gotten in almost four hundred years. I wanted, just for a moment, to have that one person who is the other half of my soul to hold and tell me everything would be alright. Even if that was a bald faced lie, just to know they cared enough to want to fix it. So I have been thinking on the run back, I want to do a bit of visiting. Maybe I could find my mate if I visited a couple of other packs.

  You would leave the pack?

  Don’t be stupid Dimitri. If I can’t convince the female to move to the most secure pack territory in the world them maybe she isn’t the right one for me.

  Dimitri? What about you?

  Me? Oh hell no Gammon. I am not interested in looking for a mate. I know if one shows up here I will be happy and being mated will be all I want. But no need to go looking for trouble. No, if trouble is going to come to me she will have to find me here.

  I will be sure to tell Mia you consider mates to be trouble.

  Hey wait man. Now I didn’t say anything about Mia. I know what this is. She is cooking pot roast tonight isn’t she? Low man, very low. You know she cooks enough for me and Nikita every time. Why are you trying to cheat me out of my pot roast?

  Chapter Sixteen

  Mia looked around the table at the men. She wasn’t sure what they had been arguing about earlier when they got back to the house. She did know Gammon tried for the hundredth time to uninvite his Betas to supper. Every few weeks, when she cooked pot roast, Gammon tried to pick a fight with his Betas. She would have thought he would have tired of it after a decade or so. She was just glad the shock had worn off enough for the men to be back to some semblance of normality.

  “Did you call William back?” Mia was glad Gammon had told her what was going on before he got back to the house. Waiting on him had given her time to curl up on the bed and cry for his pain and his losses. She wasn’t sure yet how to treat him and the other two. She could not understand what they must be going though right now. Gammon could share his pain with her, but usually he tried to mute it. Once he had opened back up the pain had washed through the entire pack and even Gammon had not been able to stop the wave of pain from reaching everyone. The phone calls that occurred after that made the ones before seem like idle chit-chat, and the constant mental conversations everyone was trying to juggle had given her a headache on top of the aching of her heart for her mate.

  Without knowing the full story the pack was confused as to why their Alpha, after finding out his brother was still alive, seemed more hurt than happy. Most of them ended up chalking the pain up to lost and wasted years.

  “I called him while you were taking up the food. Willow should be here soon. I filled her in on what I thought could be going through Julie’s mind in relation to her mountain of her own statements. William should be sending a picture of Edward and Dennis and the little boy soon. I asked him to send one of each and then all of them together. When we get those pictures I will forward them to Willow’s phone and she will go talk to Allison. I thought about calling Kate, but she wouldn’t know anymore than anyone else.”

  “Why didn’t you invite Willow to eat with us?” The words were barely out of her mouth before three sets of eyes stared at her in disbelief. She watched as all three men pulled their plates a little closer and hunched over them a tad bit more. She loved making comments about inviting others during her pot roast dinners. She didn’t think the men even realized how they suddenly protected their plates as if she was going to take one and give it away. Every single time, without fail the men reacted the exact same way.

  “No need, she said she was going to eat with Julie. Her mate is pulling sentry duty so she thought she could get some more time in with Julie and let Delany take Allison out to the restaurant to eat. The only way Allison can get time with Delany right now is for someone to stay with Julie. See love, it all worked out for the best. Besides, you hardly fixed enough for the four of us, much less anyone else. I wouldn’t have wanted her to feel as though she was making us do without.”

  Mia looked at the three men then down at the table at what was left of the two pot-roasts. She then looked back at the men being sure to catch each one’s eyes. She wanted to laugh at the guilty looks the men were trying so hard to hide. Like little boys with a treat they did not want to share but scared they would get in trouble if they didn’t at least offer.

  Before she could say anything she heard Gammon’s phone going off in the office. Jumping up she told them men to keep eating and she would grab the phone and come straight back. She needn’t have bothered. The men had lost all expression and now, instead of looking like guilty little boys they looked like grown men headed to the gallows. As she raced down the hall to get the phone she thought she understood the change in expression. The men were about to see a picture of someone they thought long dead. A man they felt they left to die. A man they all felt they abandoned when he needed them the most. It didn’t seem to matter to Gammon that he had been so lost back then he barely remembered the weeks and months following the attack. It did not seem to matter to him that just as he could not feel Edward, Edward could probably not feel him. Gammon didn’t see things that way. She had pointed out to all three men while she held Gammon that the pack bond worked two ways. Edward had probably thought they were dead also. He probably had the same thoughts they had when he first heard. He probably felt he had abandoned them to die, if he even knew about Dimitri and Nikita. Which Mia was not sure was the case since William had not said one way or another.

  Mia grabbed the phone being careful not to look at the screen. She wanted desperately to see this brother of Gammon’s but she thought the men who suffered the most should be the first one to see the pictures. When she returned to the dining room the men were still in the same position, with the same expressionless faces. She gave a deep sigh as she handed the phone to her mate. The o
ther two men got up and came around behind him and watched as he swiped the screen and opened the app. Mia heard a sharp intake of breath from one of the men but she wasn’t sure which one made the sound.

  Finally she couldn’t take the suspense anymore. The men had been staring at the picture for at least a minute without moving. They had said not one word nor had she seen Gammon swipe to look at one of the other pictures William was suppose to send. Shoving Nikita she finally got his attention enough to get him out of her way so she could get close to her mate. When she reached for the phone Gammon turned it around so she could see the picture.

  She couldn’t stop the gasp of surprise or the started comment, “He looks like you.”

  “Well, since Mikhail is the oldest I would say, Gammon looks like him.”

  “Potato, patato Nikita, and his name is Edward. You might want to try to remember that.”

  “Yes Mia, sorry Mia. But you know I am right. The oldest can not look like the youngest because,”

  “Nikita, shut up.” Gammon growled.

  Before another argument could start someone knocked on the door.

  “That will be Willow. Go let her in Nikita. We will meet her in the living room. I will grab us some beers.”

  Chapter Seventeen

  Willow knocked on the door and waited for Allison to open it for her. She was still reeling a bit from what Gammon and the others had to tell her. Gammon had sent the pictures to her phone but she was in unchartered waters with what she was about to try. She had considered talking to the other counselors and therapists to get their view of what she was going to try but in the end she decided to let the consequences rest solely on her shoulders.

  “Willow, I thought you were headed home for the night?”

  “I was, but something came up. I need to see Julie again. Is she still up?”

  “Julie? Yes, she is, well come in, sorry I am still a bit excited about getting to spend the evening with Delany. So what happened? You said something came up?”