Julia's Pack.

Chapter 26 - Dreaded Skeletons coming out of the closet

Alfred. Who the hell was Alfred?

Julia stared at the little bold 'SOLD' sign. Sold. To Alfred. It made her furious and it took all her willpower to not throw the monitor out the window. He had to be one of Kale's Pack, that was all she could assume, because who else would bother? Except for one of the Australian Pack and they'd have told her.

Levi returned, she smelt it, and he leaned against her so he could shut the monitor off. He hugged her hard, leaning against her. “Sorry. I shouldn't have stormed off.”

“Oliver went somewhere too.”

“To tell Randy and Susan. He told me to come back and stay with you.”

Ah. That made sense. She stood up and wrapped her arms around Levi, who leaned against her, his breathing fast and panic still there. Julia tried to breathe. “We have to... meditate.”

“Not now.”

“Well, burn incense.”

He rolled his eyes and she led him to the couch, making him sit there, while Julia wandered around trailing white sage smoke all over the place. She wasn't sure why. She knew it was a 'bad energy cleanser' or something but she loved the smell too.

It was only just starting to get dark. Julia felt someone behind her and saw Evie following behind, hanging onto Julia's skirt, watching her. Julia glanced back, expecting to see kids covered in flour, but they looked clean. That probably had a lot to do with a fresh set of clothing.

“Can I wave smoke around?”

“Okay, but be careful, the smoking end is on fire and burns you.” Julia carefully gave Evie the little stick and bit her lip. Evie wasn't silly, she knew to avoid the fire part, but she trailed after Evie just in case as Levi accepted a book from the big kids.

“Dinner will be in fifteen minutes.” Andy called. “Julia, can you get the table ready?”

She blinked at him. Dinner? But they had to, kids and stuff, and Julia tried to do that. Andy must have known what was going on with David, of course he did, but that didn't change that the kids needed fish and chips tonight.

Evie gave Julia the smudge stick back and she carefully dropped it back in the little sand basin, sticking it up on the top shelf, before she tried to get plates out. Evie wandered after her, helping, until they more or less had enough for everyone. People would have to sit on the couch too but that was okay.

Beth, Yasmine, Selene and Anita followed Ben up more or less perfectly on time. Julia sat there at the table, kids eating carefully as Andy reminded them to watch out for bones, quiet. Beth reached out and held her hand under the table.

Julia picked at her food, barely thinking about it, more interested in the slices of potato than the fish. She watched them eat, mind far away with David, watching the darkness settle over the island slowly. It had to be dark up in Victoria already. If someone had paid the bounty then that didn't mean they'd get him straight away. Right?

Oliver was back. She blinked. When had he come back? He was heading straight for the study, or attempting to, because Susan was quick to jab him towards the table with a fork. "Get your dinner first. Eat with your kids."

He did what he was told. Sat down, eating, and Julia went back to staring.

Somehow she didn't freak out. Andy got the kids back into the living room to re-watch the movie about the dragon, they wanted to watch it again, and Julia headed quietly for the study.

"So Alfred's bought David?" Susan said softly. "You sure?"

"Site says it. Any news?" Levi was saying, sitting back at the computer, the screen back on. Maybe the food had calmed him down a little now. He reached out to pull Julia against his side, kissing her waist, clearly not caring that his mom was right here in the room with him.