Julia's Pack.

Chapter 11 - Alpha & Beta

It wasn't quite the whole Pack. It was a lot of them though. Julia stared sleepily at the Pack from the rose garden, the early morning sun on her bare arms and shoulders. She tugged a pashmina shawl around her shoulders tighter, as the wind picked up, stomach rumbling at her. What was going on? It was confusing. She was starting to feel really angry with Oliver now. This was her Pack and the idiot had just taken away a fourth of the Pack's defence and offence. What was he thinking? Wage war on his Uncle?

Some part of her felt guilt though. Julia knew he was upset by what he saw in those photos. He'd made sure he'd seen them every single time too, determined to 'help', and maybe it'd been too much. Julia wanted to slap him stupid and hug him all at once.

She had to guess the Beta had figured it out and called a Pack Meet. Or had someone told them? Were they psychic?

No. Julia overheard it- the people talking, gathered in little groups, some of them eating, some of them with shadows under their eyes, all looking tired. Apparently a couple of the fighters had sent them a letter, explaining it, and they'd herded as many people onto the silly little crab boat as much as they could. She was surprised it hadn't woken her.

Julia pushed the door open and entered. Heads twisted up then back to each other or the floor. People barely looked at her. She stared at them, sleep getting knocked out, as people actually deliberately didn't look her in the eye.

They were seriously avoiding eye contact with her.

Okay. This was beyond weird. She unconsciously tugged the pashmina shawl tighter around her shoulders and weaved her way through the rec room for the library.

Julia knocked on the library door, knowing it'd probably be where the Beta and Randy would be, and the door swung open. Randy met her eyes. He frowned. She stared at him and then to Susan, who seemed to be having issues with the eye contact idea as well, the two of them uncomfortable.

“The other Beta was killed.”

Oh boy. This was not a good way to start the day. She stared at Randy in shock as he shut the door behind her, gentle, and leaned against it. Arms crossed.

It took Julia a few seconds to really get it though. Sam was dead. Sam, the guy in his forties, who'd pretended to rape her because he hated Amanda. He was a single dad, as far as she knew, and his twelve year old daughter had only just started puberty. She felt grief stab into her, compounded by the fear for Oliver, needing to lean on the wall nearby as Randy just stood there.

“How? Where's his daughter?”

“Safe. She's safe. Unharmed. She was staying at my house so she could meet Anita. I'll explain what happened in a moment.”

“Anita?”

“Ben's sister.” Susan explained. She sat down, rubbing her forehead, exhausted. “We thought the two girls were close in age and would make good friends. They're both in the other guest bedroom. Before you ask- I took this into account. We sent five fighters to stay with the kids while they're at school. Asked them all to stay in the same house for the time being.”

“All the kids?”

“All the school aged kids, yes.”

There were quite a few too. Not just Julia's kids. The Pack had a lot of young kids and teenages now. That would make for a crowded house, unless... “Are they all staying on the boat?”

“It's safer.” Randy nodded slowly. “Tim preferred there to be a simple exit should it come to it. Where's Levi?”

“I think I saw him out in the crowd.” Susan stood up. She reached out to hug Julia hard, reminding Julia a lot of Beth and Levi's hugs. “You two are a good team together.”