Julia's Pack.

Chapter 22 - Family

Telling the Pack did exactly what Julia thought it would do.

It made a whole bunch of parents angry. Really angry. And there was nothing scarier than an angry parent, werewolf or human, but for a werewolf it had the added bonus of 'That kid's my family too'.

Instead of breaking Julia down, like maybe he'd hoped he'd do, it kind of spurred everyone into even more of a determined 'We're going to kick that fucker's ass'. More or less.

On top of that, it made Julia's 'Alpha's voice' stronger, as the support for her grew even more in the Pack. She was stunned by tha and moved.

"I'm going to get the bedroom ready for mom and dad." Levi said quietly, his eyes on Beth, as she refused to look at him. He sighed and went back down the hill for the Pack Hall.

She refused to look at Julia too, Julia realised, but there wasn't much she could do about that right now. Julia got people working on dinner, something comforting, and Oliver stayed close by her. He was suffering too. Both of them were, Oliver and Levi, and Beth as well, but as bad as she felt about that Julia had to get everyone ready.

Once people were doing things, she grasped Oliver's hand and gently led him away down the hill, following after Beth and Yasmine. Beth locked the door behind her, much to Julia's hurt, and she had to leave her for later.

Once she had Oliver in the Alpha's residance the two of them worked side by side, trying to clear and clean the living room for the three of them, the smell of dirt from the garden still all over him. He was so quiet now, gazing at her from time to time, she felt his nerves and sadness.

Julia jumped. She still felt him.

"You're not a werewolf?"

Oliver shook his head.

"But I still feel you. Your emotions."

He froze, stared at her, and slowly Julia felt the hope creep back. "I ... didn't even think of that."

Julia rolled her eyes, grabbing Oliver, hugging him hard. Big idiot. "Two years, you stress about something, and ignore how we can read each other still? Idiot."

Oliver grinned weakly down at her, head burying into her neck, breathing in slowly. "I couldn't smell or hear you the same way. I thought that meant, that was it, that was the end."

"Well, maybe it isn't." Julia gazed up at him. Werewolves usually had only one wolf-skin in their lifetime. But things happened. It was destroyed somehow, or stolen, and then they'd be without one... and yeah, that did stop their shifting abilities.

But almost always, a new wolf would find the werewolf, and offer themselves.

"Maybe you needed a new wolf. When you stopped being Alpha." She suggested, softer. "Maybe your wolf was an Alpha wolf."

"It was. It was my father's wolf." Oliver squeezed his eyes shut, sitting back on the couch, tugging her into his lap. "Guiding me. Loosing it was like loosing my father all over again."

"You should have told me!" She felt like she was going to be saying this for the rest of her life. Julia seriously hoped she wouldn't. Julia hit him hard. Oh yeah. Hadn't she broken his nose? It was kind of crooked. "I broke your nose. It's healed? See? Werewolf."

He flinched. "Ah, shit. It'll be crooked."

Julia giggled and prodded it. Silly man. "You'll have to break it aga-"

Oliver did.

She had been kidding and she hit him hard, really hard, for being a stupid fucking ...