Chasing Tails (Original)

41. Returning

As soon as she saw her older brother, she brightened. All dreadful thoughts were vanquished from her mind as he smiled warmly at her. It was like old times all over again.

"Are you doing alright, Jul?" He greeted, kissing her cheek. She smiled at him, nodding her head.

"I'm doing well." He looked relieved and led her to the corner of the porch where she saw Rose in a chair, eating a bun of bread with sausage links and mayonnaise. Julie eyed Phillip.

"Don't ask." He laughed, winked and smirked all at once. She left him and joined her sister on the porch, looking out into the woods. The sun wasn't close to setting yet so it was still near the middle of the day. But it was cloudy out, making it look later than it was. Sitting like this and looking out into the scenery reminded her of the times Rose would take her to a hill, where they would watch the sun set, making wishes for the brand new day to Fenrir. It was a comfort to see that Rose still did it - with or without Julie being there.

"Hey," Rose greeted through a mouthful. Julie laughed and hugged her. "Want some?" She shivered at her sister's offering. The thought of sausage links and mayonnaise together striking her as odd.

"Yeah - no." She answered. "Remind me why you're eating that?" Rose scoffed.

"Um, because it's good?"

"Right, so why are you here instead of at Ollie's?" Rose shrugged, going back to her odd snack.

"Because you're here." Her lips smacked against her fingers, licking off excess mayonnaise. "Besides, we need to talk." Julie stared off into the distance blankly, her mind racing to think of something she did to annoy Rose. Rose only says 'we need to talk' when something serious was happening or if Julie did something she shouldn't have. Julie can't remember pissing her off recently. She didn't play a prank or do some dangerous stunt that endangered her.

Oops, she thought suddenly remembering how dangerous it was when she tried to stop the war from happening. She could only pray to Fenrir that her brothers did not mention that to Rose. Rose would murder her in her sleep.

"It's about Dresden." Rose spoke and Julie let out a sigh of relief. She will live another day without being hunted down by her sister. But what did she have to say about Dresden?

"What is it?" She asked cautiously, distracting herself by watching her pack play their game of football. It was teams of young versus old now and the twenty-thirty group was losing on purpose, holding back tremendously. Some of the younger ones knew it but a few of them really thought they had the upper hand in it.

"You know he cares about you," She started. "Don't even bullshit about him denying you because you aren't as strong as the usual you. He's your mate and you're his - so start acting like it before I do something you'll regret." Julie shivered. She knew Rose's plots to push her family often ended up embarrassing and messy - especially when it came to Julie. She had nightmares for weeks because of it once. She would give anything to have those nightmares again instead of the ones of Miranda now though.

But there was no way she was going to let Rose get involved. That would end way too horrible for her.

"But Rose-"

"I'm not done." Rose cut her off sternly, looking at her sharply. "I may hate the guy but he cares about you and he's been caring about you. If he didn't accept you, would he have gone through all that trouble? Uh, no. Would he make you stay in his room? Uh, no." Julie stared at her sister in bewilderment. She knew for sure that Dresden wouldn't tell her these things but she couldn't think of anyone else who had kept in touch with Rose.

"How did you know that?" Rose smirked.

"I keep in contact through your beta. I'm not going to leave you alone with someone I hate just because he's  your Alpha." She explained. "Besides, you haven't been you. I need to keep tabs just to calm my own damn mind."