Her Alpha

Chapter 8 - That Wasn't Planned

I had this one written before I even posted the last one, so here you go.

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ALEXIS'S P.O.V.

“Manda, Ricky, Tom, Jane, Fred, Sarah, Case, Luke, Brad. You take the last shift, with Peter. Your first day on duty will be Thursday.”

I looked around at my fifty-eight volunteers, now divided into six groups of nine or ten people and raised my voice so that everyone could hear me. “So, again, this is how it’s gonna work: Derek will lead groups one, three and five. Peter will lead groups two, four and six. Group one starts tomorrow. The shifts will be 24h, with five days off in between. I want reports every two weeks from Derek and Peter. Kate will manage the training teams.”

*And help me pack, or I’ll go crazy.* They all left to take care of their own business, and my best friend smiled at me before taking my hand in hers. “Come on, stressed out, stubborn Luna, I’ll sort out your bags.”

I couldn’t help but smile back. Only Kate could make me smile at a time like this. “Ha. Take the S away from that bag of yours Kate. There’ll only be one. And one I can carry around, at that.” She pouted a bit, and I almost laughed. I knew she loved to pack loads of stuff.

“But you might stay away for MONTHS!” she whined, trying to reason with me. Yeah, like that ever worked.

“Yeah, I probably will. All the while dragging all I’m taking along. I’ll be running after him, not walking lightly in the parks, Kate. I’ll be trusting Luna to sense if we’re close, ‘cause I won’t slow down.”

“Fine. But I’ll put all I want in that bag. And you’ll be quiet about it.” I had to laugh then. That poor bag was going to blow up.

“As long as my essential stuff fits, no problem. And by essentials I don’t mean makeup. I mean toothbrush, toothpaste, shower stuff and hairbrush.”

She ignored me. not that I had expected anything else. We got to my house in a minute. I ran upstairs at wolf speed, got the bag and shoved my stuff in it before she got there as well, glaring at me. “That, young lady, is called cheating.”

I laughed, allowing myself to have a few moments of normality before I went back to worrying about everything as always. “Whatever Kate. Forcing me to take two bags just because you put so many useless things in this one that what I really need won’t fit is too, so shut up.”

She narrowed her eyes at me and took the bag from me. I had to struggle not to laugh again as she turned around and went into my closet. I followed her and leaned against the door, watching her do her thing. “Don’t forget my PJs Katie.” She pretended to hate it when I called her that, but I knew she liked it. It was our way of making up.

I saw her roll her eyes at me through the wall mirror and smiled. “They’ll go in your handbag, dumb ass. Just like all you put in here. You really know NOTHING about travelling, do you, Xis-duh?”

I laughed at her response to my use of her nickname. I actually liked when she called me Xis-duh. Apart from being cute, it sounded a lot like ‘sister’, and that was what she was to me. my little sister.

“I’m TWO MONTHS younger than you, Alexis!” Oh, she had heard that. That was SOO not my intention. I pursed my lips not to laugh again when she heard that too. Which clearly was my only objective.

I decided I had already annoyed her enough and went to help her by taking the stuff I had put in the bag, my PJs and a few items of makeup and putting them into my biggest handbag. No idea why, but I found myself remembering when we started using those nicknames on each other.

--Flashback--

I was staring at a thirteen-year-old Katherine’s back. We were at her birthday party, and I had made her mad by doing something neither of us remembered any more. “Come ON! I said sorry already, Katie!”

She turned around to face me so fast that I missed it. “Fine! But don’t call me Katie, Xis-duh!”

I was ecstatic that she had talked to me again after two hours running after her as she expertly ignored me, but confusion spread over my face at her words. “Sister? And why not?”

She huffed at me, still mad. “Not sister. XIS. DUH! As in Alexis minus Ale, plus duh, ‘cause that’s what I feel like saying to you right now! And I just don’t like it.”

I laughed at her weird sense of logic, but I wouldn’t drop it that quickly. She should have known that. “I don’t buy it Kate. Why don’t you like it?”

“Ugh, fine! Mom calls me Katie when she wants me to stay home and I want to go out. It’s like a threat, you know. Something like ‘If you go, it’ll be a lot worse when you return’. So you can’t blame me for hating it.”

--End of Flashback--

I snapped out of the memory, smiling at it, and looked down at her to see she was smiling too. “Sorry I made you have tougher classes with your mom like a bazillion times.” We burst out laughing. No one except for the two of us would ever understand that.

By that time, though, my bags were done, and I had to face the one thing I had been postponing for the whole week. I had to break up with Brad. Aand I really needed to work on keeping my guard up when Luna wasn’t doing it for me. “My god, you haven’t told him why you’re leaving yet?”

I sighed at Kate’s screech. “Obviously not. I just don’t want to hurt him Kate. I didn’t know what to say, so I just kept putting it off, and now I’m gonna have to go and break up with him, and I have no idea whatsoever on how to do that!”

She shook her head at me, and I saw the pity in her eyes. “Just tell him the truth, Al. it’ll be worse when you come back if you don’t.”

I was on the verge of tears. “So what do I do? Show up at his place and say ‘Hey Brad, I came here to dump you, because that trip I’m going on is to find my mate’? I want to keep him as my friend! And, besides, who would do something like that?”

“You’re going after your mate?” A different voice asked from behind me. the one voice I didn’t want to hear at that moment. It was full of disbelief, and damn, did he sound sad.

I turned around slowly to face him, regret pretty obvious on my face. “Brad, I…”

Kate interrupted me in a low, apologetic tone. “I’ll leave you two alone.”

She left, and I sank in my bed, hiding my face in my hands. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t want you to find out like that.” How had he even managed to get there without me realizing?

He didn’t move. His guard was up. “Why didn’t you tell me, Alexis? I could have at least tried to make the most of the little time I had left with you. Instead I was all busy with your patrol mission.”

“I didn’t know how to. I never meant to hurt you. I just wanted to find a way our friendship would survive this.” I finally looked up at his face, letting the tears roll freely down mine.

The face I had loved for so long was a brooding mask. “I’m sorry Alexis. I love you, but after this… I don’t think we can still be friends.” With that, he turned around and left, and I just sat there sobbing until Kate returned to help me get ready to go. I wiped my tears and went to the airport with her, my parents and Derek.

After spending so long crying, calm settled over me. Maybe this was what I needed. Maybe a time away from him would help things work out. Maybe finding my mate would make everything right. *It will, Alexis. It is better this way. You might think I’m saying this because I never liked him, but both of us know he wasn’t the right one for us. It’ll work out.* Maybe Luna was right. Maybe.

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I know it's short, but it's kind of important to the story.

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