Hate to Love

19

Alice

I was ecstatic that we were doing this. Jasper would be mad but I did not care, I needed to know that my brother was all right, especially when we were so close to have an answer.

We were now standing in front of a very angry Jasper with the forms for the Royal Guard. My father seemed to not understand why it was such a big deal, the recruiting happened every year after all.

"You two are just..." Jasper said, narrowing his eyes. "You won't let this go, huh?"

"What?" Julian asked, faigning innocence to the perfection. "It's our job to ask the pack who wants to pass the test."

"He's right." My father said. "I don't see why it makes you so angry, Alpha."

Jasper knew that he could not talk about Charles with my dad present. He had to go along with our proposal and I had to stifle a smile. We had him cornered.

"Fine." He said finally. "You can ask the Pack who wants to take the test but I'll be calling the General to see what it is about this year."

Damn it, he was good. I was about to protest when Julian nodded. What?

"It's fine." He said. "We'll be happy to have some help."

Jasper seemed as stunned as I was but he recovered more quickly. I just wondered what Julian had in mind.

"Perfect." Jasper said. "You can go ahead then."

Julian nodded and took my hand in his to lead me in the hallway. I was so confused that I could not help to turn to him to ask my question.

"Wait until we're in our office." He said softly.

I nodded, now I was sure that he would tell me what was on his mind. He closed the door behind us and we sat at the desk. I was eager to know what he had come up with.

"Having Jasper ask about the test is even better than if we do it ourselves." He said to me, planting his blue eyes in mine.

"How so?" I frowned. "He won't be asking about Charles."

"No but it shows Jasper that we're respecting the rules. Since he'll be calling, they won't be suspecting a thing and we can always call ourselves to ask for clarifications." Julian smirked.

He had a roguish attitude and that was the Julian I remembered and loved. Anything was possible with him and he would stop at nothing until he reached his goal. That was what made me fall in love with him when we were kids. It warmed me to see him again and my heart started racing.

I was starting to see that maybe we could be something again. Maybe it was not too late to mend our relationship. It gave me hope and that was all thanks to Julian.

"I like the sound of that." I beamed at him. "I knew you still had it in you."

"I never stopped working around Jasper's decisions when I disagreed." He chuckled. "Charles would approve."

"You mean he would have helped by distracting Jasper. He would have set fire to the Pack house if needed." I laughed.

"That sounds like Charles."

"Well we wouldn't have to fight an angry Jasper if Charles was here."

"True." He said amused. "He gets us in trouble even when he's not around."

"That's just like him. He'll be laughing hard when we tell him this."

"Yeah... And for that we need to get to work."

"Let'd do this, partner." I said amused.

He smiled at me and we got to share the registration files to the pack. All the wolves above a certain age could register if they wanted to. We all knew that the selection was hard though. You needed to train almost your entire life if you wanted to succeed. It was not just a show of strength, it was also about agility, wit and stamina. Charles had trained hard to be a part of it and I remembered that it involved a lot of sacrifices.

"I'll go hand the papers near the cafeteria." I said, standing up.

"Sure." Julian nodded.

I walked there and I was feeling giddy. I could not wait to ask the Royal Guard about my brother. We were on the right track and then I would finally see my brother again.

What did that mean for Julian and me? I could see how much he was trying and I could not deny that bringing the past, made old feelings resurface. Did they not say that you had to love someone a lot to be able to hate them? It was certainly the case between Julian and me.

I could see that he wanted us to get back to a place where we both enjoyed ourselves. I always was attracted to the confident Beta and I was glad to see that he did not kill that side of him when he decided to make me hate him. It was definitely what I loved about him. He was smart and really stubborn, just like Charles. Maybe even smarter because Julian would never get into anything without giving it a good thought.

"Alice?" I heard behind me so I turned around.

It was Nathaniel one of the Deltas. He was a bit older than Julian and he was one of my dad's favourite.

"Hi, Nate." I greeted him. "What's up?"

"I see that it's this time of year already." He said, pointing at the papers I had in hand.

"Yes, are you considering?" I asked.

"Maybe. I would prefer to have a mate first." He smiled at me.

That was understandable but that would mean that we would lose two wolves instead of just one. Nathaniel had not find his mate here so she could already be over there.

"Speaking of, I saw that your mate is Beta Julian." He added.

"Yeah, we're taking babysteps considering..." I said.

The whole Pack knew that we used to be at each other's throat but with my statement the other day, they knew we were trying. It was a good thing.

"I understand." He nodded. "Wait you have something..."

He leaned into me to brush something off my shoulder when we heard a low growl behind us. I did not need to look to know who was growling, it made me smile somehow.