Hate to Love

12

Julian

Alice seemed calm now but I felt that finding Charles would be the only way to put the past behind us. I had no idea how I was going to do it but I should just go back from square one.

"I'll help you." She said, lifting her head to meet my gaze. "We can maybe... Do this together. What do you think?"

"I'd be happy to look for him with you." I smiled at her.

That would give us an opportunity to get closer and shed the past. If I showed her how sincere and devoted I was, maybe she would forgive me. It meant a lot that she would offer to do this together.

"Let's get something to eat." I continued. "We can start looking for him tonight, after work."

She nodded and we exited our office to find Jasper. I was sure that he would be waiting for us. It would be nice to be together for once, since I used to push Alice away so she would not have to work, she rarely ate with us.

We walked into the dining area together. It was one of the biggest rooms inside the Pack house. It was big enough so all the wolves could eat here if they wanted to. As a result, it was always animated. I located Jasper at the leader's table and started to move towards him with Alice in tow.

Alice stopped though and I tried to figure out why. I followed her gaze to see Veronica there, chatting happily with some warriors. Just seeing her like that made my blood boil, I was not going to let her try to break us up. I made a move towards her but Alice beat me to it.

Veronica turned around to look at her friend and Alice slapped her right accross the face. The sound cut all conversations and they all looked at the two women. I was stunned that Alice would do something like that but she always had been one to fight back.

"Don't you dare ever do that to me again." Alice growled. "You're not my friend anymore. I don't want to ever see you except if you need to talk to your BETA."

She insisted on the word and it made me happy. I could have kissed her again in front of everyone but after making her cry in the office, I kind of did not want to try again. I did not want to upset her further.

"Alice..." Veronica said tears welling up in her eyes.

"It's Beta Alice to you and if you want my position, I'm going to fight you." Alice declared.

Veronica would never be able to defeat Alice. She had been trained to be Gamma so she was even better than me in a fight. Veronica was bold but not that bold, she knew better than anyone how Alice could be when she was angry.

"Did you hear me?" Alice pressed her. "Submit or fight. There's no other alternative."

Veronica cried but she still showed her neck to Alice, recognising her as dominant. Good, now she should leave us alone. Alice turned around to look at me and I offered her a small smile. She made me very proud. She smiled back and held her hand out for me to take. She did not even need to ask. I intertwined my fingers with hers, showing everyone that we were together and we walked to sit next to Jasper. Once we were seated, the wolves got back to their conversations no doubt talking about Alice.

"That was bold for you." Jasper chuckled. "I didn't know you two were so lovey-dovey that you would declare yourself Beta female."

"We're not." Alice blushed. "I just... We're mates and we're trying to make it work so I have to do my part... I can't let Veronica disrespect me."

"That's for sure." I said. "She should be punished for talking like that about her Betas."

"I think that getting slapped in front of everyone is punishment enough." Alice said. "That's very humiliating."

"I agree." Jasper nodded. "I know you want to protect your mate, Julian but it's enough for me as well."

"I can take care of myself." Alice said.

"I know that better than most." I chuckled.

She offered me a small smile and I smiled right back. That gave me hope if we could laugh about that. We were making progress and it warmed my heart.

We went back home early so we could start on our investigation. Jasper had seemed pained that we wanted to look into Charles' disappearance, so was I but I promised my mate.

"Do you know where you want to start?" She asked.

"What about... The night he disappeared. What do we know about it?" I asked the only witness I knew.

She seemed to think for a second and I could see myriads of emotions cross her face. I was certain that she was trying to maintain a brave face for my sake but I would rather she showed me what she truly felt. I did not want to walk on eggshells around her anymore.

"Tell me all that comes to mind. I can take it." I said.

She looked at me, hesitated and finally nodded. I breathed a sigh of relief as she finally started to talk about that night.

"We had dinner together because my parents were working late. I could feel that something was bothering him for a while, actually ever since he turned 18, but he refused to tell me. He would always dismiss my questions or avoid them openly. I told myself that he would speak to me when he felt like it. He went back to his room and the door was closed when I got to mine. I could hear him ruffle his stuff and that was the last time I heard from him. He was gone in the morning."

"I'm sure that you did check his room?"

"Yes." She nodded. "More than once. I could not find anything."

That was peculiar. Charles and Alice were very close so it was surprising that he did not say a word about what was troubling him. How would we find a clue?

"But..." She continued. "I remembered hearing him talk on the phone one night, a week before he vanished. He was arguing with someone and he called him... Javier from the Blue Mountain pack."

That was a serious lead. Why did she never talk about this before? She seemed to sense my gaze but did not want to talk... What was she hiding? Would she even tell me?