The Alluring Alpha

The woman in green

She stumbled and Javier reached out on instinct and grabbed her wrist, pulling her to him. She slammed into his chest with a muffled ‘mmmmmfph’, and Javier’s other arm snaked around her waist, steadying her. She stared up at him in shock. Javier could feel her heart pounding against his chest as he held her in place. She looked up at him, perfectly lush lips forming a small ‘oh’. He could smell a subtle smell of jasmine and fresh rain which he found pleasant. ‘Uh hi. You smell good” Javier said, eloquently.. At this, the woman, who had appeared to be frozen, came to life, her eye going even wider before she took a sharp intake of breath. ‘Uh, Thanks’ she replied. She pushed lightly on his chest, taking a step back. Javier was surprised to find he missed her warmth immediately “Im sorry, but you’ll have to excuse me”. The woman turned and disappeared around the corner. Javier stood in shock for a moment, before realising she was gone, and for some reason felt a need to follow her. He started towards the doors, only to run into his brother a few moments later.

“What do you think you’re doing? You know how important tonight is!” CJ whispered, sounding exasperated. Javier stared blankly at him, still plagued by thoughts of the woman in green. CJ gave him a stern look. “you should pay closer attention’. He paused. “Or maybe you should be cut off. Everyone is here, everyone! This is not the time or place for your brooding.” Javier watched CJ as he ran his hand through his hair. His face was lined with anxiety. Javier had never noticed how much he had aged in the past year. Though there was only a year between them, CJ looked much older than 26. Jonathon sighed, before abruptly looking at Javier. “You’ve spent the entire evening on the side of the room, surely you’ve seen them then?” Javier looked at his brother in confusion. He must have missed something. “Seen who?” “The new Alpha and Luna of the Callisto Pack. I hear that they were meant to make an appearance tonight. Though I suppose they aren’t the Callisto Pack anymore are they?” Javier continued to look at his brother blankly, not understanding what he was saying. It had just dawned on him that he had told the woman that she smelled good. No wonder she had turned tail and run as fast as she did. Javier glanced back at his brother, and saw that he was looking at him as if waiting for a response. Javier stared at him blankly.

CJ sighed. “Callisto….you know the Pack that was wiped out 15 years ago? Some big awful that no-one speaks about?”. CJ gave him an exasperated look when Javier continued to stare at him blankly. “If you attended some of the briefing meetings lately, or any of them in the last few years, you would know that there were a few survivors. It was terrible, especially as no-one knew what happened to the children of the Alpha and Luna. The surrounding packs all agreed to accepted survivors into their own ranks, however, about 3 years ago, all the survivors all requested to leave, stating they had found a new pack. Hell, it was only about a year ago, during the last Elders council, that they put it together. The Elders set up an inquiry, and it turns out that they all went back to their old pack lands. It's been cleared and rebuilt, and intel suggested that they were being led by the children of the old Alpha and Luna, twins, would you believe! Anyway, at the last Elders council, they received a written name change submission for Callisto! I cant remember what they wanted to change it to”. Javier looked at his brother with a pained expression on his face. It was getting too hard to follow his brothers ramblings, and his head was starting to throb. He gestured for his brother to get to the point. CJ continued excitedly.

“Anyway, the Elders decided that this was the best opportunity to find out what was going in, so they responded that they wanted a formal application for a new pack, and sent delegates out to assess what was happening out there. From the whispers I've heard tonight, the matter has been tabled for the next elders meeting in 6 weeks to decide if they will be allowed to re-form the pack, which apparently the Alpha was not happy about. Apparently, the delegates are being very tight-lipped about the whole thing, though I did hear that one was overheard saying what they’ve achieved is outstanding, given the circumstances. One of the recommendations though was that they attend tonight, in order to increase their social profile. I heard the Alpha wasn’t too pleased about the recommendation, and I'm surprie they even showed up to be honest!” CJ looked around again, before turning his eyes back to Javier. "Though, that may have something to do with the rumour I heard that they demanded thier hearing be moved forward to tomorrow" CJ whispered conspiratorily. Javier, who was still processing everything he had just learnt, just blinked in return.

“Well?” CJ demanded. Javier blinked again, trying to remember what his brother’s question was. “Uh….. sorry?” CJ rolled his eyes. “Did you see him?” “See who?” “The new Alpha of course!” Javier blinked a few more times, trying to clear the fog in his mind. He remembered, earlier on in the evening he had seen the woman in green with 2 men that he did not recognize. “I think I did, yea'' he responded slowly. CJ grabbed Javier, making his head spin. “Tell me!” he demanded. Javier shrugged. “There’s nothing much to say. I saw 2 men and a woman I didn’t know. Maybe that was them.” Javier left out his interaction with the woman in question, knowing his brother would be likely to drag him to an interrogation room if he knew he had spoken to one of them. CJ spun around and walked briskly back to the doors, scanning the crowd. “Where are they now? Tell me!” he called back over his shoulder. Reluctantly, Javier joined him. He scanned the crowd slowly, trying to catch sight of the woman and her companions again. He spotted her immediately, walking towards the main doors. Javier caught the woman’s eye, and winked; she gave him an odd look, before turning to leave. Spurred on by something he couldn't understand, Javier started to walk after her.