~Gemma~ ‘Gemma?’ Hell no! His timing was fucking terrible as usual. Alpha Devlin could go suck an egg! ‘I know you’re there. Where else would you be? We have another meeting this afternoon. I would appreciate you being there.’ ‘No!’ ‘I know you are upset about your day off…’ ‘Go the fuck away! I am busy!’ “He ruins everything!” I complained. Miserable! That’s what the fuck my life was. The lyrics to that one song came to mind, about it being a bad day but not a bad life. Lies! What about when the bad days piled up and overwhelmed the good ones? “I take it the mood is gone?” Kieran asked. I hugged my knees. What the fuck was I going to do? All indicators said I lost Damon. Alpha Devlin and I would never get along. The goddess ruined my life one favor at a time. I covered my face with my hands. “What’s going on? Talk to me.” He put an arm around me. I let him pull me into a hug. “He’s not going to accept me ignoring him. Alpha Devlin will pester until he gets whatever he wan

~Gemma~ As far as crappy days went, today was pretty fucking craptastic. I could not believe I let Sammie talk me into coming out. Kieran would be there. There was that at least. I took an uber to the bar, planning on getting completely hammered. I walked into The Sing bar alone and feeling more than a little insecure. At least we were out of the red district. However, the zoning still allowed for loose liquor rules. Relief washed over me as Sammie waived me down. She hugged me, tight. “Careful, wolf girl! You are too strong for all that enthusiasm!” I laughed in her hair. “Are you already smashed? And without me?” “Stop whining and catch up! Here, drink this.” She handed me a fruity looking drink. “Great! Just what I wanted! Fruit salad!” I ignored the straw and chugged. Goddess, that tasted great. Kieran walked up to me. “Oh! Hey! How are you?” I asked him. He took my glass and set it on the table. Then, he grabbed me and kissed me senseless. I went with it because why not?

~Gemma~ I attempted to keep my emotions out of it. Neither of them made it easy. Ha! The former love of my life had knocked up a woman who was my complete opposite. She might have wrecked the image with the ugly pout on her face. Yet I could tell she put effort into her appearance. The leggy blonde wore a dress that highlighted all her ample features. She had curled her hair to perfection. Her makeup was expertly applied to top it off. Damn. Alpha Devlin put effort into his appearance as well. He wore his trademark jeans and teeshirt. His deceptively simple outfit highlighted all his features as well. His shirt clung to his muscled torso. He had neatly styled his hair as well. Actually, they made a cute as hell couple. Yes. That observation depressed me all the way down to my core. This stranger had the future that was supposed to be mine at one point. A future the younger me badly wanted. 'Fuck, Gemma! Can we circle back to all this later?' Omigosh! I shut down our mental path.

~Alpha Devlin~ The situation was fucked. From the moment Gemma told me to stay away, I realized the gravity of the situation. Of course, I didn’t listen. This was my pack. I was the damn alpha. Come what may, I would see the situation to finality. I couldn’t bear the idea of Gemma facing this alone. I eyed her, standing tall and proud in the face of our dire circumstances. That’s my girl. The witch addressed me. “Alpha, since your witch won’t listen to reason, I will appeal to you. Hand over the witch and we will leave peacefully.” “No fucking way!” I growled. My wolf trembled with impatience to be released. He itched to kill the threat at hand. Gemma’s hand shot out and grabbed mine, warning me to keep my composure. The witch stepped closer to us. “I haven’t yet begun to coerce you. I promise things can get a lot more interesting.” She held out her hand to the black wolf at her side. “Do you feel that?” Gemma spoke quietly. “There is alpha power rolling off that wolf.” N

~Alpha Devlin~ “Is everyone crying? Someone tell me what the hell is going on!” Irina screamed over the speaker. Shit I had forgotten about her. Sammie scrambled to find the phone, pushing tall grass aside in her haste. She grabbed it and held it up. “Gemma is dying! We can’t save her!” I scrubbed my face with a hand. Not the words I would have chosen. At least she got directly the heart of the fucked up matter. “WHAT?” Irina screeched. “Give me more details for fuck’s sake! How is she dying?” I wasted no time. “She has a mortal wound in her stomach. Brock clawed her. The goddess won’t save her.” “Use your heads! Don’t turn stupid when she needs you most. Sam, call her vampire boy toy. You tell him to get his ass there and save her. Like now!” “Right!” Sammie hung up the phone and scrolled through Gemma's contacts. I faintly heard Sammie hissing and arguing with someone. I assumed she made contact. “He’ll be here. He is really, really fucking pissed.” She got Irina back on