Word Count : 5521

Harper

Harper watched Reese, Adam, and Callum file silently out the door. With the exception of Reese's cryptic comment, they'd been smart enough to just shut their mouths and leave when she'd pointed. She was ready to really let loose on them if they'd opened their mouths again. She glanced over to see Matt grinning at her, she could see how much spiteful pleasure he got out of her kicking their asses. He knew how bad they needed it and how long they'd had it coming.

"Oh my goddess Harp!" Celie said, running out and hugging Harper with all her might. She'd been eavesdropping from around the corner after she'd made her dramatic exit. "That was totally amazing! You body slammed them so hard, they are going to be feeling that for a looooooonnnnngggg time."

"I hope so." Harper said, staring out the door where they'd been. "I can't believe they came here to give us the guilt trip about how much they've suffered because of us. What the hell?"

"Wolves seem like real assholes to me." Matt said laughing. "What was that macho growling bullshit anyway?"

"Oh, he's an alpha, when he says jump you're supposed to cower and beg for him to tell you how high." Harper said, rolling her eyes. "He expected me to stutter and apologize for not telling him I had a strong wolf, and he was mad you snapped at him, because no one snaps at the alpha."

"Why did he want you to stutter and apologize for not saying you had a strong wolf?" Matt asked, the intricacies of wolf society were beyond him.

"Because if he had known I was that strong he wouldn't have rejected me." Harper explained. "At least, that's what he's telling himself."

"Still lost." Matt said, none of this making sense to him.

"He regrets rejecting me, for some reason, not sure what that reason is." Harper said. "Probably a combination of two reasons, one, his girlfriend was a fake ass unfaithful bitch who his parents hated so much they had a law written to keep her from becoming Luna."

Harper and Celie cracked up.

"And named the law after her! Oh my goddess, I would literally kill to be able to go back in time and be a fly on the wall when she found that out." Celie said, laughing so hard she could barely breathe.

"Or two, he's sad because he will never get a true mate since he rejected me. Awwwww" Harper stuck out her bottom lip and used her fists to fake rub her eyes like a baby crying. "I'm not a loser anymore, so I'm suddenly good enough for him."

"So he's consoling himself and coming up with things that would have changed it, like if he had found out she had a really strong wolf, it might have kept him from making the mistake." Celie tried to explain. "He might have seen her as better and if he'd thought she was better then, he wouldn't have lost her before she turned into whatever it is he sees now that's making him regret his decision."

Then Celie turned to Harper.

"You were never a loser Harp. Not for one second, you were as beautiful and smart then as you are now, not a single thing about you has changed, except you grew a kick ass attitude." Celie said. "Whatever made him change his mind is in his head, and it's not reality. He couldn't see you for who and what you were then because he had his head too far up Charla's fat ass to see anything. Then his parents found out what had been happening and they smacked him and her down hard. So he dumped her ass and saw her for who and what she really was, then he felt bad for what he did because he was suffering for his mistake."

"I already thought he was a dick, now you guys are making him sound like an even bigger one than I thought he was." Matt said, shaking his head. "Baby, you are beautiful and perfect in every way, and I find it damn hard to believe you weren't always. Cel is right, you haven't changed. What was that shit about the broken butterflies?"

"That was weird." Harper said. "It used to be one of my favorite quotes, when I was depressed and hopeless, I would think about that quote. There was another one he said too, the one about how a mistake repeated is a decision. I always use that one, I used to write them in my...."

Harper stared off into space for a few seconds.

"Oh shit. I think I know what he was trying to say!" Harper rolled her eyes and swiped a hand over her face as she cursed herself. "I must have forgotten to throw out my old journals when I left. Dammit, I don't remember doing it, I remember thinking I needed to get rid of them before I left, but I don't remember actually doing it. I bet he found them and read them all. Well, that's freakin embarrassing, I don't want that asshole knowing my inner thoughts, even ones I had 10 years ago."

"So he's quoting your old journals to you?" Matt asked. "That's creepy."

"Yeah, how many times did he read them to be able to quote them after all these years?" Celie said, grimacing. "Jeez, that is creepy. Stalker, much?"

"I don't like that." Matt said, his brows furrowed. "That does seem stalkerish, if he has been that obsessed this whole time..."

"And being an alpha, he won't want to take no for an answer." Celie said. "He probably thought he was going to show up here and you were just going to fall for his bullshit, and he was going to drag you home to have his pups."

"Pups?" Matt asked, laughing.

"Yeah, pups. You know, babies?" Harper laughed. "We call our babies pups, because they are young wolves, which are, in fact, pups."

"When we have babies are you going to call them pups?" Matt asked, putting his arms around her.

"Of course, what do you call babies?" Harper asked, "I mean, baby sharks are referred to as pups, baby whales and dolphins are call calves, what are other types of fish babies called?"

"We just call them 'young'." Matt said smiling. "We have our young and we wean our young or raise our young, or whatever."

"We say young too, but mostly pups." Celie said.

"So, how do you feel, Cel?" Harper said. "Are you ok?"

"Yeah." Celie said, but her face fell. "I'm ok, not good, but ok. It hurt, I mean, a lot more than I would have thought. I didn't want to accept it, I was like fighting my wolf the whole time, she wanted to run over there and jump on him and comfort him. She was howling and whimpering the whole time, and I thought she was going to come out and kill me when I accepted the rejection."

"You didn't have to accept it, Cel." Harper said gently. "If you want to be with him, you can, no one is saying you can't forgive him, no one will judge you. What he did was horrible, but he's your mate, and you don't have to give him up if you think he's worth it, or he's really sincere and you want to be with him."

"I know, I know." Celie said. "I do and I don't, and I don't know if it's me or if it's my wolf, or the bond, or because my whole life I wanted to be with him and now he's like asking me to be with him. I don't know why I feel this way and it's terrible, because he just left me sitting on the ground crying like I was nothing and my wolf still wants to just run after him, and I hate it."

Harper went to Celie and just hugged her, and a few seconds later Matt was on her other side hugging her too.

"I can't begin to imagine that Cel, I'm so sorry." Harper said, tears streaming down her face for her friend. "I never wanted Reese, not since I was like 9, and I hated him, seriously hated him, by the time he rejected me. I wish I could take this pain for you; I wish you could not feel this. But it will get better Cel, you accepted the rejection, so if you decide not to give him another chance, you'll get your second chance mate and he will be great. I know it. I just know it."

Matt's heart tugged hearing her words, he wasn't sure he could love Harper more. It spoke to the person she was that she would wish to take her friends pain for her, and he knew she meant it when she said it.

"Thank you guys." Celie said hugging them back. "I don't know what I would do without you Harp. And you Mattie. You totally made Harp so happy, you guys make me see what can happen and it makes me feel better. Accepting his rejection was a good thing, soon it will get better, your pain went away, and you moved on. My pain will go away, and I will move on. I think I'm strong enough, I think I can handle it."

"You're so much stronger than you're giving yourself credit for Cel." Harper said, pulling Celie's chin up to look into her eyes. "You had the courage to leave. Not many girls would have, they would have stayed there and watched him go on with his life and been miserable and in terrible pain. But not you, you got up, dusted yourself off, flipped those assholes the bird and got on with your life and became a successful, kick ass, strong woman. And you just now had the courage and strength to accept his rejection, even though part of your heart was aching, even though your wolf was fighting, and even though the bond was still strong."

"That's right, Cel." Matt said, "it takes a lot of courage to walk away and to let go, that's the hardest thing to do."

"I couldn't have done it on my own, Harp." Celie said though she was smiling. "You have the most courage, I just jumped on your courage train and rode it out of there."

"Well, choo choo baby, this train is still going!" Harper laughed. "And you are free now. If you want to be."

Reese

The short car ride back to the hotel was a somber one, none of them had expected what had just happened.

"Wow." Callum said finally as they sat in Reese's suite. "Harp really turned into an ass kicker, didn't she?"

Reese had to smile hearing that.

"She certainly did, it just sucks it was our asses she kicked." Reese said.

"We deserved it." Adam said softly. "We did. I don't know what I was thinking. Honestly, I thought... I really thought I'd get her back and bring her home and everything would work out. And when we first got there the look on her face...She still feels it, I know she does, but she fought it off and rejected me."

"We can't give up." Callum said. "I'm not ready to just give up. She was right though, about forgiveness and why we are here. It is about them making us feel ok about what we did, it is about taking away our pain. I never thought of it that way, I was like forgive and forget, everything starts being the way it should be where I have my sister and my life gets better. We did come here for selfish reasons."

Reese didn't say anything, he knew he should be encouraging them to give up and go home, that's what he said he came here to do, but after seeing her, he wasn't sure he could do it; he wasn't sure he could just leave without at least trying a little harder.

"She's strong, so strong, how did I never see that when she was younger? That didn't just come from nowhere, strength like that doesn't just appear one day." Reese said. "The goddess chose her for that strength, if I'd had faith in the goddess's choice as I should have, that strong girl would be my mate, and our pack would have a Luna and a brilliant pediatric surgeon. But now she's married to some tanned asshole surfer, and there's little chance she's going to drop him for me."

"Yeah, then there's that guy." Callum said, rubbing his chin. "There was something off about that dude, he was strong; stronger than he should have been. There was like power radiating off him, I've never felt anything like that before, he's not what he seems."

"Yeah, I got that too, almost like what you feel around a really strong alpha, but different, more powerful, strange, like...I don't know, alien almost." Adam said.

"He's not a wolf." Reese said. "He didn't smell like a wolf, he smelled like the ocean, I caught that, really strong smell of the ocean, I just figured he came in from the beach or something, he was wearing his trunks, and they live, like, literally right next to the beach."

"Treasure hunter..." Callum laughed. "My sister married a treasure hunter. I can't help but find that funny, they seem like opposites, her the girl with her nose in a book studying and him out there searching for buried treasure."

"He must be pretty good at it though." Adam laughed. "Hell, he's got a mansion on an island beach that he bought with money he found on a sunken old world ship."

"They seemed to really love each other though." Callum said, glancing at Reese. "I wish she was with her mate, of course, but I'm glad she has someone she loves, who loves her back. She deserves to be loved."

"She should be with her own kind though." Reese said, "she's a wolf, she should be with her pack, both of them should be. That's where she belongs, not out there in the world alone."

"They're not alone." Callum said. "There are a lot of lone wolves out there, wolves who live in the human world and lead normal lives, there's nothing wrong with it. And what did the pack ever do for her? They treated her like shit, she doesn't want to go back to that, and how would the pack treat her if she did? Why would she want to come back? All those old feelings probably didn't just go away, people who didn't like her then probably still won't like her now, especially Charla's friends who beat up on her every day. They'd treat her like shit if she came back, just for revenge over what happened to Charla, even though that bitch brought it all on herself. They'd all be jealous of her success and beauty, it might even be worse now because of all that. Because she left, because she's hot, because she's successful, because the pack is without a Luna because of her, even though, again, that's not her fault, but she'd be blamed."

"That won't happen." Reese said quickly. "I'd never allow that."

"Dude, you're the alpha, and you can make the rules, but you can't control how people feel, or think, or what they gossip about, and you can't control the looks they get on their faces or the attitude they give. If you tried to, that would make them more against her." Adam said. "I know what you were thinking bro, I know you were thinking the same thing I was, that the bond would bring her back to us, that we'd be able to take them home with us and have our mates, and pups, and live happily ever after, but I think we need to be realistic. Even if they wanted us back, neither of them would ever go back to the pack, they love it here, they have lives, they are successful, we can't compete with that."

Reese didn't say anything, his mind working on the problem in front of him. Adam was right, Harper had a successful medical practice here, would she really give that up to be a pack doctor? He knew the answer was no.

"Who wouldn't love it here? Seriously, if you can get used to the heat, it's beautiful, driving over that bridge, the blue water, the palm trees, beaches, hell, I'd stay here if I could." Callum laughed. "If I don't die of heat stroke that is."

"If we're going to stay a little while we need to visit the local pack and tell them we're here, for now, we'll say we're on vacation and visiting an old friend." Reese said, picking up his phone. "I don't want to be here more than a few hours without meeting them."

Reese was on the phone for several minutes making plans and getting directions to the local pack who had the south Florida territory and soon they were on their way out toward the everglades.

"What pack would want to live in a swamp?" Adam asked, as they drove further and further away from the city. "I don't get it."

"Well, if this is where you grew up, then you'd like it and wouldn't want to go anywhere else." Callum said. "I think it's pretty actually, once you get used to it, I bet the mangrove forests are really beautiful."

They were all surprised when they drove up to a pack house that was essentially an old plantation house out in the middle of the forest. There was an older man and woman standing next to a teenage boy, ready to meet them.

"Hello, you must be Alpha Alexander and Luna Penny." Reese said, holding out his hand to shake.

"Yes, nice to meet you Alpha Reese, welcome to the Everglades pack, this is our son, Porter, who will be assuming the alpha position in a few weeks during the harvest moon." Alpha Alexander said, proudly introducing his son.

They were a kind looking family, Luna Penny seemed to be a very gentle woman, she was soft spoken with a slight southern accent. They showed them into the office and offered them refreshments as they got seated.

"So, what can I do for you Alpha Reese, we don't often get visitors from Washington state, you're an awful long way from home." Alpha Alexander said.

"We're just enjoying the area, taking a bit of a vacation and visiting some old friends." Reese assured him. "We just wanted to be careful and let you know we're in the area. We don't intend to cause any problems, or get into any trouble, and we'll only be here a few days at most."

"Visiting old friends, you say?" Alpha Alexander said, his eyes sharp. "Are these old friends wolves? If they are not members of my pack, I'd like to make sure I know who they are."

Reese tensed, he didn't really want to tell him this, but if they were in his territory he would ask the same questions, and he would expect an answer.

"They are wolves, but they are lone wolves, and they live in Miami." Reese explained.

"May I know their names?" Alpha Alexander asked politely.

"Harper Bach, and Celie St. James." Reese answered truthfully.

"And do the girls know you're here to see them?" Luna Penny asked, her eyes intent.

"We've already visited with them, so yes, they are aware of our presence." Reese said.

"Harper is my sister." Callum volunteered. "I haven't seen her for many years, I came to catch up with her."

"I see." Luna Penny said, "Have you visited with her before? This is the first time you've come to let us know you're here."

"No, I haven't. I lost track of her for a while, but I recently found her again." Callum said slowly, realizing he'd stepped in it.

"We are very familiar with Harper and Celie, we've known them for years." Alpha Alexander said. "We know why they came here and how they ended up as lone wolves. I'm surprised you'd track them down like this, especially considering they were the ones who prompted the creation of the laws, and your parents were the ones who created the laws protecting girls like them."

"We just came to apologize to them." Reese said, trying not to seem too tense, he wondered just how much the alpha and luna knew of what had happened. "We mean no harm to them, they will not be threatened or forced back to the pack. We just came to make amends for how they were treated."

"I see." Alpha Alexander said. "Well, I hope that is the case, they are amazing girls, and they've lived quiet lives here, they just want to be left in peace."

"You seem to know a lot about them." Adam said, "have you known them long?"

"They came to us about six months after they arrived in the Miami area, I think it took them that long to work up their courage to come and see us. They were afraid we'd see them as rogues, even though the goddess's blessing was upon them." Luna Penny said. "And they knew nothing of the laws that had been passed to protect runners."

"What do you mean, the goddess blessing was upon them?" Callum asked, confused.