And Then She Was Gone

Internal Struggle

Jason heard the click of heels before everyone else as they neared the door to the conference room, he also smelled the potent lavender fragrance begin to manipulate his senses confirming the meeting was about to start. He looked down at his watch and took note of the time, the room had fallen silent after the exciting adventure of active betting took place amongst the men and it was now 8:27pm. He sipped at his scotch, and only Jacobs careful gaze caught the slightest shift in his shoulders as they became more tense. His Master Betas soft brown eyes moving over to the door before everyone else's did the same, the knob turning after a brief pause and whispered words were shared amongst the two about to enter.

The first to enter was the tall lean brunette man, the master beta of the pack, he held the knob and door open as all eyes widened to take in the beautiful blonde who emitted her own powerful aura. Everyone except for Jason. He initially kept his back turned, this moment proving to be harder than he originally had thought and he felt the need to take a quiet deep breath in and out before turning around slowly and allowing his deep green eyes to fall on the form everyone else was beholding.

His eyes immediately darkened to black, and he forced himself to look away from the beauty in red, closing his eyes for a moment to quell his internal drive to close the distance in between the two. She was not his mate. She smelled like her and she looked like her, save for the stark gold eyes, but she was not her.

She had seemed not to notice him. She actively avoided his figure standing across the room, as she immediately gave her attention to the Alphas standing in her corner. To each one she delivered a firm hand shake and a gentle smile with soft apologies for her tardiness, thanking each and every one of them for coming to her aid in this difficult time, an air of elegance exuding off of her but not concealing her own immense strength. With each hand shake, the men had felt a rough prodding into their palm, her ring still on her finger but turned around to hide the glistening diamonds from view. She had not taken it off, and Jason's green eyes fixated on the white gold band visible on her left hand.

She turned to the rest of the room, specifically to those that opposed her and gave a firm nod of acknowledgement before clearly speaking for all ears to hear.

"I deeply apologize for my delay, there was a matter that I absolutely had to attend to. I hope I have not left any of you upset for my transgression." her stark gold eyes taking in the the stares followed by small headshakes and shrugs, no one would dare to tell a woman so beautiful and polite that they had found irritation in her delay.

"Alpha Elizabeth, you look well." Jacob said with his gentle smile from the end of the table, standing up and extending his own hand, to which she took and shook it, obliging his friendliness.

"I am very well, thank you Jacob." she said with a small nod, her deep tone severely muted and her actively softening it in her conversation with careful thought on how each word presented. Her eyes glanced over the rest of the betas of Shaded Mountain a lingering stare on Mark with the twinkle of distaste becoming visible for only a second, he rolled his eyes in response clearly displaying his not giving a fuck attitude.

"Elizabeth." Jason said finally with a nod of a severely muted greeting in his firm deep tone, calling her attention over to him as he still stood by the window, her eyes very slowly trailing over to him where they meticulously landed on his chin and did not stray further.

"Lets keep this formal, shall we? You can address me as Alpha Elizabeth, we're not friendly." her words reserved but not enough to hide the sharpness in her tongue, before she turned and walked to her end of the table Alex pulling out her seat and then pushing her in. Her personal secretary immediately popping to her side for her drink request, to which Jason interrupted the private conversation.