And Then She Was Gone

Boys are from Mars, Girls are from Venus

Elizabeth had gotten what she wanted, but it was also only provided to her temporarily. Jason allowed her to conduct her tease, but gave her a firm time limit as to when Hollie would have to be returned to Jacob, who was quietly fuming about the situation.

It appeared that their time spent at home together was not sufficient enough for the master beta, and he frequently pushed for Hollie to voice to Elizabeth about her desire to come back under his charge. Hollie really had no motivation to do so, not that she disliked working with her mate, but she did appreciate the separation as it brought about more affection from him. All the calm sandy blonde would say in return to his continuous prodding was that the Luna needed a lot of help, which was not at all a lie.

The two women worked very closely together in the final preparations for the ceremony. Selecting the food and drink options, picking out the linens and cutlery that would be utilized, selecting the orchestra group, and looking at table seating placement for the higher ranks of the pack. The only thing they truly had left was her dress selection, a point of contention at the moment, between Elizabeth and Jason.

Jason wanted to be involved in her decision, and she wanted it to be a surprise, something he was adamant against. It was an important event, and quite frankly, he didn't trust her judgment. He was the vain one and very meticulous about appearances. In his opinion, he was being nice by even allowing her to have a say in what dress she would wear.

Elizabeth was offended, and had stomped her foot on more than one occasion as they bickered back at forth intermittently. Each of them throwing sharp jabs at one another, he was arrogant and controlling, and she was disorganized and chaotic. Jason even threw a low blow in there with his words saying that even Mathias had a better sense of fashion than her.

Their back and forth continued for days, until there was only two days left until the ceremony, and yet she still had no dress. Jason had tried to have a stylist come on three different occasions to have her measured and try some on, but she locked herself in the bathroom each time and refused to leave until both the Alpha and the stylist gave up their efforts. The only positive from their week in avid disagreement was that no storms occurred during any of their spats.

With just two days left, Elizabeth began to panic, but Hollie was there to save the day. She had called in and scheduled her own stylist, someone she had used in the past when she needed a formal dress for past pack events. Despite, Jacob not being openly affectionate and flaunting her about publicly, she was always dressed to the T's and was given a few dances with him. Elizabeth's Luna ceremony would be the first reception, where all the lead males would sit with their mates, and forever Hollie's obscurity would be shattered.

"Master Beta, pleas-"  Hollie said softly, trying to push Jacob out of the reception area to Elizabeth's newfound office.

"Jake." He corrected her quickly, holding his ground and not budging.

"Jake." She sighed out, her light brown eyes darting over to the clock on the desktop of her computer. "I have a meeting to attend in a few minutes. Can we talk about this later?"

"Well, I'm free now. You would know that if you were still managing my schedule." His brown eyes staring directly into hers, as he was utilizing the tactic of attempting to wear her down with his own persistence.

"You see me at home. Isn't that enough?" She questioned quietly, with an frustrated eye roll and drooping shoulders.

"No. I'm not comfortable with you being here." He said with a head shake, his hands grabbing into her hips as he pulled her closer to his frame.

"You're not comfortable with me being in the Luna's office?" She said with a complete look of disbelief. "It's literally the safest place I can be, besides the Alphas office."