And Then She Was Gone

Tangled Webs

While Jason and Elizabeth settled their discord amorously, it went unnoticed by the others who had left the private office as they were all too involved in their own personal matters. Hollie was complaining with harsh words carried by her soft gentle voice to Estelle who only nodded in sympathy to her plight. She also found the time to have a back and forth with Jacob through text, and ignored three back to back calls, sending him directly to voicemail at the sound of the phones first ring each time.

Hollie and Jacob very rarely argued, Hollie was typically soft spoken and agreeable to acting within his discretion, but he had effectively pissed her off. She was so angry she was considering sleeping in the office for the night, as she had no desire to go home. She was also absolutely furious that the Alpha was now involved, and that she would have to meet with him because of Jacob's whining.

He was being incredibly selfish at the moment, and it was undeserved. Never once, had she acted outside of his desires. She always gently followed his lead and had always been supportive of him, taking care of every need he had whether it had been mentally, physically or emotionally. She knew his role was difficult, and she herself did not want to add any further stressors to his life, but he in this moment was being the difficult one.

She enjoyed the time they spent apart, that's not to say she did not previously like working with him, but in her eyes, the separation was a good thing. When they went home he showered with her affection, their love making was more intense and he spoke more passionately to her with flowery words. Granted, he was doing all these things in order to coerce her to come back to their previous arrangement, but it did show that there was a benefit in keeping with the new one.

Jacob, in his mind, felt they had the perfect relationship. They worked exceptionally well together, she knew him better than anyone else and could act on her own in making decisions regarding his scheduling and settling other matters without needing his guidance. Her soft voice was calming to hear throughout the day and no doubt had a clear impact on his own demeanor. And seeing her face throughout the day was like a breath of fresh air, especially when times were stressful.

His feelings were incredibly hurt that she didn't feel the same way as he did. He was not used to her having a difference of opinion or thought. A very real fear had settled into his chest that she was being tainted by the women who had naturally stronger and firmer personalities. He had no desire to go down that road, not wanting to live in constant turbulence, but on calm soothing tides.. The calm soothing tides Hollie and him had already shared, but that were now starting to become frothy and choppy. Jacob wanted to smooth it out and return back to baseline before it became out of control.

Mark and Samantha continued in their own spat, but their spat looked a lot different. Samantha was aggressively berating Mark, getting angrier by the second as he leaned against a wall in the hallway and gave her the thousand yard stare he had learned from his military training. The beta was effectively zoning out with blank eyes, choosing not to engage and his mind subconsciously listening for key words that would signal she was done with her rant. The words could have been a variety of things, such as Its whatever, I'm over it, Sex.

His decision to not participate with his hormonal mate, only infuriated her more, he only came out of his dissociation when it became eerily quiet between the two for a few minutes, and he snapping back into the present at the recognition she was no longer speaking. However, it was short lived and he went back to zoning out after his gentle suggestion that she might be hungry and in need of food, immediately reignited her sharp tongue.

He had continued in his waiting for those key words, and after another five minutes he had decided he had his fill, and pushed himself off the wall and walked away from her. No doubt to go and do what they were in disagreement on, which was smoke. He was trying to cut back, but she was literally stressing him out with her badgering each time he faltered. Which, only increased his intake as he adopted the fuck it mentality, once he was already in trouble. Their pup wasn't here yet, and wouldn't be for a while. He also didn't smoke around her anymore, and found her insistence on the matter of him quitting, very annoying.