I hugged her as she fell apart. I watched as their group popped closer to us. I told her, “It wasn’t real, and you are home now.” Drunk me cried, “Xander hates me, but I love him. Everything I’ve done is for him. To protect him… and them. Xander’s mine not Trevor… he lied, and I don’t know why. Trevor isn’t my mate. I know he’s not. Do you smell that sugar cookie? I want to eat it.”
Xander roared in anger and took off for the tree we were in. EJ tried to stop him, but he shook his big brother off. Haley and Eric popped to EJ. I picked up the other me and jumped out of the tree. Xander was waiting. He growled, “MINE!”
Drunk me gasped and looked at him. She screamed after they locked eyes and fell out of my arms to the ground. Elise shouted, “LADYBUG!” Xander picked her up and she curled into him. Alcohol did seem to dull the pain of Freya coming to her… Plus her version of Xander holding her didn’t hurt. That happened for me too though. Drunk was clearly the way to go.
EJ asked me, “What’s wrong with our Ladybug?” I sighed, “Well… it’s a long story. Hi, Cayden… and Micah.” Both stared at me while I smiled. Cayden raised an eyebrow. Cassie popped inand gaped, “Holy shit! It IS her. I mean how I would imagine she looked.”
Haley asked, “What the motherfucking hell is going on? Obviously, Melanie and Alexander are in the Ribbon since that is the only person I know of that would look so much like Drake and Sam. Plus, Elise called her Ladybug, and that’s Melanie McAlister’s damn nickname. I suppose she is real. I seriously thought you all were pulling a prank on me.”
EJ frowned and looked at me demanding, “Explain, since our you obviously can’t.” I sighed, “Well, her wolf is being un-suppressed… her back needs to be healed from the whipping earlier… plus she’s VERY drunk… and you look mad… actually everyone looks mad… How do I get back to my reality? My Xander… is probably VERY unhappy himself… it’s been a day… evening? I don’t know. It’s been a lot. That’s what I know.”
Cayden yelled, “XANDER?! YOUR XANDER? It’s him? Alexander is the guy you thought was your mate back home? What is HAPPENING?! HOW is she Melanie McAlister?” Xander’s healing light bubble surrounded him and the other me. Max popped to Micah and kissed him.
The healing bubble disappeared. I watched as the other me was practically burying her face in Xander’s neck. Drunk me giggled, “You smell so good… I know he smells good… I just said that… hey… is that the other me talking? Who is talking to me?”
I explained, “It’s your wolf… her name is Freya.” Drunk me snorted, “I don’t have one. So, it must be you… stop arguing with me… I do not look crazy… you’re crazy.” I cringed, “You do have a wolf now… she was suppressed on your sixteenth birthday. It’s a whole Ring/McAlister/Ezra plot deal… that is COMPLETELY absurd and ridiculous.”
Xander growled. The other me sighed, “He is so hot! Why does this voice I keep hearing echo everything I say? I already said he was hot. It’s like having an echo in my brain… anotherme and an echo… the universe needs to calm down… or I should stop drinking… nope definitely the universe. I need more drinks.”
Freya snorted, “I’m glad you were not drunk when we started talking to each other. This us is funny though.” The other me looked away from Xander and yelled, “Hey look it’s MICAH and CAYDEN! Did you come to tell me happy birthday? You didn’t text me today. I thought we were friends.”
Cayden said, “Your birthday isn’t supposed to be today. Remember?” The other me said, “Oh yeah… Micah and I talked about that already… I think… didn’t we? It’s hard to remember a fake birthday. Everything is so hard to remember sometimes… plus the whole… I’m such a bad liar it’s sad… so very sad.”
“Has anyone noticed I never tell you my name? What am I saying? You’re Hackura… of course you notice. You notice everything. Obnoxiously so sometimes… it’s so complicated being your friend… but you make me feel a little bit like home… that’s probably selfish… but I do help you too… so it’s not a total one sided thing… actually I help a lot… I’m helpful… that’s a thing that I am.”
I put my head in my hands. Drunk me continued, “You guys stop looking like that! I do help. I totally do… Laxenread has been helping you guys, right? I worked really hard on it.” I yelled, “STOP TALKING OTHER ME!”
Drunk me stared at me, before saying “Ummm rude. I just want to know because… I worked so hard on it. I bet Cayden would like the contacts I developed. Well, so would Micah. I tried to tell Levi about them when we met, but T made me go home.”
“Then… I didn’t get to talk about them… I bet Levi would like them if he didn’t hate me so much now… it shouldn’t hurt my feelings as bad as it does… but Levi was one of T’s best friends… and I actually got to meet him.”
I sighed, “Levi would like them, and Cayden already has them… so he does like them. Levi does not hate you. Please stop talking.” EJ said, “EXCUSE ME?! LADYBUG DEVELOPED LAXENREAD?!” Xander held her tighter.
Drunk me giggled, “Say… Xander… Can we just pretend you don’t hate and you’re mine for real? Just for my birthday? Please don’t reject me on my birthday… that’s super mean. You’re not mean… and I just want you to hold off for my birthday.”
Xander growled, “WHAT?!” Haley asked, “Eric, I’m not even going to attempt to say this calmly. WHAT THE FUCK IS HAPPENING RIGHT NOW?” Eric was staring at me while I used my index fingers to rub my temples.
The other me sighed when no one answered. She stepped away from Alexander and grabbed her backpack. Drunk me pulled out the bottle of vodka she’d been working on. She started to chug it before anyone could stop her.
The other me started crying, “Go ahead then… reject me… maybe it will hurt less since I’m sauced. Will I lose my wolf? I just got her. She insists she is my wolf… she says that’s who is talking to me… along with the other electric version of me.”
Drunk me pouted, “Why am I not electric? That would be SO handy… but you don’t have to reject me since I have a wolf… maybe Beta Jason would take it all back…. That seems like an option… that me has a mark… so… some reality figured it all out. We could too.”
Xander growled, “I’m not rejecting you, you’re mine.” Drunk me argued, “But you promised Beta…” I interrupted, “He didn’t, it was all a lie. Besides, we had our loophole ready to go.” She tilted the bottle to me saying, “Truth.”
Cayden asked, “What goddamn loophole?” I answered, “Umm… the alias we have.” Xander yanked drunk me back into his arms, and she started smelling him again. Xander turned tome asking, “Who lied to her? What the motherfucking HELL is going on?”
Cayden said, “Great question, Alexander. SERIOUSLY, you have NO IDEA how good of a question that is. I’ve been waiting for that girl to slip up and admit she’s in the Resistance since I met her. Which she just did.”
The other me said, “In it? Gosh… that’s a way to put it. I mean… I….” I jumped in, “Please STOP talking… about that. Mention literally anything else.” She sighed. I told her, “You can keep smelling your Xander. You want to do that anyway.” Drunk me smiled and went back to doing that.
Cayden narrowed his gaze on me asking, “What was she going to say?” I raised an eyebrow, “Is that really on the list of questions we want to cover right now? GOSH DANG IT! How do I go back to my reality, and get out of here? I fixed our lives. You guys will go in and take out Black Path and get my friends out… everything is fixed. Why am I still here?”
Haley answered, “Because apparently, you have more to tell us.” Micah said, “Not to throw stones or anything, but I’d guess you have to tell us things along the lines of more of the things she’s developed. Like the contacts we have. That would be good to know.”
Haley said, “Or someone could tell me what the heck you would need contacts for.” I explained, “I developed contacts that don’t show eye color change… well here it was her, but I did it too… this is so weird.”
“Anyway… if you guys were on a mission and you got mad… it wouldn’t matter if you could control it or not your eyes could go gold without outing who you were. The contacts would keep others from seeing any color but the color you choose your eyes to be.
