"Hello." A wolf greeted us at the door and held it for us as we ducked inside. It was a fairly average business place with a huge conference room I assume to be sticking so many dominants in it. I jumped when a wolf I didn't know bumped into me "accidentally." He was...different. Red hair, green eyes, bright smile with a pale face dappled with freckles, he grinned. Angus growled lowly behind me.

"Hello, Mr. and Mrs. Magnusson." The wolf was obviously young, but his smile didn't falter as he greeted us.

"It's Mr. Magnusson and Ms. Harpford." I corrected.

"Is she not you mate?"

"She is mine." Angus growled.

"I don't know about here, but where I come from we tend to get married before we have sex." The boy had an Irish accent almost.

"Well, in America, you get the girl pregnant. you get married, you get divorced." I sighed, waving him off as I looked around for Anna.

"So you aren't mates." He finished.

"No, no I didn't say that!" I spun back to face him.

"Well, you're obviously not pregnant."

I winced. I was supposed to be. It was all my fault. He died, I didn't try to save him. I didn't do anything.

Someone pulled me into an embrace, it was a moment before I recognized Mercy and I could hear again. Adam was pulling Angus away and Charles was pulling the stupid redhead away. Anna was sitting, on the floor, calmly in the middle while she attempted to restore peace to the world.

"It's not your fault." Mercy soothed and it was then I realized I was crying. "Alex, you know that, we've been over it before."

I shook my head.

"Mercy, Alex." I heard the familiar ever-youthful voice behind me and I looked up, my vision blurred by tears. "What seems to be the problem?"

"You know very well what the problem is, Bran." Mercy snapped, still trying to help me stop my sobbing.

"Da, what are you doing here?" Charles asked sounding honestly surprised.

"My job." He announced, "Now what happened exactly?"

"Hell happened." I whispered.

"I can see that, Alex, but how?" He said, gentler this time. His hands rested on my shoulders and I saw Angus' head snap up out of the corner of my eye. I turned to look at him, then looked at the red head.

"What's his name?" I frowned.

"Ian O'Malley." Bran answered.

"Well, Ian," I spat out his name, "started it."

"What exactly is it?"

"I don't know! I passed out!" I snapped, "He came up and did that whole 'is she yours' shit and Angus got pissed!"

Mercy sniggered, covering her mouth as if it would keep us from hearing. I couldn't tell what she thought was so funny, but I guess most of the situation was. I mean Bran not knowing what was going on? That had never happened before!

He usually acted to make himself more intimidating, not less.

Adam let Angus go and I walked over to him. I didn't do anything sappy, especially with pretty much the whole world watching, but I took his hand and squeezed it. Business went back to usual as everyone prepared for the meeting that would start in ten minutes. Bran went to talk with Ian and I stayed by Angus, who was still fighting for control over his entire mind. He was in control but the wolf was still right there.

"Mine?" He asked in a desperate, strangled voice.

"Yours." I nodded, kissing him lightly on the lips. "Now come on, we've got to get going."

I pulled him with me when I went to walk over to Mercy because I had a question for her. Adam watched Angus carefully, as if he didn't trust him. Honestly, I couldn't blame him, Liam had broken loose so many times within the past two days I was surprised he wasn't dead.

"Hey, Mercy," I said lightly, "Are we stuck watching the debate or do we just leave to do whatever?" At that, Angus' hand tightened around mine and I felt bad.

"I think we leave. I'm pretty sure the only reason we're here is for the dinner tonight because I know a few mates are flying in separately this afternoon." She answered.

I nodded thanked her before leaving to stand outside with Angus. He was still tense.

"Angus, can you handle this?" I asked carefully, "I need to know."

He didn't answer.

"Angus, I don't want to come back and find out you're dead because you lost it! You've had no control at all these past two days, it's like all your work went down the drain. Do you want to lose your pack and have to stay with the Marrok? Do you want to leave Seattle?" I looked into his eyes.

"I'm sorry." He whispered.

"Don't be sorry!" I groaned, "Sorry helps no one! I need to know if I should bother coming back tonight or if I should just catch a plane now and go back and tell Tom he's the new alpha!"

"You can't!" He sounded frantic like a little two year old and I wondered what was running through his mind.

"I can't what?" I asked quietly.

"Leave me, you-you can't." He had such a tight hold of my hips and I wanted to get away because it was starting to scare me now, but I tried to remain calm because I could tell he needed this.

"Okay, so I won't. But I can't stay at the conference, I'm not a wolf, Angus." I explained, "Angus, you need to listen and you need to snap out of it. You need to go in there and be yourself, your normal, too organized, somewhat-OCD, controling self."

It was an alpha thing.

"Can you do that?" I asked.

He blinked and I could tell he was in control now. Either way, he couldn't lose it like that because it was dangerous. If Adam and Charles hadn't been there I don't know who would've been able to stop him.

"Yeah." He sighed, kissing my forehead.

"Don't do anything stupid, promise." I reminded.

He dropped his hands from my hips and nodded.

"Promise."

"Good." We returned inside and I pushed him, or tried to, into the conference room. "I'll see ya." I gave him a look that reminded him of what he had promised me before leaving with Anna and Mercy.

We went to get an early lunch because Anna was hungry after calming down a room full of hyper, murderous dominant alphas. We sat in a booth and I lifted the hem of my shirt to bite my lip at the bruises on my side.

"He's going to tear himself up about that." Mercy told me, I nodded. "You handled it well, considering."

"I was terrified." I admitted, "He had no control at all, I thought he had when we had left the building but it was like talking to a two year old, a very slow two year old."

Both Anna and Mercy nodded.

"It gets like that sometimes."

And we ordered lunch.