(Xavier)
I can’t believe that after years of searching for my mate and not finding her, she walks into Nana’s café. As soon as she walked in, her scent of black orchids and juniper oil filled my nose, making my Lycan go crazy. When I looked up, I saw a young woman about five feet eight inches, give or take, with long wavy/ curly hair. Not to mention she’s toned and has curves in all the right places. I knew I couldn’t let her get away from me. Once outside, I grabbed her wrist, which was a huge mistake, because she moved incredibly fast and dropped me on my back with a dagger on my neck and a knee on my chest, but when I opened my eyes I saw her beautiful brown eyes, and full baby doll lips. It was worth getting dropped on my back. I looked at her closely and noticed a thin scar on her left eye going from her eyebrow down to her cheek bone. It barely missed her eye, yet the scar still made her look more beautiful if possible.
I was on cloud nine knowing I had found my mate, but when I saw my Betas and Gammas coming out, I looked at them, but my mate took this chance to take off. My Lycan growled in my head. I watched as she jumped into a black truck and burnt rubber as she drove out of the parking lot.
‘Don’t let mate get away’, Lux growled. I began to run after her and when I was sure no humans were around, I ran into the forest and shifted into my black Lycan. I followed her to a cabin not far from my pack, but it was still outside of my territory. I hid in the bushes not far from her cabin and watched as she took out some groceries. After a couple of minutes, she came back out in blue shorts which showed off her sexy bubble butt and began to unload other stuff from the back of the truck. I watched as she walked around the back and when she came back she was carrying a ladder and around her waist was what looked to be a carpenter’s belt. She sat up the ladder and, without any problems, began to take things to the top of the cabin. I realized she was fixing the roof. I watched as she got to work and I knew that was going to take her a long time. So, I linked my Gamma and best friend Benny.
‘Benny, can you get me two large pizzas, meat lovers?’ I linked him.
‘Sure, where am I taking it to?’ he asked. After that, I told him where I was and also asked him to bring me some clothes. I waited about thirty minutes until he got to where I was.
“Should I link some warriors to come and help her?” Benny asked.
“She doesn’t know I’m here. I don’t want to possibly make her angry by bringing more warriors to her home” I said.
“She was dressed like a hunter earlier, not to mention her weapons” Benny said.
“I thought so too, but the only way I’ll find out is if I ask. Do you want to join me?” I asked Benny.
“Can’t, I have paperwork, but I’m sure you can take on a hunter” he said and I chuckled while shaking my head. I walked out from where I was hiding with the pizzas. I saw her tense and I knew she knew I was there and her scent was even stronger now. She stood and looked at me.
“Are you here to punish me for earlier?” she asked.
“Not at all. You left without letting me introduce myself or me getting to know your name, mate” I smirked when I saw her suck in a breath when I said the word ‘mate’.
“I’m busy right now” she said.
“I can see that, but everyone always takes a moment to have lunch” I said, gesturing to the pizza. At the mention of food, her stomach growled loudly, making me chuckle.
“Fine, but then I need to get back to work” she said.
“Of course” I smiled. She came down from the roof and came face to face with me. She looked up at me and I watched as her cheeks began to turn red. She stepped to the side, then turned to go inside the cabin, but then stopped.
“Would you like to come in or eat out here?” she asked.
“Let’s eat out here if it’s okay. There’s a nice cool breeze”, I said, and she nodded.
“I’ll get some drinks and napkins” she said and went in. A couple of minutes later, she came back out with napkins, two sodas, two pieces of strawberry cheesecake and a blanket. I grabbed the blanket and spread it out. I then grabbed the cheesecake and the two of us sat down. I opened one of the pizzas. She grabbed a slice and took a bite.
“I’m Xavier Knight” I said. I saw her eyes widen and she choke on the pizza she had in her mouth. I patted her back until she stopped coughing.
“Y-you’re the Lycan King?” she asked and I nodded. Fear crossed her eyes.
“Easy, I’m not here to punish you for what happened earlier. I’m here to get to know my mate”, I admitted. She looked at me for a few seconds then nodded hesitantly.
“What’s your name?” I asked her.
“Kiera. Kiera Rossi” she replied.
“Kiera” I said and watched her shiver and I smirked.
“May I ask you something?” I asked.
“Sure” she said.
“Earlier you were dressed like a hunter. Why?” I questioned.
“Because I’m a hunter” she said and my eyes widened, but she put her hand up, letting me know she wasn’t done.
“My family and I are different from other hunters” she said.
“How is that? A hunter is a hunter”, I said, and she shook her head, placing her pizza down.
“Two reasons; one, to us being hunters means not just protecting humans but also the supernatural from those who harm others. We basically give everyone a chance to live in peace unless they hurt someone. We don’t do it for fame, power, or money. We just want to protect those who can’t protect themselves. But there are other hunters who are the opposite and just want to eliminate every supernatural creature off the face of the earth”, my mate explained, and I nodded.
“What’s reason two?” I asked.
“One day I’ll tell you” she smiled, showing me her perfect white teeth.
“How many of you are there?” I asked.
“It was my grandmother, mom, my aunt, my sister, my father, and myself. But now it’s just my mother, my aunt, my sister, and I” she replied.
“I’m sorry to hear that” I said.
“Is your sister here with you?” I asked and she chuckled humorlessly.
“No” she replied and I knew she didn’t want to get into it.
“I hear a slight accent. Where are you from?” I asked, changing the conversation, and I saw my mate smile slightly, because of the change of topic.
“I was born and raced in Italy until I was seventeen. I then moved to Orlando, Florida. I then moved here three months ago” she said.
“Do you like it here?” I asked.
“I do. The city is not for me” she chuckled, and so did I.
“So, what you doing up there?” I asked.
“Fixing the roof. Let’s just say it needed an upgrade”, she said.
“Do you need any help?” I asked.
“It’s okay” she said, and looked at the cabin.
“I don’t mind helping. Just tell me what to do”, I told her and she looked at me.
“I can’t pay you” she said.
“I never said anything about p*****t. I just said I wanted to help”, I said. I just wanted to spend as much time with her as possible. I can tell she was still weary of us… of me.
“Okay” she said. After we ate our lunch and had our cheesecake, we got to work on the roof. It took us time to do the whole roof while using my Lycan abilities, but by five in the afternoon we were done. My mate sighs and wipes the sweat off her forehead.
“Thank you for your help. I don’t think I would have finished today if you hadn't helped” she said.
“No problem”, I grinned, making her chuckle.
“I know I can’t pay you, but would you accept staying for dinner? It is the least I can do” she said.
“Sounds good, thank you” I said. We got down from the roof and went inside her cabin. Her scent was stronger in the cabin.
“Please have a seat and relax. There’s the remote. I’m going to take a quick shower then get to cooking” she said before disappearing into a hallway. I just looked around the cabin. I found a picture of a family. There was an older woman with salt and pepper hair, but she looked at me in an amazing shape. There’s a male that looked a lot like my mate except he had blue eyes. There was another woman with some type of mark on her neck holding a two, maybe a three year old girl.
‘Mate. That’s mate’, Lux said. This must be her family. In front of the male there was another girl about five years old. She looked like the woman holding my mate, but this girl had blue eyes. I noticed the male had an unusual tattoo. I think I had seen this tattoo somewhere else, but I have no idea where. Suddenly, my mate’s scent filled my nose and I turned to see her leaning against the wall. Her hair was wet. She was wearing shorts again and a tank top.
“I’m sorry. I was just looking around” I said, putting back the picture.
“Don’t be,” she said, walking towards me.
“That’s my grandma, my mom, my dad, my sister, and me” she said, pointing out the people, but I noticed her look lingered on her father the most.
“Kiera, what happened to your father?” I asked. I heard her gulp as she looked up at me.
“It’s still a sensitive subject for me. Maybe when we get to know each other better, I’ll tell you” she said.
“Okay. So, you said that your sister isn’t here. Where is she?” I asked her. She turned and began to walk to the kitchen and I followed her.
“With my aunt. One day after she started training, she found out our grandfather was in town, so she sneaked out to see him. Grandma, mom, and dad were pissed because she left without letting them know. But when she came back she was… different. We would train together and out of nowhere she would attack me, then dad, saying that we were monsters and that we needed to be put down like the animals we are” I couldn’t help but growl at that.
“One day aunt Katrina came by and she spoke with my sister Helen. My aunt found out that the time Helen was with our grandfather he showed her what rogues, rogue vampires, dark angels, dark witches, and especially ferals did. r****g, beating, and killing people, including their own kind. He even showed her how some Alphas treated their pack members. Who only used and abused their power. Grandma thought it would be good for Helen to also see the good we do as hunters and we help those who can’t help themselves. But she wasn’t convinced. Grandma and mom took her to different places to show her that there was also good. But before they took her anywhere, they made sure to blindfold her and put headphones on her so she wouldn’t know where they were taking her. Long story short, it didn’t work, so my parents made a hard decision to let Aunt Katrina take her and teach her” she explained.
“Does she ever call?” I asked.
“No, but Aunt Katrina would call once in a while to let us know how things are going” she said.
“I’m sorry to hear that, Kiera” I said.
“I’m not” my mate said, taking me by surprise.
“Why is that?” I asked.
“Helen used to hate it when our parents would give me at least a bit of attention or praise me when I did something good in training. It got to the point that she would hurt herself with a knife or sword and say that I did it just so she could have all their attention, until grandma caught her hurting herself, then blamed me. Grandma knew something was going on because I was good with my knives and swords to hurt my sister. Grandma told mom and dad and let me tell you they were angry with Helen” my mate chuckled.
“It seems to me your sister has some issues” I said.
“I think she has more than that, but I hope that one day she sees and understands what we do. That we are different than the other hunters and why we do it this way”, my mate said.
“So your grandfather…” I trailed off.
“He’s like the other hunters and a mean son of a b***h” my mate said, venom laced her words. I didn’t want to ask anymore. I had no idea why she hated her grandfather so much.
“Do you need any help?” I asked her.
“No, it’s okay. It’s almost done” she smiled. I sat there and just watched her and smiled when I saw what she was making. She was making a pastelon. Which is a Puerto Rican dish that grandma and Nana Yashira makes and it’s so good. She grabbed the plates and when dinner was done she fixed the plates.
“To drink, I have soda, water, lemonade, or iced tea” she said.
“I’ll have iced tea” I said. She grabbed two glasses and filled them with iced tea. We then sat on the sofa and watched ‘The Conjuring’ while we ate our dinner. As soon as I took a bite out of my food, I felt like I was in heaven.
“Wow Kiera, this is amazing” I admitted, making her blush.
“Thank you” she said, trying to hide her face behind her hair. After dinner and the movie, I helped my mate clean the kitchen. Then we watched another movie. Halfway through the movie, I looked at my mate to see her curled up on the sofa fast asleep. I looked around for a piece of paper and wrote my mate a note and left my number as well. I placed the note on the table, then turned to my sleeping mate. I grabbed the blanket that was draped over the sofa and covered her. I kissed her forehead and left, locking the door behind me.
***