Beta's Lover

Chapter- Nine

MACKENZIE

We were almost done with the food, especially me. I sat with my hands on my lap fidgeting. I can't help but be anxious among strangers.

"Well pardon me. I had to go through your stuff to see your ID cards and any information we can get on you two. And it's safe to say, you are innocent in this incident," Arthur spoke, slightly tapping the corners of his mouth with a tissue.

I nodded my head in understanding.

"Where is my car and the rest of our stuff?" I asked him as we were being served warm tea.

"Ah, your car. It was badly damaged so I already have some of my men work on it. And about your stuff, Jazmine had it all sorted out," He said, with a relaxed posture, and looked at Jazmine with a smile on his face.

"Your car will take a few days to get in shape so why don't you stay here, with ease?" Jazmine spoke softly like she was being careful with us.

Quinn looked at me and I watched her in silence. I could read her expressions and so could she. I raised my eyebrow at her to which she nodded.

"Okay as it's only a matter of few. Well also, can we have our phones now," I demanded, now I have the upper hand to demand things from them.

If they refuse to let us go or anything, then we have to run away and have the right to sue them.

"Oh, your phones. They were broken when we retrieved them. I still kept them with me in case you ask about it," The leader said, with no remorse.

What the hell? How did they break?

"Do you have a cell phone? I want to make a call, it's important," Quinn said, with urgency in her eyes. It made me frown as to whom she wanted to call.

"Yes we do have cell phones but sorry the signals are not working. The tower had some technical problems so the men are fixing them," this time Cylon said, looking at Quinn with a delicacy.

Is this for real? First our car, then our phone, and now signals?

"Are you kidding? One time is a coincidence, two times is a miracle but three times. Hell no. Are you keeping us here by force? It's against the law!" I stood up with anger, no longer able to hold it in.

They all seemed to lean back with surprise, they were not expecting me to burst.

This past week had me grinding and now this! It's too much for me!

"Okay okay. Calm down. It's nothing like that-"

"What do you mean calm down! I need answers this instant!" I cut the leader in between, my voice not loud but clear and hard enough to know I was not in the mood for any lies.

"Please relax. We can sit and talk. We will answer all your questions honestly," Alistair said, his voice felt like cold water against my hot body. Cool like a breeze and soft as rose petals. It somehow got me to lose my temper and focus on him.

How was he able to calm me down? It's probably the softness of his voice.

I took a deep breath and sat down.

"We are not holding you by force or anything. These things just happened in today's span, believe me," Jazmine spoke with a genuine smile on her face. But I still had some doubts.

What can I do, i have trust issues.

"It's okay. We believe your words," Quinn responded to her and made eye contact with me, nodding her head.

I sighed and let it go. I am doing as she says but we will see tomorrow. I said it through my eyes and she understood and responded with a nod.

I felt his eyes on me but I didn't look at him, feeling embarrassed about my sudden outburst and kept my eyes down at my hands.

"Let's all take it easy. Tomorrow I will update you on the car. Let's call it a night," Arthur said with a calm tone and stood up from the chair. All followed suit and I reluctantly stood on my feet as well.

"Come let me escort you to your room," Jazmine offered with a smile and gestured with the palm of her hand towards the exit of the kitchen.

I nodded my hand and moved out of my seat to follow her and Quinn quickly fell in step with me. The walk towards our room was silent and it was the same room where we changed our clothes.

"The girls had already placed your belongings here. Please check and let me if anything is missing," Jazmine insisted, once we all were inside the room.

I moved towards the cupboard and found all our stuff inside.

"All here. Thank you," I thanked her despite the situation,

"No problem. If you need anything at night, you can be my guest. My room is on the right side of the hallway," Jazmine said, with a clasp of her hand and her eyes looked tired.

"Okay," Quinn spoke up and waved a bye with an awkwardness.

We both slumped to our respective beds as the door shut behind us. I just closed my eyes and felt my taut back relax against the soft mattress.

"What do you think is this all true or this is all a setup?" I questioned Quinn after a while.

I just couldn't shake the thought of it as too many things happened alone in a day. There is no way this is all true.

"I honestly have no idea, Mack. They sounded and looked sincere," She spoke up, her voice merely a whisper but I heard her loud as clear against the dead silent room.

"And what about the wolf incident? I still can't wrap my head around what happened, was it real or i was hallucinating?" My question hung in the thick silence of the room.

"I mean I saw it happening it so fast and my head was hurting, may be it was a hallucination. I- i don't know anymore. Like it makes no sense and what if it is real? How can this be real?" She was probably questioning her sanity as this point.

I said nothing in return and just looked blankly at the ceiling above me. Only one thing ringing in my mind- werewolf. If i remember correctly, I used to study about mythical creatures in my high school days. Reading the novels about Vampires, werewolves and witches.

But they are mythical creature no?

"Let the things go with flow as they are going. But keep your eyes and ears open, we might cstch on something and solve this mystery," I suggested a possibility that doesn't quite yet guarantee the answers we are looking for.

"Let's sleep, we will talk about it in the morning. Okay?" She said and heard shuffling.

I looked towards her and found her sitting on the bed, staring back at me, tired and exhausted. She had puffy eyes and stifled a yawn. Seeing her yawn made me yawn too and almost brought tears to my eyes.

We both were exhausted. Nodding my head, I settled into the bed and was gone in the darkness after a while.

The morning came back with us being in a strange town. I changed my position to look at Quinn, who was deep asleep.

Wow. She has no shame. How could she sleep so much when we were among strangers?

Then remembering she sleeps more when she is upset, I let it go. Weird right? What a bunch of weirdos we were.

Putting my hands under my chin I looked outside the window through the slightly parted curtains.

How must be my team holding things up? What if Jack needed my help with the project?

A soft knock pulled me out of my anxious thoughts. Shuffling, I quickly sat up and patted my hair to look a bit presentable. Don't want to scare the person with a bird's nest early in the morning. I walked towards the door while I roughly yanked my shirt down. Opening the door, expecting Jazmine to be standing there, but I was met with something new.

"Hello. Sorry if I wake you up. Uh, it's time for breakfast, please come down," Alistair spoke. His ears turned redder by second. His hazel eyes seemed alive rather different from yesterday's dark and pained ones.

He was.... embarrassed? Or shy?

He quite surprised me this morning. He gave such an alpha male vibe but turned out to be a softie with golden retriever energy. It was kind of attractive of man who can pull both.

Hot and shy.

"Okay, we will be there shortly," that's all I said, and was rewarded with a smile from him. And as if he wasn't perfect enough, god decided to gift him another charm that can trip any female upon granted. A dimple.

Have I lost it? Did I imagine him being grumpy and all serious just yesterday? May be i was too focused on him that i didn't gauge his expressions well?

While I was lost in my thoughts and blinked twice and found him gone.

Okaaaaaayyy.

I walked back woke Quinn and told her to get ready. After ten minutes, we were walking down the stairs but were startled to see many people walking in and out of the kitchen and turned right to see Launch was almost full of people. Surprisingly, they all didn't stop and stare they just glanced and continued what they were doing. Quinn and I shared a look- let's just get going.

And continued to walk further among the townspeople towards the kitchen. Arthur, Jazmine, Cylon, and Alistair were present in the kitchen.

"Good morning. I feel like you two had a good sleep, judging from how well-rested you look," Jazmine commented as she looked over us with a warm smile on her face.

"Yes, we did. Sorry, we are late," Quinn spoke up walked towards the empty chair, and sat down.

I almost forget how carefree Quinn is. It's only the front with Quinn who is shy and closed off. But in reality, she is carefree talkative, and fun to be with.

I took an empty seat where no one was seated on either side and as soon as I sat. A plate full of food and warm coffee were placed in front of me. Following the hand, I looked up at the person who was serving me. And for a moment, I only blinked.

Alistair.

Yes, you read it right, it was him.

I felt butterflies erupt in the pit of my stomach that seemed have been silenced for a while now.

He then sat down next to me while there were two other empty seats. And I looked around to see no one paid attention to him except me of course.

"Please don't feel uncomfortable. I want you to relax and eat. And if you don't like anything or need anything, just say to me," His voice soft and tender unlike him. He looks rough and intimidating.

His soft voice warmed my cold-shielded heart. I swallowed the raw emotions I felt in those two seconds and nodded my head. Diverting my attention to my food only before glancing at Quinn who was eating her food with gusto.

Alistair was dangerous for my heart.

I will be gone in a few days so yeah there is no need to be affected by him. It's only the attraction

Or lust I must say. Yes, only that.

So then it was surely hard for me to ignore the man who sat beside me and had his eyes locked on my face. I kind of got annoyed in between and was about to yap at him when we heard the clearing of a throat.

"May I have your attention," Arthur spoke, with hands clasped around the cup. A golden ring shone on his ring finger.

Putting the spoon down the plate, I looked at him.

"Thank you. Though misfortune fell upon you but we happened to meet at the end. Like fate brought you two to us. Okay okay, I will stop being cheesy," Arthur held his hands up as Cylon and Jazmine made gagging sounds.

I chuckled at them and took a small bite of the food.

"Well, my point is. While you are here, feel free to roam around, interact, and enjoy your time here. And also let me properly introduce my people present here," He said, looking around us

"As you know her. Jazmine is my mate- my wife, my soulmate. And is Cylons sister," Arthur spoke, gesturing towards the brother and sister duo who sat side by side.

Now I can see some resemblance in their features. Cylon had brown eyes with brown hair as that of Jazmine. He has a tattoo on the side of his left arm.

"Cylon. I am the leader of the neighboring town and cousin of Arthur. So this is like my second house," He spoke, maintaining eye contact with Quinn.

Jazmine looked excited as she looked at them.

I was being very observant. Wasn't I?

"And meet my best man- Alistair. A friend and this town's manager," Arthur said, with a smile on his face as he looked to my right where he sat.

"Enough about you all. I want to know about you girls. What do you do for a living?" Jazmine said, bumping her elbow with Arthur's. Who only chuckled at her and held her hand.

"I am a chef and working in a city's famous restaurant," Quinn spoke up, eyes shining as she talked about her dream job.

They all looked surprised and I subconsciously looked to my right and felt my heart jump as i found him already looking at me. Like he never everted his gaze from me. Cleaing my throat, I looked forward and found all of them looking at me impatiently.

"I am an Interior Designer," I said nonchalantly, not adding details.

"She is one of the top hit designers of this year. And she is now working on a big project overseas. Practically she is the only youngest in her field to reach this far so early," Quinn added while proudly looking at me. I shrugged nonchalantly but smiled a little and looked down at my plate.

I wasn't an expressive person.

"Oh my really! That's so impressive!" I looked up at Jamzine's excited voice and found her smiling brightly at me while clapping her hands.

"Oh, that's great. Why don't you look around and suggest if we need to change anything," Arthur spoke, gesturing around.

I awkwardly nodded my head, finding it weird to have a stranger who you suspected before, to look around and give your opinion.

"That's cool. Suits you," said Alistair. A warm smile displayed on his face and i was granteed the dimple on his right cheek.

How can one look so intimidating and soft at a time?

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